Building Roles and Teams

UNIT 15 BUILDING ROLES AND TEAMS

Objectives
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
l distinguish between position and role in a system;
l recognise the significance of role in person -system integration;
l identify role systems;
l define role efficacy and enumerate its different aspects;
l distinguish a team from a group;
l identify different stages of team development;
l list criteria of effectiveness of teams; and
l suggest different ways of team building.

Structure
15.1 The Concept of Role
15.2 Role Systems
15.3 Developing Roles: Roles Efficacy
15.4 The Concept of Team
15.5 Team Development
15.6 Making Teams Effective
15.7 Summary
15.8 Self Assessment Questions
15.9 Further Readings

15.1 THE CONCEPT OF ROLE

In any social system, such as the family, club, religious community, work
organisation, etc., individuals have certain obligations towards the system, which in
turn gives each one of them a defined place in the society. This system of mutual
obligations can be called a role, and the individual’s place a position or an office. For
example, when one joins a new club, one is admitted as a member (that is an office or
a position). One’s position as a member is defined in terms of the hierarchical
placement and privileges (the power one will enjoy). One also agrees to abide by
certain rules, carry out certain activities when required, volunteer for certain work,
etc. The other members of the club expect all this from the individual, and one also
expects to do the needful. All these expectations, together with one’s response to them
comprise the role. Briefly then, an individual occupies a hierarchical position in a
system, along with the ensuing powers and privileges, and performs certain functions
in response to his and the members’ expectations. In this case the former is the office
(or position) and the latter the role.
Role is the position one occupies in a social system, as defined by the functions one
performs in response to the expectations of the ‘significant’ members of a social
system, and one’s own expectations from that position or office.
Role and office (or position), though two sides of the same coin, are, however, two
separate concepts. According to Katz and Kahn, “Office is essentially a relational
concept, defining each position in terms of its relationships to others and to the system
as a whole”. 67
Human Resource While office is a relational and power-related concept, role is an ‘obligational’
Development concept. Office is concerned with the hierarchical position and privileges, while a role
is concerned with the obligations of position. Exhibit 1 distinguishes between these
two concepts. While office is a point in the social structure , defining an office
holder’s power, role is the integrated set of behaviours expected from a person
occupying that office.

Exhibit 1 : Office (or Position) and Role

Office/Position Role
Is based on power relations Is based on mutuality
Has related privileges Has related obligations
Is usually hierarchical Is non-hierarchical
Is created by others Is created by others and the role occupant
Is part of the structure Is part of the dynamics
Is evaluative Is descriptive

An organisation can be represented according to the offices, or the roles. Figures 1

and 2 represent a part of an organisation in two different ways.
An office becomes a role when it is actually defined and determined by the
expectations of other office holders (as reflected in the way an office is
discharged by the concerned office holder). Each role has its own system,
consisting of the role occupant and those who have a direct relationship with him,
and thereby, certain expectations from the role. Using the currently accepted
terminology suggested by Katz and Kahn, we will term the ‘significant’ others having
expectations from a role as role senders. They ‘send’ expectations to the role.
The role occupant also has expectations from his role, and in that sense the role
occupant also is a role sender.
Let us take an example. In a family the father has both a position (office) and a
role. The father’s position defines his authority in the family. In some societies
he is the final decision maker and the other members abide by his decisions.
There are certain expectations from the father that define his role—that he
would earn for the family, protect the family against threats, etc. In his
position as the head of the family system, his role is to maintain and protect the
family. While the position gives him some privileges, the role places certain
obligations on him.

Figure 1 : Organization as a Structure of Offices/Positions

A B

C D

E F G H I J

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 Figure 2 : Organization as a System of Roles Building Roles and Teams

I A

B
H

G C

F
D
E

A role is not defined without the expectations of the role senders, including the role
occupant. The position of a personnel manager may be created in an organisation, but
his role will be defined by the expectations (started or unstated) that different persons
have from the personnel manager, and the expectations that he in turn, has from the
role. In this sense, the role senders, including the role occupant, define the role in each
system.
However, a question that can be raised is: If the role is defined in each case by the
role senders, how can we talk about a role in general, e.g., the father’s role? While
strictly speaking, a role in general does not make much sense, in a larger social system
the expectations from a role are largely shared, and have common elements. These
are generalised, and we, therefore, talk about the role of the Indian mother, or the role
of a chairman in a public sector concern, etc.
Confusion sometimes arises because the word role has two different connotations. At
times it denotes the position a person holds in an organisation, along with the
expectations from that position (e.g., the role a teacher, a policeman, etc.), and
sometime it describes only the expected behaviour or activities (for example, a
disciplinarian or an evaluator role of a teacher, task and maintenance roles, etc.) For
the sake of convenience we shall use the word role for a position a person holds in a
system (organisation), as defined by the expectations various ‘significant’ persons,
including oneself, have from that person. We will use the term function to indicate a
set of interrelated expectations from a role; developing a sales force and customer
contact are the functions of a salesman’s role.
The concept of role is vital for the integration of the individual with an organisation.
The individual and organisation come together through a role. As shown in Figure 3
the organisation has its own structure and goals. Similarly, the individual has his
personality and needs (motivations). These interact with each other and to some
extent get integrated in a role. Role is also a central concept in work motivation. It is
only through a role that the individual and an organisation interact with each other, as
shown in Figure 4.

