Chapter 9: Teams

课 题 Chapter 9: Teams

通过本章学习，能够了解团队建设和管理所涉及到的各种因素，
教学目标
了解这些因素的工作原理。
1.张德，《组织行为学》，清华大学出版社，2000 年。
2.[美]罗宾斯，《组织行为学》（第 14 版），中国人民大学出
版社，2012 年。
3.周文霞等，《组织行为学教学案例精选》，复旦大学出版
社，1998 年。
参考教材
4.俞文钊，《管理心理学》（上、下册），东方出版中心，2002
参考书目、文
年。
献
5.苏东水，《管理心理学》，复旦大学出版社，2002 年。
6. [美]安杰洛 基尼奇， 《组织行为学：关键概念、技能与最
佳实践》（第四版，注释版），中国人民大学出版社，2011.
7.张岩松，王艳洁. 《组织行为学——理论、案例、实训》，清
华大学出版社，2016 年。

教学重难点 目标管理，员工参与方案，责任激励，认可激励，危机激励。

教学方法
讲授课、讨论课
教学手段
课程类别 √理论课 □实验课 □技能课
课 时 □1 课时 √2 课时 □3 课时 □4 课时
教学设计 详见后页

Chapter 9:
Teams

Chapter Overview

Teams are increasingly becoming the primary means for organizing work in
contemporary business firms. Understanding how and when to create these work teams
is the purpose of this chapter.

Chapter Objectives

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After studying this chapter, the student should be able to:
1. Contrast groups and teams, and analyze the growing popularity of using teams in
organizations.
2. Compare and contrast four types of teams.
3. Identify the characteristics of effective teams.
4. Show how organizations can create team players.
5. Decide when to use individuals instead of teams.
6. Show how the understanding of teams differs in a global context.

I. INTRODUCTION

Work teams have become commonplace. However, work teams

are not always the solution to organizational problems, and
managers must know how and when to utilize teams properly. Slide
# 9-2
II. WHY HAVE TEAMS BECOME SO POPULAR?

1. Increased Competition. As organizations restructured

themselves to increase efficiency and effectiveness, they Slide
found teams a better way to use employee talents. # 9-3

a. Teams are more flexible and responsive to change.

b. Teams can quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and

disband.

2. Motivational Tool. Teams increase employee

involvement in decision-making, thereby increasing
employee motivation and democratizing the organization.

III. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROUPS AND TEAMS

A. Work Group. A group is defined as two or more individuals,

interacting and interdependent, who have come together to Slide
achieve particular objectives. A work group is a group that # 9-4
interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions
to help each member perform within his or her area of
responsibility. Workgroups have no need to engage in
collective work or joint efforts, so no positive synergy is Slide
created. # 9-5

B. Work Team. In contrast to work groups, work teams create

positive synergy through coordinated effort. Their individual
efforts result in a level of performance that is greater than the Exhibit
Exhibit
sum of those individual inputs. The use of work teams creates ##9-1
9-1
the potential for organizations to generate greater outputs with
no increase in inputs. This synergy is not guaranteed however.
Effective teams have certain common characteristics, (which Slide
# 9-6
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 Chapter 9: Teams

will be discussed later in the chapter), that managers must

ensure exist to achieve the desired synergy.

IV. THE FOUR COMMON TYPES OF TEAMS

Exhibit
A. Problem-Solving Teams. These are teams in which members, Exhibit
##9-2
often from the same department, share ideas or offer 9-2
suggestions on how work processes and methods can be
improved; although they rarely have the authority to
unilaterally implement any of their suggested actions. Slide
# 9-7
B. Self-Managed Work Teams. Unlike problem-solving teams,
these teams move beyond simply making recommendations
and instead implement solutions and take responsibility for
outcomes. Slide
# 9-8
1. Typically made up of 10 to 15 employees who perform
highly-related or interdependent jobs, this team takes on
many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors
such as planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to
members, collective control over the pace of work, making
operating decisions, taking actions on problems, and
working with suppliers and customers.

