Teamwork and Team performance

Study Questions

What is a the nature of teams and teamwork?

What is team building?How does team building improve

performance?How do teams contribute to the high-

performance workplace?

Team

• A team is a small group of people with complementary skills, who work actively together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively accountable.

Teams are one of the major forces behind revolutionary changes in contemporary (modern) organizations.

Team

Types of teams.– Teams that recommend things.

• Established to study specific problems and recommend solutions to them.

– Teams that run things.• Have formal responsibility for leading other groups.

– Teams that make or do things.• Functional groups that perform ongoing tasks.

Teamwork

Teamwork occurs when group members actively work together in such a way that all their respective skills are well utilized to achieve a common purpose.

Characteristics of high performance teams.

– They have strong core values.– They turn a general sense of purpose into

specific performance objectives.– They have the right mix of skills.– They possess creativity.

Characteristics of teams with homogeneous membership

– Members are similar with respect to such variables as age, gender, race, experience, ethnicity, and culture.

– Members can quickly build social relations and engage in the interactions needed for teamwork.

– Homogeneity may limit the team in terms of ideas, viewpoints, and creativity.

Characteristics of teams with heterogeneous membership

– Members are diverse in demography, experiences, life styles, and cultures, among other variables.

– Diversity can help improve team problem solving and increase creativity.

– Diversity among team members may create performance difficulties early in the team’s life or stage of development.

– Enhanced performance potential is possible once short-run struggles are resolved.

– Diversity can provide great advantages for high- performance organizations.

Team building

Work groups and teams must master challenges as they pass through the various stages of group development.

Team building is a sequence of planned activities designed to gather and analyze data on the functioning of a group and to initiate changes designed to improve teamwork and increase group effectiveness.

Step1 Problems or

opportunity in terms of effectiveness

Step 2 Data gathering

and analysis

Step 3 Planning for

team effectiveness

Step 4 Action to improve

team functioning

Step 5 Evaluation of

resultsTeamwork Participation by all members

Team Building Process

Approaches to team building Formal retreat approach. –

Team building takes place during an off-site retreat

May last for one to several days

Group members work intensively on a variety of assessment and planning task

Formal retreats are often held with the assistance of a consultant

Team building retreats offer opportunities for intense and concentrated efforts to examine group accomplishment and operations

Approaches to team building Continuous improvement approach.

The manager, team leader or group members themselves take responsibility for regularly engaging in the team building process

Can be as simple as periodic meetings that implements the team building steps to self managed formal retreats

In all cases, team members commit themselves to continuously monitoring group development and accomplishment making day to day changes needed to ensure team effectiveness

Essential themes for total quality and total service management

Approaches to team building Outdoor experience approach

Places members in a variety of physically challenging situations that must be mastered through teamwork

By working together in face of difficult obstacles, team members are suppose to experience in increased self confidence, more respect for others capabilities, and greater commitment to teamwork

For a group that has never done team building before, outdoor experience can be an exciting way to begin

For a group familiar with team building it can be a way of further enriching the experience

Improving Team Processes Special problems team processes may arise because:

More and more jobs are turned over to teams More and more traditional supervisors are asked to function as team

leaders As teams become integral to organizations, multiple and shifting

relationship can cause complications Team leaders and members must be prepared to deal with such

issues: Introducing new members Handling disagreements on goals and responsibilities Resolving disputes and delays when making decisions Reducing friction and interpersonal conflicts

Improving Team Processes• Entry of new members

• Special difficulties arise when members first get together in a new group or when a new member joins an existing one

• Problems arise as new members try to understand what is expected of them while dealing with anxiety and discomfort of new social setting.

• New members may worry about: Participation – will I be allowed to participate? Goals – Do I share the same goals as others? Control – will I be able to influence what takes place? Relationship – How close do people get? Are conflicts likely to be upsetting?

Improving Team Processes• Entry of new members (cont.)

• Edgar Schein points out people may try to cope up with individual entry problem in a self serving way that may hinder group operations

• Three common behavior profiles:

1. The tough battler: Frustrated by lack of identity in the new group and may act

aggressively to reject authority This person wants answer to the question: “Who am I in this

group”

Improving Team Processes2. The friendly helper Is insecure, suffering from uncertainties of intimacy and control May show extraordinary support for others, behave in a

dependent way, and seek alliances in subgroups or cliques Needs to know whether he would be liked

3. The Objective Thinker: Anxious about how his personal needs will be met in the group The person may act in a passive, reflective, and even single

minded manner while struggling with the fit between individual goals and group directions

Improving Team Processes• Task and Maintenance Leadership The achievement of sustained high performance by groups requires

meeting both “ task needs” and “maintenance needs”

Not only formally appointed leaders but also all members should help fulfill these needs

The sharing of responsibilities that move a group forward is called distributed leadership

Distributed leadership is an important characteristics of high performance team

Leading by Task Contribution

Leading by Maintenance Contribution

How to lead

groups and

teams

Offering ideas Clarifying Suggestions Giving Information Seeking Information Summarizing discussion

Encouraging Others Reconciling differences Expressing Standards Offering agreement Inviting Participation

Task and maintenance leadership in group team dynamics

Improving Team Processes• Groups members should avoid the following disruptive

behaviors:– Being overly aggressive toward other members.– Withdrawing and refusing to cooperate with others.– Horsing around when there is work to be done.– Using the group as a forum for self-confession.– Talking too much about irrelevant matters.– Trying to compete for attention and recognition

Improving Team Processes Roles and role dynamics.

