Chapter 13: Teams in Organizations Flashcards
What is a Team?
Interdependent collection of individuals who work togehter.
Three ways in how a team can work;
- Pooled: Everyone works independently and resuls are combined.
- Sequential: Output of previous tasks are needed to perform the next task. They build on each other.
- Reciprocal: Output of each task is neede to perfomr the other task. All team mebmers use each other out and input. So not one way liek sequential.
Main characterisics of a team
- Interdependent tasks
- Common goals
- Shared responsibilty
- Recognized as a team
Quality Circles
Types of teams
- To increase productivity or product quality
- 6-12 employees (team leader, and associates)
- No formal authority
Why use team in organizations?
- Faster
- More innovation and creativity
- Better integration of the information
- More flexibility
- Learn from each other
Project teams
Types of teams; ad hoc committe, task force
- To execute a project or solve specific problems
- Mostly cross-functional
- Clear deadlines
- Decision-making autonomy
Autonomous Work Groups
Type of teams
- Control over a variety of its function
- Self-managing
- Focus on human and technical components
Virtual Teams
Type of teams
- Members in different locations (all over the world)
- Collaboration via computers and other technologies.
- Virtual-collaboration behaviors
- Virtual socialization skills
- Virtual-communication skiils
Input - Process - Output Model
Team effectiveness
Enables understanding of how teams perform & how to maximize performance.
Team inputs
Organizational context;
- Reward and training system
- Physical environment
- Managerial support
- Technology
Taks characteristics;
- Variety of skills
- Autonomy
- Meaningful and important
- Performance feedback
Team structure/composition;
- Characteristics of team members
Types of diversity
Team input
- Demographical diversity (surface-level)
- Psychological diversity (deep-level)
Consequences of diversity
- Positive effects: better decision-making and idea generation
- Negative effects: lower commitment, absenteeism, withdrawal, poor communication.
Over time:
- negative effects of demogrpahic diversity decrease.
- positive effects of psychological diversity increase.
Social loafing
Reduced motivation and performance in groups that occurs when there is a reduced feeling of individual accountability or reduced opportunity for evaulation of individual performance.
Group polarization
Risky-shift phenomenon
Tendency for groups to amek more extreme decisions than those made by individuals.
Leadership and diversity in teams
- Clarity on: Roles, responsibilities, decision making
- Emphasize interdependence and sharedness of team performance.
- Understanding and challenge steorotypes
- Manage conflicts
- Demonstrate consistency of treatment
- Value the member’s uniqueness
Shared mental models
Input variables
- Ideas are compatible
- Same explanations and expectations
- Alignment
- Implicit coordination
How do you get shared cognitions?
- Team coordination training
- Cross-training
- Guided team self-correction training
- Team leader training
Norms
Process Variables
- Informal, mostly unwritten rules
- Explicit agreements, old habits, first behavior patterns after the formation of the team.
- Part of team development
Team development
Process Variables
The order is dependent upon the team and context.
1. Tuckman: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning.
2. Gersick: Puncctuated, Equilbrium.
Communication & Coordination
Process variables
The Ringelmann Effect: Ft < F1 + F2 +F3
Process losses, Lack of coordination
Problems in team processes - Social loafing
Lack of effort.
Remedies:
- Increase task difficulty
- Enhance the uniqueness of the individual contribution.
- Set collective goals.
Cohesion
Process variables
- Desire to remain in the team and commit to the team goals
- Characterized by stability, satsifaction, pride, solidarity, strong norms, and social pressure.
Problems in team processes: Groupthink
Process Variables
- The disire to research consensus in more important than the realistic judgement of alternatives (possible actions).
- Past Groupthink Fiascos: Bay of Pig Invasion, 1961
Symptoms of Groupthink
Interpersonal pressure;
-Self-censorship
-Illusion of unanimity
-Pressure to conform
Overestimation of the group (power and morality)
- Illusion of invulnerability
- Illusion of morality
Lack of open-discussion
- Rationalizing of negative feedback
- More extreme stereotyping of competitors
Groupthink Remedy
- The devils advacate
- Anonymous protest
- Subgrup opponents
Stimulate constructive conflict.
Team outputs
Team performance;
- The best individual outperforms on cognitive and decision-making tasks.
- Enhanced (especially) creativity and innovation.
Wellbeing and satisfaction of team members:
- Participation, task variety, task significance
- Self-esteem
- Positive interactions
