Unit 06

TEAM DYNAMICS AND

PERFORMANCE
WHAT ARE TEAMS?

• Groups of two or more

people
• Exist to fulfill a purpose
• Interdependent --
interact and influence each
other
• Mutually accountable for
achieving common goals
• Perceive themselves as a
social entity
DISCUSSION

Why do organizations
need/rely on team? What
are challenges of teams
WHAT ARE TEAMS?

T ogether
E veryone
A chieve
M ore
GROUPS VERSUS TEAMS

• All teams are groups

• Some groups are just people assembled
together
• Teams have task interdependence whereas
some groups do not
(e.g., group of employees enjoying lunch together)
TYPES OF TEAMS AND GROUPS

Permanent Temporary

Formal Task force

Teams Production team
Management team

Informal
Groups
Community
Friendship group
of practice
TYPES OF FORMAL TEAMS IN
ORGANIZATIONS

• Departmental teams
• Production/leadership teams
• Self-directed work teams
• Advisory teams
• Task force (project) teams
• Virtual teams
• Communities of practice
 IMPORTANT TEAMS IN ORGANIZATIONS

Team Description Team characteristics

type
Departme Teams that consist of employees who Team permanence: High—departments continue
have similar or complementary skills indefinitely.
ntal teams and are located in the same unit of a Skill diversity: Low to medium—departments are
functional structure; usually minimal often organized around common skills
task interdependence Authority dispersion: Low—departmental power
because each person works with clients is usually concentrated in the dept. manager.
or with employees in other departments
Self- Teams whose members are organized Team permanence: High—teams are usually
around work processes that complete assigned indefinitely to a specific cluster of
directed an entire piece of work requiring several production or service activities.
teams interdependent tasks and have Skill diversity: Medium to high—members
substantial autonomy over the execution perform different tasks requiring diverse skill sets
of those tasks. Authority dispersion: High—members share
power, usually with limited hierarchical authority
Task Cross-functional teams whose members Team permanence: Low—teams typically
are usually drawn from several disband on completion of a specific project.
forces/ disciplines to solve a specific problem, Skill diversity: Medium to high—members are
project realize typically drawn from several functional
teams an opportunity, or design a product or specializations
service. Authority dispersion: Medium—teams often have
someone with formal authority (project leader),
but members also have moderate power due to
their expertise and functional representation.
WHY INFORMAL GROUPS EXIST

• Innate drive to bond

o Fulfill need for social interaction
o Social identity

• Goal accomplishment
• Emotional support
WHY RELY ON TEAMS

• Compared with individuals working alone,

teams tend to:
o solve problems and identify opportunities more quickly
o share information and coordinate tasks better
o provide superior customer service due to more
knowledge and expertise
o motivate employees to work toward the team’s goals
CHALLENGES OF TEAMS

Resources (including time and energy)

process losses expended toward team development and
maintenance rather than the task

The problem that occurs when people exert

Social Loafing less effort (and usually perform at a lower level)
when working in teams than when working
alone
GROUP DISCUSION

• What are Factors that

Determine A Team
Effectiveness
A MODEL OF TEAM EFFECTIVENESS
TEAM DESIGN ELEMENTS

• Better when tasks are clear, easy to

TASK
implement
CHARACTERISTICS
• Share common inputs, processes, or
outcomes
• Levels of Task interdependence

TEAM SIZE

TEAM COMPOSITION
TEAM DESIGN ELEMENTS

TASK
CHARACTERISTICS

Teams should be large enough to provide the

necessary abilities and viewpoints required
for the assigned work,
TEAM SIZE ....yet small enough to maintain efficient
coordination and meaningful involvement of
each member.

TEAM COMPOSITION
TEAM DESIGN ELEMENTS

TASK Team effectiveness depends on the qualities of the

CHARACTERISTICS people who are assigned to those teams.

Homogeneous Teams Heterogeneous

Teams

TEAM SIZE • Less conflict • More conflict

• Faster team • Longer team
development development
• Performs better on • Performs better on
cooperative tasks complex problems
TEAM COMPOSITION
• Better coordination • More creative
• High satisfaction of • Better representation
team members outside the team
TEAM COMPOSITION
FIVE CS OF EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK BEHAVIORS

Team effectiveness depends on the qualities of the people who are

assigned to those teams.
STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT
TEAM NORMS

• Informal rules and expectations team

establishes to regulate member behaviors

• Norms develop through:

o Explicit statements
o Critical events in team’s history
o Initial team experiences
o Beliefs/values members bring to the team
CONFORMITY TO TEAM NORMS

100
Day 12:
Peer
pressure Day 28:
75
Units begins Employee
Pressed has doubled
performance
per Hour
50

Day 1: Day 20:

25 Employee Employee
begins job begins
with team working alone
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
Production Days
CHANGING TEAM NORMS

 Introduce norms when forming teams

 Select members with preferred norms

 Discuss counter-productive norms

 Reward behaviors representing desired norms

 Disband teams with dysfunctional norms

TEAM ROLES

• Role -- set of behaviors people are

expected to perform by holding certain
positions
oFormally assigned or informally acquired based
on personality preferences
• Belbin’s Team Role Model
oNine team roles -- all needed for optimal team
performance
oPeople choose preferred role based on their
personality
oSome roles should be strongest at certain times
TEAM COHESIVENESS OUTCOMES

