Johns Org-Behaviour 10e PPT ch07

Chapter 7
Groups and Teamwork
Copyright ©
© 2017
2017 Pearson
Pearson Canada
Canada Inc.
Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 1
Learning Objectives
LO7.1 Discuss group development.

LO7.2 Explain how group size and member
diversity influence what occurs in
groups.
LO7.3 Review how norms, roles, and status
affect social interaction.
LO7.4 Discuss the causes and consequences
of group cohesiveness.
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 2

Learning Objectives (continued)
LO7.5 Explain the dynamics of social loafing.

LO7.6 Discuss how to design and support
self- managed teams.
LO7.7 Explain the logic behind cross-
functional teams and describe how they
can operate effectively.
LO7.8 Understand virtual teams and what
makes them effective.

What Is a Group?
• A group consists of two or more people

interacting interdependently to achieve a
common goal.
• Interaction is the most basic aspect of a
group.
• Interdependence means that group members
rely to some degree on each other to
accomplish goals.
• Why is group membership important?

What Is a Group? (continued)
• Group membership is important because:

– Groups exert influence on us.
– Groups provide a context in which we are able
to exert influence on others.

Formal Work Groups
• Formal work groups are groups that are

established by organizations to facilitate the
achievement of organizational goals.
• The most common formal group consists of a
manager and the employees who report to the
manager.
• The hierarchy of most organizations is a series
of formal, interlocked work groups.

Formal Work Groups (continued)
• Other types of formal work groups include task

forces, project teams, and committees.
• Task forces and project teams are temporary
groups that meet to achieve particular goals or
to solve particular problems.
• Committees are usually permanent groups that
handle recurrent assignments outside the usual
work group structures.

Informal Groups
• Informal groups are groups that emerge

naturally in response to the common interests
of organizational members.
• They are seldom sanctioned by the
organization.
• Informal groups can either help or hurt an
organization, depending on their norms for
behaviour.

Group Development
• Groups are complex social devices.

• They require a fair amount of negotiation and
trial-and-error before individual members begin
to function as a true group.
• How do groups develop?

Typical Stages of Group
Development
• Groups develop through a series of stages over
time.
• Each stage presents the members with a series
of challenges they must master to achieve the
next stage.

Stages of Group Development

Forming
• Group members try to orient themselves by

“testing the waters.”
• The situation is often ambiguous, and members
are aware of their dependency on each other.

Storming
• Conflict often emerges at this stage.

• Confrontation and criticism occur as members
determine whether they will go along with the
way the group is developing.
• Sorting out roles and responsibilities is often at
issue.

Norming
• Members resolve the issues that provoked the

storming, and they develop social consensus.
• Compromise is often necessary.
• Norms are agreed on and the group becomes
more cohesive.
• Information and opinions flow freely.

Performing
• The group devotes its energies toward task

accomplishment.
• Achievement, creativity, and mutual assistance
are prominent themes at this stage.

Adjourning
• Rites and rituals that affirm the group’s

previous successful development are common
(such as ceremonies and parties).
• Members often exhibit emotional support for
each other.

Development (continued)
• The stages model is a good tool for monitoring
and troubleshooting how groups are developing.
• Not all groups go through these stages of
development.
• The process applies mainly to new groups that
have never met before.

Development (continued)
• Well-acquainted task forces and committees
can short-circuit these stages.
• Some organizational settings are so structured
that storming and norming are unnecessary for
even strangers to coalesce into a team.

Punctuated Equilibrium Model
• A model of group development that describes

how groups with deadlines are affected by their
first meetings and crucial midpoint transitions.
• Equilibrium means stability.
• Stretches of group stability punctuated by a
critical first meeting, a midpoint change in
group activity, and a rush to task completion.
• Does this sequence of events sound familiar to
you?

Phase 1
• Begins with the first meeting and continues

until the midpoint in the group’s existence.
• The first meeting is critical in setting the
agenda for what will happen in the remainder
of this phase.
• The group gathers information and holds
meetings but makes little visible progress
toward the goal.

Midpoint Transition
• Occurs at almost exactly the halfway point in

time toward the group’s deadline.
• The transition marks a change in the group’s
approach.
• How the group manages the change is critical
for the group to show progress.
• This transition crystallizes the group’s activities
for Phase 2.

