L5: Teams in Context Flashcards
how can you define an effective manager?
- in terms of organisational outcomes
- they are an optimizer who uses both internal & external resources (human, informational, material, financial) in order to sustain, over the long term, the unit for which the manager bears some degree of responsibility
- emphasis lies on managerial actions/behaviours relevant to optimize resources (determined by experts)
what are the global measures to predict managerial performance?
- supervisory rankings of total mangerial effectiveness
- salary
- org level
define communication
the exchange of information through messages
what are the attributes of virtual teamwork?
- synchronicity
- dispersion
- virtuality
- media richness
define synchronicity
are messages immediately available to the receiver? can the receiver immediately respond?
define dispersion
are participants collocated (at the same place at the same time) or dispersed (not at the same place at the same time)?
define media richness
The degree to which a medium contains cues regarding the meaning of messages and provides immediate feedback so that the interpretation of a message can be checked
rich media conveys meaning not only through language but also offers paralinguistic (such as tone of voice, how loud u talk, and nonverbal cues)
define virtuality
degree to which team members use tech in working across locational, temporal, and relational boundaries to accomplish an interdependent task
- Tend to have a shorter lifecycle and more membership change
than face-to-face teams
what are potential advantages of virtual teams?
- Groups can be composed of expert members, independent of geographical location
- Organizations can offer employees more flexible working arrangements, especially for knowledge workers (working from home)
- Can overcome coordination losses in group idea generation and brainstorming (no blocking)
- Promotes equal opportunities for participation (see McLeod, minority influence is larger!)
groups can benefit from dissent (differing opinions from majority) but often don’t. why?
- There is a need to create facilitating conditions for expressing dissenting opinions which may result in better decision quality.
- Prior research: computer mediated communication (CMC) may be such a facilitator)
when is it easier for minority opinions to be expressed?
- in computer mediated communication, minority opinion is more expressed than in face to face communication (due to parallele access & anonomity)
- influence of minority opinions once expressed is also larger in these online environments (due to pain gain hypothesis, politeness norms)
what are potential problems in virtual teams?
- Lack of mutual knowledge / common ground
- Greater risk of misinterpretations and misunderstandings
- Slower development of trust (and higher likelihood of conflict)
- More uninhibited behaviors, and therefore often more interpersonal and team-level conflicts!
- Inability to monitor and control team members
- Inefficiency (everything takes longer)
- Less social facilitation
- Lower member satisfaction
- Sometimes worse team outcomes (except for brainstorming)
- Difficulty perceiving and interpreting of and influencing through emotions (emotions are very important for group processes)
what 2 axes do u need to think about to make hybrid work a success?
- place (constrained = from office, unconstrained = anywhere)
- time (constrained = synchronous, unconstrained = a synchronous/whenever)
teams can use tech to commmunicate. they can use media that can be richer or leaner. ex of media are email, posters, telephone, video conferencing. which of the following statements is not true?
a. video conferenceing is the richest
b. telephone is richest
c. poster is leanest
b
what are 4 perspectives to consider to make hybrid work a success?
- jobs & tasks, different roles require different prodcutivity drivers (focus: strategic planners work best asynchoronously, coordination: team managers need real time interaction, cooperation: innovators thrive in face to face environments, sustained energy: work location affects personal motivation)
- employee preferences: hybrid work should match individual needs (survey employees)
- projects & workflows: companies must redesign workflows for hybrid work (consider how the work gets done)
- inclusion & fairness: hybrid policies must be equitable (wifi may not be possible or accessible to all)
what is boundary spanning?
the activities that link the group with its environment
what are the 4 types of boundary spanning activities?
- Scout activities: Bringing in info and resources needed by the group.
- Ambassador activities: Exporting info and resources to outsiders.
- Sentry activities: Controlling what others want to send to the group.
- Guard activities: Controlling the resources that others request from the group
what are some examples of scout activities?
gather info, monitoring, feedback seeking
what are some examples of ambassador activities?
establish relationships, inform others, coordinate w others
what are some examples of sentry activities
translating or filtering info
what are some examples of guard activities
delaying or delivering info upon request
which of the statements is true?
a. Individuals are more competitive with each other than groups.
b. Groups are more competitive
with each other than individuals.
b
this is called discontinuity effect
why are groups more competitive than individuals?
- social identity: we all strive for a positive social identity -> favoring the ingroup & derogating outgroups -> intergruop competition. so groups work harder when their own team identity is salient & an outgroup with whome they’re in competition is present (kohler effect?)
- self categorisation: as a group member -> more conformity & polarization
- social categorisation -> seeing both oneself & others as members of a group rather than unique individuals (=depersonalization)
how can you increase cooperation between groups & reduce intergroup bias?
- de-categorisation
- re-categorization
define de categorisation
focusing on inidividuality rather than group membership
define re categorization
focusing on a common in group identity (superordinate) or a dual identity
what promotes re categorization?
- common fate & positive (not negative) interdependence
- direct interaction (but not always, most likely when equal status groups w common goals who cooperate & contact is supported by authority, law, or custom)
- finding evidence of similarity
what is correct about boundary spanning activities?
a) Monitoring the environment to scan for signs of future trouble is an example of ambassador activities.
b) Letting outsiders know of the team’s progress is an example of scout activities.
c) Interpreting outside info into team jargon is an example of sentry activities.
c
what is the aim of team training?
