Managing groups and teams (chapter 6)

Question 1

Meredith Belbin (2010)

Answer 1

British management researcher best known for his classification of team roles.

Question 2

Bruce Tuckman (1977)

Answer 2

American psychologist best known for his categorisation of stages of group formation.

Question 3

Irving Janis (1971)

Answer 3

American social psychologist who pioneered groupthink theory.

Question 4

Group

Answer 4

A collection of people with common bonds but not a shared sense of purpose.

Question 5

Team

Answer 5

A group who meet together with a common purpose and mutual interdependence.

Question 6

Groupthink (Janis, 1971)

Answer 6

Psychological phenomenon which limits the range of alternatives being considered because there is an overwhelming desire for consensus.
The Bay of Pigs is an historical example.

Question 7

Cohesiveness

Answer 7

Where group members feel bound together, often feeling as though they share a similar fate.

Question 8

Group dynamics

Answer 8

The underlying, unconscious, processes which shape the ways in which group members react to one another,

Question 9

Interpersonal relationships

Answer 9

The way group members relate to each other.

Question 10

Social loafing

Answer 10

Describes people who, when working in groups, do not work as hard because (often unconsciously) they rely on others to do the task.

Question 11

Social facilitation

Answer 11

The tendency that individuals have to work harder when being watched by others, particularly on simple tasks.

Question 12

Camaraderie

Answer 12

A sense of togetherness and bonding.

Question 13

Shirking/free-riding

Answer 13

When an individual does not pull their weight but is carried by the group.

Question 14

Working groups (Katzenbach, Smith, 1993)

Answer 14

Individual, independent, takes personal approach, personal responsibility, is the sum of its parts.

Question 15

High performance teams (Katzenbach, Smith, 1993)

Answer 15

Group, interdependent, committed to a common approach, group responsibility and high trust, is more than the sum of its parts.

Question 16

Team roles (Belbin, 2010)

Answer 16

A team only reaches its full potential when it has a balance of the 9 team roles.
Plant, resource-investigator, coordinator, shaper, monitor-evaluator, teamworker, implementer, completer finisher, specialist.

Question 17

Criticism of Belbin’s Team Roles

Answer 17

Furnham et al. (1993) provided a criticism of Belbin’s team roles.
They argue that Belbin’s original research was based on limited evidence, and that the questionnaires are vague and do not necessarily relate to how people behave within a team.

Question 18

How to tackle personality clashes within a team?

Answer 18

Get the correct balance of personality characteristics to ensure that no one individual dominates.
Barry and Steward’s findings (1997) suggest that a variance in group levels of extraversion is required so that complementary roles of leading and following can be carried out.

Question 19

Katzenbach, Smith (1993)

Answer 19

Proposed that many ‘teams’ are in fact working groups.; high performing teams are a rarity that organisations are constantly striving to achieve.

Question 20

Task orientation

Answer 20

Focusing on tasks rather than on people

Question 21

What are Tuckman’s stages of group development?

Answer 21

Forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning.

Question 22

According to Tuckman (1977), what are the two key factors that shape members’ behaviour within a team?

Answer 22

Interpersonal relationships
Task orientation
These two factors affect the group dynamics and shape how the team deals with different perspectives, communication, conflict, leadership, and trust.

Question 23

Rickards and Moger (1999, 2000)

Answer 23

Developed Tuckman’s model to have three stages: forming and storming processes; norming and performing processes; outperforming processes. Between each of these stages there is a ‘glass ceiling’ which needs to be broken in order to progress.
Conclusion: it is relatively easy for groups to break the weak behavioural barrier between the first and second stages to reach normal performance levels, but it is very hard to reach high performance ones.

Question 24

Hypothesis

Answer 24

A proposition that needs to be tested

Question 25

Psychoanalytical theory (Freud, Riviere, 1927)

Answer 25

Argue that the group is shaped by unconscious forces that members of the group are largely unaware of.

Question 26

What were Bion’s (1961) three basic assumptions?