Phase 2
• Decisions and approaches adopted at the

midpoint get played out in Phase 2.
• It concludes with a final meeting that reveals a
burst of activity and a concern for how
outsiders will evaluate the product.

The Punctuated Equilibrium
Model of Group Development for
Two Groups

Punctuated Equilibrium Model
(continued)
• Advice for managing teams:
– Prepare carefully for the first meeting.
– As long as people are working, do not look for
radical progress during Phase 1.
– Manage the midpoint transition carefully.
– Be sure that adequate resources are available to
actually execute the Phase 2 plan.
– Resist deadline changes.

Group Structure and Its
Consequences
• Group structure refers to the characteristics of
the stable social organization of a group - the
way a group is “put together.”
• The most basic structural characteristics along
which groups vary are size and member
diversity.
• Other structural characteristics are group
norms, roles, status, and cohesiveness.

Group Size
• The smallest possible group consists of two

people, such as a manager and a particular
employee.
• In practice, most work groups, including task
forces and committees, usually have between 3
and 20 members.

Group Size and Satisfaction
• Members of larger groups consistently report

less satisfaction with group membership than
those in smaller groups.
• The chance to work on and develop friendships
decrease as size increases.
• Larger groups might prompt conflict and
dissension.

Group Size and Satisfaction
(continued)
• As size increases, the time available for verbal
participation by each member decreases.
• Many people are inhibited about participating in
larger groups.
• In large groups, individual members identify less
easily with the success and accomplishments of
the group.

Group Size and Performance
• Do large groups perform tasks better than

small groups?
• The relationship between group size and
performance depends on the task the group
needs to accomplish and on how we define good
performance.

Group Size and Performance
(continued)
• Three types of group tasks:
– Additive tasks
– Disjunctive tasks
– Conjunctive tasks

Additive Tasks
• Tasks in which group performance is dependent

on the sum of the performance of individual
group members (e.g., building a house).
• For additive tasks, the potential performance of
the group increases with group size.

Disjunctive Tasks
• Tasks in which group performance is dependent

on the performance of the best group member
(e.g., research team).
• The potential performance of groups doing
disjunctive tasks increases with group size.
• The probability that the group includes a
superior performer is greater.

Process Losses
• As groups performing tasks get bigger, they

tend to suffer from process losses.
• Process losses are performance difficulties that
stem from the problems of motivating and
coordinating larger groups.
• Problems of communication and decision
making increase with size.
Actual performance =
Potential performance – Process losses

Group Size, Productivity, and
Process Losses

Process Losses

Process Losses

Process Losses (continued)
• Potential performance and process losses

increase with group size for additive and
disjunctive tasks.
• Actual performance increases with size up to a
point and then falls off.
• The average performance of group members
decreases as size gets bigger.

Process Losses (continued)
• Thus, up to a point, larger groups might

perform better as groups, but their individual
members tend to be less efficient.

Conjunctive Tasks
• Tasks in which group performance is limited by

the performance of the poorest group member
(e.g, assembly line).
• Both the potential and actual performance of
conjunctive tasks will decrease as group size
increases.
• As size increases, the probability of including a
weak link in the group goes up.

Group Size and Performance:
Summary
• For additive and disjunctive tasks, larger groups
might perform better up to a point but at
increasing costs to the efficiency of individual
members.
• Performance on purely conjunctive tasks should
decrease as group size increases.

Diversity of Group Membership
• Group diversity has a strong impact on

interaction patterns.
• Diverse groups have a more difficult time
communicating effectively and becoming
cohesive.
• Diverse groups might take longer to do their
forming, storming, and norming.
• Once they do develop, more and less diverse
groups are equally cohesive and productive.

Diversity of Group Membership
(continued)
• Diverse groups sometimes perform better on
certain tasks such as those that require
creativity and innovation.
• In general, any negative effects of “surface
diversity” in age, gender, or race seem to wear
off over time.
• “Deep diversity” in attitudes toward work or
how to accomplish a goal can badly damage
cohesiveness.

Group Norms
• Social norms are collective expectations that

members of social units have regarding the
behaviour of each other.
• They are codes of conduct that specify the
standards against which we evaluate the
appropriateness of behaviour.
• Most normative influence is unconscious; we are
only aware of it in special circumstances such
as when we enter new social situations.