– A role is a set of expectations associated with a job or position on a team.

– Role ambiguity — occurs when a person is uncertain about his/her role.

– Role overload — occurs when too much is expected and the person feels overwhelmed with work.

– Role under load — occurs when too little is expected and the person feels underutilized.

Improving Team Processes Roles and role dynamics (cont.). Role conflict — occurs when a person is unable to meet

conflicting expectations.

Forms of role conflict:1. Intrasender Conflict: When prescriptions and proscription from a single

member of the role set are incompatible Example: If a student’s parents expect him to be a

straight A student but also work evenings and weekends for the family business

Improving Team Processes2. Intersender Conflict: When pressures from one member of a person’s role set

oppose those of from one or more others

3. Interrole conflict: When two or more roles demand opposing behaviors

4. Person-role conflict When one’s personal values and needs come in conflict with

role expectation

Improving Team Processes• Positive Norms Norms represent beliefs about how group or team members

are expected to behave. Norms are rules or standards of conduct. Managers and leaders should help their groups adopt positive

norms that support organizational goals. Key norms that can have positive or negative implications

Improving Team Processes• Type of Group Norms1. Ethics Norms Positive, “we make ethical decisions, and we expect others

to do the same” Negative, “ Don’t worry about inflating your expense

accounts, every one does it here”

2. Organizational and personal pride norms Positive, “ it is a tradition around here to stand up for the

company when others criticize it unfairly Negative, “ In our company they are always taking

advantage of us”

3. High achievement norms Positive, “ on our team, people always try to work hard” Negative,” There is no point working harder on our team, no

body else does”

Improving Team Processes4. Support and helpfulness norms Positive, “ people on this committee are good listeners and

actively seek our ideas and opinions” Negative, “ On committee it is dog-eat-out and save your

skin”

5. Improvement and change norms Positive, “ In our department people are always looking for

better ways of doing things” Negative, “ Around here people hang out on to the old ways

even after they have outlived their usefulness”

Improving Team Processes• Cohesiveness: Cohesiveness is the degree to which members are attached

to and motivated to remain a part of the team Benefits of Cohesiveness:

- Members tend to be more energetic- Less likely to be absent- More likely to be happy about performance success and sad

about failures- Have low turnover- Satisfy a broad range of individual needs- Provide a source of loyalty, security, and esteem for their

members

Improving Team Processes• Cohesiveness (cont.)High team cohesiveness occurs when:

– Members are similar in age, attitudes, needs, and backgrounds.

– Group size is small.– Members respect each others’ competencies.– Members agree on common goals.– Members work on interdependent tasks.– Groups are physically isolated from others. – Groups experience performance success or crisis.

Improving Team Processes• Conformity to Norms: Cohesiveness may be either good or bad for the

organization Rule of conformity: The more cohesive the group the

greater the conformity of members in the group When performance norms are positive in a highly

cohesive team, the resulting conformity to the norm should have a positive effect on team performance as well as member satisfaction

When performance norms are negative in a highly cohesive group , the same power of conformity creates the worst case scenario i.e. low performance

How cohesiveness and conformity to norms affect group performance

Group Cohesiveness

Low

High

Group Performance NormsNegative Positive

Low performance

The “ worst situation

High Performance

The “best” situation

Moderate to low performance

Moderate Performance

How to influence cohesiveness

Teams in High-Performance Work place

Problem-solving teams.– Employee involvements teams include a wide

variety of teams whose members meet regularly to collectively examine important workplace issues.

– Quality circle.• A special type of employee involvement team.• Team meets periodically to address problems

relating to quality, productivity, or cost.

Teams in High-Performance Work place

Cross-functional teams.– Consist of members representing different

functional departments or work units.– Used to overcome functional silos problem.– Used to solve problems with a positive

combination of functional expertise and integrative systems thinking.

Teams in High-Performance Work place

Advantages of virtual teams.– Cost-effectiveness and speed where members are

unable to meet easily face-to-face.– Computer power fulfills typical team needs for

information processing and decision making.– Communication is possible among people separated

by great distances.– Interaction and decision making are focused on facts

and objective information rather than emotional considerations.

– .

Teams in High-Performance Work place

Disadvantages of virtual teams.

– The lack of personal contact between team

members.

– Group decisions are made in a limited social

context

Teams in High-Performance Work place

• Self managing Teams• Small groups empowered to make

decisions needed to manage themselves on day to day basis

• Members of true self managing teams make decisions on scheduling work, allocating tasks, training for job skills, evaluating performance, selecting new team members and controlling quality

Teams in High-Performance Work place

• How self managing teams Work- Replace the traditional work group headed by a

supervisor- Team members assume duties otherwise performed by

a manager or first-line supervisor - The team, not the supervisor, perform and collectively

accountable for such activities as planning, work scheduling, performance evaluation and quality control

- Include 5 -15 members- The team must be large enough to provide good mix of

skills and resources but small enough to function effectively

- Multiskilling of members is required to perform more than one task

Organization and management implication of self managing team

Teams in High-Performance Work place

Advantages of self-managing teams.– Productivity and quality improvements.– Production flexibility and faster response to

technological change.– Reduced absenteeism and turnover.– Improved work attitudes and quality of work

life.

Teams in High-Performance Work place

Disadvantages of self-managing teams.– Structural changes in job classifications and

management levels eliminate the need for first-line supervisors.

– Managers must learn to deal with teams rather than individuals.

– Supervisors who are displaced by self-managing teams may feel threatened.