CH10 - Building, Leading and Managing teams Flashcards
What was Schein’s description of a group?
A number of people who
– interact with one another
– a psychologically aware of one another; and
– perceive themselves to be a group
Groups have power structures, leadership structures, wall structures, communication structures and sociometric structures.
They develop norms, ideologies, characteristic atmospheres, degrees of cohesiveness and morale.
What are the different types of group?
Formal groups – used by organisations to carry out tasks, communicate and solve problems. Membership is Formal determined by the organisation into departments/divisions.
Informal groups – individuals join groups to meet their social and security or safety needs. Membership is voluntary. Individual members dependent on each other, influence each other’s behaviour, contribute to each other’s needs.
Reference groups – groups an individual doesn’t currently belong to but wants to join.
Self-directed and autonomous group – one which is encouraged to manage its own work and working practices.
How would describe a work team
A formal group with a leader, distinctive culture and geared towards a final result.
An effective team is any group of people who must significantly relate with each other to accomplish shared objectives. To ensure a group is effective, team members must have reason for working together. They must need each other’s skills, talent and experience in order to achieve mutual goals.
Multiskilled teams, – bring together individuals who can perform any other group tasks. Shared out in a flexible way according to availability and inclination.
Multidisciplinary teams – bring together individual different specialisms. Skills, knowledge,Experience can be pooled exchanged.
What are the benefits of groups/team working?
Increased productivity - By breaking a task up, different members with different skills can be working on different aspects of the task at the same time.
Synergy - Activity of separate entities has a great effect than the sum of the activities of each entity working working alone. 2+2=5
Improved focus on responsibility – each member can be given responsibility for specific tasks, avoids overloading one person which could result in loss of focus.
Improve problem-solving – a group of members with different abilities means a higher likelihood of having knowledge and skills to solve problems.
Greater creativity – two heads are better than that. Group discussions generate and evaluate ideas better.
Increased satisfaction- Social benefits and sense of belonging to members. Group supports its members and provide a facility for individual training and development needs.
Increased motivation – collective responsibility, members work hard for each other, don’t want to let each other down.
Improved information flows – More effective communication though participation in group discussions.
What are the problems with groups/team working?
Conformity – individuals can be persuaded by good pressures to agree to decisions which are obviously wrong.
The Abilene paradox –group can end up with an outcome that no members wanted. No one wanted to disturb the “consensus “
“Risky shift” or group polarisation - Tendency for group to be excessively cautious or excessively risky within the comfort of the group.
Groupthink - occurs within deeply cohesive groups where members try to minimise conflict and reach consensus with critically testing, analysing and evaluating ideas.
How can groupthink be avoided?
Critical evaluation of alternatives
Independent sub groups to work on solutions
External testing of solutions
The leader avoiding domination of the group(which can be unconscious)
When thinking of group cohesiveness, what are the factors which affect the integration of group and individual objectives?
Membership factors –
Homogeneity -similarity of members is preferred for simple tasks. Lleads to easier working but less creative problem solving. Variety of skills and knowledge is more effective for complex tasks.
Alternatives - if an individual has alternatives(can leave group easily) their dependence on the group is reduced. If turnover of membership is high the group may lack cohesion.
Size of group - depends on nature of task. Group problems solve more quickly than individuals, but cost effectiveness should be considered. As size of group increase, the average productivity decreases, there is less opportunity to participate, individuals contributions are less obvious, cliques or factions may form, less work is done, social noise increases.
Membership in other groups - may detract from cohesion/effectiveness of original group.
Environmental factors-
Task -nature of task and its organisation must be compatible
Isolation of group-if group is isolated external threats and incentives are lower
Management style eg if a theory x approach is used can lead to anti management groups forming.
Dynamic factors -
Groups are continually changing,membership,(understanding of each other and task)
Success and failure-can be a tendency for group to persist in failure
Level of group performance is affected by the manner in which teams come together - According to tuckman what are the four stages of group development
Forming - initial stage, membersare individuals who are unsure of their roles and responsibilities until defined by manager.
