Lecture 5 - Foundations of Successful Teamwork

Question 1

How do we define a team?

Answer 1

A set of three or more persons, who interact socially, and interdependently and have a shared responsibility or common goal.

Question 2

What are the three types of task interdependence?

Answer 2

Pooled interdependence - everyone puts individual effort to perform the task, and little to no coordination between members required. - low-level of interdependence

Sequential interdependence - one member needs to accomplish something before another member can work on their part - mid-level of interdependence

Reciprocal interdependence - One individual help the other and vice-versa - high level of interdependence

Question 3

What are the three types of task interdependence?

Answer 3

Pooled interdependence - everyone puts individual effort to perform the task, and little to no coordination between members required. - low level of interdependence

Sequential interdependence - one member needs to accomplish something before another member can work on their part - mid-level of interdependence

Reciprocal interdependence - One individual help the other and vice-versa - high level of interdependence

Question 3

What are the three types of task interdependence?

Answer 3

Pooled interdependence - everyone puts individual effort to perform the task, and little to no coordination between members required. - low level of interdependence

Sequential interdependence - one member needs to accomplish something before another member can work on their part - mid-level of interdependence

Reciprocal interdependence - One individual help the other and vice-versa - high level of interdependence

Question 4

How do we define qualitative and quantitative interdependence?

Answer 4

Qualitative - how the job is done
Quantitative - the type of interdependence

Question 5

What are the two outcomes of interdependence?

Answer 5

Cooperative - positive
Competitive - negative

Question 6

What is outcome interdependence?

Answer 6

The team outcome is improved/deteriorated based on individual outcomes.

Question 7

How do we define Hackmann’s team’s effectiveness?

Answer 7

Productive output - quantity, quality and timeliness
Team viability - ability to perform as a unit
Satisfaction and learning of individuals

Question 8

What are the main characteristics of Hackman’s model on team effectiveness?

Answer 8

Broad scope of model
Difficult to implement (due to contextual factors, structure, composition of a team)
Nature of teams - existing teams, variance in skill differentiation
Outcome of interest - team effectiveness - individual output, viability

Question 9

What are the main characteristics of Wolly’s model on team effectiveness?

Answer 9

Small scope of model
Moderately easy to implement
Focus on team performance
Ad-hoc teams, no history or future, not limited to skills differentiation;
Outcome of interest - team performance

Question 10

Whose is the model of collective intelligence IQ?

Answer 10

Wooley and colleagues

Question 11

What are the two aspects of collective intelligence? Describe them.

Answer 11

Balanced participation - a precondition for cognitive process gains, important to avoid motivational losses

Social sensitivity - prevents process losses in all areas, and promotes emotional and motivational process gains.

Question 12

Who is the model of team effectiveness?

Answer 12

Hackman

Question 13

What are the three main aspects of the team effectiveness model (Hackman)?

Answer 13

Interdependence is necessary for the team and it’s based on skill differentiation

Guidance of the team in a certain way, autonomy in terms of processes

Enabling structure - establishing norms - guidelines, task allocation, team progress tracking

Question 14

What are the effects (importance) of interdependence?

Answer 14

Coordination - task allocation based on superior skills, time allocation, monitoring, and procedure maintenance

Motivation - free-riding, social loafing (least activity in a team), slacking - acting is reduced the larger a group is.

Cognition - Characterized by greater inclusion of partners

Emotion - social sensitivity, trust?

Question 15

What is the Ringelmann Effect?

Answer 15

As the number of people in a team increase, the individual productivity decreases. This is due to free-riding, accountability etc.
Coordination becomes more difficult.

Question 16

What is the diffusion of responsibility in teams?

Answer 16

Reduced likelihood to act when part of a larger group of people.

Question 17

What is downward matching?

Answer 17

When some people work less, others decide to work less too.

Question 18

What are the three motivational processes?

Answer 18

Social cohesion - teams’ emotional relatinoship
Task cohesion - how well a team works to achieve a common goal
Collective efficacy - shared belief in team’s capacity to effectively accomplish a task

Question 18

What are the three motivational processes?

Answer 18

Social cohesion - willingness of members to cooperate and succeed as a team
Task cohesion - reaching team goals as individual and collective reward
Collective efficacy - shared belief in team’s capacity to effectively accomplish a task

Question 19

What is collective efficacy?

Answer 19

Shared belief in the team’s capacity to effectively accomplish a task

Question 20

Why some teams do not work? (Hackman’s theory)

Answer 20

Team needs to have a bound (be connected and know who is really in the team) and a direction (direction can be established by a leader/executive)

Question 21

What are some misconceptions about teams?

Answer 21

Harmonious teams (reverse cause-and-efffect) - Teams become satisfied after achieving success and being recognized for it, not the other way around.

Smaller teams are better than bigger teams because they are easier to manage.

Team stability is important - new members need to be introduced only once in a while

Question 22

What makes an effective team? (Hackman)

Answer 22

Deviant - someone who challenges the homogenity of a team

Satisfying internal/external clients
Strong as a unit over time
Fosters learning and growth of individuals
Quirkiness of members seen as advantage
Coaching at a team, rather than individual level
Balance between individual autonomy and collective action

Question 23

What are the two collective intelligence factors in the performance of groups? (Woolley)

Answer 23

General collective intelligence factor
- average social sensitivity of group members (rather than individual levels of intelligence)
- equality of talking distribution
- the proportion of females in the group

Groups’ collective intelligence - the team’s combined capacity and capability to perform a wide variety of tasks.
Factors:
- average social sensitivity,
- speaking turn of each group member,
- the proportion of females (mediated by social sensitivity)