Chapter 4 OB

Chapter 4: Working
with others, Teamwork,

Groups and Group
Dynamic
Prepared by
Michael K. McCuddy
Valparaiso University
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Chapter 4 Study Questions

What is the nature of Group
What is
a the nature of teams and

teamwork?
What is team building?
How does team building improve
performance?
How do teams contribute to the highperformance workplace?
Organizational Behavior: Chapter 10
How do teams contribute to organizations?

What are the current trends in the use of
teams?
How do teams work?
How do teams make decisions?

What are the challenges of leading high-
performanceOrganizational
teams?Behavior: Chapter 10
What is the nature of team and

teamwork?
A team is a small group of people with
complementary skills, who work actively

together to achieve a common purpose for
which they hold themselves collectively
accountable.
Teams are one of the major forces behind
revolutionary changes in contemporary
organizations.
What are teams?

Groups of two or more
people who interact and
influence each other are
mutually accountable for
achieving common
objectives and perceive
themselves as a social
entity within an
organisation
5
Courtesy of the Royal Australian Navy
Groups versus teams

All teams are groups
Some groups are just

people assembled
together
Teams have task
interdependence
whereas some groups
do not (eg group of
employees enjoying
lunch together)
Courtesy of the Royal Australian Navy
Study Question 1: How do teams contribute

to organizations?
Formal groups
Teams that are officially recognized and
supported by the organization for specific

purposes.
Specifically created to perform essential tasks.
Managers and leaders serve linking pin
roles.
Management - Chapter 16
How do teams contribute

to organizations?
Informal groups
Not recognized on organization charts.
Not officially created for an organizational purpose.
Emerge as part of the informal structure and from natural or
spontaneous relationships among people.

Include interest, friendship, and support groups.
Can have positive performance impact.
Can help satisfy social needs.
Why informal groups exist

Relatedness needs
fulfil need for social interaction
social identity
Goal accomplishment
Emotional support

to organizations?
Usefulness of teams:
More resources for problem solving.
Improved creativity and innovation.
Improved quality of decision making.
Greater commitments to tasks.
Higher motivation through collective action.
Better control and work discipline.
More individual need satisfaction.
10

teams?
Committees, project teams, and task forces
Committees.
People outside their daily job assignments work together in a
small team for a specific purpose.
Task agenda is narrow, focused, and ongoing.
Projects teams or task forces.

People from various parts of an organization work together
on common problems, but on a temporary basis.
Official tasks are very specific and time defined.
Disbands after task is completed.
11

teams?
Guidelines for managing projects and task
forces:
Select appropriate team members.
Clearly define the purpose of the team.
Carefully select a team leader.
Periodically review progress.
12
Types of Team
Cross-functional teams
Members come from different functional units
of an organization.
Team works on a specific problem or task with
the needs of the whole organization in mind.

Teams are created to knock down walls
separating departments.
13
Types of Team
Employee involvement teams

Groups of workers who meet on a regular
basis outside of their formal assignments.

Have the goal of applying their expertise and
attention to continuous improvement.

Quality circles represent a common form of
employee involvement teams.

14
Types of Team
Virtual teams
Teams of people who work together and solve
problems through largely computer-mediated

rather than face-to-face interactions.
Sometimes called
Computer-mediated groups
Electronic group networks
15
Potential advantages
of virtual teams:
Potential problems of
virtual teams:
Savings in time and
Difficulty in
travel expenses.
Minimization or
elimination of
interpersonal
difficulties.
Ease of expansion.
establishing good
working relationships.
Depersonalization of
working relationships.
16
Guidelines for managing virtual teams:

Virtual teams should begin with social
messaging.
Team members should be assigned clear roles.
Team members must have positive attitudes
that support team goals.

17
Types of Team
Problem-solving teams.
Employee involvements teams include a wide
variety of teams whose members meet
regularly to collectively examine important
workplace issues.
Quality circle.
A special type of employee involvement team.
Team meets periodically to address problems
relating to quality, productivity, or cost.

18
Types of Team
Self-managing work teams
Teams of workers whose jobs have been
redesigned to create a high degree of task

interdependence and who have been given
authority to make many decisions about how
to do the required work.
Also known as autonomous work groups.
19
Typical self-management responsibilities:
Planning and scheduling work.

Training members in various tasks.
Sharing tasks.
Meeting performance goals.
Ensuring high quality.
Solving day-to-day operating problems.
In some cases, hiring and firing team
members.
20
Advantages of self-managing teams.

Productivity and quality improvements.
Production flexibility and faster response to
technological change.
Reduced absenteeism and turnover.
Improved work attitudes and quality of work
life.
21

Disadvantages of self-managing teams.
Structural changes in job classifications and
management levels eliminate the need for first-line
supervisors.
Managers must learn to deal with teams rather than
individuals.
Supervisors who are displaced by self-managing
teams may feel threatened.