Answer 26

Bion (1961) believed there exists ‘three basic assumptions’ that shape the way that the group acts; they create defensive positions that unconsciously protect group members from harm.

1. dependency (Tuckman’s forming)
2. flight/fight (Tuckman’s storming)
3. Pairing (Tuckman’s norming)

Question 27

Committee/decision-making group

Answer 27

A formal collection of individuals from across the organisation, such as a senior management team or staff team, who come together to make decisions on the future direction of the organisation or to solve problems.

Question 28

What factors contribute to group success, according to Steiner (1966)?

Answer 28

Steiner argued that the success of a group can be a combination of the nature of the task, the resources available to group members, the motivation of the group, and the patterns the group develops.

Question 29

Are groups better at making decisions than individuals?

Frank and Anderson, 1971; Steiner, 1966

Answer 29

Research has shown that groups are better at making decisions than individuals alone because they have a wider variety of perspectives.
However, for conjunctive tasks (which are tasks that everyone must contribute to), the group is normally only as effective as the least capable member (Frank and Anderson, 1971; Steiner, 1966).

Question 30

Conjunctive tasks

Answer 30

Group tasks that everyone must contribute to.

Question 31

Unconscious

Answer 31

The area of thinking that is not directly available to the conscious mind, and is below the level of personal awareness.

Question 32

What are the consequences of groupthink (Janis, 1971)?

Answer 32

Janis (1971) argued that this leads to a ‘deterioration in mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgements as a result of group pressures’.

Question 33

What are some of the key features of groupthink (Janis, 1971)?

Answer 33

Groups suffering from groupthink tend to want to minimise conflict and therefore do not explore alternative options; they also often stick to agreements that the group has already committed to, even if they turn out to be the wrong ones.

Question 34

What are the results of groupthink (Janis, 1971)?

Answer 34

Members look at very few options, fail to consider the consequences of decisions, do not listen to what outside experts say, or do not consider how opponents might react. Believing in their own righteousness and invulnerability, they can make a decision that might be perceived by an outsider as a bad one.

Question 35

Conformity

Answer 35

Everyone in the group thinking and acting in the same way.

Question 36

Quality circles

Answer 36

A group of workers who come together, often under the supervision of a leader, to identify, analyse, and solve organisational problems.

Question 37

Interdisciplinary/multi-functioning team

Answer 37

A team of people that is comprised of people coming from different disciplines. This approach can produce a wider perspective and knowledge but can also produce greater conflict.

Question 38

Empowered

Answer 38

The process by which the workers are given greater power and autonomy. Critics suggest this approach also places a greater burden on workers.

Question 39

Self-managed teams

Answer 39

A team, often of professionals or highly-qualified people, who manage themselves.

Question 40

What are the key traits of empowered or self-managed teams?

Answer 40

They have increased autonomy and higher skill levels (Cohen and Ledford, 1994).
They have the authority to solve their own problems and directly respond to customer needs.

Question 41

Why might self-managed teams be more productive?

Answer 41

They can make quicker decisions, create stronger bonds between team members as they tackle challenges collectively, and they have increased commitment as the team members have more freedom and more of a say in how things are done.

Question 42

Lawler (1986) describes the movement towards self-managed teams as…

Answer 42

moving from ‘cop’ to ‘coach’, or ‘controlling’ to ‘involving’.

Question 43

What are some benefits of teamwork?

Answer 43

It enables increased organisational performance, improves employees’ working lives, and solves alienation within society.

Question 44

Criticism of self-managed teams

Answer 44

Self-managed teams can result in downsizing by removing layers of management and making the team take on these responsibilities (Dunphy and Bryant, 1996). This increases the burden on ordinary workers as they have more responsibility, but the same rate of pay.

Question 45

Downsizing

Answer 45

Reducing the size of the workforce

Question 46

Baker (1993)

Answer 46

Argues that teamwork is a form of surveillance as team members watch each other, controlling each others’ effort and output. The manager is replaced by team members: ten pairs of eyes rather than just one. This can result in employees working harder.