Teams and Teamwork: "Two Heads Can Be Better Than One"

MODULE 21
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
“Two heads can be

better than one”
• Why is an understanding of teams so important?

• What are the foundations of successful teamwork?
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Importance Of Teams
MODULE GUIDE 21.1
 Formal and informal groups are building blocks of

organizations.
 Organizations use a variety of committees, task forces,
and cross-functional teams.
 Virtual teams are increasingly common in organizations.
 Teams offer synergy and other benefits to their members
and the organization.
 Teams can also suffer from common performance
problems.
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Importance Of Teams
 Team
 a collection of people who regularly interact to pursue common
goals.
 Teamwork
 the process of people actively working together to accomplish
common goals.
 Formal Group
 a group that is officially recognized and supported by the
organization.
 Informal Group
 a group that is unofficial and emerges from relationships and
shared interests among members.
 Committee
 people brought together outside of their daily job assignments to
work in a small team for a specific task
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Importance Of Teams
 Types of Teams
 Project Team
 is convened for a specific purpose and disbands
after completing its task.
 Cross-functional Team
 operates with members who come from different
functional units of an organization.
 Employee Involvement Team
 meets on a regular basis to help achieve
continuous improvement.
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Importance Of Teams
 Types of Teams
 Quality Circle Team
 employees who meet periodically to discuss
ways of improving work quality.
 Self-managing Teams
 work team having the authority to make decisions
about how they share and complete their work.
 Virtual Teams
 Work together and solve problems through
computer based interactions
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Importance Of Teams
 Benefits of Teams
 Synergy
 The creation of a whole greater than or equal to the sum of
its parts
Why Teams Are Good for Organizations
• More resources for problem solving

• Improved creativity and innovation
• Improved quality of decision making
• Greater commitments to tasks
• Increased motivation of members
• Better control and work discipline
• More individual need satisfaction
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Importance Of Teams
MANAGEMENT TIPS
Characteristics of High Performance Teams
 Clear, elevating goals

 Results-driven structure
 Competent team members
 Unified commitments
 Collaborative climate
 Standards of excellence
 External support and recognition
 Principled leadership
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Importance Of Teams
 Potential Problems With Teams
 Social Loafing
 the tendency of some people to avoid responsibility by free-
riding in groups.
 Meetings (wasted time)
Seven sins of deadly meetings:
1. People arrive late, leave early, and don’t take things seriously.
2. The meeting is too long, sometimes twice as long as necessary.
3. People don’t stay on topic; they digress and are easily distracted.
4. The discussion lacks candor; people are unwilling to tell the truth.
5. The right information isn’t available, so decisions are postponed.
6. Nothing happens when the meeting is over; no one puts decisions into
action.
7. Things never get better; the same mistakes are made meeting after
meeting.
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Importance Of Teams
Assessing the
maturity of a
team
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Foundations Of Teamwork
MODULE GUIDE 21.2
 Teams need the right members and inputs to be effective.

 Teams must use the right processes to be effective.
 Teams move through different stages of development.
 Team performance is affected by norms and cohesiveness.
 Team performance is affected by task and maintenance roles.
 Team performance is affected by use of communication
networks.
 Team performance is affected by use of decision-making
methods.
 Team performance suffers when groupthink leads to bad
decisions.
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Foundations Of Teamwork
 Stages of Development
 Forming Stage
 team development, one of initial task orientation and
interpersonal testing.
 Norming Stage
 members of the team begin to coordinate their efforts as a
working unit and tend to operate with shared rules of
conduct.
 Performing Stage
 members are more mature, organized, and well functioning.
 Adjourning Stage
 the final stage for temporary committees, task forces, and
project teams.
FOUNDATIONS OF TEAMWORK
Effective Teams
 Effective Teams
 make use of alternative communication
networks and decision-making methods to best
complete tasks.
 Group Process
 The way members interact and work together to
transform inputs into outputs
TEAM EFFECTIVENESS EQUATION

Team effectiveness =
Quality of inputs x (Process gains - Process losses)
Effective Teams
Effective Teams
 Group Norms
 Behaviors, rules or standards expected of team members
 Cohesion
 the attractiveness of the team to its members
Effective Teams
 Task and Maintenance Roles
 Task Activities
 contribute directly to the team’s performance
purpose
 Maintenance Activities
 support the emotional life of the team as an
ongoing social system.
 Distributed Leadership
 every member is continually responsible for both
recognizing when task or maintenance activities
are needed and taking actions to provide them.
Effective Teams
Effective Teams
 Communication Networks
 Decentralized Communication Network
 Allows all members to communicate directly with
one another. Works well for tasks that require
lots of creativity, information processing, and
problem solving.
 Centralized Communication Network
 Requires members to communicate with each
other via a central hub or port
Effective Teams
Effective Teams
 Decision Making
 The process of making choices through
choosing from alternative courses of action
 Groupthink
 a tendency of members of highly cohesive
teams to lose their critical evaluative
capabilities and make poor decisions.

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MODULE 21

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK

“Two heads can be

• Why is an understanding of teams so important?

 Formal and informal groups are building blocks of

Why Teams Are Good for Organizations

• More resources for problem solving

 Clear, elevating goals

Seven sins of deadly meetings:

 Teams need the right members and inputs to be effective.

TEAM EFFECTIVENESS EQUATION

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