Norm Development
• Why do norms develop?

Norm Development (continued)
• Norms provide regularity and predictability to

behaviour.
• This consistency provides psychological security
and permits us to carry out our daily business
with minimal disruption.

• What do norms develop about?

• Norms develop to regulate behaviours that are

at least marginally important to their
supporters.
• Managers are likely to adopt norms regarding
the performance and attendance of employees.
• Less deviation is accepted from norms that
concern more important behaviours.

• How do norms develop?

• Shared attitudes among members of a group

form the basis for norms.
• Norms are collectively held expectations,
depending on two or more people for their
existence.

• Why do individuals comply with norms?

– The norm corresponds to privately held
attitudes.
– They often save time and prevent social
confusion.
– Groups have a range of rewards and punishments
available to induce conformity to norms.

Some Typical Norms
• Some types of norms that exist in most

organizations and affect the behaviour of
members include:
– Dress norms
– Reward allocation norms (equity, equality,
reciprocity, social responsibility)
– Performance norms

Roles
• Positions in a group that have a set of expected

behaviours attached to them.
• Roles represent “packages” of norms that apply
to particular group members.
• There are two basic kinds of roles in
organizations:
– Assigned roles
– Emergent roles

Assigned Roles
• Formally prescribed by an organization as a

means of dividing labour and responsibility to
facilitate task achievement.
• Assigned roles indicate “who does what” and
“who can tell others what to do.”

Emergent Roles
• Roles that develop naturally to meet the social-

emotional needs of group members or to assist
in formal job accomplishment.

Role Ambiguity
• Role ambiguity exists when the goals of one’s

job or the methods of performing it are unclear.
• There are a variety of elements that can lead to
role ambiguity:
– Organizational factors
– The role sender
– The focal person

Organizational Factors
• Some roles are inherently ambiguous because of

their function in the organization such as
middle management roles.

The Role Sender
• Role senders might have unclear expectations of

a focal person.
• Expectations might be ineffectively sent to the
focal person.

The Focal Person
• Role expectations might not be fully digested by

the focal person.
• This happens when the focal person is new to
the role.

A Model of the Role Assumption
Process

Role Ambiguity (continued)
• What are the practical consequences of role

ambiguity?

Role Ambiguity (continued)
• The most frequent outcomes are job stress,

dissatisfaction, reduced organizational
commitment, lowered performance, and
intentions to quit.
• Managers can reduce role ambiguity by
providing clear performance expectations and
performance feedback.

Role Conflict
• Role conflict exists when an individual is faced

with incompatible role expectations.
• There are four types of role conflict:
– Intrasender role conflict
– Intersender role conflict
– Interrole conflict
– Person-role conflict

Intrasender Role Conflict
• A single role sender provides incompatible role

expectations to a role occupant.
• This type of role conflict is especially likely to
also provoke ambiguity.

Intersender Role Conflict
• Two or more role senders provide a role

occupant with incompatible expectations.
• Employees who straddle the boundary between
the organization and its clients or customers are
especially likely to encounter this form of
conflict.
• It can also stem from within the organization.

Interrole Conflict
• Several roles held by a role occupant involve

incompatible expectations.
• Competing demands for one’s time are a
frequent symptom of interrole conflict.

Person-Role Conflict
• Role demands call for behaviour that is

incompatible with the personality or skills of a
role occupant.
• Many examples of “whistle-blowing” are signals
of person-role conflict.
• The organization has demanded some role
behaviour that the occupant considers
unethical.

Role Conflict: Consequences
• The most consistent consequences of role

conflict are job dissatisfaction, stress reactions,
lowered organizational commitment, and
turnover intentions.

Role Conflict: Consequences
(continued)
• Managers can help prevent role conflict by:
– Avoiding self-contradictory messages
– Conferring with other role senders
– Being sensitive to multiple role demands
– Fitting the right person to the right role

Status
• Status in the rank, social position, or prestige

accorded to group members.
• It represents the group’s evaluation of a
member.
• What is evaluated depends on the status system
in question.
• All organizations have both formal and informal
status systems.

Formal Status Systems
• Represents management’s attempt to publicly

identify those people who have higher status
than others.
• Status symbols are tangible indicators of status
(e.g., titles, pay packages, work schedules).
• What are the criteria for achieving formal
organizational status?

