UNDESTANDING WORK TEAMS (Chapter - 9)

Team Versus Groups: Whats the DifferenceWork Group. It refers to a group (of individuals) that interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each group member perform within his/ her area of responsibility.

Groups and teams are not the same thing.

Work groups have no need or opportunity to engage in collective work that requires joint effort. Their performance is the summation of each group members individual contribution. (A German Psychologist Max Ringlemanns Experiment- 1920)

There is no positive synergy, rather negative synergy may be expected due to social loafing.

Team Versus Groups: Whats the DifferenceWork Team. A Work Team refers to a group whose individual efforts result in a performance that is greater than the sum of the individual input.

A work team generates positive synergy through coordinated efforts. Individual efforts result in a level of performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs.

Managers look for the positive synergy that will allow their organizations to increase performance.

The extensive use of teams creates the potential for an organization to generate greater outputs with no increase in inputs. Merely calling a group a team doesnt automatically increase its performance.

Comparing Work Groups and Work Teams

Why Have Teams Become So PopularTeams typically outperform individuals.Teams use employee talents better.Teams are more flexible and responsive to changes in the environment.Teams facilitate employee involvement.Teams are an effective way to democratize an organization and increase motivation.

Types of Teams Members share ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved. Rarely are they given the authority to unilaterally implement their suggested actions.

One of the most widely practiced applications are the quality circles. Problem-Solving Teams: They are typically composed of 512 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment.

Types of Teams (contd)Self Managed Teams: These groups of 1015 employees perform highly related or interdependent jobs and take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors. This includes planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work, making operating decisions, and taking action on problems.

Fully self-managed work teams evenselect their own members and havethe members evaluate each othersperformance.

Types of Teams (contd)Cross Functional Team: These are teams made up of employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task. Many organizations have used horizontal, boundary-spanning groups for years. A task force is an example of a temporary cross-functional team. The popularity of cross-discipline work teams exploded in the late 1980s.

Different FunctionsTeam members

Types of Teams (contd)Virtual Teams. Virtual teams use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal:

a. They allow people to collaborate online.Virtual teams can do all the things that other teams do. They can include members from the same organization or link an organizations members with employees from other organizations.

d. They can convene for a few days tosolve a problem, a few months to complete a project, or existpermanently.

Types of Teams (contd)How Virtual Teams are Different:The three primary factors that differentiate virtual teams are:

a. The absence of paraverbal and nonverbal cues. These help clarify communication by providing increased meaning, but arent available in online interactions.

b. Limited social context. Virtual teams often suffer from less social rapport and less direct interaction among members.

c. The ability to overcome time and space constraints. Virtual teams allow people to work together who might otherwise never be able to collaborate.

Beware: Teams Arent Always the Answer Teamwork takes more time and often more resources than individual work.

Teams increase communication demands, conflicts to be managed, and meetings to be run. Three tests to see if a team fits the situation:

Is the work complex and is there a need for different perspectives?

Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the group that is larger than the aggregate of the goals for individuals?

Are members of the group involved in interdependent tasks?

A Team-Effectiveness Model

Creating Effective TeamsKey components making up effective teams are, Work Design, Composition, Context (resources), and Process. Effective teams need to work together and take collective responsibility to complete significant tasks. Lets take each component separately:Work Design. It includes variables like: Freedom and autonomy Skill variety Task identity Task significanceThe evidence indicates that these characteristics enhancemember motivation and increase team effectiveness.

Creating Effective Teams (contd)Composition: Ability KSAs, interpersonal & leadership skills.Personality - Big Five personality model. Role and diversity members should be able tofill different roles in the team. Team size - Managers should keep the size in the range of 512 people. Flexibility adaptable to suit the changing role. Preference for team work - Not every employeeis a team player. Willing team members will provebetter performers.

Creating Effective Teams (contd)Context: Adequate resources Resources and support.Leadership Effective leadership. Climate of trust When members trust each other they are more willing to take risks. By trusting their leadership, they are more willing to commit to their leaders goals and decisions. Performance evaluation and rewards Team oriented evaluation and reward system must be implemented to reflect team performance; group-based appraisals, profit sharing, gainsharing, small-group incentives are effective tools.

Creating Effective Teams (contd)Process: Common purpose Common and meaningful purpose (vision) provides direction, momentum, and commitment for the team members.Specific goals Purpose/ vision to be converted into specific, measurable, and realistic performance goals. Team efficacy Confidence/ belief in themselves that they can succeed . Conflict - Teams that are completely void of conflict are likely to become stagnant. Social loafing - Watch out for such individuals.

Key Rolesof Teams

Team and Workforce Diversity:Advantages and Disadvantages of DiversityDiverse teams, also add more value, but pose challenges & difficulties in problem solving, resolving conflicts and working together.

Reinvigorating Mature TeamsNo team can remain at a uniform level of performance; Effective teams can become stagnant. Enthusiasm and high performance spirit can decline with the passage of time, leading to reduced performance. As such continuous efforts are required to reinvigorate even a mature team. Following could be the problems of Mature Teams:

Becoming stagnant and complacent as cohesiveness increases familiarity breeds apathy. Developing groupthink - Groupthink influences decision making. Reluctance to solve difficult issues having gained experience in handling easy problems to gain early success, teams try to follow the same approach; neglecting difficult issues leads to disastrous situations.

Reinvigorating Mature Teams (contd)Reinvigorating (Reinstating/reinforcing) Teams:

Prepare members to deal with problems of maturity openness to novel ideas and innovation.

Offer refresher training skills currency to be updated.

Offer advanced training to match the task.

Encourage teams to treat their development as a constant learning experience continuous learning philosophy.

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