Chapter 8 - Team Dynamics

Question 1

Define Teams.

Answer 1

Groups of two or more people who interact and influence one another, are mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with organisational objectives and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organisation.

Question 2

What are the few important components of a Team?

Answer 2

1. Goal to fulfil some purpose.
2. Interdependence. Collaboration. Communication.
3. Team members influence one another.
4. A team exists when its members perceive themselves to be a team.

Question 3

What are the benefits of informal groups?

Answer 3

1. Stress-relief : emotional & social support.

2. Social networks : trust building, info sharing, power, influence and associated communication.

Question 4

Why are people more motivated in a team?

Answer 4

1. Employees have a drive to bond and are motivated to fulfil the goals of their group.
2. They are accountable to fellow team members, who monitor performance more closely than a traditional supervisor.
3. Performance improves because co-workers become benchmarks of comparison.

Question 5

What are the 2 disadvantages of working in a team?

Answer 5

1. Process losses - Time and energy wasted towards team development and maintenance rather than the task.
2. Social Loafing - The problem that occurs when people exert less effort when working in teams than when working alone.

Question 6

When is a team effective?

Answer 6

A team is effective when it benefits the organisation and its members and when it survives long enough to accomplish its mandate.

Question 7

Define Task interdependence.

Answer 7

The extent to which team members must share materials, information or expertise to perform their jobs.

Question 8

What are the levels of task interdependence?

Answer 8

1. Pooled - shared resources.
2. Sequential - output of one person becomes the direct input of another.
3. Reciprocal - work output is exchanged back and forth among individuals.

Question 9

What’s a rule for the levels of task interdependence?

Answer 9

The higher the level of task interdependence, the greater the need to organise people into teams rather than have them work alone.

~ However this rule only applies if teams have the same goals. If not = excessive conflict.

Question 10

What is the idea team size?

Answer 10

Small Team.

1. Operate more effectively because they have less process loss.
2. Members of smaller teams feel more engaged because they have more influence on the group’s norms and goals and fee more responsible for the team’s success and failure.
3. Members get to know one another better which improves perceptions of support, help and assistance.

Question 11

Describe the Five Cs model of team member competency.

Answer 11

1. Cooperating - share resources & accomodate others.
2. Coordinating - Align work with others & Keep team on track.
3. Communicating - Share info freely, efficiently, respectfully & listen actively.
4. Comforting - Show empathy, Provide psychological comfort & Build Confidence.
5. Conflict Resolving - Diagnose conflict sources & use best conflict-handling style.

Question 12

What type of employees have a high level of competency?

Answer 12

High conscientiousness and Extraversion personality traits, as well as with emotional intelligence.

Question 13

What are the advantages of Team Diversity?

Answer 13

1. Better decisions are made due to the different perspectives of problems/opportunities.
2. Broader Pool of technical Competencies.
3. Better representation of the team’s constituents.

Question 14

What are the disadvantages of Team Diversity?

Answer 14

1. Take longer to become a high-performing team.
2. Susceptible to ‘fault lines’. This reduces the motivation of members to communicate and coordinate.
3. Less effective than a homogenous team.

Question 15

Describe Tuchman’s model of team development.

Answer 15

1. Forming 
~ Discover expectations 
~ Evaluate value of membership
~ Defer to existing authority 
~ Test boundaries of behaviour 

2. Storming 
~ Experience interpersonal conflict 
~ Compete for Team Roles 
~ Influence goals and means 
~ Establish norms 

3. Norming 
~ Establish Roles 
~ Agree on Team Objectives 
~ Form team mental models 
~ Develop Cohesion 

4. Performing 
~ Become task-oriented, committed 
~ Coordinate efficiently 
~ Build high levels of cooperation and trust 
~ Resolves conflict quickly

Question 16

Do all work teams go through the Developmental Stages?

Answer 16

No.

1. They are often brought together to work on specific projects
2. The organisational context provides them with strong existing norms so they may be able to skip over the ‘norming’ stage.

Question 17

Explain The punctuated equilibrium model.

Answer 17

Group development can be divided into 2 distinct phases that are ‘punctuated’ by a transition from

1. relatively unfocused and task-unrelated activity to
2. highly focused and goal-directed activity.
   - > this transition always occurs at the mid-point of a group’s life span.

Question 18

Explain what is developing team identity and developing team mental models and coordinating routines.