(continued)
• Formal organizational status is based on
seniority in one’s group and one’s assigned role
in the organization – one’s job.
• Organizations often go to great pains to tie
status symbols to assigned roles.

(continued)
• Why do organizations go to all the trouble to
differentiate status?
– They serve as powerful magnets to induce
members to aspire to higher organizational
positions.
– Reinforces the authority hierarchy in work groups
and in the organization as a whole (people pay
attention to high-status individuals).

Informal Status Systems
• Such systems are not well advertised, and they

might lack the conspicuous symbols and
systematic support that people usually accord
the formal system.
• They can operate just as effectively as formal
status systems.
• Informal status is linked to job performance as
well as other factors such as gender or race.

Consequences of Status
Differences
• Most people like to communicate with others at
their own status or higher, rather than with
people who are below them.
• Tendency for communication to move up the
status hierarchy.
• If status differences are large, people can be
inhibited from communicating upward.
• These opposing effects mean that much
communication gets stalled.

Consequences of Status
Differences (continued)
• People pay attention to and respect status.
• Higher-status members do more talking and
have more influence.
• However, the highest-status person might not
be the most knowledgeable about the problem
at hand.

Reducing Status Barriers
• Because they inhibit the free flow of

communication, many organizations downplay
status differentiation by doing away with status
symbols.
• The goal is to foster a culture of teamwork and
cooperation across the ranks.
• Email seems to have leveled status barriers.

Group Cohesiveness
• Group cohesiveness is a critical property of

groups.
• It refers to the degree to which a group is
especially attractive to its members.
• Members want to stay in the group and they
describe the group in favourable terms.
• Cohesiveness is a relative, rather than absolute,
property of groups.

Factors Influencing Cohesiveness
• What makes some groups more cohesive than

others?
• Important factors include:
– Threat and competition
– Success
– Member diversity
– Group size
– Toughness of initiation

Threat and Competition
• External threat to the survival of the group

increases cohesiveness.
• Honest competition with another group can also
promote cohesiveness.
• The group becomes more cohesive because it
improves communication and coordination so
they can better cope with the situation at hand.

Success
• Groups become more cohesive when they

successfully accomplish some important goal.
• Cohesiveness will decrease after failure.

Competition, Success, and
Cohesiveness

Member Diversity
• Groups that are diverse in terms of gender, age,

and race can have a harder time becoming
cohesive than more homogeneous groups.
• If the group is in agreement about how to
accomplish a task, its success will often
outweigh surface dissimilarity in determining
cohesiveness.

Size
• Larger groups have a more difficult time
becoming and staying cohesive.
• Large groups have a more difficult time
agreeing on goals and more problems
communicating and coordinating efforts to
achieve their goals.

Toughness of Initiation
• Groups that are tough to get into tend to be

more attractive than those that are easy to
join.

Consequences of Cohesiveness
• Is more or less group cohesiveness desirable?

• This depends on the consequences of group
cohesiveness.
• What are the consequences of group
cohesiveness?

More Participation in Group
Activities
• There is more participation in cohesive groups
in terms of lower voluntary turnover and
absenteeism, and a high degree of
communication within the group.

More Conformity
• Highly cohesive groups are able to induce

greater conformity to group norms.
• Members of cohesive groups are especially
motivated to engage in activities that will keep
the group cohesive.

More Conformity (continued)
• The group can apply pressure to deviants to get

them to comply with group norms.
• Cohesive groups react to deviants by increasing
the amount of communication directed at these
individuals.

More Success
• Cohesiveness contributes to group success.

• Cohesive groups are good at achieving their
goals.
• Group cohesiveness is related to performance.
• There is a reciprocal relationship between
success and cohesiveness.
• Why are cohesive groups effective at goal
accomplishment?

More Success (continued)
• A high degree of participation and

communication, coupled with active conformity
to group norms and commitment, should ensure
a high degree of agreement about the goals the
group is pursuing and the methods it is using to
achieve those goals.
• Should managers attempt to increase the
cohesiveness of work groups?

• Cohesive groups are especially effective at
accomplishing their own goals.
• If these goals correspond with those of the
organization, increased cohesiveness should
have benefits for group performance.
• If not, organizational effectiveness might be
threatened.

