Chapter

Nineteen
Managing Work
Groups and Teams

Slide content created by Charlie Cook, The University of West Alabama

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
 Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Define and identify types of groups and teams in
organizations, discuss reasons why people join
groups and teams, and list the stages of group and
team development.
2. Identify and discuss four essential characteristics of
groups and teams.
3. Discuss interpersonal and intergroup conflict in
organizations.
4. Describe how organizations manage conflict.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–2

 Groups and Teams in
Organizations
• Group
– Two or more people who interact regularly
to accomplish a common purpose or goal.
• Types of Groups and Teams
– Functional groups
– Informal or interest groups
– Task groups

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–3

 Figure 19.1: Types of Groups
in Organizations

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–4

 Groups and Teams in
Organizations (cont’d)
• Team
– A group of workers who function as a unit,
often with little or no supervision, to carry
out work-related tasks, functions, and
activities.
– Sometimes called self-managed teams,
cross-functional teams, or high
performance teams.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–5

 Groups and Teams in
Organizations (cont’d)
• Team (cont’d)
– Benefits of teams
• Give more responsibility for task
performance to the workers who do the
tasks.
• Empower workers by giving them greater
authority and decision-making freedom.
• Allow organizations to capitalize on the
knowledge and motivation of their workers.
• Enable the organization to shed its
bureaucracy and to promote flexibility and
responsiveness.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–6

 Groups and Teams in
Organizations (cont’d)
• Why People Join Groups and Teams
– Interpersonal attraction
– Group activities
– Group goals
– Need satisfaction
– Instrumental benefits

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–7

 Table 19.1: Types of Teams

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–8

Figure 19.2:
Stages of
Group
Development

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–9

 Characteristics of
Groups and Teams
• Role
– The part an individual plays in helping the group
reach its goals.
• Task-specialist role
• Socioemotional role
• Role Structures
– The set of defined roles and interrelationships
among those roles that the group or team members
define and accept.
• Emerge as a result of role episodes in which the expected
role is translated and defined into the enacted role.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–10

 Figure 19.3:
The Development of a Role

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–11

 Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (cont’d)
• Role Structures
– Role ambiguity occurs when the sent role is unclear.
– Role conflict occurs when the messages and cues
comprising the sent role are clear but contradictory or
mutually exclusive.
• Interrole conflict
• Intrarole conflict
• Intrasender conflict
• Person-role conflict
– Role overload occurs when role expectations exceed
an individual’s capacities.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–12

 Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (cont’d)
• Behavioral Norms
– Norms
• Are standards of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors
that a group sets for its members.
– Norm generalization (external)
– Norm variation (internal)
– Norm conformity occurs when individuals conform to:
• Group or team pressure
• An initial (ambiguous) stimulus prompting group behavior.
• Individual traits that reflect their propensity to conform.
• The influence of situational factors related to the group

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–13

 Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (cont’d)
• Behavioral Norms (cont’d)
– Individual responses to norm conformity:
• Adopt the norms of the group.
• Try to obey the “spirit” of the norms while
retaining individuality.
– Socialization
• Norm conformity that occurs when a person
makes the transition from being an outsider to
being and insider in the organization.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–14

 Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (cont’d)
• Cohesiveness
– The extent to which members are loyal and
committed to the group; the degree of mutual
attractiveness within the group.
• Consequences of Cohesiveness
– The interaction between cohesiveness and
performance norms
• The best situation: high cohesiveness combined with
high performance
• The worst situation: high cohesiveness and low
performance

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–15

 Table 19.2: Factors That
Influence Group Cohesiveness

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–16

 Figure 19.4: The Interaction Between
Cohesiveness and Performance Norms

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–17

 Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (cont’d)
• Formal and Informal Leadership
– Informal leaders
• Engage in leadership activities but their right to do so has not
been formally recognized by the organization or group.
• May also be the formal leader for the group or may supplement
the formal leader in fulfilling leadership roles.
• Draw on referent or expert power to establish themselves as
leaders.
– Formal leaders
• Have been elected or designated to engage in leadership
activities by the group members or has been formally appointed
or recognized by the organization as the leader for the group.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–18

 Interpersonal and
Intergroup Conflict
• The Nature of Conflict
– Conflict
• A disagreement between two or more individuals, groups, or
organizations.
– There is an optimal level of conflict in an organization:
• Too little conflict and the organization becomes complacent
and apathetic, and lacking in innovation and underperforms.
• Too much conflict creates a dysfunctional organization
where hostility and non-cooperation predominate, and suffers
from low performance.
• A moderate level of conflict in an organization fosters
motivation, creativity, innovation, and initiative and can raise
performance.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–19

 Figure 19.5: The Nature of
Organizational Conflict

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–20

 Interpersonal and Intergroup
Conflict (cont’d)
Causes of Conflict
• Interpersonal Conflict • Conflict Between
– Personality clash Organization and the
– Differing beliefs or
perceptions
Environment
– Competitiveness – Conflict with competition
• Intergroup Conflict – Conflict with consumer
groups
– Interdependence
– Different goals – Conflict with employees
– Competition for scarce
resources

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–21

 Table 19.3: Methods for
Managing Conflict

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–22

 Key Terms
• group • informal leader
• functional group
• informal or interest group • conflict
• task groups
• role structure
• role ambiguity
• role conflict
• role overload
• norms
• socialization
• cohesiveness

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 19–23