Storming - most teams go through this conflict stage. As tasks get underway, members may test managers authority. Resolution and conflict skills of manager are vital at this stage- needs to be flexible,allowing team members a voice and get involved in decision making.
Norming - operating norm established, team settles. Team procedures are refined, manager will begin to pass control and decision making authority to team members. They will be operating as a cohesive team, with each person recognising/appreciating the roles of other members.
Performing -team is capable of operating to full potential. Progress made towards set objectives. Team feels confident and empowered.
Not all teams will follow the stages and may get stuck in the middle remaining ineffective and inefficient.
Tuckman added a 5th stage to team development, what is this?
Adjourning - if a team remains in the performance phase there a danger it will go on autopilot. Groupthink occurs, team may be unaware of changing circumstances. Instead maintaining the group becomes the key objective. In this situation it may be necessary for the group to adjourn or be suspended.
Belbin suggest that the success of a group can depend significantly on the balance of individual skill and personality types within the group.
He divised a personality test that highlighted key character traits. Certain types of people prefer certain roles.
What are the 9 character types a well balanced group should contain?
- Co-ordinator - mature and confident. Ensures team focuses on objectives. Delegates well.
- Shaper -Challenging and dynamic. Provides the drive to keep the team moving. Promotes activity
- Plant - thoughtful and creative. Generates original ideas
- Monitor Evaluator - logical and analytical. Evaluates options in an impartial manner
- Resource investigator- enthusiastic and inquisitive. Finds ideas from outside the organisation to bring to the team.
- Implementer- practical and reliable. Deals with planning and scheduling. Drives efficiency.
- Teamworker - cooperative and diplomatic. Concerned with relationships within the team. Diffuses conflict.
- Completer finisher - anxious and conscientious. Scrutinises the work of team for errors. Quality control
- Specialist - single minded and dedicated. Brings in depth specialist knowledge to solve technical problems.
This doesn’t mean a team can’t be effective with less than nine people. Members can adopt more than one role. However an absence of one of the functions can lead to a reduction in team effectiveness.
Roles theory is concerned with the roles individuals adopt and assists in understanding how productive teams are formed and operated. What are the terms associated with role theory?
Role ambiguity-where individuals are unsure of their role, or others are unclear and hold back co-operation. Eg when a new member joins
Role conflict-where individuals find a clash between differing roles they’ve adopted. Eg finance officer uncovering fraud by senior management.
Role incompatibility-individuals experience expectations from outside groups about their role that are different from their own role expectations.
Role signs- visible indications of the role.eg uniform (may be mandatory or voluntary)
Role set - the people who support a major role eg Clerk and junior barrister would form part of a senior barristers role set
Role behaviour- certain types of behaviour can be associated with a role
High performance teams
Vaill said high performing teams may be defined as human systems that are doing dramatically better than other systems. What are their characteristics?
Clarification of broad purposes and near term objectives
Commitment to the purpose
Teamwork focused on the task at hand
Strong and clear leadership
Generations and inventions of new methods
Peters and Waterman identified 5 key aspects of successful teams, what are they?
Small in numbers
Limited duration -should only exist to complete a task
Voluntary membership
Communication informal and unstructured with little documentation and no status barriers
action orientated-team should create a plan of action
Team building exercises tend to be based around developing and improving effectiveness of the team in several areas, what are these?
Improved communication- ie through problem solving exercises which force all team members to discuss a problem the group is facing.
Building trust- between team members, which will help individuals work as a group.
Social interaction - between group members can help reduce conflict and increase cohesion of the group
In addition to formal team building, managers can attempt to reinforce the identity of the team eg by giving the team its own name, office space, uniforms etc
How can you measure team effectiveness?
Degree to which team has achieved objectives
Quality of output
Member satisfaction
Efficiency can be measured by resources used to meet team objectives
