Chapter 7: Social Loafing, Cross-Functional and Virtual Teams Flashcards
Social Loafing
the tendency for individuals to reduce effort in a group task compared to working alone. It stems from motivation problems, not coordination
- Free Rider Effect: People reduce effort to benefit from others’ contributions without contributing themselves.
- Sucker Effect: People lower their effort because they believe others are free riding, aiming to restore equity.
Counteracting Social Loafing
- Make Individual Performance Visible:
- Ensure Work is Interesting
- Increase Feelings of Indispensability
- Provide Performance Feedback
- Reward Group Performance
- Change norms
To improve the effectiveness of brainstorming…
- Identifiable contribution
- No judgments during brainstorming session
- Equal status
- Using individual sessions to generate initial ideas
Basic Qualities of Effective Work Teams
- Psychological Safety
- Team Reflexivity
- Shared Mental Models
- Capacity to Improvise
- Collective Efficacy
- Team Resilience
Cross-Functional Teams
teams composed of members from different functional specialties to enhance invention, design, or delivery of products or services
Complex, unique tasks (e.g., designing a car or app) require formal leadership and operate within the project’s lifespan.
Pharmaceutical development teams (toxicology, biology, and marketing)
Advantages of Cross-functional teams
o Innovation
o Speed
o Quality
Principles for Effective Cross-Functional Teams
- Composition: include all relevant specialties, avoiding gaps
- Superordinate Goals
- Physical Proximity
- Autonomy: Teams need independence from the larger organization
- Reasonable Rules and Procedures:
- Good Leadership
Virtual Teams
teams that use technology to collaborate across geographic, temporal, and organizational boundaries
* Often cross-functional and rely on both asynchronous (e.g., email) and synchronous (e.g., video conferencing) communication tools.
Advantages of Virtual Teams
- Around-the-Clock Work:
o Enable continuous workflows across global time zones.
o Example: “Follow the sun” approach with tasks handed off between regions. - Reduced Travel Time and Cost
- Larger Talent Pool
Challenges of Virtual Teams
- Less Trust:
- More Miscommunication:
- More Isolation:
- Management Issues: Difficult to monitor performance and ensure fairness in dispersed teams.
Self-managed Tasks
teams that regulate much of their behavior, performing challenging tasks with reduced supervision
Composition of Self-Managed Teams
- Stability: High team tenure correlates with better performance.
- Size: small (2 pizza’s should be enough to feed the team)
- Expertise: Members should have strong social skills, conflict resolution abilities, and cognitive capabilities.
- Diversity