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Human Resource Figure 3 : Role as an Integrating Point of an Organization and the Individual
Development

Organization Structure Goals

Role
Individual Personality Needs

Figure 4 : Role as a Region of Individual-Organization Interaction

Individual Role Organization

When a person becomes a member of a social system, he ‘receives’ certain

expectations from other members, and he responds to these, at the same time
projecting his own expectations from the role. Either one of them (responding to
others’ expectations or projecting one’s own expectations from one’s role) may
dominates the other.
One may react very positively and with great satisfaction to others’ expectations, and
fulfil them to the best of one’s abilities. Such a ‘reactive’ (responsive) approach will
help individual take the role effectively. In contrast, another individual may use the
expectations he has from his role (what Kahn and Quinn call reflexive role
expectations) and develop a role behaviour influenced by these expectations. This is
a ‘’proactive’ approach to role performance. Some authors have contrasted these two
approaches, calling the first, ‘role taking’ and the second, ‘role making’ the main
difference being the use of one’s own expectations in defining a role and determining
one’s own role behaviour (as in the latter case).
Katz and Kahn have proposed the concept of ‘role episode’ to explain the process of
role taking. Role taking involves both role-sending (by the ‘significant’ others ) and
role-receiving (by the role occupant). The role occupant and the role senders
constantly interact, and the processes of role sending and role receiving together
influence the role behaviour of the individual. The role senders have expectations on
the basis of their perception of the role occupant’s behaviour. The role occupant acts
on the basis of his perception of the role. However, a person’s role behaviour also
influences the expectations of the role senders. Thus, a role episode has a feedback

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loop. Katz and Kahn have further elaborated on this concept to include the Building Roles and Teams
interaction between role senders and the role occupants as well as the interpersonal
and personality factors.
The other aspect of role taking is concerned with the identification of the self with the
role. If the role expectations are congruent with the self concept, there will be role
acceptance. However, if the expectations conflict with the self-concept, it may result
in what we call self-role distance. Even when there is no evident self-role distance, the
degree of role acceptance can be defined in terms of the intensity with which an
individual is able to get into a role – the intensity may vary from casual role taking to
a moribund identity with the role.

15.2 ROLE SYSTEMS

An organisation can be defined as a system of roles. However, a role itself is a
system. From the individual’s point of view there are two role systems: the system of
various roles which the individual carries and performs, and the system of various
roles of which his role is a part. The first, we will call role space and the second a
role set.
Each individual occupies and plays several roles. A person X, is a daughter, a
mother, a salesperson, a member of a club, a member of a voluntary organisation, and
so on. All these roles constitute the role space of X. At the centre of the role space is
the self. As the concept of role is central to the organisation, so also the concept of
self is central to the several roles of a person. The term ‘self’ refers to the
interpretations the person makes about the referent “I”. It is a cognitive structure that
evolves from past experience with other persons and objects. Self can be defined as
the experience of an identity arising from a person’s interactions with the external
reality – things, persons and systems.
A person performs various roles, which are centred around the self. These roles are at
varying distances from the self (and from each other.). These relationships define the
role space. Role space then is a dynamic interrelationship between the self and the
various roles an individual occupies, and also amongst these roles.
The distance between a role and the self indicates the extent to which the role is
integrated with the self. When we do not enjoy a particular role, or do not get
involved in it, there is a distance between the self and the role. We shall use the term
self-role distance to denote this. Similarly, there may be distance between two roles
that a person occupies. For example, the role of club membership may be distant
from the role of husband. This we will term as inter-role distance or inter-role
conflict.
The role space map of an individual can be drawn by locating the self in the
centre, and various roles occupied at varying distances from the self. Figure 5
presents the role space of a person “A”, who is a personnel manager in a company.
The numbers 9 to 1, for the various circles, represent distances from the self—1
denoting the least distance and 9 the most. The various roles of A are located in
the four quadrants according to the context (i.e., family, organisation,
profession or recreation). More segments of role space can be added in
the diagram.

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Human Resource Figure 5 : Role Space Map of “A”
Development

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The expectations of other significant roles, and those of the individual himself, define
the individual’s role in the organisation. The role set is a pattern of interrelationships
between a role, and the other roles.
The role set map for an individual’s role can be also prepared on the same lines as
those suggested for preparing a role space map. In a role set map the occupants role
will be in the centre, and all the other roles can be located at various points on the
map. Using a circular model, the roles can be located in concentric circles marked 9
to 1-9 indicating the roles closest to the occupant’s role, and 1 indicating those which
are the most distant. We will use the term inter-role distance to indicate the distance
between the occupant’s role and other roles. Lesser distance indicates higher role
linkages (which can be defined as the reverse of inter-role distance). Role linkage is
an important concept in role satisfaction and role conflict. Figure 6 gives the role set
map of a person “A”.

