Teamwork and Team

Performance

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What is a team?
These are groups of people who
work actively together to achieve a
purpose for which they are all
accountable.

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Types of Teams
Teams that recommend things
– Members of these teams must be able
to learn quickly how to work well
together, accomplish the assigned
task, and make good action
recommendations for follow- up work
by other people.

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Teams that run things
– Such management teams consist of
people with the formal responsibility
for leading other groups.

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Teams that make or do things
– Functional groups and work units that
perform ongoing tasks.
– Members of these teams must have
effective long- term working
relationship with one another, solid
operating systems, and the external
support needed

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The Nature of Teamwork
Teamwork – occurs when group
members work together in ways that
use their skills effectively to
accomplish a purpose.

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How to Create a High-performance
Team
 Communicate high-performance standards
 Set the tone in the first team meeting
 Create a sense of urgency
 Make sure members have the right skills
 Establish clear rules for team behavior
 As a leader, model expected behaviors
 Find ways to create early “successes”
 Continually introduce new information
 Have members spend time together
 Give positive feedback

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Most work teams encounter
problems of insufficient teamwork
at different points in time.

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Team Building
 is a collaborative way to gather
and analyze data to improve
teamwork.

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 Step 1:
Problem or
opportunity in team
effectiveness

Step 5: Step 2:
Teamwork
Evaluation of Participation by all Data gathering and
members analysis
results

Step 4: Step 3:
Actions to Planning for
improve team team
functioning improvements

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Approaches to team building
Formal retreat approach
– It is designed to engage team
members in a variety of assessment
and planning task.

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Continuous Improvement
Approach

– This method can be as simple as

periodic meetings that implement the
team- building steps.

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Outdoor experience approach

– It places group members in a variety

of physically challenging situations
that must be mastered through
teamwork.

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Improving Team Processes
Entry of New Members
– Problems arise as new members try to
understand what is expected to them
while dealing with the anxiety and
discomfort of a new social setting.

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3 behavior profiles that are
common in such situations
Tough battler- frustrated by a lack
of identity in the new group and
may act aggressively or reject
authority.
Friendly helper – needs to know
whether he or she will be liked.
Objective thinker – anxious about
how personal needs will be met in
the group.
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Task and Maintenance
Leadership
Distributed leadership – sharing of
responsibility for meeting group
task and maintenance.

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 How to lead groups and teams
Leading by Task Leading by
Contributions Maintenance
contributions
– Offering ideas – Encouraging others
– Clarifying – Reconciling
suggestions differences
– Giving information – Expressing
– Seeking standards
information – Offering agreement
– Summarizing – Inviting
discussion participation

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Task activities – directly contribute
to the performance of important
tasks.

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Maintenance activities – support
the emotional life of the team as an
ongoing social system.

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Roles and Role Dynamics
Role- is a set of expectations
associated with a job or position on
a team.

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Role ambiguity – occurs when
someone is uncertain about what is
expected of him or her.
Role overload – occurs when too
much work is expected of the
individual.
Role conflict – occurs when
someone is unable to respond to
role expectations that conflict with
one another.

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 4 common forms of role conflict
Intrasender role conflict
Intersender role conflict
Person-role conflict
Inter-role conflicts

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Positive norms
Norms – are rules or standards for
the behavior of group members.

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7 steps to positive norms
Acts as a positive role model
Hold meetings to agree on goals
Select members who can and will
perform
Provide support and training for
members
Reinforce and reward desired behaviors
Hold meetings for performance feedback
Hold meetings to plan for improvement
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Examples:
– Ethics norms
– Organizational and personal pride
norms
– High- achievement norms
– Support and helpfulness norms
– Improvement and change norms

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Team Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness – the degree to
which members are attracted to a
group and motivated to remain a
part of it.

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 Conformity to Norms
Low Performance High Performance
High
The “worst” The “best”
Group situation situation
Cohesiveness
Moderate to low Moderate
Low performance performance

Negative Positive

Group Performance Norms

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How to Influence Cohesiveness
TARGETS
How to Decrease Cohesion How to Increase Cohesion
Build agreement Goals Get agreement
Increase heterogeneity Membership Increase homogeneity
Restrict within team Interactions Enhance within team
Make team bigger Size Make team smaller
Focus within team Competition Focus on other teams
Reward individual results Rewards Reward team results
Open up to other teams Location Isolate from other teams
Disband the team Duration Keep team together

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Teams in the High- Performance
Workplace
Problem- Solving Teams
– Employee involvement team –
members meet regularly to examine
work related problems and
opportunities
– Quality circle- members meet
regularly to find ways for continuous
improvement of quality operations.

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Cross- functional Teams- brings
together persons from different
functions to work on a common
tasks.
– Functional silos problem- or
functional chimneys problem, occurs
when people fail to communicate

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Virtual Teams- convenes and
operates with members linked
together via networked computers
and information technologies.

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Self- Managing Teams- or self-
directed work teams, are small
groups empowered to make the
decisions needed to manage
themselves.

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How self- managing teams work?
They replace the traditional work group
headed by a supervisor.
What differentiates self-managing teams
from the more traditional work group is
that the team members assume duties
otherwise performed by a manager or
first- line supervisor.

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Multiskilling – occurs when team
members are trained in skills
needed to perform different jobs.

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Operational implication of self-
managing teams
Top Top
manager manager
supervisor team
Middle Middle
Done by
manager manager

Supervisors
Team
leaders

• Planning and scheduling work

Work unit • assigning of work tasks
• Training of workers
• Performance evaluation
• Quality control