22
In self-managing work teams, members

Are held collectively accountable for performance
results.
Have discretion in distributing tasks within the team.
Have discretion in scheduling work within the team.
Are able to perform more than one job on the team.
Evaluate one anothers performance contributions.

Are responsible for the total quality of team products.
23

teamwork?
Teamwork occurs when group members
actively work together in such a way that

all their respective skills are well utilized
to achieve a common purpose.
24

teamwork?
Characteristics of high performance teams.
They have strong core values.
They turn a general sense of purpose into
specific performance objectives.

They have the right mix of skills.
They possess creativity.
25

teamwork?
Characteristics of teams with homogeneous
membership.
Members are similar with respect to such variables as
age, gender, race, experience, ethnicity, and culture.

Members can quickly build social relations and
engage in the interactions needed for teamwork.

Homogeneity may limit the team in terms of ideas,
viewpoints, and creativity.

26

teamwork?
Characteristics of teams with heterogeneous
membership.
Members are diverse in demography, experiences, life
styles, and cultures, among other variables.

Diversity can help improve team problem solving and
increase creativity.
Diversity among team members may create
performance difficulties early in the teams life or

stage of development.
27

teamwork?
Characteristics of teams with heterogeneous
membership (cont.).
Enhanced performance potential is possible once
short-run struggles are resolved.

Diversity can provide great advantages for high-
performance organizations.
28
Homogeneous vs heterogeneous teams

Homogeneous teams
Heterogeneous teams
Higher satisfaction
More conflict
Less conflict
Slower team development

takes longer to agree on
norms and goals
Faster team development

More efficient coordination
Performs better on simple
tasks
Better knowledge and

resources for complex tasks
Tend to be more creative
Higher potential for support
outside the team
2003 McGrawHill Australia Pty
29

Work groups and teams must master challenges
as they pass through the various stages of group

development.
Team building is a sequence of planned activities
designed to gather and analyze data on the

functioning of a group and to initiate changes
designed to improve teamwork and increase
group effectiveness.
30
31

Approaches to team building.
Formal retreat approach.
Team building occurs during an offsite retreat.
Continuous improvement approach.

The manager, team leader, or members take
responsibility for ongoing team building.
Outdoor experience approach.
Members engage in physically challenging
situations that require teamwork.
32

performance?
New members are concerned about
issues of:
Participation.
Goals.
Control.
Relationships.
33

performance?
Task and maintenance leadership.
Sustained high performance requires meeting both
task needs and maintenance needs.

High-performance teams require distributed
leadership.
Distributive leadership is the sharing among team
members of the responsibilities for task and

maintenance contributions.
34

performance?
Groups members should avoid the following
disruptive behaviors:
Being overly aggressive toward other members.
Withdrawing and refusing to cooperate with others.

Horsing around when there is work to be done.
Using the group as a forum for self-confession.
Talking too much about irrelevant matters.

Trying to compete for attention and recognition.
35

performance?
Roles and role dynamics.
A role is a set of expectations associated with
a job or position on a team.
Role ambiguity occurs when a person is
uncertain about his/her role.
Role overload occurs when too much is
expected and the person feels overwhelmed
with work.
Role underload occurs when too little is
expected and the person feels underutilized.
36

performance?
Roles and role dynamics (cont.).
Role conflict occurs when a person is
unable to meet conflicting expectations.
Forms of role conflict.
Intrasender role conflict.
Intersender role conflict.
Person-role conflict.
Interrole conflict.
37

performance?
38

performance?
Norms represent beliefs about how group
or team members are expected to behave.

Norms are rules or standards of conduct.
Managers and leaders should help their
groups adopt positive norms that support

organizational goals.
39

performance?
Key norms that can have positive or
negative implications.
Performance norms.
Ethics norms.
Organizational and personal pride norms.
High-achievement norms.
Support and helpfulness norms.
Improvement and change norms.
40

performance?
Cohesiveness is the degree to which members are
attached to and motivated to remain a part of the

team
High team cohesiveness occurs when:
Members are similar in age, attitudes, needs, and backgrounds.

Group size is small.
Members respect each others competencies.
Members agree on common goals.
Members work on interdependent tasks.
Groups are physically isolated from others.
Groups experience performance success or crisis.
41

to organizations?
Team and teamwork roles for managers:
Supervisor serving as the appointed head of a
formal work unit.

Network facilitator serving as a peer leader an
network hub for a special task force.

Participant serving as a helpful contributing
member of a project team.

External coach serving as the external convenor or
sponsor of a problem-solving team staffed by others.

