TEAM DYNAMICS

Teams & Groups

• “Groups of two or more people who interact and influence each other, are
mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with
organizational objectives, and perceive themselves as social entities within
the organization.”

• Therefore members of groups:

– Exist to fulfill a purpose

– Interdependent

– Mutually accountable for achieving common goals

– Perceive themselves as a social entity

 Command group

Formal

Task Group

Types of Groups

Interest Group

Informal

Friendship Group
Command Group
 What is a Team???
• “A team is a number of people associated together in work or activity.”

• All teams are groups but all groups are not teams as:

– Common goals
– Mutual and individual responsibility.
– Shared leadership
 Advantages and Disadvantages of Teams

Advantages Disadvantages
• Make better decisions • Individuals better/faster
on some tasks
• Information sharing
• Process losses - cost of
developing and
• Higher employee maintaining teams
motivation
Fulfills drive to bond • Social loafing
Closer scrutiny by team
members
Team members are
benchmarks of comparison
 How to Minimize Social Loafing?

• Make individual performance more visible

– Form smaller teams
– Specialize tasks
– Measure individual performance

• Increase employee motivation

– Increase job enrichment
– Select motivated employees
 Stages of Team Development
(Bruce Tuckman 1965)

Performing

Norming

Storming

Existing teams
Forming might regress Adjourning
back to an
earlier stage of
development
Stages of Group Development
 Group Properties - Status
A socially defined position or rank given to groups or
group members by others (social ranking).

Group Norms

Group Member
Status Equity
Status

Culture
 Group Structure - Size
Social Loafing
The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working
collectively than when working individually.

Performance

Other conclusions:
• Odd number groups do better
than even.
• Groups of 7 or 9 perform
better overall than larger or
smaller groups.

Group Size
 Group Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness
Degree to which group members are attracted to
each other and are motivated to stay in the group.

Increasing group cohesiveness:

1. Make the group smaller.
2. Encourage agreement with group goals.
3. Increase time members spend together.
4. Increase group status and admission difficulty.
5. Stimulate competition with other groups.
6. Give rewards to the group, not individuals.
7. Physically isolate the group.
Relationship Between Group Cohesiveness,
Performance Norms, and Productivity
 Group Norms

– Norms are defined as a set of expectations about appropriate

individual and group behavior commonly agreed on by members

Classes of Norms:
• Performance norms
• Appearance norms
• Social arrangement norms
• Allocation of resources norms
• Characteristics of norms:

– They are acceptable to the majority of the group members

– Focal point is group behaviour as compared to the feelings

and emotions

– Change in norms is gradual

– Compliance with norms results in an accepted level of

rewards, similarly non compliance results in punishment
 The Hawthorne Studies
• A series of studies undertaken by Elton Mayo at Western Electric
Company’s Hawthorne Works in Chicago between 1924 and 1932.

• Research Conclusions:
– Worker behavior and sentiments were closely related.
– Group influences (norms) were significant in affecting individual
behavior.
– Group standards (norms) were highly effective in establishing
individual worker output.
– Money was less a factor in determining worker output than were
group standards, sentiments, and security.
 Roles
A role is defined as a set of recurring behaviour that
is expected from a member by others in a group

Role Identity
Certain attitudes and behaviors
consistent with a role.

Role Perception
An individual’s view of how he or she
is supposed to act in a given situation.
Role Expectations
How others believe a person should
act in a given situation.

Psychological Contract
An unwritten agreement that sets out what
management expects from the employee
and vice versa.

Role Conflict
A situation in which an individual is confronted by divergent role
expectations.
Conformity
Adjusting one’s behavior to align with the
norms of the group.

Reference Groups
Important groups to which
individuals belong or hope to
belong and with whose norms
individuals are likely to conform.

Deviant Workplace Behavior

Antisocial actions by organizational members that
intentionally violate established norms and result in
negative consequences for the organization, its
members, or both.
Examples of Cards Used in
(Solomon) Asch’s Study
Typology of Deviant Workplace
Behavior
Category Examples

Production Leaving early

Intentionally working slowly
Wasting resources
Property Sabotage
Lying about hours worked
Stealing from the organization

Political Showing favoritism

Gossiping and spreading rumors
Blaming coworkers
Personal Aggression Sexual harassment
Verbal abuse
Stealing from coworkers
 Common Threats to Group Effectiveness

• Social loafing

• Groupthink

• Group Shift or Group Polarization

 Types of Teams (1 of 4)

• Work Teams: Concerned with the work

done in the organisation like developing &
providing new products, providing services
etc.