2. Fully self-managed work teams may even select their own

members and have members evaluate each other's
performance. In these situations, supervisors become less
important and supervisory positions may be eliminated.

3. Research has indicated that the effectiveness of self-

manage teams is situationally dependent. While most
individuals on these teams do tend to report higher levels of
job satisfaction, variables such as strength and makeup of
team norms, the type of tasks the team undertakes, and the
reward structures can make self-managed work teams less
attractive, resulting in higher absenteeism and turnover
rates.

C. Cross-Functional Teams. These are teams made up of Slide

employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from # 9-9
different work areas, who come together to accomplish a
specific task. This type of team is an effective means of
allowing people from diverse areas within the organization (or
even between organizations) to exchange information, develop
new ideas and solve problems, and coordinate complex
projects. Cross-functional teams are somewhat difficult to

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 manage and it may take significant time for the teams to
develop sufficient trust to become effective.

D. Virtual Teams. Unlike the first three types of teams, virtual

teams do not meet face-to face. Virtual teams use computer Slide
technology to tie together physically dispersed members in # 9-10
order to achieve a common goal. These teams have become so
pervasive and the technology so advanced that nearly all types
of teams today to do some of their work remotely.

1. Special Challenges of Virtual Teams. The lack of face-to-

face contact results in:

a. Less social rapport and direct interaction among

members than in other types of teams.

b. Virtual teams tend to be more task-oriented and

exchange less social-emotional information.

c. Virtual team members report less satisfaction with

group interaction.

2. Management Suggestions. For virtual teams to be

effective, management should:

a. Ensure trust is established among team members.

b. Monitor team progress closely.

c. Publicize the efforts and products of the virtual team

throughout the organization.

V. CREATING EFFECTIVE TEAMS

A. A Model of Effective Teams. Team effectiveness is

Exhibit
composed of objective measures of the team’s productivity, Exhibit
##9-3
manager’s ratings of the team’s performance, and aggregate 9-3
measures of member satisfaction. The components of this
model build off many of the group concepts introduced in
Chapter 8. Two caveats:

1. Guidance Only. Teams vary and this model is fairly

general: it should be used as a guide, not an inflexible
prescription.

2. Assumption. The model’s underlying assumption is that it

has already been determined that teamwork is preferable to
individual work.
Slide
# 9-11
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 Chapter 9: Teams

B. Key Components for Effective Teams. There are four

general categories of key team effectiveness components
(context, composition, work design, and process variables):

1. Context. There are four contextual factors that appear most

significantly related to team performance. Slide
# 9-12
a. Adequate Resources. All workgroups rely on resources
outside of the group to sustain them. A scarcity of
resources directly reduces the ability of the team to
perform its job effectively. These supportive resources
include timely information, proper equipment, adequate
staffing, encouragement, and administrative assistance.

b. Leadership and Structure. Team leadership and

structure is required in order to get team members to
agree on the specifics of work and how they fit together
to integrate individual skills into a team output.
Leadership is especially important in multi-team
systems, where different teams need to coordinate
efforts to produce desired outcome. In these situations,
leaders need to play the role of facilitators.

c. Climate of Trust. Members of effective teams trust

each other and their leaders. This trust facilitates
cooperation, reduces the need to monitor each other’s
behavior, and increases bonding. Team members are
more likely to take risks and expose vulnerabilities
when they believe they can trust others on their team.
Trust in the leadership helps the team accept and
commit to the leaders goals and decisions.

d. Performance Evaluation and Rewards Systems. These

systems must be modified to reflect team performance
in order to hold both individuals and the team
accountable. These modifications may include group-
based appraisals, profit sharing, gainsharing, and small-
group incentives.
Slide
2. Team Composition. There are five variables in this # 9-13
category related to how teams should be staffed.

a. Abilities of Members. Part of a team's performance

depends on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of its
members.

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 1) Required Skills. There are three different types of
skills needed in an effective team. The right mix of
these skills is crucial.

a) People with technical expertise.

b) People with the problem-solving and decision-

making skills to be able to identify problems,
generate alternatives, evaluate those
alternatives, and make competent choices.

c) People with good listening, feedback, conflict

resolution, and other interpersonal skills.

