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.