Unit 5

Team goals
and norms
Clayton Peel, PhD.
Agenda
What are team goals?

What are the functions of team goals?

What is the value of team goals?

What characteristics should team goals

adhere to?

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Introduction • Team goals provide the team with direction, vision and
motivation. A team performs better when they are able to
participate in setting challenging performance goals.

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 The functions of
team goals
 a standard to be used to evaluate team performance.

 a target to motivate team members.

 values (ethos) that guide the team towards performing the tasks

 they provide a criterion for evaluating whether actions and decisions are appropriate

 they inform outside groups about the team and establish relationships

 they determine when team members should be rewarded or punished for performance.
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The value of
team goals is
they provide the
team with
direction, vision
and motivation
(Levi, 2001).

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Characteristics that team goals
should adhere to…

ACCESSIBILITY MEASURABILITY KNOWLEDGE DIFFICULTY

refers to the refers to your team’s ability The team’s Goals need to be
probability that to quantify whether the awareness of difficult enough to
the group can team is reaching its goals. the mechanics challenge the team,
actually If progress towards a goal of completing but not so difficult
achieve the cannot be measured, your the task for team members
goals team cannot receive to feel you cannot
feedback about how well achieve them.
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is doing. 6
Team norms
Teams often develop norms
unconsciously, over time.

As members interact and

influence each other, norms
develop.
May be strongly influenced by what
happens early in a team’s
development, e.g. punctuality to
correct habitual lateness

They may arise from norming

(conflict, adopting and developing
ideas from other teams).

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Functions of team norms
# 
Functions of Team Norms
T H E I M PA C T O F T E A M N O R M S
1 
They express the group’s values – this gives the
group a sense of who they are as a group. • Regulate interaction in the team
2
They help coordinate the activities of the group 
• Help maintain a healthy respect for each
members; they establish common ground and make
behaviour more predictable. other
3 
They help define appropriate behaviour for the
group members. This allows members to avoid • Ensure weaker team members get
embarrassing or difficult situations. This in turn
encourages active participation in the group. empowered
4 
They help the group to survive by creating a distinct
identity. This helps group members know how they
• Hawthorne studies of 1933 found when
are different from other groups and helps your group
identify when it is moving away from accepted
performance norms were high, lazy
behaviour in the group. workers fell in line and conformed to
successful norms.

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Summary Examples of norms could be: Do they have a norm that
regulates who may speak when in meetings? Do they have
norms that regulate how decisions are taken? Do they
follow rules to prevent people from interrupting each other?
Do they make sure everybody participates in a group
discussion? What are the rules about attendance and
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punctuality?
Thank You
Clayton Peel

Email address

Website address

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