Week 3 – Team/Group Dynamics

Types of Teams/Groups

 Formal groups

 Teams that are officially recognized and supported by the organization for specific
purposes

 May appear on the organization chart

 A functional team is a formally designated work team with a manager or team leader.

 Cross functional groups

 Informal groups

 Not recognized on organization charts

 Not officially created to serve an organizational purpose

 Emerge as part of the informal structure and from natural or spontaneous

relationships among people. (e.g. ??? )
  Committees and task forces

 Committees

 Usually operate with an ongoing purpose

 Membership may change over time

 Task forces

 Usually operate on a more temporary basis

 Official tasks are very specific and time defined

 Often disband after task is completed.

 Cross functional - Special projects/team members from different functional departments

 Functional Teams towards “Self managing teams” – autonomous/high degree of inter-

dependence /multi-skills

(convert impossible to possible)

 International teams - (alliances, mergers, joint ventures) – Demand for the best expertise

 Virtual teams – e.g. consultancies/specialized

Team Building

 Stages of team development

1. Forming — initial orientation and interpersonal testing

2. Storming — conflict over tasks and ways of operating as a team

3. Norming — consolidation around task and operating agendas

4. Performing — teamwork and focused task performance

5. Adjourning — task accomplishment and eventual disengagement.

  What can go wrong in teams?

1. Social loafing

 ‘Free riders’ who slack off because responsibility is diffused and others are
present to do the work

 May work less than as an individual

2. Common problems:

 Personality conflicts , Differences in work styles

 Task ambiguity , Poor readiness to work.

3. Remedy

 Define role & task to maximize individual interest

 Raise accountability

 Individual rewards against their contribution to group

 Team Building

 Team process to transform inputs to output

 Norms - rules/standard of conduct

Develop initial feeling of closeness, division of labour, sense of shared expectations

 Communication – Style matters

 Cohesion – Degree to which members are attracted & motivated to remain

 Decision Making

 Conflict resolution

 Behavioral Norms

 Behaviour expected of team members

 Rules or standards that guide behaviour

 Performance norms
  The level of work effort and performance that team members are expected to
contribute to the team task.

 Collective “will” rather than to dictate

 Take into consideration for membership (F & S)

 Guidelines for building positive norms among members

 Act as a positive role model.

 Train and orient new members to adopt desired behaviors.

 Hold regular meetings to discuss progress and ways of improving.

 Use team decision-making methods to reach agreement.

 Guidelines for increasing team cohesion

 Induce agreement on team goals.

 Increase membership homogeneity.

 Increase interaction among members.

 Introduce competition with other teams.

 Reward team rather than individual results.

 Provide physical isolation from other teams

 Size may matter.

 Dysfunctional activities that detract from team effectiveness

 Being aggressive

 Blocking

 Self-confessing

 Seeking sympathy

 Competing

 Withdrawal

 Horsing around
 Seeking recognition.
 Team decision making Methods

o Lack of response

o Authority rule

o Minority rule

o Majority rule

o Consensus

o Unanimity.

 Team decision making

 Assets /advantages

o Greater amounts of information, knowledge and expertise

o Expands number of action alternatives considered

o Increases understanding and acceptance

o Increases commitment to follow through.

 Potential disadvantages

o Social pressure to conform

o Individual or minority group domination

o Time requirements for dialogue & discussion

o Cost

 Symptoms of groupthink

o Illusions of group invulnerability- e.g. too good for criticism

o Rationalizing unpleasant and disconfirming data

o Belief in inherent group morality

o Negative stereotypes of competitors

o Pressure to conform
 o Self-censorship – reluctant to communicate personal concerns to the team – use body
language

o Illusions of unanimity - prematurity

o Mind guarding – protecting team from hearing disturbing news.

 Methods for dealing with groupthink

o Have each group member be a critical evaluator.

o Don’t appear to favour one course of action.

o Create subteams to work on the same problems.

o Have team members discuss issues with outsiders.

o Have outside experts observe and provide feedback on team activities.

o Assign a member to the devil’s advocate role.

o Hold a second-chance meeting.

 Guidelines for Group Consensus

o Discuss assumption

o Listen carefully

o Don’t argue blindly

o Don’t change your mind just to reach quick agreement

o Avoid non-rational methods for conflict resolution

o Try to get involve everyone

o Allow disagreements

o Don’t focus on winning or losing but seek alternatives

 Team performance

 Effective teams:

o achieve and maintain high levels of task performance

o achieve and maintain high levels of member satisfaction

 o retain viability for the future.

 Team Dynamics

 The forces operating in teams that affect the ways members work together

Within team

o Required output emergent output

 Inter-groups

o Cooperative system

o Various components support each other

o May compete & complain –problems

o Consequences –mixed

o Divert to Org common goals