Group and Team Effectiveness Flashcards
Definition of a group
two or more individuals who interact and are interdependent, coming together to achieve specific objectives, and can be either formal or informal
Formal vs. informal groups
group created by the organization VS a group created by the members themselves to accomplish goals that may or may not be relevant to an organization
Different types of roles to be played (e.g., task-oriented)
- Task oriented: initiator, energizer, information seeker, opinion giver, elaborator, evaluator, recorder
- Maintenance: harmonizer, compromiser, encourager, gatekeeper, commentator
- Individual: blocker, recognition seeker, dominator, evader
Benefits of group membership
Individual benefits:
- Greater availability of and access to, resources, etc
- Affiliation
- Security and protection
- Self-esteem and sense of identity
- Problem Solving
Organizational Benefits:
- Task accomplishment
- Increased creativity
- Increase collaboration
- Usually better decision making
- Helps socialize newcomers
Models of group development (Tuckman, Punctuated Equilibrium, etc.)
- Tuckman: forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning
- Punctuated Equilibrium: group development follows a pattern (first meeting, inertia aka doing very little, increased level of activity halfway, more inertia until deadline, frenzied activity to compete activity)
Definition of a team (and how it differs from a group)
small number of people with complimentary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goal, approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable
Different types of teams (e.g., problem solving teams)
- leadership shared by everyone
- group members held accountable for individual and team results
- group defines its own mission, objectives, etc.
- focused on problem solving, continuous improvement
- we win or lose together
- examples: production teams, problem solving teams, management/leadership teams, cross-functional teams, self-management work team, virtual
High-performance teams
members have specific skills, roles are allocated, commitment to a common purpose and set of goals, reward systems reinforce teams vs individual behavior, high levels of trust within the team, shared pride
how to build one:
-Communicate high performance standards
-Set the tone in the first meeting(s)
-Create a sense of urgency and importance of the team
-Make sure members have the right skills
-Establish clear rules/norms for team behavior and model them as a leader
-Find ways to create and communicate early “successes”
-Give positive feedback and reward high performance
-Focus on building group cohesiveness
Advantages and disadvantages of group decision making (general knowledge)
Advantages:
- more info
- more diversity
- division of labor/sharing of resources
- greater chance for high quality decisions
- increased acceptance of solution by group members
- higher perceived legitimacy and objectivity
Disadvantages:
- takes more time than individual decision making
- decision may not be reached in extreme cases
- potential pressure to conform (to group norms and dominant individuals)
- can have diffusion of responsibility
- potential for groupthink
Group cohesiveness
-Severity of initiation into the group
-High external threat or competition
-Time spent together
-High skill levels (both core and complementary)
-Shared respect for each others skills
Conformity, deindividuation in groups
you are more likely to agree with other people than stray from the norm AND people can be more productive if they work together but individually
Escalation of commitment and groupthink
Headlong rush, everybody is racing towards a decision and not paying attention to the red flags
Social loafing and social facilitation (easy vs. hard tasks)
the tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working in a group compared to when working alone VS when you are working on a task that you aren’t good at, the presence of other people hurts your performance
Milgram and obedience to authority
how far you would go to obey authority
Conducting a group meeting
- assign evaluator role
- have leader avoid seeming partial
- create subgroups to work on the same problem
- have group members discuss issues with outsiders and report back
- invite outside experts to observe and react to group dynamics
- assign someone to be a “devil’s advocate”
- hold “second chance” discussions after consensus is achieved
Brainstorming
used to increased group creativity and productivity by encouraging group members to express their ideas in a non-critical environment
Team building (and the different basic approaches)
to improve teamwork and increase group cohesiveness, can be used within and/or across groups
- different approaches to team building: single event/discussion, recreational activity, low-key offsite intensive offsite, outdoor experience
8 dimensions of team effectiveness:
- Clear, elevating goal
-Results-driven structure
-Competent team members
-Unified commitment
-Collaborative climate
-Standards of excellence
-External support and recognition
-Principled leadership