• Focus is on using organisational resources

effectively.
 Types of Teams(2 of 4)

• Problem-solving Teams: These are temporary teams to attack

specific problems.

• They are typically composed of 5 to 12 employees from the

same department who meet for a few hours each week to
discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work
environment.

• Organizations are relaying more and more on problem-solving

teams to help solve organizational problems.
 Types of Teams (3 of 4)
• Self Managed Teams: They are generally composed of 10 to
15 people who take on the responsibilities of their former
supervisors.

• Fully self-managed teams select their own members, and the

members evaluate each other’s performance. As a result,
supervisory positions take on decreased importance and may
even be eliminated.
 Types of Teams (4 of 4)

• Virtual Teams: They use computers technology to in order to

achieve a common goal. They allow people to collaborate
online.

• Decisions made are faster.

• The ability to overcome time and space constraints

 Self Managed Teams
• Also called empowered teams, autonomous work groups.

• They have high degree of decision making responsibility.

• The above includes scheduling, hiring, firing & ordering.

• They have an internal leader elected.

• Acquire new trainings.

• May prepare their own budgets & coordinate work with other
departments.
 Advantages of Self Managed Teams

• Improved quality, productivity and service.

• Greater flexibility.
• Reduced operating costs.
• Faster response to technological change.
• Fewer, simpler job classifications.
• Better response to workers' values.
• Increased employee commitment to the organization.
• Ability to attract and retain the best people.
 SOME EXAMPLES OF
SELF MANAGED TEAMS
Mastek

Mastek, a Mumbai-headquartered technology company, has adopted the

SMT concept across the organization. "I've stopped thinking like an
employee and starting thinking like an entrepreneur,” says Ben Salins, a
technical specialist. The same has resulted in more happier and
empowered employees and highly satisfied customers.
• Flexible Steel Lacing Company, Downers Grove, Illinois, has been making
fasteners for conveyor belts, as well as conveyor-belt fastener application
tools, for many years. But the way it has conducted manufacturing has
changed dramatically in recent years. Today, the company's manufacturing
is based on a product-focused work-cell concept instead of a functional
department scheme. And operators assigned to each cell work in self-
managed teams. Operations include metal stamping, cold heading, heat
treating, machining and assembly.

• Although mentored by a manager/coach, the teams are accountable for

their performance measurements, which are reviewed quarterly by the
plant manufacturing manager. There are no area managers, supervisors or
foremen in between. Significant benefits have resulted in order fulfillment
cycle time (reduced 30 percent), and plant productivity as measured by
sales dollar per employee (12 percent in the last three years). The team
concept here has been applied to all areas of the enterprise, not just
work-cell production. It includes teams for purchasing, shipping, facilities
and office.
 3-M
• At 3-M, employees join together to manage their daily work
through self-directed work teams.

• The movement towards self-directed work teams was driven

more by initiative and need than by corporate directive

• Most of 3M's manufacturing facilities, while at different levels

of empowerment and different degrees of involvement,
employ a team-based approach.

• 3M's Hutchinson facility -- Increased production gains by 300

percent
LESSONS FROM
GEESE
• FACT: As each goose flaps its wings it creates an "uplift" for the
birds that follows. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock
adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

• People who share a common direction and sense a community

can get where they are going quicker and easier because they
are traveling on the thrust of one another.

• Science: Geese and some other species of birds migrate in

distinctive “V” or “U” formations or in lines. By taking
advantage of the wing tip vortex of the bird in front, each bird
can save energy by reducing drag. The energy savings in flight
can be as much as 50%.
• FACT: When a goose falls out of formation, it
suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone.
It quickly moves back into formation to take
advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front of
it.

• If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in

formation with those headed where we want to go.
We are willing to accept their help and give our help
to others.
• FACT: When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into
the formation and another goose flies to the point
position.

• It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing

leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent
on each others skills, capabilities and unique
arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.
• FACT: The geese flying in formation honk to
encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Migrating geese make loud, honking noises, called
contact calls, to help them stay together.

• We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In

groups where there is encouragement, the
production is much greater. The power of
encouragement is the quality of honking we seek.
• FACT: When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot
down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it
down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it
dies or is able to fly again. Then they launch out with
another formation or catch up with the flock.

• If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by

each other in difficult times as well as when we are
strong.