• In highly cohesive groups, the productivity of

individual group members is similar to other
members; in less cohesive groups, there is more
variation in productivity.
• Highly cohesive groups tend to be more or less
productive than less cohesive groups, depending
on a number of variables.

Hypothetical Productivity Curves
For Groups Varying in
Cohesiveness

• If groups have productivity norms, more

cohesive groups should be better able to
enforce them.
• If cohesive groups accept organizational norms
for productivity, they should be highly
productive.
• Cohesiveness is more likely to pay off when the
task requires more interdependence.

Consequences of Cohesiveness
(continued)
• Cohesive groups are successful at accomplishing
what they wish to accomplish.
• Group cohesiveness on interdependent tasks
should contribute to high productivity when
there is a good labour relations climate.
• If the climate is marked by tension and
disagreement, cohesive groups may pursue
goals that result in low productivity.

Social Loafing
• The tendency to withhold physical or

intellectual effort when performing a group
task.
• Social loafing is a motivation problem.
• The tendency for social loafing is probably more
pronounced in individualistic North America
than in more collective and group-oriented
cultures.

Social Loafing (continued)
• Social loafing has two different forms:

– The free rider effect
– The sucker effect

The Free Rider Effect
• In the free rider effect, people lower their

effort to get a free ride at the expense of their
fellow group members.

The Sucker Effect
• In the sucker effect, people lower their effort

because of the feeling that others are free
riding.
• They are trying to restore equity in the group.
• What are some ways to counteract social
loafing?

Counteracting Social Loafing
• Make individual performance more visible

– Keep group size small.
• Make sure that the work is interesting
– If work is involving, intrinsic motivation should
counteract social loafing.
• Increase feelings of indispensability
– Use training and the status system to provide
group members with unique inputs.

Counteracting Social Loafing
(continued)
• Increase performance feedback
– Increase feedback from the boss, peers, and
customers.
• Reward group performance
– Members are more likely to monitor and
maximize their own performance and that of
their colleagues when the group receives rewards
for effectiveness.

What Is a Team?
• The term “team” is generally used to describe

“groups” in organizational settings.
• Teams have become a major building block of
organizations and are now quite common in
North America.
• Research has shown improvements in
organizational performance in terms of both
efficiency and quality as a result of team-based
work arrangements.

Collective Efficacy
• When it comes to teams, collective efficacy is

important to ensure high performance.
• Collective efficacy consists of shared beliefs
that a team can successfully perform a given
task.

Designing Effective Work Teams
• According to J. Richard Hackman, a work group

is effective when:
– Its physical or intellectual output is acceptable
to management and to other parts of the
organization that use this output.
– Group members’ needs are satisfied rather than
frustrated by the group.
– The group experience enables members to
continue to work together.
• What leads to group effectiveness?

Designing Effective Work Teams
(continued)
• Group effectiveness occurs when:
– High effort is directed toward the group’s task.
– When great knowledge and skill are directed
toward the task.
– When the group adopts sensible strategies for
accomplishing its goals.
• One way to design groups to be more effective
is to make them self-managed work teams.

Self-Managed Work Teams
• Work groups that have the opportunity to do

challenging work under reduced supervision.
• The groups regulate much of their own
members’ behaviour.
• Critical success factors of self-managed teams
include:
– The nature of the task.
– The composition of the group.
– Various support mechanisms.

Tasks for Self-Managed Teams
• Tasks assigned to self-managed work teams

should be complex and challenging.
• They should require high interdependence
among team members for accomplishment.
• The tasks should have the qualities of enriched
jobs (e.g., task significance).
• Group members adopt roles that will make the
group effective, not ones that are simply
related to a narrow specialty.

Composition of Self-Managed
Teams
• How should organizations assemble self-
managed teams to ensure effectiveness?
– Stability
– Size
– Expertise
– Diversity

Stability
• Self-managed teams require considerable

interaction and high cohesiveness and this
requires understanding and trust.
• Group membership should be fairly stable.
• Rotating members into and out of the group will
cause it to fail to develop a true group identity.

Size
• Self-managed teams should be as small as

feasible.
• The goal is to keep coordination problems and
social loafing to a minimum.
• These negative factors can be especially
difficult for self-managed groups.

Expertise
• Group members should have a high level of

expertise about the task at hand as well as
social skills.
• The group as a whole should be very
knowledgeable about the task.
• All members should possess to some degree
social skills.

