Chapter 8 Team Dynamics Flashcards
Teams
Groups of two or more people who interact and influence each other, are mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives, and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization.
3 Characteristics of teams
1) team permanence
2) skill diversity
3) authority dispersion
why do informal groups exist?
1) People are social animals and have a drive for bond.
2) Social identity theory states that our group affiliations define us as individuals
3) We join groups because we can accomplish more as a group than as individuas
4) we are comforted by the mere presence of other people and are therefore motivated to be near them in stressful situations
Social Networks
Social structures of individuals or social units that are connected to each other through one or more forms of interdependence.
Teams generate 3 motivating forces
1) employees have a drive to bond and are motivated to fulfil the goals of groups to which they belong. This felt obligation is particularly strong when the employee’s social identity is connected to the team
2) employees have high accountability to fellow team members, who monitor performance more closely than a traditional supervisor
3) each team member creates a moving performance standard for the others
Process losses
Resources (including time and energy) expended toward team devel- opment and maintenance rather than the task.
Brooks’s Law
The principle that adding more people to a late software project only makes it later.
Social loafing
The problem that occurs when people exert less effort (and usually perform at a lower level) when working in teams than when working alone.
Reasons for social loafing
1) It is more likely to occur when individual performance is hidden or difficult to distinguish from the performance of other team members
2) social loafing is more common when the work is boring or the team’s overall task has low task significance
3) social loafing is more prevalent among team members with low conscientiousness and low agreeableness personality traits, as well as low collectivist values.
4)Social loafing is more widespread when employees lack motivation to help the team achieve its goals. Lack of motivation also occurs when employees believe other team members aren’t pulling their weight
Ways to reduce social loafing
1) form smaller teams
2) measure individual performance
3) specialize tasks
4) increase job enrichment
5) Increase mindfulness of team obligations
6) select motivated team oriented employees
3 key features of team effectiveness
1) teams exist to serve some organizational purpose, so effectiveness is partly measured by the achievement of that objective
2) a team’s effectiveness relies on the satis- faction and well-being of its members
3)
Team effectiveness Model
1) Organization and Team Environment
2) Task Design
3) Team processes
4) Team effectiveness
Task interdependence
The extent to which employees must share materials, information, or expertise with others to perform their jobs.
High task interdependence also motivates most people to be part of the team and to coordinate with each other.
Levels of Task Interdependence
1) Pooled Interdependence (Not very)
2) Sequential Interdependence
3) Reciprocal Interdependence (very much)
Team Composition 5 C’s Model
1) Cooperating
2) Coordinating
3) Communicating
4) Comforting
5) Conflict resolving
Homogenous teams
members of homogeneous teams experience higher satisfaction, less conflict, and better interpersonal relations. As a result, homogeneous teams tend to be more effective on tasks requiring a high degree of cooperation and coordination, such as emergency response teams
the opposite is diverse teams
Team Processes
cognitive and emotional dynamics of the team that continually change with the team’s ongoing evolution and development
includes team development, norms, roles, cohesion, trust, and team mental models
Team Development Stages
1) Forming
2) Storming
3) Norming
4) Performing
5) Adjourning
Norms
The informal rules and shared expectations that groups establish to regulate the behaviour of their members.
Role
A set of behaviours that people are expected to perform because they hold specific formal or informal positions in a team and organization.
6 of most important influences on team cohesion
1) Member Similarity: A well-established research find-
ing is that we are attracted more to co-workers who are similar to us
2) Team Size: Smaller teams tend to have more cohesion than larger teams
3) Member Interaction: Teams tend to have more cohesion when their members interact with one another fairly regularly
4) Somewhat difficult entry. Teams tend to have more cohesion when entry to the team is restricted. The more elite the team, the more prestige it confers on its members, and the more they tend to value their membership in the unit.
5) Team success. Team cohesion increases with the team’s success because people are attracted to groups that fulfil their needs and goals
6) External competition and challenges. Teams tend to have more cohesion when they face external competition or a challenging objective that is important to them
Conditions on which team cohesion and team performance depend on
1) team cohesion has less effect on team performance when the team has low task interdependence
2) the effect of cohesion on team performance depends on whether the team’s norms are aligned or conflict with organizational objectives
Hierarchy of trust foundations
1) Calculus based: logically assumed trust
2) Knowledge based: not based on past experience but on trust in their competence, i.e. trust in a physician
3) Identification based trust: highest level of trust that is established after creating a mutual understanding and an emotional bond. It increases with a person’s social identity with the team
Mental Models
Knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, and predict the world around us.
Team Mental Models
are cognitive images that team members form about the team’s tasks, relationship dynamics, and knowledge repository
Team building
improve team performance through speeding up or improving team development processes
1) task focused interventions
2) improving problem solving skills
3) clarifying role perceptions
4) improving interpersonal relations and becoming a more cohesive team
Self Directed Teams
Cross-functional work groups that are organized around work processes, complete an entire piece of work requiring several inter- dependent tasks, and have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks
Remote Teams
Teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks.
4 most common problems with team decision making
1) Time Constraints
2) Evaluation Apprehension
3) Pressure to conform
4) Over confidence
Production Blocking
A time constraint in team decision making due to the procedural requirement that only one person may speak at a time.
Evaluation Apprehension
Occurs when individuals are reluctant to mention ideas that seem silly because they believe that others in the decision-making team are silently evaluating them
Brainstorming
A freewheeling, face-to-face meeting where team members aren’t allowed to criticize but are encouraged to speak freely, generate as many ideas as possible, and build on the ideas of others.
4 team structures that improve creativity in a team setting
Brainstorming, brain writing, electronic brain writing, nominal group technique
Brainwriting
A variation of brainstorming whereby participants write (rather than speak about) and share their ideas.
Electronic brain writing
A form of brainwriting that relies on networked computers for submitting and sharing creative ideas.
A Nominal Group Technique
A variation of brainwriting consisting of three stages: participants () silently and independently document their ideas, (‘) collectively describe these ideas to the other team members without critique, and then (-) silently and independently evaluate the ideas presented.