42
Figure 16.1 Team and teamwork roles

for managers.
43

to organizations?
Common problems in teams:
Personality conflicts.
Individual differences in work styles.
Ambiguous agendas.
Ill-defined problems.
Poor readiness to work.
Lack of motivation.
Conflicts with other deadlines or priorities.
Lack of team organization or progress.
Meetings that lack purpose or structure.
Members coming to meetings unprepared.
44
Study Question 1: How do teams contribute

to organizations?
Seven sins of deadly meetings:
People arrive late, leave early, and dont take things
seriously.
The meeting is too long.
People dont stay on topic.
The discussion lacks candor.
The right information isnt available, so decisions are
postponed.
No one puts decisions into action.
The same mistakes are made meeting after meeting.
Management Fundamentals - Chapter 16
45
How do teams work?

Effective teams
Achieve and maintain high levels of task
performance.
Achieve and maintain high levels of member
satisfaction.
Retain viability for the future.
46
How do teams work?

Communication networks
Decentralized
All members communicate directly with one
another.
Centralized
Activities are coordinated and results pooled by
central point of control.
Restricted
Polarized subgroups contest one another.
Subgroups may engage in antagonistic relations.
47
Source: John R. Schermerhorn, Jr., James G. Hunt, and

Richard N. Osborn, Organizational Behavior, 8th ed. (New
York: Wiley, 2003), p. 347. Used by permission.
Figure 16.7 Interaction patterns and

communication networks in teams.
48

Methods of team decision making:
Lack of response
Authority rule
Minority rule
Majority rule
Consensus
Unanimity
49

Assets of team decision making:
Greater amounts of information, knowledge,
and expertise.
Expands number of action alternatives
considered.
Increases understanding and acceptance.
Increases commitment to follow through.
50

Potential disadvantages of team decision
making:
Social pressure to conform.
Individual or minority group domination.
Time requirements.
51

Methods for dealing with groupthink:
Have each group member be a critical evaluator.
Dont appear to favor one course of action.
Create subteams to work on the same problems.

Have team members discuss issues with outsiders.
Have outside experts observe and provide feedback on
team activities.
Assign a member to the devils advocate role.
Hold a second-chance meeting.
52
Study Question 4: How do teams make

decisions?
Creativity in team decision making
guidelines for brainstorming:

All criticism is ruled out.
Freewheeling is welcomed.
Quantity is important.
Building on one anothers ideas is encouraged.
53
What are the challenges of leading highperformance teams?
Team building
A sequence of planned activities used to
gather and analyze data on the

functioning of a team and to implement
constructive changes to increase its
operating effectiveness.
54

Characteristics of high-performing teams:
A clear and elevating goal.
A task-driven, results-oriented structure.
Competent and committed members who work hard.

A collaborative climate.
High standards of excellence.
External support and recognition.

Strong and principled leadership.
55

Effective team leaders act to:
Establish clear vision.
Create change.
Unleash talent.
56

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Chapter 4: Working

with others, Teamwork,

Chapter 4 Study Questions

a the nature of teams and

How do teams contribute to organizations?

How do teams make decisions?

What is the nature of team and

complementary skills, who work actively

What are teams?

Courtesy of the Royal Australian Navy

Groups versus teams

Some groups are just

Courtesy of the Royal Australian Navy

Study Question 1: How do teams contribute

supported by the organization for specific

How do teams contribute

spontaneous relationships among people.

Can help satisfy social needs.

Why informal groups exist

How do teams contribute

What are the current trends in the use of

Projects teams or task forces.

What are the current trends in the use of

the needs of the whole organization in mind.

Employee involvement teams

basis outside of their formal assignments.

attention to continuous improvement.

employee involvement teams.

problems through largely computer-mediated

Savings in time and

Guidelines for managing virtual teams:

that support team goals.

relating to quality, productivity, or cost.

redesigned to create a high degree of task

Typical self-management responsibilities:

Planning and scheduling work.

How do teams contribute to the highperformance workplace?

Advantages of self-managing teams.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 10

How do teams contribute to the highperformance workplace?

management levels eliminate the need for first-line

teams may feel threatened.

In self-managing work teams, members

Evaluate one anothers performance contributions.

What is the nature of team and

actively work together in such a way that

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 10

What is the nature of team and

specific performance objectives.

They possess creativity.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 10

What is the nature of team and

age, gender, race, experience, ethnicity, and culture.

engage in the interactions needed for teamwork.

viewpoints, and creativity.

What is the nature of team and

styles, and cultures, among other variables.

performance difficulties early in the teams life or

What is the nature of team and

short-run struggles are resolved.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 10

Homogeneous vs heterogeneous teams

Slower team development

Faster team development