Managing Teams

MAN101: Principles of Management Class 7

 What are teams?

 Textbook:
 “Groups whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using their
positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability and complementary skills.”
 American Psychological Association
 “Groups of people who are joined for achieving a common goal within a stipulated
period, having collective accountability.”
 Teams and Groups
• A team is an interdependent group of
individuals who share responsibility and
are focused on a common goal.
• People in a team have a mutual
understanding with other members.
• By working together, team members tend
to maximize each other’s strengths and
minimize weaknesses.
• Unlike in a group, where each member
may be expected to contribute separately,
the most important characteristic of a
team is synergy: “the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts.”
The Five-Stage Team Development Model
 Factors to Consider When Creating Teams

• Abilities: “Does this individual have the right combination of skills and knowledge?”
• Personality: “Does this individual have personality traits that will make the team effective?”
• Role allocation: “Who is the best person in the team for a specific role, based on their
distinctive strengths?”
• Team member diversity: “Does this person bring an important perspective to the team
because of their membership in a certain group?”
• Size: “Are we aiming for effectiveness or efficiency?”
• Team member preferences: “Does this person actually want to be a part of this team?”
 What defines an effective team?
• Productive output: The productive output of the
team must meet or exceed the quantitative and
qualitative standards defined by the organisation.
• Personal need satisfaction: Teams are effective
if membership facilitates employee need
satisfaction.
• Capacity for future cooperation: Effective
teams employ social processes that maintain or
enhance the capacity of their members to work
together on subsequent tasks. Destructive social
processes are avoided so members can develop
long-term cohesiveness and effectiveness.
 What determines an effective team?

• Group effort: The amount of effort group members exert toward task
accomplishment.
• Group knowledge and skill: The amount of knowledge and skills possessed by group
members that are available for group effort and performance.
• Task performance strategies: The extent to which the group’s strategies for task
performance (how it analyzes and attempts to solve problems) are appropriate.
 Important Team Processes
• Common plan and purpose: Teams that consistently perform better
have established a clear sense of what needs to be done and how.
• Members of successful teams put a tremendous amount of time and
effort into discussing, shaping, and agreeing on a purpose that
belongs to them.
• Specific goals: Successful teams translate their common purpose into
specific, measurable, and realistic but challenging performance goals.
• Specific goals facilitate clear communication, and help teams maintain
their focus on getting results.
• Team efficacy: Effective teams have confidence in themselves - they
believe they can succeed. Teams that have been successful raise their
beliefs about future success, which motivates them to work harder.
 Important Team Processes
• Mental models: Effective teams share organized mental representations
of the key elements within a team’s environment, and share knowledge
and beliefs about how the work gets done by the team.
• Reducing social loafing: Effective teams reduce social loafing by
making members individually and jointly accountable for the team’s
purpose, goals, and approach.
• Healthy understanding of conflict:
• Relationship conflicts — based on interpersonal incompatibilities,
tension, and animosity toward others — are almost always
dysfunctional.
• Task conflicts stimulate discussion, promote critical assessment of
problems and options, and can lead to better team decisions.
 Is a team the right answer?

Three questions to consider:

1. Can the work be done better by more than one person? Is it complex enough and
does it require multiple different perspectives?
2. Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the people in the team
that is more than just the combination of individual goals? (Remember: SYNERGY).
3. Is the group interdependent? Does the success of the team depend on the success of
each team member, and does the success of each team member depend on the
success of the team?
Prosocial Core Design Principles V2.0
 Motivation

MAN101: Principles of Management Class 7

 What is motivation?

 Definition from textbook:

 “The processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort
toward attaining a goal.”

 American Psychological Association:

 “The drive that gives purpose or direction to behaviour and operates in humans at a conscious
or unconscious level.”
The Motivational Environment at Work

 Does the employee have comfortable working conditions?

 Does the employee have constructive social relationships at work?
 Does the employee have adequate tools, equipment, materials, and supplies?
 Does the employee have favourable working conditions?
 Does the employee have helpful co-workers and supportive work rules?
 Does the employee have sufficient information to make job-related decisions?
 Does the employee have adequate time to do a good job?
 Job Design and Characteristics
 Job Characteristics Model:
 Jobs can be designed in terms of five motivational dimensions:
1. Skill variety (How many different abilities and talents does the job require?)
2. Task identity (How much is the task identified with a well-defined work outcome?)
3. Task significance (How much does the task affect other people?)
4. Autonomy (How much freedom and discretion does the employee have when performing
this job?)
5. Feedback (How much information does the employee receive about their performance?)

 Motivating Potential:
 Jobs are usually high in motivating potential when they are high in
feedback and autonomy, plus at least one of either skill variety, task
identity, and task significance.
Redesigning Jobs for Greater Motivation

 Job Rotation:
 Cross-training employees at similar levels and revolving them through task profiles that are equal to but different than their
own.
 Reduces boredom and increases job knowledge, but can be costly.
 Job Enrichment:
 Expands jobs by increasing worker control of planning, execution, and evaluation of their work; increasing their freedom,
independence, and responsibility; and provides greater feedback.
 Reduces absenteeism and turnover costs, and increases overall job satisfaction, but suitable only for employees who value
challenges.
 Alternative Working Arrangements
 Flexible Work Hours:
 Improves productivity and work-life
balance, but not suitable for all jobs.
 Job Sharing:
 Allowing more than one individual to split
an individual work-load. Increases
flexibility and motivation but often just
not practical.
 Remote work in the Zoom Era:
 COVID-19 has forced many organisations
to adopt tele-working protocols. There
have been advantages and
disadvantages for motivation in different
organisations.
 Employee Involvement Approaches

 Participative Management:
 Programs in which subordinates share a significant degree of joint decision-making power with
their immediate superiors.
 Representative Participation:
 Redistribution of power in an organisation using representative bodies (e.g. work councils) to
allow employees to participate in the organisation’s decision-making processes.
 Monetary Rewards as Motivators
 What to pay, based on:
 Internal equity: the monetary valuation of the job by the organisation.
 External equity: the monetary competitiveness of the organisation’s pay compared
to competitors or others in similar markets.

 How to pay, based on:

 Piece-rate pay: Paying a fixed sum for each production unit completed.
 Merit-based pay: Pay based on overall evaluations of individual performance.
 Skill-based pay: Bases pay levels on how many skills employees have or how many
jobs they can do.
 Bonuses: Additional pay generally based on benchmarked performance metrics.
 Profit-sharing and employee stock ownership: Distributes pay based on
organisation’s profitability and market performance.
 Benefits plans: Allowing each employee to choose the compensation package that
best satisfies their current needs and situation.
 Implications of Motivation for Leaders
 Recognize individual differences: Individuals are motivated by different
things, and have different motivational experiences. Leaders should
individualize goals, level of involvement, and rewards to align with individual
needs and maximize their motivation.
 Use goals and feedback, and allow employee participation: When
employees help design their goals and receive feedback on how they are
achieving them, they will be better-motivated to perform well.
 Make sure rewards and performance are connected: Employees should
be able to understand and appreciated why the rewards they receive are
connected to how they perform the required job.
 Make sure the system is equitable: Employees will not be motivated if
they see unfair or unjust differences in rewards or job assignments.