Chapter 12 - Managing teams Flashcards
Advantages of Teams
Increases
- customer satisfaction
- product and service quality
- speed and efficiency in product development
- employee job satisfaction
Teams Increase Customer Satisfaction by
- creating work teams that are trained to meet the needs of specific customer groups
Teams Increase product and service quality by
- taking direct responsibility for the quality of the products and service they produce
Teams Increase speed and efficiency in product development by
- overlapping development phases is a faster and better way to design products and is often made possible through the use of teams
overlapping development phases
Teams of employees, consisting of members from the different functional areas in a firm (engineering, manufacturing, and marketing) work on the product design at the same time
Teams Increase Job Satisfaction by
- giving workers a chance to improve their skills
- work teams often receive proprietary business information that is available only to managers at most companies
- provides unique opportunities that would otherwise not be available to them
- provides unique leadership responsibilities that would otherwise not be available to them
- because team members are diverse, it makes it easier to define a problem and generate a solution
Cross Training
Training team members how to do all or most of the jobs performed by the other team members
Cross Training Advantages
- allows the team to function normally when one member is absent or a team member quits or is transferred
- broadens team members skills and makes them more capable while also making their work varied and interesting
Work Team
A small number of people with complementary skills who hold themselves mutually accountable for pursuing a common purpose, achieving performance goals, and improving interdependent work processes
Disadvantages of Teams
- initially high turnover
- social loafing
- legal risk
Initially high turnover
- some workers will balk at the responsibility, effort, and learning required in team settings
Social Loafing
Behaviour in which team members withhold their efforts and fail to perform their share of the work
Disadvantages of Groupthink
- feel intense pressure to agree with each other so that a solution that has been proposed can be approved
- restricts discussion
- leads to a limited number of alternative solutions
- results in poor decisions
- takes considerable time
- rare that teams hold productive, task-orientated meetings
- sometimes one or two people will dominate a discussion
- team members may not feel accountable for decisions or actions taken by the “team”
Use teams when:
- there is a clear, engaging reason or purpose
- the job can’t be done unless people work together
- rewards can be provided for teamwork and team performance
- ample resources are available
- teams will have the authority to manage and change how work gets done
Don’t use teams when:
- there isn’t a clear, engaging reason or purpose
- the job can be done by people working individually
- rewards are provided for individual effort and performance
- the necessary resources are not available
- management will continue to monitor and influence how work gets done
Autonomy
The degree to which workers have the discretion, freedom, and independence to decide how and when to accomplish their jobs.
Traditional Work Group
Groups composed of two or more people who work together to achieve a shared goal.
Employee Involvement Team
Team that provides advice or makes suggestions to management concerning specific issues.
Semi-Autonomous Work Group
Group that has the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks of producing a product or service.
Self-Managing Team
Team that manages and controls all the major tasks of producing a product or service.
Self-Designing Team
Team that has the characteristics of self-managing teams but that also controls team design, work tasks, and team membership.
Cross-Functional Team
Team composed of employees from different functional areas of the organization.
Virtual Team
Team composed of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed co-workers who use telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task.
Project Team
Team created to complete specific, one-time projects or tasks within a limited time.
Work Team Characteristics (5)
- Team norms
- Team cohesiveness
- Team size
- Team Conflict
- Stages of team development
Norms
Informally agreed-on standards that regulate team behaviour.
Cohesiveness
The extent to which team members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain in it.
Team Size
Smaller or larger teams may not perform as well as moderately sized teams. The magic number seems to be 6-9 individuals.
Team Conflict
Conflict and disagreements are inevitable in most teams. Common causes include casual comments that unintentionally offend a team member, fighting over scarce resources, disagreements over team goals and priorities, task-related issues, interpersonal incompatibilities, and simple fatigue.
4 Stages of Development
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
Forming
The first stage of team development in which team members meet each other, form initial impressions, and begin to establish team norms.
How teams can have a “good fight”
- work with more, rather than less, information
- develop several alternatives to enrich debate
- establish common goals
- inject humor into the workplace
- maintain a balance of power
- resolve issues without forcing a consensus
Storming
The second stage of team development, characterized by conflict and disagreement, in which team members disagree over what the team should do and how it should do it.
Norming
The third stage of team development, in which team members begin to settle into their roles, group cohesion grows, and positive team norms develop.
Performing
The fourth stage of team development, in which performance improves because the team has matured into an effective, fully functioning team.
De-norming
A reversal of the norming stage, in which team performance begins to decline as the size, scope, goal, or members of the team change.
De-storming
A reversal of the storming phase, in which the team’s comfort level decreases, team cohesion weakens, and angry emotions and conflict may flare.
De-forming
A reversal of the forming stage, in which team members position themselves to control pieces of the team, avoid each other, and isolate themselves from team leaders.
Companies can increase the likelihood that teams will succeed by:
- carefully setting goals and priorities
- selecting people for teamwork
- training the team
- addressing team compensation and recognition
Setting team goals and priorities
- set specific, challenging team goals to increase teams performance and regulate how hard team members work
In each team, there are likely to be four different kinds of goals:
- each member’s goal for the team
- each member’s goal for himself/herself on the team
- the team’s goal for each member
- the team’s goal for itself
Four things must happen for stretch goals to effectively motivate teams:
- teams must have a high degree of autonomy or control over how they achieve their goals
- teams must be empowered with control resources, such as budgets, workspaces, computers, or whatever they need to do their jobs
- teams need structural accommodation
- teams need bureaucratic immunity
Structural Accommodation
The ability to change organizational structures, policies, and practices.
Bureaucratic Immunity
The ability to make changes without first getting approval from managers or other parts of an organization.
Selecting people for teamwork
Carefully selecting people who are suited for teamwork or for working on a particular team. A preference for teamwork, team elevation, and team diversity can help companies choose the right team members.
Individualism-Collectivism
The degree to which a person believes that people should be self-sufficient and that loyalty to one’s self is more important that loyalty to one’s team or company.
Team Level
The average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team.
Team Diversity
The variances or differences in ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team.
Interpersonal Skills
Skills, such as listening, communicating, questioning, and providing feedback, that enable people to have effective working relationships with others.
Top 10 problems reported by new team leaders:
- confusion about their new roles and about what they should be doing
- feeling they’ve lost control
- not knowing what it means to coach or empower
- having personal doubts about whether the team concept will really work
- uncertainty about how to deal with employees’ doubts about the team concept
- confusion about when a team is ready for more responsibility
- confusion about how to share responsibility and accountability with the team
- concern about promotional opportunities, especially about whether the “team leader” title carries any prestige
- uncertainty about the strategic aspects of the leader’s role as teams mature
- not knowing where to turn for help with team problems, since few if any of their organization’s leaders have led teams
Team compensation and recognition
- Skill-based pay
- Gainsharing programs
- Nonfinancial rewards
Skill-Based Pay
Compensation system that pays employees for learning additional skills or knowledge.
Gainsharing
Compensation system in which companies share the financial value of performance gains, such as productivity, cost savings, or quality, with their workers.
Nonfinacial Rewards
Rewards like vacation trips, t-shirts, mugs, coupled with management recognition.