Diversity
• Group members should be similar enough to

work well together and diverse enough to bring
a variety of perspectives and skills to the task
at hand.

Composition of Self-Managed
Teams (continued)
• One way of maintaining appropriate group
composition is to let the group choose its own
members.
• The selection stage is critical as it is important
to avoid turnover problems in self-managed
groups.
• “Fit” is important and it is worth expanding the
extra effort to find the right people.

Supporting Self-Managed Teams
• A number of support factors can assist self-

managed teams in becoming and staying
effective.
• Reports of problems with teams can usually be
traced back to inadequate support.
• The main support factors include:
– Training
– Rewards
– Management

Training
• Members of self-managed teams require
extensive training.
• The kind of training depends on the exact job
design and the needs of the workforce.
• Common areas of training:
– Technical training
– Social skills
– Language skills
– Business training

Rewards
• Rewards should be tied to team

accomplishment rather than to individual
accomplishment while still providing team
members with some individual performance
feedback to counteract social loafing.
• Skill-based pay is especially attractive because
it rewards the acquisition of multiple skills that
can support the team.

Management
• Self-management will not receive the best

support when managers feel threatened.
• Management should mediate relations between
teams, deal with union concerns, and coach
teams to be independent.

Factors Influencing Work Group
Effectiveness

Research on Work Group
Effectiveness
• Research has shown improvements in team

productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, and
safety following the implementation of self-
managed work teams.

Cross-Functional Teams
• Work groups that bring people with different

functional specialties together to better invent,
design, or deliver a product or service.
• Members have to be experts in their own area
but able to cooperate with others.
• Cross-functional teams are best known for their
success in product development.

Cross-Functional Teams
(continued)
• The general goals of using cross-functional

teams include some combination of innovation,
speed, and quality that come from early
coordination among the various specialties.
• Cross-functional teams get all of the specialties
working together from day one.

Principles for Effectiveness
• Research has discovered a number of factors

that contribute to the effectiveness of cross-
functional teams:
– Composition
– Superordinate goals
– Physical proximity
– Autonomy
– Rules and procedures
– Leadership

Composition
• All relevant specialties are necessary and must

be included.
• Effective teams are sure not to overlook anyone
(e.g., labour representatives, suppliers,
clients).

Superordinate Goals
• Attractive outcomes that can only be achieved

by collaboration.
• They override detailed functional objectives
that might be in confict.

Physical Proximity
• Team members have to be located close to each

other to facilitate informal contact.

Autonomy
• Cross-functional teams need some autonomy

from the larger organization.
• Functional specialists need some authority to
commit their function to project decisions.

Rules and Procedures
• Petty rules and procedures should be avoided.

• Some basic decision procedures must be laid
down to prevent anarchy.

Leadership
• Cross-functional team leaders need especially

strong people skills in addition to task expertise
because of the potential for conflict.

Shared Mental Models
• One of the goals of these principles is to ensure

that team members share mental models.
• Shared mental models mean that team
members share identical information about how
they should interact and what their task is.

Shared Mental Models (continued)
• They enhance coordination and contribute

greatly to effective team performance.
• They are a particular challenge to instill in
cross-functional teams due to the divergent
backgrounds of team members.

Virtual Teams
• Globalization and high-tech communication

tools have led to the emergence of a new type
of team.
• Virtual teams are work groups that use
technology to communicate and collaborate
across time, space, and organizational
boundaries.

Virtual Teams (continued)
• Along with the reliance on computer and

electronic technology, the primary feature of
virtual teams is the lack of face-to-face contact
between team members due to geographic
dispersion.
• Virtual teams are often cross-functional and the
technology they use can be either asynchronous
or synchronous.

Advantages of Virtual Teams
• Why are virtual teams becoming so popular?

Advantages of Virtual Teams
• Virtual teams have a number of advantages:

– Around-the-clock work
– Reduced travel time and cost
– Larger talent pool

Around-the-Clock Work
• Globally, using a virtual team can create a 24-

hour team that never sleeps.

Reduced Travel Time and Cost
• Virtual teaming reduces travel time and costs

associated with face-to-face meetings.
• It can lead to significant savings of time,
money, and security concerns over air travel.

