Types of Teams-CHAPTER 1

Making the Team: A Guide for Managers
Sixth Edition
Chapter 1
Types of Teams
Copyright © 2018, 2014, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Part One: Building the Team
What Is a Team? (1 of 2)
Defined as:
• A group of people who are interdependent with respect to
information, resources, and skills and who seek to combine their
efforts to achieve a common goal.
What Is a Team? (2 of 2)
Five key defining characteristics of a team:
• Teams exist to achieve a shared goal.
• Team members are interdependent regarding some common goal.
• Teams are bounded and stable over time.
• Teams have the authority to manage their own work and internal
processes.
• Teams operate in a social system context.
Source: Alderfer, C.P. (1977). Group and intergroup relations. In J.R.

Hackman & J.L. Suttle, (Eds.), Improving life at work (pp.227-296).
Palisades, CA: Goodyear: Hackman, J.R. (1990). Introduction: Work teams
in organizations: An oriented framework. In J. Hackman (Ed.), Groups that
work and those that don’t. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Why Should Organizations Have Teams?
Four challenges of the future that point to the importance of
teams:
• Information technology
• Competition
• Globalization and culture
• Multigenerational teams
What Is the Task Focus of the Team? (1 of 3)
Teams work on three types of tasks:
(See Exhibits 1-1, 1-2, 1-3)
• Tactical teams
• Problem-solving teams
• Creative teams
Exhibit 1-1 Types of Work That Teams Do
Key Objective Process Focus Threats

Tactical • Directive, highly focused tasks • Role ambiguity
• Role clarity • Lack of training standards
• Well-defined operation • Communication barriers
Problem solving • Focus on issues • Failure to stick to facts

• Separate people from problem • Fixate on solutions
• Consider facts, not opinions • Succumb to political pressures
• Conduct thorough investigation • Confirmatory information search
• Suspend judgment
Creative • Explore possibilities and • Production blocking

alternatives • Uneven participation
Based on Larson, C. E., & LaFasto, F. M. (1989). Teamwork: What must go right/what can go
wrong. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Exhibit 1-3 Organizational Crisis Teams
blank Sudden Crisis Smoldering Crisis
Unexpected events in which the Events that begin as small internal
organization has virtually no control problems within an organization
and perceived limited fault or become public to stakeholders and
responsibility over time, escalate into crisis status as
a result of inattention by management
Formal Team • Walmart & Hurricane Katrina • CISCO and global recession
Members are brought together to • Apollo 13 Tiger Team • BP Gulf Oil Spill
prevent, prepare, and be on call to • Volkswagen emissions crisis
handle crisis situations
Improv Team • SARS team in China • City of Flint, Michigan lead disaster
Ad hoc team that adapts to given • US Airways Flight 1549 • Wells Fargo phony accounts
situation moment by moment • Chipotle E.coli crisis
• Zika virus outbreak
Based on Larson, C.M. and Clari, J.A. (1998). Reframing crisis management. American Management
Review, 23, 59–76; James, E. H. & Wooten, L.P. (2009). Leading teams in crisis situations: From chaos
to extraordinary performance. Effective Executive 12(5), 14–19.
Types of Team Autonomy
How is authority distributed in an organization?
The following are four levels of team control:
(See Exhibit 1-4)
• Manager-led teams
• Self-managing or self-regulating teams
• Self-directing or self-designing teams
• Self-governing teams
Types of Team Autonomy in Organizations
Exhibit 1-4 Authority of Four Illustrative Types of Work Teams
Source: Hackman, J. R. (1987). The design of work teams. In J. W. Lorsch (Ed.), Handbook of
organizational behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Observations About Teams and Teamwork
• Teams should be the exception • Conflict among team members
not the rule. is not always bad.
• Managers fault the wrong • Strong leadership is not always
causes for team failure. necessary for strong teams.
• Teams require attention. • Good teams can still fail under
the wrong circumstances.
• Experimenting with failures
leads to better teams. • Team retreats will not fix all
conflicts between team
members.
What Leaders Tell Us About Their Teams (1 of 5)
Most common types of teams: Team Size:
1. Management teams • Varies dramatically
2. Cross-functional project group • Average size: 11.75 people
3. Operations and service • Modal team size: 10 people

• Optimum size: 5–6 people
Exhibit 1-6 Team Autonomy Versus Manager Control
Thompson, L. (2016). Leading high impact teams. Team leadership survey from the Kellogg School of
Management Executive Program [Survey data set]. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Exhibit 1-7 Team Longevity
The most frustrating aspects of teamwork are:
(See Exhibit 1-8)
• Developing and sustaining high motivation
• Minimizing confusion and/or coordination problems
• Fostering creativity and innovation
Exhibit 1-8 The Most Frustrating Aspects of Teamwork
Developing Your Team-Building Skills
Skill 1: Accurate diagnosis of team problems
• Sampling on the dependent variable
• Hindsight bias
Skill 2: Evidence-based management

• Based on scientific theory
Skill 3: Expert Learning

• Single-loop versus double-loop learning
• Inert knowledge problem
Chapter Capstone
• There is no “magic formula” for designing and maintaining
effective teams.
• Making the Team takes a scientific approach to the study and
improvement of teamwork.
• There are many misperceptions about teams and teamwork.
Intuition and luck can only take one so far.
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Making the Team: A Guide for Managers

Source: Alderfer, C.P. (1977). Group and intergroup relations. In J.R.

Key Objective Process Focus Threats

Problem solving • Focus on issues • Failure to stick to facts

Creative • Explore possibilities and • Production blocking

2. Cross-functional project group • Average size: 11.75 people

3. Operations and service • Modal team size: 10 people

Skill 2: Evidence-based management

Skill 3: Expert Learning

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