2) Research Results. Research has shown the

following results when considering the abilities of
members of effective teams.

a) For tasks that entail considerable thought, high

ability teams (teams composed of mostly
intelligent members) do better.

b) High ability teams are also better at adapting to

changing situations.

c) When tasks are simple, high ability teams do not

perform well: team tasks must be matched to
team abilities.

d) The intelligence and ability of a team’s leader

also matters. A less intelligent leader can
neutralize the effect of a high ability team.

b. Personality of Members. As demonstrated in Chapter

2, personality has a significant influence on individual
behavior; it also does on team behavior.

1) Teams that rate higher in mean levels of

conscientiousness and openness to experience with
a minimum level of agreeableness tend to perform
better.

2) Conscientious team members are valuable because

they back up other team members and are good at
sensing limited support is truly needed. When there
are not enough conscientious team members to go
around, it is better to “pack” teams of conscientious

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 Chapter 9: Teams

members rather than “seeding” them throughout all

of the organization’s teams.

3) Opening team members are better communicators

and throw up more ideas leading to more creative
and innovative solutions.

c. Diversity of Members. Surface-level social-category

diversity such as race/ethnicity, gender, and age tend to
have negative effects on the performance of teams.
While these effects may decline over time, there is little
evidence diverse teams perform better. For diverse
teams to realize their creative potential, they need to
focus on their differences, not their similarities. This
allows stronger members to help weaker members.

d. Size of Teams. Most effective teams have fewer than

nine members. Using the smallest possible number of
people who can accomplish a task tends to be the most
effective way of sizing a team. Doing so reduces
coordination problems, decreases the chance of social
loafing, and increases cohesiveness.

e. Member Preferences. Individual preferences,

especially whether or not being on a team is an
attractive option, should be taken into consideration in
the selection process.

3. Work Design. Effective teams need to work together with a

collective responsibility toward completing significant Slide
tasks. Based on the terminology introduced in Chapter 6, # 9-14
the work-design category includes variables such as
freedom and autonomy, skill variety, task identity, and task
significance. These characteristics enhance member
motivation and increase team effectiveness by increasing
responsibility, ownership, and interest in the team’s task.
Slide
4. Process. The final key component for team effectiveness is # 9-15
process: specifically six variables related to how a team
completes their task. Team processes should produce
positive results: the output be greater than the sum of the
inputs (positive synergy). Exhibit
Exhibit
##9-4
a. Common Plan and Purpose. Effective teams have a 9-4
common plan and purpose that provides direction,
momentum, and commitment for members. This
purpose is a vision of what the team is to accomplish,

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 it's broader than specific team goals. Effective teams
show reflexivity, meaning they reflect on and adjust
their master plan when necessary -- they are adaptable.

b. Specific Goals. Successful teams translate their

common purpose into specific, measurable, and realistic
performance goals. Just as for individuals, (see Chapter
5), goals help energize teams toward higher
performance. Specific goals facilitates better
communication and help teams maintain focus on
results. These goals should be challenging in order to
be motivational.

c. Team Efficacy. Effective teams have confidence in

themselves: they believe they can succeed. Past
success breeds future success. In order to increase team
efficacy, managers can take one or both of the
following two options.

1) Help the team to achieve small initial successes.

2) Provide technical and interpersonal skills training.

d. Mental Models. Effective teams have accurate and

common mental models -- knowledge and beliefs (a
“psychological map”) about how the work is done.
Incorrect or inaccurate mental models will decrease
effectiveness.

e. Conflict Levels. A low level of conflict can actually

improve team effectiveness. We will cover this concept
more in depth in Chapter 13, but for now understand
that not all types of conflict are helpful. Relationship
conflicts are usually detrimental, but task conflicts in
teams performing non-routine activities may actually
lead to superior decisions.

f. Social Loafing. As we learned in Chapter 8,

individuals can hide within groups. They coast on the
group's effort because their individual contributions
can't be identified. Effective teams undermine this
tendency by holding themselves accountable at both the
individual and team level.