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 Figure 6 : Role Set Map of “A” Building Roles and Teams

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Role sets are the sub-systems in an organisation. In Figure 2 nine role sets for the
roles of offices A , B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I are indicated.
In conclusion, role is a very useful concept in understanding the dynamics of the
integration of an individual with a social system. It also helps in understanding the
problems that arise in this individual-organisation interaction and integration. This
would enable the individual at the centre (called role set). These help an individual
identify several possible role problems.
To sum up, the concept of role goes beyond the individual job holder, and indicates a
need to involve other significant persons in defining the role requirements. The focus
on roles can be useful in planning organisational effectiveness.

15.3 DEVELOPING ROLES: ROLE EFFICACY

The performance of a person working in an organisation depends on his own potential
effectiveness as a person, his technical competence, his managerial experience, etc., as
well as the way the role which the performs in the organisation is designed. It is the
integration of the two (the person and the role) that ensures the person’s effectiveness
in the organisation. Unless the person has the requisite knowledge, technical
competence, and the skills required for the role, he can not be effective. But equally
important is how the role which he occupies in the organisation is designed. If the
role does not allow him to use his competence, and if he constantly feels frustrated in
the role, his effectiveness is likely to be low. The integration of the person and the
role comes about when the role is able to fulfil the needs of the individual, and when
the individual is able to contribute to the evolution of the role. The more we move
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Human Resource from role taking (responding to the expectations by various other persons) to role
Development making (taking initiative in designing the role more creatively in a way that the
various expectations from others as well as of the role occupant are integrated), the
more the role is likely to be effective. Effectiveness of a person-in-a-role-in-an-
organisation, therefore, may depend on his own potential effectiveness, the potential
effectiveness of the role and the organisational climate. The potential effectiveness
can be called efficacy. Personal efficacy would mean potential effectiveness of a
person in personal and interpersonal situations. Role efficacy means the potential
effectiveness of an individual occupying a particular role in an organisation. Role
efficacy can be seen as the psychological factor underlying role effectiveness. In
short, role efficacy is potential effectiveness.

Aspects of Role Efficacy

Role efficacy has several aspects. The more these aspects are present in a role, the
higher the efficacy of that role is likely to be. These aspects can be classified into
three groups, or dimension. One dimension of role efficacy is called “role making”
contrasted with role taking. The first is an active attitude towards the role (to define
and make the role as one likes), whereas the second is a passive attitude (mainly
responding to others expectations). The aspects in the second dimension are
concerned with increasing the power of the role, making it more important. This can
be called “role centering” which can be contrasted with “role entering” (accepting the
role as given, and reconciling oneself to its present importance or unimportance). The
third dimension is called “role linking” (extending the relationship of the role with
other roles and groups), contrasted with “role shrinking” (making the role narrow,
confined to work-related expectations).

Dimension 1: Role making

1) Self-role Integration: Every person has his strength-his experience, his
technical training, the special skills he may have, some unique contribution he
may be able to make. The more the role a person occupies provides an
opportunity for the use of such special strengths, the higher the efficacy is likely
to be. This is called self-role integration. The self of the person and the role get
integrated through the possibility of a person’s use of his special strengths in the
role. In one organisation, a person was promoted to a responsible position. This
was seen as a convertible reward and the person was quite happy in getting such
a well deserved promotion. However, he soon discovered that in the new position
he occupied, he was not able to use his special skills of training, counselling,
and organisational diagnosis. Inspite of his working very well in the new role,
his efficacy was not as high as it was in the previous job. Later when the role
was redesigned to enable him to use his rare skills, his efficacy went up. All of
us want that our special strengths are used in the role so that it may be possible
for us to demonstrate how effective we can be. As such, integration contributes
to high role efficacy. On the other hand, if there is distance between the self and
the role, role efficacy is likely to be low.
2) Proactivity: A person who occupies a role responds to various expectations
people in the organisation have from that role. This certainly gives him
satisfaction, and it also satisfied others in the organisation. However, if he is
also to take initiative in starting some activity, his efficacy will be higher. The
reactive behaviour (responding to the expectations of others) helps a person to
be effective to some extent, but proactivity (taking initiative rather than only
responding to the others expectations) contributes much more to efficacy. But if
a person feels that he would like to take initiative but has no opportunity to do so
in the role he occupies in the organisation, his efficacy will be low.
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3) Creativity: It is not only initiative which is important for efficacy. An Building Roles and Teams
opportunity to try new and unconventional ways of solving problems or an
opportunity to be creative is equally important. In one State Government
Department people performing some clerical roles met, as a part of re-
organisation experiment, to discuss how each individual could experiment with a
system of cutting delays in processing papers. The results were amazing. Not
only did the satisfaction of people in that department go up, but delays were
considerably reduced and some innovative systems emerged. Certainly these
were further discussed and modified, but the opportunity people get in being
creative, in trying innovative ideas increased their role efficacy and their
performance become markedly better than its previous level and compared with
performance of some other departments in the same secretariat. If a person
perceives that he has to perform only routine tasks, it does not help him to have a
high role efficacy. If he feels that his role does not allow any time or
opportunity to be creative, his efficacy will be low.
4) Conformation: In general, if people in an organisation avoid problems, or shift
the problems to some other people to solve them, their role efficacy will be low.
The general tendency to confront the problems to find relevant solutions
contributes to efficacy. When people facing interpersonal problems sit down,
talk about these problems, and search solutions, their efficacy is likely to be
higher compared with situations in which they either deny such problems, or
refer these to their higher officers.

