By :Dr Ipseeta Satpathy, D.

Litt
Senior Professor OB & HRM
KSoM
Problem-Solving Teams
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.

Self-Managed Work Teams

Composed of 10 to 15 people who
take on the responsibilities of their
former supervisors.Ex Eaton
Aeroquip.
Cross-Functional Teams
Employees from about the same hierarchical level, but
from different work areas, who come together to
accomplish a task.
Ex: IBM created a large task force in the 1960s-made up
of employees from across departments in the company –
to develop its highly successful system 360
Ex Harley-Davidson relies on cross functional teams
Advantages
Leades to exchange of information
Develop new ideas and solve problems
Virtual Teams
Teams that use computer
technology to tie together
physically dispersed
members in order to
achieve a common goal.
 Context: The four factors that appear to be
most significantly related to team performance
are the presence of adequate resources,
effective leadership, a climate of trust, and
performance evaluation and reward system
that reflects team contributions.
 1.Adequate resources: Teams are part of a
larger organization system and a scarcity of
resources directly reduces the ability of the
team to perform the job effectively .This
support includes timely information, proper
equipment, adequate staffing ,
encouragement and administrative
assistance
2. Leadership & structure: Team members
must agree on who is to do what and ensure
that all members contribute equally in sharing
the workload
3.Climate of trust: Members of effective teams
trust each other. And they also exhibit trust in
their leaders.
4.Performance evaluation and reward system:
Management should consider group-based
appraisals , profit sharing , gain sharing ,
small-group incentives and other modifications
that will reinforce team effort.
Composition : This category includes
variables that relate to how teams should
be staffed. This includes the ability and
personality of team members, allocating
roles and diversity, size of the team,
member flexibility, and members’
preference of team work.
1.Ability of members:
One: It needs people with technical expertise
Second: It needs people with the problem-
solving and decision-making skills to be able
to identify problems, generate alternatives,
evaluate those alternatives , and make
competent choices
Finally: Teams need people with good listening
skills, feedback , conflict resolution , and
other interpersonal skills.
2.Personality :Teams that rate higher in mean
levels of extroversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, and emotional stability
tend to receive higher managerial ratings for
team performance .
3.Allocating roles :Managers need to
understand the individual strengths that each
person can bring to a team , select members
with their strengths in mind , and allocate
wok assignments that fit with members’
preferred styles .
4. Diversity: When a team is diverse in terms of
personality, gender, age , education,
functional specialization, and experience ,
there is an increased probability that the
team will possess the needed characteristics
to complete its tasks effectively .
A. Group demography:-This is the degree to
which members of a group share a common
demographic attribute, such as age, sex,
race, educational level, or length of service in
the organization, and the impact of this
attribute on turnover.
B. Cohorts :- Group ,teams, and organizations
are composed of cohorts, which we define as
individuals who hold a common attribute. For
Instance :- everyone born in1960 is of the
same age. This means they also have shared
common experiences. People born in 1970
have experienced the information revolution
5.Size of Teams : Generally speaking the
most effective teams have fewer than 10
members .
6.Member flexibility : selecting members
who themselves value flexibility, then
cross-training them to be able to do each
other’s jobs, should lead to higher team
performance over time.
7.Members preference :When selecting team
members individual preference should be
considered. People desiring to work alone
need not team up .
 Process
1.Common purpose: effective teams have a
common and meaningful purpose that provides
direction, momentum, and commitment for
members. This purpose is a vision.
2.Specific Goals : Successful teams translate
their common purpose into specific,
measurable , and realistic performance goals
3.Team efficacy : Effective teams have
confidence in themselves . They believe they
can succeed . We call this team efficacy.
4.Conflict levels :Disagreement about task
content is not detrimental . In fact , it is
often beneficial because it lessens the
likelihood of group think .
5.Social Loafing :Effective teams undermine
this and hold themselves accountable at both
the individual and team level .
 The Challenges
 Overcoming individual resistance to team membership.
 Countering the influence of individualistic cultures.
 Introducing teams in an organization that has historically
valued individual achievement.Ex Ford, Motorola.These firms
prospered by hiring and rewarding corporate stars.
 Shaping Team Players
 Selecting employees who can fulfill their team roles.
 If candidates do not have team skills they can undergo training
to make them into team players.
 Training specialists conduct exercise that allow employees to
experience the satisfaction that team work can provide.
 Reworking the reward system to encourage cooperative efforts
while continuing to recognize individual contributions.