VI. TURNING INDIVIDUALS INTO TEAM PLAYERS

In many cultures and companies, employees have been trained to

be fiercely individualistic. Teamwork is not a natural state for

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 Chapter 9: Teams

them. Management's challenge, therefore, is to overcome the

individual resistance toward team participation.

A. Selection: Hiring Team Players. When hiring team members.

In addition to technical skills, candidates should be screened on
their ability to fulfill team roles. Disagreeable people or those
who lack conscientiousness do not work well in teams

B. Training: Creating Team Players. Managers can train

individuals to become team players. This may require the use Slide
of outside consultants who can help employees improve the # 9-16
employees’ problem solving, communication, negotiation,
conflict-management, and coaching skills.

C. Rewarding: Providing Incentives to Be a Good Team

Player. The organization's reward system needs to be
reworked to encourage cooperative efforts rather than
competitive ones.

VII. BEWARE! TEAMS AREN'T ALWAYS THE ANSWER Slide

# 9-17
Teamwork takes more time and often more resources than
individual work. Therefore, the benefits of using teams must
exceed the costs of having them. This may not always be the case,
and there are three tests to determine if a team is necessary in a
given situation.

A. Complexity of Work. A good indicator of the need for teams

is the complexity of the work and the need for different
perspectives for effective solution. Simple tasks, that do not
need diverse input, are probably best left to individuals.

B. Common Purpose. For organizational outcomes that require

multi-function interaction, the common purpose created by a
team may increase organizational effectiveness.

C. Interdependence. Teams make sense when the tasks are

interdependent and require a great deal of coordination.

VIII. GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS. Slide

# 9-18
A. Extent of Teamwork. Teamwork is less pervasive in the
United States than it is in other developed nations.

B. Self-Managed Teams. Self-managed teams may be difficult

to introduce globally. This is especially true in cultures that
have a low tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty and where

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 employees have a strong respect for hierarchical authority (i.e.,
high power distance).

C. Team Cultural Diversity and Team Performance. National

and cultural differences interfere with team processes, at least
in the short term. Such cultural diversity may be an asset for
tasks that call for a variety of viewpoints, but such teams have
difficulty learning to work with each other in solving problems.
Often these difficulties dissipate within three months of team
formation.

IX. IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS

Slide
The introduction of teams into the workplace is an important trend # 9-19
for managers.

A. Effective teams:

1. Have adequate resources, effective leadership, a climate of

trust, and a performance and rewards system that reflects
team contributions.

2. Are composed of individuals with both technical and

interpersonal skills -- typically fewer than 10 in number.

3. Perform work that provides freedom, autonomy, and the

opportunity for members to use different skills and talents.

4. Have members committed to a common purpose and

specific team goals, who believe in the team’s abilities.

B. By managing the environment and composition, managers can

create teams that are more effective.

C. Keep in Mind...
Slide
1. Proper selection of members increases the likelihood of # 9-20
effective teams.

2. Team should be constructed based on the ability, skill, and

applicable member traits given the situation. Slide
# 9-21
3. Non-personal conflict can lead to better team decisions.

Discussion Questions
1. Why is the use of teams in organizations becoming more popular?

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 Chapter 9: Teams

Answer: As organizations have reacted to external pressures to restructure

themselves to compete more effectively and efficiently, they have turned to teams
more and more often. The use of teams has increased managerial flexibility and
is an effective means for democratizing organizations and increasing employee
motivation.

2. What is the difference between a team and a group?

Answer: A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and

interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives. A work
group is a group that interacts primarily to share information and to make
decisions to help each member perform within his or her area of responsibility.
Workgroups have no need to engage in collective work or joint efforts, so no
positive synergy is created. In contrast, work teams create positive synergy
through coordinated effort. Their individual efforts result in a level of
performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs. The use of
work teams creates the potential for organizations to generate greater outputs
with no increase in inputs.