Answer 18

1. Developing Team Identity - When members of the group view the group as an insider not an outsider.
2. Developing mental models and coordinating routines- When members share the same mental models and have habitual routines together.

Question 19

Define Role.

Answer 19

A set of behaviours that people are expected to perform because they hold certain positions in a team and organisations.

Question 20

Define Team Building.

Answer 20

A process that consists of formal activities intended to improve the development and functioning of a work team.

Question 21

Do team-building interventions improve team development and effectiveness?

Answer 21

Most effective:

1. employees receive training on specific team competencies, such as coordination, conflict resolution and communication.
2. Activities that identify and address specific weaknesses within the team.
3. Ongoing reflection on the team’s work experiences and willingness to experiment with just-in-time learning for team development.

Question 22

Define Norms.

Answer 22

The informal rules and share expectations that groups establish to regulate the behaviour of their members.

Question 23

Define Team Cohesion.

Answer 23

The degree of attraction people feel towards the team and their motivation to remain members.

Question 24

What are factors that influence team cohesion?

Answer 24

1. Member similarity - people are attracted to people similar to them.
2. Team size - smaller teams (Y)
3. Member Interaction - regular contact.
4. Somewhat difficult entry - ‘elite’ team, more prestige it confers on its members and the more they tend to value their membership.
5. Team Success
6. External competition and challenges - threat from external competitor or friendly competition from other teams

Question 25

What are the 3 foundations of trust?

Answer 25

1. Calculus-based trust - Based on deterrence. Fragile and limited potential because dependent on punishment.
2. Knowledge-based trust - Based on predictability and competence. Fairly robust.
3. Identification-based trust - Based on common mental models and values. Increases with person’s social identity with team.

Question 26

Define Self-Directed teams (SDTs).

Answer 26

Cross-functional work groups that are organised around work processes, complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks and have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks.

Question 27

What are the 2 distinct features of SDT?

Answer 27

1. These teams complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks.
2. SDTs have substantial autonomy over the execution of their tasks.

Question 28

What are 3 specific factors that influence multicultural teams’ effectiveness?

Answer 28

1. Norms about power, status and authority.
2. Norms about communicating.
3. Norms about decision making.

Question 29

What are ways to manage multicultural teams?

Answer 29

1. Encourage adaptation.
2. Implement structural intervention.
3. Direct manager intervention.

Question 30

Define Virtual Teams.

Answer 30

Teams whose members operate across space, time and organisational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organisational tasks.

Question 31

How do virtual teams differ from traditional teams?

Answer 31

1. They are not usually co-located (do no work in the same physical area)
2. Due to their lack of co-location, members of virtual teams depend primarily on information technologies rather than face-to-face interaction to communicate and coordinate their work effort.

Question 32

What are some strategies to minimise most virtual team problems?

Answer 32

1. Require more than the team competencies. Good communication tech skills, strong self-leadership skills to motivate and guide their behaviour without peers/bosses nearby.
2. Should have a toolkit of communication channels (email, virtual whiteboards, video conferencing, etc).
3. Need plenty of structure.
4. Should meet face-to-face fairly early in the team development process.

Question 33

What are the 4 most common problems in decision making?

Answer 33

1. Time Constraints.
2. Evaluation Apprehension.
3. Pressure to conform
4. Overconfidence

Question 34

Define Puncture-blocking.

Answer 34

A time constraint in team decision making when only one person can speak at a time.

Question 35

Define evaluation apprehension.

Answer 35

A decision-making problem that occurs when individuals are reluctant to mention ideas that seem silly.

Question 36

Define Team efficacy.

Answer 36

The collective belief among team members of the team’s capability to successfully complete a task.

Question 37

Define Group Think.

Answer 37

The tendency of highly cohesive groups to value consensus at the price of decision quality.

Question 38

Define brainstorming.

Answer 38

A freewheeling, face-to-face meeting where team members aren’t allowed to criticise but are encouraged to speak freely, generate as many ideas as possible and build on the ideas of others.

Question 39

Define Brainwriting.

Answer 39

A variation of brainstorming whereby participants write (rather than speak about) and share their ideas.

Question 40

Define Electronic brainstorming.

Answer 40

A form of brain writing that relies on networked computers for submitting and sharing creative ideas.

Question 41

Define nominal group technique.

Answer 41

A variation of brain writing consisting of 3 stages:

1. Silently and independently document their ideas.
2. Collectively describe these ideas to the other team members without critique.
3. Silently and independently evaluate the ideas presented.