Dimension 2 : Role Centering

5) Centrality: If a person occupying a particular role in the organisation generally
feels that the role he/she occupies is central in the organisation, his/her role
efficacy is likely to be high. Every one working in an origination wants to feel
that his/her role is important. If persons occupying the various roles feel that
their roles are peripheral, i.e., they are not much important , their potential
effectiveness will be low. This is true not only of persons at a higher level in the
organisation, but about people even at the lowest level. In a large hospital, class
IV employee like ward boys and attendants had very high motivation when they
joined the hospital. And coming from nearby villages, they would bring their
friends and relatives to proudly show the place where they were working.
However, within a few months, they neglected work, sat in groups gossiping and
not caring about the cleanliness, etc. They were rated as very low in their
effectiveness. An investigation of this problem showed that within a few months
of their joining the hospital, their perception changed about the perceived
importance of their role, they felt that their role was not important at all. In
contrast, with this, in another hospital, the guard was trained to screen the
requests of visitors who wanted to have some exceptions to the rule of coming
only furring the visitors’ hours. He used his discretion in making or not making
exceptions in such cases, and referred a case to the nurses or doctors only for
clarification and guidance for himself. Interviews with Class IV employees in
this hospital showed that they perceived their roles as quite important. One
obvious difference in low motivation of the former, and higher motivation of the
latter, was their perceived importance of their roles.
6) Influence: A related concept is that of influence or power. The more influence
a person is able to exercise in the role, the higher the role efficacy is likely to be.
One factor which may make roles in the public-sector or civil service more
efficacious is the opportunity to influence a larger sector in the society. On the
other hand, if a person feels that he has no power in the role he occupies in the
organisation, he is likely to have low efficacy.
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Human Resource 7) Personal growth: One factor which contributes effectively to role efficacy is the
Development perception that the role provides the individual an opportunity to grow and
develop. There are several examples of people leaving one role and becoming
very effective in another primarily because they feel that they have more
opportunity to grow in the latter. One head of a training institute accepted the
position by taking a big financial cut in his salary mainly because he felt that he
had nothing more to learn in the previous role, and in the new role, he had
opportunities to grow further. Examples of executives of companies going for
faculty roles in the institutes of management indicate the importance of the factor
of self-development for role efficacy. If a person feels that he is stagnating in the
role and does not get any opportunity to grow, he is likely to have low role
efficacy. In many institutes of higher learning; the roles of the staff have low
efficacy. The main factor contributing to this is the lack of opportunity for them
to systematically grow in their roles. The institutes which are able to plan the
growth of such people in the roles are able to have higher efficacy and a great
deal of contribution from them.

Dimension 3: Role Linking

8) Inter-role linkage: Linkage of one’s role with other roles in the organisation
increases efficacy. If there is a joint effort in understanding problems, finding
solutions, etc., the efficacy of the various roles involved is likely to be high. Of
course, the presumption is that people know how to work effectively. Similarly,
if a person is a member of a task-group set up for a specific purpose, his
efficacy, with other factors being common, is likely to be high. The feeling of
isolation of a role (that a person works without any linkage with other roles)
reduces role efficacy.
9) Helping relationship: In addition to inter-role linkages, the opportunity for
people to receive and give help also increases role efficacy. If persons
performing a particular role feel that they can get help from some source in the
organisation , whenever they have such a need, they are likely to have higher role
efficacy. On the other hand, if there is a feeling that either no help is given when
asked for, or that the respondents are hostile, role efficacy will be low. Helping
relationships is of both kinds—feeling free to ask for help and expecting that help
would be available when it is needed, as well as willingness to give help and
respond to the needs of others.
10) Superordination: A role may have linkages with systems, groups and entities
beyond the organisation. When a person performing a particular role feels that
what he does as a part of his role is likely to be of value to a larger group, his
efficacy is likely to be high. The roles which give opportunities to role occupants
to work for superordinate goals have very high role efficacy. Superordinate
goals are goals of serving large groups, and those which cannot be achieved
without some collaborative effort. One major motivation for people at the top to
move to public-sector undertakings is to have opportunity to work for larger
goals which are likely to help larger sections of the society. Many people have
voluntarily accepted cuts in their salaries to move from the private sector to the
public sector at the top level, mainly because the new role would give them an
opportunity to serve a larger interest. Roles in which people feel that what they
are doing is helpful to the organisation in which they work, also results in some
role efficacy. But if a person feels that he does not get an opportunity to be of
help to a larger group in his role, his role efficacy is likely to be low.
Regarding the personal profile of role efficacy, research has shown that persons with
high role efficacy seem to rely on their own strengths to cope with problems , they
are active and interact with people and the environment, and persist in solving
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problem mostly by themselves and sometimes by taking help of other people. They Building Roles and Teams
show positive and approach behaviour, and feel satisfied with life and with their jobs
and roles in their organisations. Such a profile is that of effective managers.
Regarding organisational aspects a participative climate, in which the employees get
higher job satisfaction contributes to role efficacy. It seems that the climate
promoting concern for excellence, use of expertise, and concern for the larger issues
also contributes to role efficacy. On the other hand, a climate characterized by control
and affiliation seems to lower employee’s role efficacy (Sayeed and Pareek, 2000 for
results of researches on role efficacy).

