Chapter 8

Nelson & Quick

Work Teams and Groups

Copyright ©2005 by South-Western, a division of Thomson Learning. All rights reserved.

 Groups & Teams

Group - two or more people with common

interests, objectives, and continuing interaction

Work Team - a group of people with

complementary skills who are committed to a
common mission, performance goals, and
approach for which they hold themselves
mutually accountable
 Characteristics of a
Well-Functioning, Effective Group

Relaxed, comfortable, informal atmosphere

Task well understood & accepted

Members listen well & participate

People express feelings & ideas

 Characteristics of a
Well-Functioning, Effective Group

Conflict & disagreement center

around ideas or methods

Group aware of its operation & function

Consensus decision making

Clear assignments made & accepted

 Group Behavior
Norms of Behavior - the standards that a work group uses
to evaluate the behavior of its members
Group Cohesion - the “interpersonal glue” that makes
members of a group stick together
Social Loafing - the failure of a group member to
contribute personal time, effort, thoughts, or other
resources to the group
Loss of Individuality - a social process in which
individual group members lose self-awareness & its
accompanying sense of accountability, inhibition, and
responsibility for individual behavior
 Group Formation

Formal Groups - Informal Groups -

official or assigned unofficial or emergent
groups gathered to groups that evolve in
perform various tasks the work setting to
 need ethnic, gender, gratify a variety of
cultural, and member needs not met
interpersonal by formal groups
diversity
 need professional

and geographical
diversity
 Stages of Group Formation

Mutual Decision Motivation Control

acceptance making and and
commitment sanctions

Emphasis Emphasis Emphasis Emphasis

on on task on task on rewards
interpersonal planning, accomplishment, and
concern and authority, leadership, and punishment
awareness and performance
influence
 Mature Group Characteristics

Purpose and Mission

 May be assigned or may emerge from the group
 Group often questions, reexamines, and modifies
mission and purpose
 Mission converted into specific agenda, clear goals,
and a set of critical success factors
 Mature Group Characteristics
Behavioral Norms - well-understood standards of behavior within a group

Formal & written Informal but

well understood
Ground
Intragroup
rules
socializing
for
meetings
Dress codes

Productivity Norms - may be consistent or

inconsistent, supportive or unsupportive of
organization’s productivity standards
 Mature Group Characteristics
Group Cohesion - interpersonal attraction binding group members together
Enables groups to exercise effective control over the members
 Groups with high cohesiveness
  demonstrate lower tension & anxiety
demonstrate less variation in productivity

demonstrate better member satisfaction, commitment, & communication

 Cohesiveness &
Work-Related Tension
Group Cohesiveness from low to high
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 “Does your
3.2
work ever make
3.3
you jumpy or
3.4
nervous?”
3.5
Low score =
3.6
high tension
3.7
3.8
3.9 Mean tension
4
7 16 52 65 57 19 12
From S. E. Seashore, Group Cohesiveness in the Industrial
Number of groups Work Force, 1954. Research conducted by Stanley E.
Seashore at the Institute for Social Research, University of
Michigan. Reprinted by permission.
 Mature Group Characteristics
Status Structure - the set of authority & task relations among a group’s members
 Hierarchical or egalitarian
 Often leadership is shared

Data/Info Contributor

Diversity Mission Collaborator

Styles Facilitator Communicator
Devil’s advocate Challenger
 Team Task Functions

Task Functions - those activities directly related to

the effective completion of the team’s work

Give information
Initiate activities
Test ideas
Seek information
Summarize ideas Coordinate activities
Evaluate effectiveness
Elaborate concepts
Diagnose problems
 Team Task Functions
Maintenance Functions - those activities essential to
the effective, satisfying interpersonal relationships
within a team or group
Follow others’ lead
Support others
Harmonize conflict
Set standards
Express member feelings Test group decisions
Gatekeep communication
Test consensus
Reduce tension
 Why Teams?

 Good when performing complicated, complex,

interrelated and/or more voluminous work than one
person can handle
 Good when knowledge, talent, skills, & abilities are
dispersed across organizational members
 Empowerment and collaboration; not power and
competition
 Basis for total quality efforts
 New vs. Old Team
Environments
New Team Environment Old Work Environment
Person generates initiatives Person follows orders
Team charts its own steps Manager charts course
Right to think for oneself. People conformed to manager’s
People rock boat; work direction. No one rocked the
together boat.
People cooperate using People cooperated by
thoughts and feelings; direct suppressing thoughts and
talk feelings; wanted to get along

SOURCE: Managing in the New Team Environment, by Hirschhorn, © 1991. Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc.,Upper Saddle River, N. J.
 Quality Circles & Teams
Quality Team - a team that is part of an organization’s
structure & is empowered to act on its decisions
regarding product & quality service
Quality Circles (QC) - a small group of employees who
work voluntarily on company time, typically one hour
per week, to address work-related problems
QC’s deal with substantive issues
 Do not require final decision authority

 QC’s need periodic reenergizing

 Social Benefits of Teams

Psychological Intimacy -
emotional & psychological
closeness to other team
or group members

Integrated Intimacy -
closeness achieved
through tasks & activities
 Foundations for Empowerment
An attribute of a
person or of an
organization’s culture

Encourages
participation
Preparation & careful
planning focuses
empowered employees
Solve specific and
global problems
 Empowerment Skills

Competence Process
Skills Skills

Self-
management
or
Team skills
Cooperative
and Helping Communication
Behaviors Skills
 Self-Managed Teams

Self-Managed Teams - teams that make decisions

that were once reserved for managers

How does an organization capitalize

on the advantages and avoid the risks
of self managed teams?
 Upper Echelons:
Teams at the Top

U p p e r E c h e l o n s -
A t o p - l e v e l e x e c u t i v e t e
i n a n o r g a n i z a t i o n
T o p m
a n a g e m O e rn g t 'a s n i z a t i o n r e M f l ae nc ta s g e m e n
b a c k g r o u n d c h a r t ao cp t em r i a s nt i ac sg e m l e e a n d t e' s r s h ip , c o
p r e d ic t o r g a n i z va at i lo u n e a s l , c o m p e d t ye n n a c me , i c s in f lu
c h a r a c t e r i s et i tc h s i c s , & u n i q u e o rc g h a a n r ai z c a t te i or i ns 't s i c
 Executive Tenure &
Organizational Performance
High
relative to the industry average
Organizational performance

Low
1 7 14
CEO tenure (years)
Source: D. Hambrick, The Seasons of an Executive’s Tenure, keynote address, the
Sixth Annual Texas Conference on Organizations, Lago Vista, Texas, April, 1991.
 Multicultural Teams
Multicultural groups represent
three or more ethnic backgrounds.
Diversity may increase uncertainty,
complexity, & inherent confusion in
group processes. Culturally
diverse groups may generate more
& better ideas & limit groupthink.
 Triangle for Managing
in the New Team Environment

Manager
Manager

Team
Team Individuals
Individuals

L. Hirschhorn, Managing in the New Team Environment, (pages 13/14). Copyright© 1991 Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Addison Wesley Longman.