Larger Talent Pool
• Virtual teams allow companies to expand their

potential labour markets and go after the best
people, even if these people have no interest in
relocating.
• They can also give employees added flexibility
and better work-life balance.

Challenges of Virtual Teams
• Virtual teams can involve some disadvantages
and managers must recognize that these teams
present unique challenges:
– Trust
– Miscommunication
– Isolation
– High costs
– Management issues

Trust
• Trust is difficult to develop between virtual
team members due to the lack of physical
contact and socialization.

Miscommunication
• The loss of face-to-face communication
presents certain risks for virtual teams.
• Using technology, the richness of face-to-face
communication is lost and miscommunication
can result.
• These risks can be particularly high on global
virtual teams.

Isolation
• Casual interactions between co-workers are
usually not possible for virtual teams.
• A lack of casual interactions among team
members can lead to feelings of isolation and
detachment.

High Costs
• The costs of cutting-edge technology, initial

set-up, and maintenance can be substantial.

Management Issues
• For managers, virtual teams can create new

challenges in terms of dealing with subordinates
who are no longer in view.

(continued)
• A review of research on information sharing in
virtual teams versus face-to-face teams found
that:
– Virtual teams engaged in a lower volume of
information sharing.
– Virtual teams were more likely to share unique
information which was not known by other team
members.

(continued)
– The performance of virtual teams was especially
dependent upon them also having a high volume
of open communication to complement unique
ideas.
– Hybrid teams that combine face-to-face
interaction with virtual interaction were found to
be especially likely to share information.

Lessons Concerning Virtual Teams
• A number of lessons have emerged about what
managers must do or keep watch for when
developing virtual teams:
– Recruitment
– Training
– Personalization
– Goals and ground rules

Recruitment
• Choose team members carefully in terms of
attitude and personality so they are excited
about these types of teams and can handle the
independence and isolation of them.
• Find people with good interpersonal skills, not
just technical expertise.

Training
• Invest in training for both technical and
interpersonal skills.

Personalization
• Encourage team members to get to know each
other through informal communication or face-
to-face meetings.
• Reduce feelings of isolation.

Goals and Ground Rules
• Virtual team leaders should define goals clearly,

set rules for communication standards and
responses, and provide feedback to keep team
members informed of progress and the big
picture.

Lessons Concerning Virtual Teams
(continued)
• The key is recognizing the ways in which virtual

teams are different from those based in a single
office environment but not falling into the trap
of focusing solely on technology.
• Virtual teams must be real teams, if not by
location, then in mind and spirit.

A Word of Caution: Teams as a
Panacea
• Switching from a traditional structure to a

team-based configuration is not a cure-all for
an organization’s problems.
• The team approach can put unwanted pressure
and responsibilities on workers.

A Word of Caution: Teams as a
Panacea (continued)
• Many organizations have rushed to deploy teams

with little planning, often resulting in confusion
and contradictory signals to employees.
• Good planning and continuing support are
necessary for the effective use of teams.

Johns Org-Behaviour 10e PPT ch07

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Johns Org-Behaviour 10e PPT ch07

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Chapter 7

Groups and Teamwork

LO7.1 Discuss group development.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 2

LO7.5 Explain the dynamics of social loafing.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 3

• A group consists of two or more people

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 4

• Group membership is important because:

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 5

• Formal work groups are groups that are

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 6

• Other types of formal work groups include task

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 7

• Informal groups are groups that emerge

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 8

• Groups are complex social devices.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 9

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 10

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 11

• Group members try to orient themselves by

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 12

• Conflict often emerges at this stage.

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 13

• Members resolve the issues that provoked the

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 14

• The group devotes its energies toward task

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 15

• Rites and rituals that affirm the group’s

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 16

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 17

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 18

• A model of group development that describes

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 19

• Begins with the first meeting and continues

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 20

• Occurs at almost exactly the halfway point in

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 21

• Decisions and approaches adopted at the

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 22

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 23

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• The smallest possible group consists of two

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 26

• Members of larger groups consistently report

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 27

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 28

• Do large groups perform tasks better than

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 29

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• Tasks in which group performance is dependent

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 31

• Tasks in which group performance is dependent

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 32

• As groups performing tasks get bigger, they

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 33

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• Potential performance and process losses

Copyright © 2017 Pearson Canada Inc. Chapter 7 / Slide 37

• Thus, up to a point, larger groups might