Increasing Role Efficacy

One can plan to increase role efficacy of one’s own role, as well as those of one’s
employees. Some practical suggestions, based on work in some organisations, are
given for the supervisors to increase role efficacy of their employees.

Self- Role Integration

1) Work with the employees in redesigning their roles in which their strengths can
be utilised.
2) Recommend replacement of a misfit in a job which can use his assets.

Proactivity
1) Minimise supervision of employees, and encourage them to ask for your help
when they need such help.
2) Reward initiative of employees.
3) Listen to the employees, give respect to their views, and use these wherever
possible.
4) Arrange for visits of the employees to other organisation.

Creativity
1) Encourage your employees to give ideas to solve problems.
2) Crate a climate which encourages people to generate ideas without fear of
being criticised.
3) Appreciate and use new ideas given by the employees.
4) Encourage and reward suggestions to solve problems.

Confrontation
1) Take the employees into confidence while confronting a problem.
2) Support the action taken by the employee if it is within the rules and procedures.
3) Appoint a task group for a problem making decision.
4) Use failure of an employee as an experience and help him to learn from it.
5) Encourage employees to bring problems.
6) Anticipate problems in collaboration with your employees.
7) Encourage subordinates to solve problems and report to you.
8) Follow the “buck stops here” dictum.

Centrality
1) Communicate the importance of the roles to their incumbents (the critical
contributions of the roles). 77
Human Resource 2) Communicate the importance of the roles as perceived by others.
Development
3) Give enough freedom to each employee to set his objectives and decide ways of
achieving them.
4) Give increasingly difficult and challenging responsibilities.

Influence
1) Delegate enough authority.
2) Give relevant details of decision made.
3) Send good ideas of employees to higher management.
4) Give feedback to employees on their suggestions.
5) Be willing to accept mistake.

Growth
1) Appreciate employee’s work.
2) Do not snub the employees for their shortcomings but cooperate to improve
them.
3) Delegate to them increasingly difficult and challenging tasks.

Inter-role Linkage
1) Encourage employees to seek/render cooperation with departments.
2) Encourage employees to solve problems by working with their peer-level
colleagues (and not refer the problems to you unless it needs your intervention).

Helping
1) Encourage the employees to respond to requests by other departments.
2) Encourage them to seek help from peers from other departments.
3) Seek help of your employees in areas they can contribute.
4) Encourage your employees to come to you for help, and respond to them
positively.

Superordination
1) Help employees to understand and appreciate the contribution of their role to the
society.
2) Help the employees link (and see the linkage ) of objectives of their roles with
organisational objectives.
3) Encourage them to include in their roles what may be useful for a larger section.
4) Encourage team work.
5) Communicate accessibility to the employees.

15.4 THE CONCEPT OF TEAM

Most of the work in organisations is done in teams. Even though individuals are
important, their effectiveness depends, to a large extent, on the teams of which they
are members. In modern organisations individuals are required to work in different
types of teams. In fact, new organisations can be described as composed of teams.
What is a team? A team consists of individuals. However, collection of individuals in
a place may be only a crowd. When the individuals come together for certain tasks,
78 then we have formation of a group. The main function of a group is to exchange task-
related information and discuss task-related issues.The accountability in the group Building Roles and Teams
remains of the individual. Each individual brings his/her competencies as well as the
relevant information related to the task. Thus the group can be defined as a collection
of individuals working in face-to-face relationship to share information and resources
for a task to be achieved. The team is qualitatively different from the group in
several ways. The team functions almost like an individual. In other words, the team
is accountable for results; collective responsibility is taken. There is mutuality and
complementarity of the members of the team. The most important characteristics of a
team is that it creates synergy, i.e., the performance of the team is more than the
collective performance of the individual members. A team can be defined as a group
of individuals working in face-to-face relationship for a common goal, having
collective accountability for the outcome of its effort. Exhibit 2 shows the difference
between groups and teams.

