SU 10: Leading Teams

Question 1

Most work in organizations is interdependent which means

Answer 1

Individuals and departments rely on other individuals and departments for information or resources to accomplish their work

Question 2

What is a team

Answer 2

1. It is a unit of two or more people 2. who interact and coordinate their work regularly 3. to accomplish a common goal, and hold themselves mutually accountable

Question 3

What are the requirements of teamwork

Answer 3

• gather the right set of personalities, specialties and skills
• clearly defining roles and responsibilities
• focusing everyone on a well-defined mission
• establishing clear channels of communication and information sharing
• getting everyone to control their individual egos and pull together in the same direction

Question 4

What are the contribution of teams (pg 517)

Answer 4

• creativity and innovation
• improved quality
• speed of response
• higher productivity and lower costs
• employee satisfaction

Question 5

What is the competitive advantage of teams

Answer 5

Higher organizational performance

Question 6

What are the two common types of teams

Answer 6

Functional and cross-functional teams, organizations can also use self-managed teams to increase employee participation

Question 7

What is a functional team

Answer 7

Also known as a command team, it includes a manager and his or her junior in the formal chain of command. In some cases the team may include three or four levels of hierarchy within a single functional department

Question 8

What is a cross-functional team

Answer 8

It includes employees from about the same hierarchical level but from different areas of expertise, for example a task force, which is a group of employees from different departments formed to deal with a specific activity and existing only until the task is complete

Question 9

What is a self-managed team

Answer 9

Typically consists of 5 to 20 multi skilled workers who rotate jobs to produce an entire product or service. It is designed to increase the participation of workers in decision making. The team takes responsibility for their work and not their managers or supervisors.

Question 10

What are the three primary reasons that teams present a dilemma for many people (pg 521)

Answer 10

• we have to give up our independence
• we have to put up with ‘free’ riders
• teams are sometimes dysfunctional

Question 11

What are the 5 dysfunctions that are common in teams

Answer 11

> lack of trust: people don’t feel safe to reveal mistakes, share concerns or express ideas

> fear of conflict: people go along with others for the sake of harmony

> lack of commitment: if people are afraid to express their true opinions it’s difficult to gain their true commitment to decisions

> avoidance of accountability: people don’t accept responsibility for outcomes (finger pointing when things go wrong)

> inattention to results: members put personal ambition or the needs of their individual departments ahead of collective results

Question 12

What are 5 effective team characteristics

Answer 12

> trust: members trust one another on a deep emotional level

> healthy conflict: members feel comfortable disagreeing and challenging one another in the interest of finding the best solution

> commitment: because all ideas are put on the table people can achieve genuine buy-in around important goals and decisions

> accountability: members hold one another accountable rather than relying on managers

> results orientation: individual members set aside personal agendas and focus on what’s best for the team

Question 13

Work team effectiveness is based on what three outcomes

Answer 13

1. Productive output: refers to performance in the quality and quantity of task outputs as defined by team goals
2. Personal satisfaction: the teams ability to meet the personal needs of its members, leading to maintain their membership and commitment
3. The capacity to adapt and learn: refers to the ability of teams to bring greater knowledge and skills to job tasks

Question 14

What’s the difference between virtual teams and global teams

Answer 14

A virtual team - is a group made up of geographically or organizationally dispersed members who are linked primarily through advanced information and telecommunications technology

A global team - is a cross-border team made up of members of different nationalities whose activities span multiple countries

Question 15

What are the advantages of virtual teams

Answer 15

• the ability to assemble the most talented group of people to complete a complex project
• solve a particular problem
• exploit a specific strategic opportunity

Question 16

What are team characteristics

Answer 16

Size, diversity & member roles

Question 17

Explain size as a team characteristic

Answer 17

Teams need to be large enough to:
- incorporate diverse skills to complete a task
- enable members to express good and bad feelings
- aggressively solve problems

Question 18

Explain diversity as a team characteristic

Answer 18

Diverse teams produce more innovative solutions to problems. Diversity is often a source of creativity in terms of 1.functional area and skills 2.thinking styles and 3.personal characteristics

Question 19

Explain member roles as a team characteristic (pg 528)

Answer 19

People who play a task specialist role spend time and energy helping the team reach its goal and often display the following behaviors:
-initiate ideas -give opinions -seek information -summarize -energize

People who play a socioemotional role support team members emotional needs and help strengthen the social entity, they often display the following behaviors
- encourage -harmonize -reduce tension -follow -compromise

Question 20

What are team processes

Answer 20

Team processes pertain to those dynamics that change over time and can be influenced by team leaders.

Question 21

What’s important to consider with team processes

Answer 21

1. Stages of development
2. Cohesiveness
3. Norms
4. Conflict

Question 22

What are the stages of team development (pg 530)

Answer 22

• forming: orientation, breaking the ice
• storming: conflict, disagreement
• norming: establishment of order and cohesion
• performing: coorporation, problem solving
• ajourning: task completion

Question 23

What is team cohesiveness

Answer 23

Is defined as the extent to which members are attracted to the team and motivated to remain in it.

The determinants of team cohesiveness are: team interaction, shared goals and personal attraction to the team

Question 24

What are two factors that influence cohesiveness

Answer 24

1. Presence of competition
2. Team success and the favorable evaluation of the team by outsiders

Question 25

What are the consequences of team cohesiveness

Answer 25

• higher moral and productivity

Question 26

What is a team norm

Answer 26

A team norm is an informal standard of conduct that is shared by team members and guides their behavior, norms are valuable because they provide a framework of reference for what is expected and acceptable

Question 27

What are four ways teams norms can develop

Answer 27

> critical events in teams history

> carry over from other experiences

> explicit statements from leader or members

> primacy: first behavior precedence (of high importance)

Question 28

What is conflict

Answer 28

refers to antagonistic interaction in which one party attempts to block the intentions or goals of another

Question 29

What are the different types of conflict

Answer 29

• task conflict: refers to disagreement among people about the goals to be achieved or the content of the tasks to be performed and leads to better decision making and problem solving
• relationship conflict: refers to interpersonal incompatibility that creates tension and personal animostity among people

Question 30

What is groupthink

Answer 30

People are so committed to a cohesive team that they are reluctant to express contrary opinions

Question 31

What are causes of conflict

Answer 31

• competition over resources
• competing for scarce or declining resources
• people are pursuing different goals
• communication breakdowns
• trust issues
• the lack of nonverbal cues

Question 32

What are ways to handle conflict (pg 536)

Answer 32

> the dominating style (my way): reflects assertiveness

> the avoiding style (no way): reflect neither assertiveness nor cooperativeness

> the compromising style (halfway): reflect a moderate amount of both assertiveness and cooperativeness

> the accommodating style (your way): reflect a high degree of cooperativeness

> the collaborating style (our way): reflect a high degree of both assertiveness and cooperativeness

Question 33

Name a type of conflict management and explain it

Answer 33

Negotiation - is used when a conflict is formalized such as between a union and management

Question 34

What are the types of negotiation

Answer 34

• integrative negotiation: is based on a win-win assumption, in that all parties want to come up with a creative solution that can benefit both sides
• distributive negotiation: assumes that the size of the pie is fixed and each party attempts to get as much of it as they can

Question 35

What are rules for reaching a win-win situation (pg 538)

Answer 35

• separate the people from the problem
• focus on underlying interests, not current demands
• listen and ask questions
• insist that results be based on objectives standards