Working in Teams

TEAMS VS. GROUPS

 Group: Two or more people with a common relationship.

 Team: A small number of people who work closely together toward a common objective and are accountable to one
another

 Groups become teams when they meet the following conditions:

• Team members share leadership.
• Both individuals and the team as a whole share accountability for the work of the team.
• The team develops its own purpose or mission.
• The team works on problem-solving continuously, rather than just at scheduled meeting times.
• The team’s measure of effectiveness is the team’s outcomes and goals, not individual outcomes and goals.
 Do teams work?

 Teams typically outperform individuals when the tasks being done require multiple skills, judgment, and
experience.
 As organizations have restructured to compete more effectively and efficiently, they have turned to teams as a way
to better use employee talents.
 Management has found that teams are more flexible and responsive to changing events than traditional departments
or other forms of permanent groupings.
 Teams can quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband.
 Teams also can be more motivational. Teams allow for greater task identity, with team members working on tasks
together
STAGES OF GROUP AND TEAM
DEVELOPMENT

While we make a distinction between groups and teams, some of the stages of
development they go through are similar.
The five-stage model describes the standardized sequence of stages groups passes
through.
 The five-stage model

Stage I: Forming.
Forming is characterized by a great deal of uncertainty about the group’s purpose, structure, and leadership. Members are “testing
the waters” to determine what types of behavior are acceptable. This stage is complete when members have begun to think of
themselves as part of a group.

Stage II: Storming.

Conflict stage.
Members accept the existence of the group but resist the constraints that the group imposes on individuality. Furthermore, there is
conflict over who will control the group. When this stage is complete, a relatively clear hierarchy of leadership will emerge within
the group.
A group that remains forever planted in the storming stage may have less ability to complete the task because of all the interpersonal
problems.
 The five-stage model

Stage III: Norming.

Many groups resolve the interpersonal conflict and reach the third stage, in which close relationships develop and the
group demonstrates cohesiveness.
There is now a strong sense of group identity.
The group develops norms and acceptable standards of behavior that are shared by the group’s members.
All groups have established norms that tell members what they ought and ought not to do under certain circumstances.
When agreed to and accepted by the group, norms act as a means of influencing the behavior of group members with a
minimum of external controls.
This norming stage is complete when the group structure solidifies.
 The five-stage model

Stage IV: Performing

The structure at this point is fully functional and accepted.
Group energy has moved from getting to know and understand each other to perform the task at hand.

Stage V: Adjourning
The final stage in group development for temporary groups, where attention is directed toward wrapping up activities
rather than task performance
In this stage, the group prepares to split up. Emotional Stage
Effective Teams - Context

 Teams need management support as well as an organizational structure that supports

teamwork.
 The four contextual factors that appear to be most significantly related to team
performance are :
adequate resources,
effective leadership,
a climate of trust,
and a performance evaluation and reward system that reflects team contributions.
 Effective Teams - Context
Adequate Resources

 All work teams rely on resources outside the team to sustain them.
 A scarcity of resources directly reduces the ability of a team to perform its job effectively.

As one set of researchers concluded, after looking at 13 factors potentially related to team performance, “perhaps
one of the most important characteristics of an effective work group is the support the group receives from the
organization.”

 This includes technology, adequate staffing, administrative assistance, encouragement, and timely information.
 Teams must receive the necessary support from management and the larger organization if they are going to
succeed in achieving their goals
 Effective Teams - Context
Leadership and Structure Leadership

 Leadership and Structure Leadership plays a crucial role in the development and success of teams.
Professor Richard Hackman of Harvard University, who is the leading expert on teams, suggests that the role of
team leader involves the following:
• Creating a real team rather than a team in name only
• Setting a clear and meaningful direction for the team’s work
• Making sure that the team structure will support its working effectively
• Ensuring that the team operates within a supportive organizational context
• Providing expert coaching
 Effective Teams - Context
Climate of Trust Members

 The climate of Trust Members of effective teams trust each other.

 For team members to do this, they must feel that the team is capable of getting the task done and they must believe
that “the team will not harm the individual or his or her interests.”
 Interpersonal trust among team members facilitates cooperation, reduces the need to monitor one another’s
behavior, and bonds members around the belief that others on the team won’t take advantage of them.
 Team members are more likely to take risks and expose vulnerabilities when they believe they can trust others on
their team.
 Effective Teams - Context
Building Trust

➔ Integrity—built through honesty and truthfulness.