Exhibit 2 : Difference Between Work Groups and Teams*

Work Groups Teams

1 Propose Same as organisation Specific
2 Work Products Individual Collective
3 Process Discuss, decide, delegate Discuss, decide, do
4 Leadership A single leader Shared
5 Meetings Efficient Open, problem-solving
6 Accountability Individual Individual and mutual
7 Evaluation Indirect (e.g. financial) Direct (collective work
product)

* Adapted from Katzenback & Smith, 1993

As already stated, a team has several characteristics : members are inter-dependent; it

has a common goal or goals; each member’s contribution is as important as any other
member’s contribution; there is congruence between achievement of individual goals
and that of the team goal.
The importance of teams was first realised by the results of the famous Hawthorne
studies in 1930s. However, it was McGregor who gave special attention to teams in
1960s. Likert during the same period focused attention on teams as important
elements of humanisation of organisations.

15.5 TEAM DEVELOPMENT

Teams take time to develop. A team is not formed merely by declaring some
individuals as a team. A lot of research has been done on group formation and
development, and different theories of groups development have been suggested
(e.g.Bennis & Shepard, 1956; Bion, 1961; Gibb, 1964; Schutz, 1958, 1982;
Tuckman, 1965; Tuckman & Jensen, 1977; and Yalom, 1970). Tuckman (1977)
summarising the various theories suggested five stages of group development.
Tuckman’s model has been widely accepted: forming, storming, norming, performing,
and adjourning. Kormanski & Mozenter (1987) integrated the various theories and
suggested the following stages of team development. These stages are sequential
(each stage is followed by the next one). Each stage has a task outcome and a
relationships outcome, as shown in Exhibit 3.

79
Human Resource Exhibit 3 : A Model of Team Building
Development
Stage Theme Task Outcome Relationship Outcome
One Awareness Commitment Acceptance
Two Conflict Clarification Belonging
Three Cooperation Involvement Support
Four Productivity Achievement Pride
Five Separation Recognition Satisfaction

1) Awareness: At this stage individuals get to know each other. By knowing the
goals of the team they commit themselves to the goals. The members get to
know and accept to work together for a goal about which they have enough
knowledge.
2) Conflict: At the first stage (awareness) the members know the team goals and
accept to work together; but this is at the surface level. At the second stage they
search and begin to ask questions. As a result several matters are clarified.
They also fight with each and in this process of interaction resolve any hostilities
they may have, resulting in the feeling of belonging to the group.
3) Cooperation: In the third stage the members own the team goals and get
involved in those goals. Having resolved feelings, they also support
each other.
4) Productivity: This is the stage of real achievement of the goals/outcomes,
and the team members achieving these objectives feel proud of their
achievement.
5) Separation: Having accomplished the goals or the outcomes, some task-specific
teams may decide to get dissolved, or a time-bound time comes to a close. The
excellent work done by the members is recognised, and the team members have a
high sense of satisfaction of working with each other. This is the stage of closure
of the team, or closure of one task on which the team was working.
Pradip Khandwalla, who has done pioneering studies of turnaround of organisations,
concludes “the Great Person model of turnaround maker has to be replaced by the
growing Great Team model of turnaround facilitation (Khandwalla, 1992). The
following caselet illustrates how team can be used in turning around an organisation.

Turnaround through Teams *

Lakhanpal National Limited is a Japanese joint venture operating in India and
producing and marketing the well-known Novino batteries. In 1990, the company
launched the ‘Human 21’ campaign of innovation to ‘double performance’ by 1993.
The campaign was designed by Matsushita Electric, one of the owners of
Lakhanpal. A company brochure explained ‘Human 21’ as a campaign to
use all the potential energies within the staff in a visible and pronounced manner so
that the company could be fully ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Each department/section undertook to double by 1993 the performance in its
work area.
Seventy-two sub-themes were identified and teams were formed to pursue each one of
these. Some of the sub-themes were: the formulation of a system for improving the
health of the employees; reduction of the rejection of good cells by 50%; reduction of
parts section manpower by 50%; reduction of falling of battery jacket on the floor by
50%; achievement of zero ageing of a particular type of battery; cutting of water

80 * Reproduced with permission from Khandwalla, 1992, p.256, with modified title.
consumption by 50%; reduction of total inventory level by 50%; doubling of computer Building Roles and Teams
utilisation; reduction of the import of spares by half;’ halving of electrical breakdown
time loss; increase of output of a battery by 70% without increase in manpower;
improvement in working area and working conditions ‘twofold’; reduction of
telephone expenses by 50%; beautification of the reception area; lifetime employment
and career development plan for employees; doubling sales to institutions and
doubling of sales volume in various states; preparation of consolidated sales
report by the 5th of each month instead of the 10th; having the annual general
meeting of the company within three months of year end instead of six; reducing
manual work load in preparing accounts by 50% through computerisation;
preparing costing data within 20 days of the quarter ending instead of 40;
implementing systematic job rotation; doubling the productivity of every
manufacturing section; and reducing electrical machinery breakdowns by 50%
through better plant maintenance.
Notice the large range of areas where drastic improvement was sought. Notice also
the mundane, down-to-earth nature of them: production, loading finished goods,
maintenance, preparation of accounts and reports, wastage, etc. Not “image’,
goodwill, ‘professionalisation’, ‘morale’, ‘technological excellence’, ‘marketing
excellence’ or other such abstract arenas of management. The strategy was of
achieving large improvements through team effort in very many specific areas of
operations. The strategy also seemed to be one of forcing innovation by overloading.
It is obvious that without innovation in every tangible area of operations, doubling
performance in three years would be an empty slogan.