- focuses on developing team members’ knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) as well as team processes and performance. Better decisions, performing better under stress, making fewer errors, new software, new methods.
- in order to get: better decisions, perform better under stress, make fewer errors, new software, new methods
what are the possible team outcomes of team training?
- cognitive outcomes: knowledge gains
- affective outcomes: for ex trust in others, confidence in others abilities
- behavioural processes: for ex communication, coordination, self correction
- performance outcomes: for ex an integration of quality & quantity, efficiency
what are the 3 types of training content for team training?
- taskword training: targets technical competencies of team memberes
- teamwork training: targets how ppl work effectively as a team
- mix: combination of taskwork & teamwork training
what are the 2 types of team membership stability?
- intact teams: members have shared history, membership is more stable
- ad hoc teams: “strangers” brought together to compete a task, membership is less stable
what did Salas et al (2008) study?
how team training affected cog, affective, process, and performance outcomes aka does team training improve team performance
with 3 moderators: training content (taskwork, teamwork, mix), team membership stability (intact, ad hoc), team size
what were Salas main findings on team training?
- moderate pos relationships exist between team training & team outcomes (cog, affective, process, performance)
- training content, team membership stability, and team size act as moderators
- intact teams > ad hoc teams for performance
- medium teams not supported to be moderator
- mix of teamwork training & taskwork training is best
what is the purpose of diversity trainings?
increasing participants (cultural) awareness, knowledge, and skills
what assumptions is diversity training based on?
- It will benefit an organization by protecting against civil rights violations.
- It will increase the inclusion of different identity groups.
- It will promote better teamwork.
what did Homan et al (2015) study?
how does diversity training influence team creativity
how do team diversity beliefs & nationality diversity levels influence the effectivness of DT
what were Homans results?
diversity effectiveness
- if ppl had less positive team level diversity beliefs and low nationality diversity, then diversity training neg impacted their creativity
- if ppl had less positive team level diversity beliefs & high nationality diversity, then diversity training pos impacted their creativity
- if ppl had more positive team level divesrit ybeliefs then diversity training didnt really do anything for their creativity (no matter their nationality divesrity)
what is the dark side of diversity training effectiveness?
DT can have detrimental effects depending on characteristics of team members
carefully consider the context & trainess before putting them through it
what are potential positive effects of newcomers in a group?
- Gains in resources (new skills and knowledge)
- New way of working, potential for process improvement or a
creativity boost, especially when: - Newcomer has high-quality suggestions,
- Newcomer has some commonality with the group (e.g.,
superordinate identity) - The group failed on the task previously
what are potential negative effects of newcomers in a group?
- Loss of resources
- Increased inefficiency (as newcomer needs time to learn new role, and existing systems [e.g., transactive memory] need
update)
-> Can be alleviated if group takes time to reflect on tasks when
newcomer arrives
what are the pros of low media richness?
- increased anonimity, reducing evaluation apprehension
- allows equal participation & simultaneous communication
what are the cons of low media richness?
- can cause slower task progress & info overload
- increased anonimity can also cause more social loafing
- can increase likelihood of misattributions & uninhibited behaviour & interpersonal conflict (escalation) cause of the loss of nonverbal cues
what are some things u can do to alleviate the problems of virtual teams?
- Match virtual teams with appropriate tasks (negotiation, judgmental and decision making and intellective tasks vs. task requiring less coordination like brainstorming and problem solving)
- Goal setting (formalize vision, work processes and strategies)
- Introduce team-based rewards
- Try to increase team trust (having an initial f-t-f meeting can help)
- Give the team time (having prolonged collaborations can help overcome problems of virtuality)
what is Gratton (2021) main point on how to do hybrid work right?
hybrid work should be designed w individual human concerns in mind, not just institutional ones
what should companies do to optimize hybrid work?
✔ Use surveys & data to understand employee needs.
✔ Redesign workflows, don’t just replicate office processes.
✔ Invest in technology to support collaboration.
✔ Ensure fairness in hybrid policies across departments.
is boundary spanning good?
it can be good for performance, but may distract from internal communication
what makes pp work harder for their group?
member are motivated to distinguish their group positively from other groups. this leads them to work harder for the group when:
- their membership is salient
- when they identify w their group
- when they believe that their group is being compared w other gropus
but this motivation can also lead to ingroup bias
what is ingroup bias?
evaluating & treating ingroup members more positively than outgroup members
what can be the impact of mergers?
Mergers often take place between groups that are unequal in dominance and status.
Members of dominant groups experience continuity and after time will often identify with the post-merger group. However, members of dominated groups may experience a loss of identity and lower identification
what are the pros and cons of Computer-mediated communication?
cons
- low in media richness
- slower task progress
- info overload
-> reduces effectiveness of CMC, especially in tasks that require much coordination of group members, such as decision making, CMC is less effective than face to face communication. this difference is smaller for tasks requiring less coordination (like brainsotrming, problem solving)
pros:
- parallel access
- more equal participation
what are the pros & cons of anonimity in CMC?
pros: leads to less conformity
cons: might actually increase conformity when group members social identity is salient