➔Competence—demonstrated by technical and interpersonal knowledge and skills.
➔Consistency—shown by reliability, predictability, and good judgment in handling
situations.
➔Loyalty—one’s willingness to protect and stand up for another person.
➔ Openness—one’s willingness to share ideas and information freely.
 Effective Teams - Context
Performance Evaluation and Rewards

 How do you get team members to be both individually and jointly accountable?
 The traditional individually oriented evaluation must be modified to reflect team performance.
 Individual performance evaluations, fixed hourly wages, individual incentives, and the like are not consistent with
the development of high-performance teams.
 So in addition to evaluating and rewarding employees for their individual contributions, management should
consider group-based appraisals, profit sharing, gainsharing, small-group incentives, and other system
modifications that will reinforce team effort and commitment.
 Ignoring these factors may affect the level of trust that develops in the team
 Effective Teams – Composition
Personality & Diversity

Personality
 Teams have different needs, and people should be selected for the team on the basis of their
personalities and preferences, as well as the team’s needs for diversity and specific roles.
 Personality also influences team behavior.

Diversity
Group diversity refers to the presence of a heterogeneous mix of individuals within a group.
Individuals can be different not only in functional characteristics (jobs, positions, expertise, or work
experiences) but also in demographic or cultural characteristics (age, race, sex, and citizenship)
Effective Teams – Composition
Roles

Roles In groups,
 each individual fills a particular role. By this term, we mean a set of expected behaviour patterns of a
person in a given position in a social unit.
 Within almost any group, two sets of role relationships need to be considered: task-oriented roles and
maintenance roles.
 Task-oriented roles are performed by group members to ensure that the tasks of the group are
accomplished. These roles include initiators, information seekers, information providers, elaborators,
summarizers, and consensus makers.
 Maintenance roles are carried out to ensure that group members maintain good relations. These roles
include harmonizers, compromisers, gatekeepers, and encouragers.
 Effective Teams – Purpose & Specific Goals

 Common Purpose Effective teams have a common and meaningful purpose that provides direction,
momentum, and commitment for
 It’s broader than specific goals.
 Specific Goals Successful teams translate their common purpose into specific, measurable, and realistic
performance goals.
 These specific goals facilitate clear communication.
 They also help teams maintain their focus on achieving results.
 Effective Teams – Purpose
Accountability

Accountability
 Successful teams make members individually and jointly accountable for the team’s
purpose, goals, and approach.
 They clearly define what they are individually responsible for and what they are jointly
responsible for.
 Harming Your Team

➔ Refuse to share issues and concerns. Team members refuse to share information and engage in silence, avoidance, and
meetings behind closed doors where not all members are included.
➔ Depend too much on the leader. Members rely too much on the leader and do not carry out their responsibilities.
➔ Fail to follow through on decisions. Teams do not take action after decision making, showing that the needs of the
team have low priority, or members are not committed to the decisions that were made.
➔ Hide conflict. Team members do not reveal that they have a difference of opinion and this causes tension.
➔ Fail at conflict resolution. Infighting, put-downs, and attempts to hurt other members damage the team.
➔ Form subgroups. The team breaks up into smaller groups that put their needs ahead of the team as a whole.
 Team Charter

 Creating a Team Charter When you form a new team, you may want to develop a team charter so that everyone
agrees on the basic norms for group performance.
➔ What are team members’ names and contact information (phone, email)?
➔ How will communication among team members take place (phone, email)?
➔ What will the team ground rules be (where and when to meet, attendance expectations, workload expectations)?
➔ How will decisions be made (consensus, majority vote, leader rules)?
➔ What potential conflicts may arise within the team? Among team members?
➔ How will conflicts be resolved by the group?
Team Charter
 virtual teams

 Teams that seldom interact face-to-face and use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members
in order to achieve a common goal
 Virtual teams can do many of the same things face-to-face teams can do, but they have more challenges, especially
when it comes to team-member bonding and building trust.
 To help build understanding among teammates, members should provide some personal information early on, and
they should also be clear on each other’s roles from the outset.
 Often, virtual teams communicate, discuss ideas, post-work-in-progress, and exchange feedback through a virtual
workspace via an intranet, website, or bulletin board.