15.6 MAKING TEAMS EFFECTIVE

McGregor and Likert, who gave importance to teams in 1960s, listed a large number
of characteristics of effective work groups or teams. Dyer (1987pp.12-16) has
summarised 11 characteristics of an effective work team suggested by McGregor, and
24 characteristics of an effective work group as suggested by Likert. Exhibit 4 lists
10 main characteristics of effective teams, covering suggestions given both by
McGregor and Likert. The numbers in the Exhibit refer to the serial number of the
suggestions by Dyer.

Exhibit 4 : Characteristics of Effective Work Teams (McGregor and Likert)

McGregor Likert
1. Commitment and Inspiring Goals 8, 12, 13
2. Role Clarity 3, 9 23
3. Self-disclosure (including Confrontation) 5, 7, 8, 11 17
4. Opnness to Feedback 4 18, 19
5. Competence 1
6. Creativity with Constructive Confronting 15, 16
7. Collaboration/Support/Trust 1 2, 4, 9, 14
8. Congruence between Individual and Group Goals 3, 5, 6, 7, 11
9. Supportive Leadership 10, 24
10. Management of Power 2, 6, 10 20, 21, 22

Several types of teams function in an organisation. The most common are the teams
composed of individuals who are assigned a particular task to be completed in a given
time. These are natural teams of which organisation is composed. These may be
departmental teams or teams set up to complete some tasks. Special teams which are 81
Human Resource constituted to work on some assignments to be completed within a time period are
Development called Task Forces. Continuing groups or those which are set up for a particular
period of time to deal with certain issues are generally called Committees. Special
teams may also be constituted to complete a particular task; of these may be Project
Teams. Attention needs to be given to make all such teams effective in accomplishing
their goals.
In addition to work teams and other teams in the organisation attention also needs to
be given to working of two or more teams together. These may be cross-functional or
inter departmental or inter-level teams. Inter team functioning is increasing in most
organisations, as such significant attention is to be given to teams.
Team effectiveness can be conceived from several angles. To use the Joharl Window
concept , an effective team is one in which people give their opinions and comments
without hesitation; listen to others and examine others opinions comments and feed-
back given by colleagues at all levels; and are sensitive to the needs of others (called
perceptiveness). An instrument measuring effectiveness from this point of view is
available (Pareek, 2002).
Team effectiveness can also be understood in terms of team functioning and team
empowerment. These are three main characteristics of team functioning: cohesion
(amongst members of the team), confrontation i.e., solving problems as they arise,
rather than shying away from them; and collaboration, i.e., working together, giving
and receiving help to each other. The four main characteristics of team empowerment
are: clarity of roles of different members of the team, autonomy of the team, support
provided to the team in terms of resources etc., and accountability of the team to
achieve the goals to which commitment has been made. Pareek (2002b, Chapter 83)
has developed an instrument to measure team effectiveness, using this concept.
How can we make teams more effective? The process of making teams effective is
called team building. There are several approaches to team building, depending on the
kind of conceptual framework we use. Some of the approaches are as follows:
1) Johari Window Approach : According to this approach team building will
involve helping individuals to take risk and frankly express their opinions and
reactions, help them to accept feedback from others with enough opportunity to
explore further and increasing their sensitivity to and perceptiveness of others’
needs and orientations. This can be done by developing a profile of a team based
on individual members responses to an instrument (eg. The Instrument in
Pareek, 2002).
2) Role Negotiation Approach: Team building can be done by using role
negotiation (Harrison, 1971). Members of the team share each others’ images
and then list expectations of what they would like the other group to continue to
do, stop or reduce, and start or increase doing something which will make ones
own group more effective. Based on such expectations negotiation between the
two teams are to develop more and more collaboration between the two teams.
Team Roles Approach : As already mentioned Belbin (1981) suggested eight
‘team roles’ which people take (chairman/coordinator, shaper, plant, monitor/
evaluator, company worker, resource investigator, team worker, completor/
finisher). Team building can be done by setting up effective teams and
developing teams (Pareek, 1993).
3) Behaviour Modification Approach: Team building can also be done by helping
people to become more effective in their individual orientations. . Collaboration
depends on the individual’s orientation styles and attitudes. According to this
approach some instruments (Pareek, 2002) are used to help individuals examine
their styles and orientation and then increase their own effectiveness by
82
 modifying their behaviour. This is seen as an important way to enhance Building Roles and Teams
individuals’ potential for collaboration and team building. Using the concept of
power, as already suggested, an instrument (Pareek, 2002) can be used to help
team members examine their bases of power, and plan to increase their
persuasive power.
4) Simulation Approach: Team building can be attempted by creating artificial
teams in which people have an opportunity to experiment and learn from their