3. Describe the four types of teams.

Answer: (1) Problem-Solving Teams. These are teams in which members share
ideas or offers suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved;
although they rarely have the authority to unilaterally implement any of their
suggested actions. (2) Self-Managed Work Teams. These are autonomous teams
of 10 to 15 employees who perform highly-related or interdependent jobs, this
team takes on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors such as
planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, collective control
over the pace of work, making operating decisions, taking actions on problems,
and working with suppliers and customers. (3) Cross-Functional Teams. These
are teams made up of employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from
different work areas, who come together to accomplish a specific task. This type
of team is an effective means of allowing people from diverse areas within the
organization to exchange information, develop new ideas and solve problems, and
coordinate complex projects. (4) Virtual Teams. Virtual teams use computer
technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a
common goal. They rarely, if ever, meet face-to face. All types of teams seem to
have embraced this virtual technology.

4. Describe the four main components of effective teams.

Answer: (1) Context: effective teams have adequate resources, leadership, and
structure, a climate of trust and supportive performance evaluation and rewards
systems. (2) Team Composition: effective teams must be composed of people who
are able, have the correct personality types, are flexible, and prefer to work on
teams. (3) Work Design: effective teams need to work together into a collective
responsibility to complete significant tasks so they need freedom and autonomy,

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 skill variety, task identity, and task significance. (4) Process: effective teams need
a common purpose, specific goals, team efficacy, moderate non-personal conflict,
and a lack of social loafing.

5. How can managers help individuals become team players?

Answer: Managers can help individuals become team players by: (1) hiring the
correct people (candidates that can fulfill their team roles as well as technical
requirements), (2) training people to become team players (perhaps through
outside consultants), and (3) ensuring the organizational reward systems are
aligned to support good teamwork.

6. When should individuals be used rather than teams?

Answer: Based on the three rules for the use of teams, individuals are preferred
when: (1) the work is simple and doesn’t need diverse input, (2) there is no need
for or benefits from a common purpose, and (3) there is little or no
interdependence or need for coordination.

Exercises
1. Self-analysis. Are you a team player? Based on the information in this chapter,
do you believe you are a team player? Why or why not? How might you
improve your ability to function well on effective teams?

2. Web Crawling. Using your favorite search engine, search on the term “team
effectiveness.” Find five webpages related to this concept and write up a one-
page summary of the common team effectiveness concepts you discovered by
visiting these pages.

3. Teamwork. As a team, you are to develop a bulleted study guide for this Chapter.
The items included on the study guide are to fully represent the chapter content.
The items are also to be placed in the study guide in descending order of
importance. In other words, the most important content item from the Chapter is
to be listed first, down to the least important content item. The items chosen for
inclusion on this study guide, and their order of importance, must be completely
agreed upon by ALL members of the team. No use of voting and majority rules
can be employed in determining the content of the study guide. Consensus
agreement must prevail within the team.

Instructor notes: The purpose of this exercise is to indicate to students the

relationship between size and team effectiveness. Divide the class into different
sized teams. Make some teams extremely small and lacking in diversity and skills,
and some teams extremely large and cumbersome. Give the teams the
instructions that they are to come to consensus on the content of their study guide.

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 Chapter 9: Teams

You might want to have a quick discussion on team roles, or simply let the teams
themselves formally or informally let team roles evolve naturally, and have the
teams identify the different role holders after the conclusion of the exercise.

Record the time required by each different team to complete its task. Walk
around the classroom and listen to the conversations within the different groups—
this may provide rich insights as to why some groups completed the task more
efficiently than others. When the study guides are done, conduct a discussion on
what problems the teams encountered (size, diversity, roles) and how they think
the team overcome that particular problem.

4. Analyzing Your Organization (Cumulative Project). If you are currently in an

environment of teamwork, interview or discuss with the team leaders some of the
variables in this chapter, using the following questions as a guide.

a. How do you determine the size of the team?

b. What types of conflict occur? How do you resolve conflict?
c. Does it take longer to complete tasks in a team environment?
d. Do you have “resistors” to teamwork? If so, how do you manage that?
e. What happened to cause management to look at teams as a more efficient
way of doing work?
If you are not in a teamwork environment at your organization, what aspects of
your organization would benefit from teamwork? Justify your answer.

129