• Members of cohesive teams:

o Want to remain members
o Willing to share information
o Strong interpersonal bonds
o Resolve conflict effectively
o Better interpersonal relationships

J. Major, Ottawa Citizen

COHESIVENESS AND PERFORMANCE

Team Norms
Support Moderately
High task
Company high task
Goals performance
performance

Team Norms Moderately

Oppose Low task
low task
Company performance
performance
Goals

Low Team High Team

Cohesiveness Cohesiveness
TEAM TRUST
DEFINED

• A psychological state comprising the

intention to accept vulnerability based
upon positive expectations of the intent or
behavior of another person
 THREE LEVELS OF TRUST
High
• Identification-based trust
o Based on social identity theory
Identity-based Trust o Tend to forgive transgression
because team is part of our
personal identity

• Knowledge-based trust
o More stable than calculus-based
Knowledge-based Trust trust
o Develops over time

• Calculus-based trust
o easily broken by a violation of
Calculus-based Trust expectations
o cannot sustain a team’s relationship

Low
DISCUSSION

• What are characteristics of

an effective team?

NGO QUY NHAM, MBA

DEVELOPING
HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAMS
 SELF-DIRECTED WORK TEAMS
DEFINED

• Formal groups that

complete an entire piece
of work requiring several
interdependent tasks and
have substantial
autonomy over the
execution of these tasks.
Courtesy of Patchwork Traditional Food Co.
SELF-DIRECTED WORK TEAM
ATTRIBUTES
Completes an
entire piece of
work

Receives team- Team assigns

level feedback tasks to
and rewards Self-Directed members
Work Teams

Responsible for Controls work

correcting input, flow, and
problems output
VIRTUAL TEAMS DEFINED

• Teams whose members operate across space,

time, and organizational boundaries and are
linked through information technologies to
achieve organizational tasks
WHY VIRTUAL TEAMS?

• Increasingly possible because of:

o Information technologies
o Knowledge-based work

• Increasingly necessary because of:

o Knowledge management
o Globalization
HIGH-PERFORMANCE VIRTUAL TEAMS

Virtual teams perform better with:

• Creative combination of
Team Environment
communication channels

• Structured tasks
Team Tasks
• Moderate interdependence

• Smaller size than traditional

Team Size
team performing similar tasks

more
HIGH-PERFORMANCE VIRTUAL TEAMS (CON’T)

Virtual teams perform better with:

• Good communication and cross-

Team Composition
cultural skills in team members

• Some face-to-face meetings to

Team Processes
assist team development

• Important in all teams, but

Team Trust
especially virtual teams
TEAM DECISION MAKING
CONSTRAINTS
• Time constraints
o Time to organize/coordinate
o Production blocking
• Evaluation apprehension
o Belief that other team members are silently evaluating you
• Conformity to peer pressure
o Suppressing opinions that oppose team norms
TEAM CONSTRAINTS
GROUPTHINK
• Tendency in highly cohesive teams to value
consensus at the price of decision quality
• More common when the team:
o Is highly cohesive
o Is isolated from outsiders
o Team leader is opinionated
o Faces external threat
o Has recent failures
o Team lacks clear guidance
TEAM CONSTRAINTS
GROUP POLARIZATION

• Tendency for teams to make more extreme decisions

than individuals alone
• Riskier options usually taken because of gambler’s
fallacy -- believe they can beat the odds
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR TEAM DECISIONS

 Ensure neither leader nor any member dominates

 Maintain optimal team size
 Team norms encourage critical thinking
 Introduce effective team structures
GENERATING CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT

 Form heterogeneous decision making team

 Ensure team meets often to face contentious issues
 Members should take on different discussion roles
 RULES OF BRAINSTORMING

• 1. Speak freely
• 2. Don’t criticize
• 3. Provide many ideas
• 4. Build on others’ ideas

E. Luse. San Francisco Chronicle

 EVALUATING BRAINSTORMING

• Strengths
o Produces more innovative ideas
o Strengthens decision acceptance
and team cohesiveness
o Sharing positive emotions
encourages creativity
o Higher customer satisfaction if
clients participate
• Weaknesses
o Production blocking exists
o Evaluation apprehension exists
in many groups
o Fewer ideas generated than E. Luse. San Francisco Chronicle

when people work alone

ELECTRONIC BRAINSTORMING

 Participants share ideas using software

 Usually in the same room, but may be dispersed
 Question posted, then participants submit their ideas or
comments on computer
 Comments/ideas appear anonymously on computer
screens or at front of room
EVALUATING ELECTRONIC
BRAINSTORMING
• Benefits
o Less production blocking
o Less evaluation apprehension
o More creative synergy
o More satisfaction with process
• Problems
o Too structured
o Technology-bound
o Candid feedback is threatening
o Not applicable to all decisions
NOMINAL GROUP TECHNIQUE

Individual Team Individual

Activity Activity Activity

Possible
Write down Vote on
Describe solutions
possible solutions
problem described
solutions presented
to others
TYPES OF TEAM BUILDING

• Role definition
• Goal setting
• Problem solving
• Interpersonal process

© Straits Times
MAKING TEAM BUILDING EFFECTIVE

Some team building activities are successful,

but just as many fail because:
• Team-building activities need to target specific
team problems
• Team building is a continuous process, not a one-
shot inoculation
• Team building needs to occur on-the-job, not just
away from the workplace