behaviour in less threatening context. Various games or exercises are used for
this purpose, like Broken Squares, Hollow Square, Win As Much As You Can,
Maximising Your Gains etc. (Pareek & Rao, 1991). After people participate in
such games they also discuss how similar dynamics operate in their backhome
situation, and how they can use their learnings from simulations to make their
own teams effective.
5) Action Research Approach: In this approach team building is done through
several steps which are generally taken in action research or organisation
development. Dyer (1978) has used this approach in his elaborate discussion of
team building through five stages: data strengthening, data analysis, action
planning, implementation, evaluation. In this approach diagnosis is done on the
basis of questionnaires, interviews or observations. The steps involved in action
research and OD are taken in this approach.
6) Appreciative Inquiry Approach: In this approach emphasis is given more on
the positive aspects, including inspiring future dreams or goods, , and
appreciating positive qualities in each other. Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider
& Whitney, 1999) has become quite popular as a method of increasing
collaboration amongst people for building strong teams.
Combining the various approaches the following steps are suggested for team
building:
1) Projection in the future: The team may prepare a common understanding
desirable future of the team. Members individually or in a small groups may
prepare a picture of their team as they see it in the next five or seven years. A
special future scenario will help to inspire individuals to move towards it. The
future is a better diagnosis device than analysis of the past
2) Linkage with individual goals: The future fantasy of the team should be linked
with the individuals aspirations and goals. Individuals in small groups may
discuss how their own expirations and goals of life can be achieved through the
ideal future of the team being developed by the group.
3) Force field analysis : the team may identify the forces which are positive and
helping the team to move towards the desirable future, and the forces which are
likely to hinder its progress towards the future. Such analysis is helpful to move
to the next step.
4) Strengthen positive forces: The team may go into details of reinforcing the
positive aspects which may help the team to achieve its desirable future. They
can take each positive force and work out plans to strengthen it further.
5) Reducing negative forces: The team can take up all the
restraining or inhibit forces and can plan specific action steps to reduce, if not
eliminate them.
6) Monitoring: After decisions are taken to work on strengthening positive forces,
and reducing negative forces a plan can be prepared to monitor action being
taken. Responsibility of monitoring can be taken up by one or two persons, and
the team may meet from time to time to review the progress of action being
taken.
83
Human Resource Whatever approaches are adopted for team building, emphasis should be given on
Development understanding team effectiveness and taking steps to increase its level. Similar steps
can be taken for building inter-team collaboration. Dyer (1987) also discusses ways
of dealing with intra-team and inter-team conflicts. Team members have the
responsibility of making their teams effective. Kormanski & Mozenter (1987)
have suggested the following characteristics of team members contributing to
team effectiveness. They have suggested that these characteristics are in a
sequential pattern, alternating task and relationship behaviours. Members in
effective teams:
l Understand and are committed to group goals;
l Are friendly, concerned, and interested in others;
l Acknowledge and confront conflict openly
l Listen to others with understanding
l Include others in the decision-makfing process;
l Recognize and respect individual differences;
l Contribute ideas and solutions;
l Value the ideas and contributions of others;
l Recognize and reward team efforts; and
l Encourage and appreciate comments about team performance.

15.7 SUMMARY
People play different roles in different positions and places. In organisation point of
view, the concept of role is vital integrating an individual with an organisation.
An organisation can be defined as a set of roles and a person plays various roles
centred around himself. The performance of a person in an organisation depends
upon the integration of the person and the role he plays, which in turn is the role
efficacy. Role efficacy has three dimensions: role making, role centering and role
linking. Supervisors can increase their subordinates’ role efficacy by adopting few
measures like self role integration, proactivity, creativity etc. Similarly teams
consists of individuals with common objectives. There are several approaches
to team development like Johari window, role negation, behaviour
modification etc.

15.8 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1) Define “role” and distinguish role from position, citing examples.
2) Write a comprehensive note on “role efficacy” and enumerate its different
aspects.
3) Discuss different approaches to team development with illustrations.

15.9 FURTHER READINGS

Kahn, R.L, R.P. Wolfe, P. Quinn; J.D Shock & R.A. Rosenthal (1964).
Organisational stress : Studies in role conflict and ambiguity. New York : Wiley.
Pareek, Udai (1993) Making organisational roles effective, New Delhi: Tata
McGraw-Hill.
Sayeed, O.B & Udai Pareek (Eds.) (2000) Actualising managerial roles:
Studies in role efficacy, New Delhi : Tata McGraw – Hill.
Dyer, W. (1994) Team building: Issues and alternatives. Reading, Mass.: Addison &
84 Wesley