Teams

Question 1

What are teams:
ADV and DIS

Answer 1

Groups of two or more people who perceive themself as a team who, exist to fulfill a purpose and are Interdependent and Mutually accountable for achieving common goals – influence each other

Advantages
Make better decisions, products/services
Better information sharing
Increase employee motivation/engagement

Challenges
Process losses – resources needed for team maintenance
Social loafing – members potentially exert less effort in teams than alone
Brooks’s Law- adding more people to a late software project only makes it later

Question 2

What decides the types of team:

Answer 2

Permanence, skill differentiation, authority differentiation

Question 3

What is a self-directed team and what makes them successful:
And what is a virtual team, plus what makes them successful:

Answer 3

A Cross-functional group, Organized around work processes, who Complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks, with substantial autonomy to do so.

Success factors
Responsible for the entire work process
High interdependence within the team
Low interdependence with other teams
Autonomy to organize and coordinate work
Work site/technology support team communication/coordination

Members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries – linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks

Virtual Team Success Factors
Virtual team member characteristics
Toolkit of communication channels and freedom to choose channels that work best for them
Fairly high task structure
Opportunities to meet face-to-face

Question 4

Four segments of team effectiveness model:

Answer 4

1- Organizational and team environment (Reward systems
Communication systems
Organizational structure
Organizational leadership
Physical space)

2- Team Design
3-Team effectiveness (Accomplish tasks, satisfy member needs, maintain team survival)
4-Team processes

Question 5

Elements of team design:

Answer 5

-Task characteristics: Complex, high interdependence( Reciprocal, Not sequential or pooled], well structured
-Team size: smaller is better
-Team composition: 5 C’s, communication, coordinating, comforting, conflict resolving, cooperative
also, diveristy

Question 6

What is team processes and the elements of team processes:

Answer 6

Interactions and activities that occur within a team as it works towards it goal.
Can be internal, teamwork behavior(Enhance interactions) to taskwork behavior(Understand tasks, rules, patterns, etc)
Can be external: Team boundary spanning

-Team development (Forming, storming, morning, performing, adjourning)
-Team Norms (Informal rules and shared expectations team establishes to regulate member behaviors)
-Team roles (Expected behavior) [Expecation, conflict, ambiguity, overload]
-Team cohesion (want to be in the team)
-Team trust (Ideally identification based, but also knowledge-based and calculus-based)
-Team mental models ( habitual routines with team members
Forming shared/complementary mental models)

Question 7

Team building and the four types:

Answer 7

Formal activities intended to improve the team’s development and functioning

Types of team building
Clarify team’s performance goals
Improve team’s problem-solving skills
Improve role definitions
Improve relations

Question 8

5 team decision-making constraints:

Answer 8

-Time constraints
-Info sharing probleme
-peer pressure to conform
-overconfidence
-Evaluation apprehension

Question 9

5 general guide lines for team decision-making:

Answer 9

Team norms should encourage critical thinking
Introduce effective team structures
Maintain optimal team size
Sufficient team diversity
Checks/balances to avoid dominant participants