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CHAPTER 14 THE NATURE OF GROUPS AND TEAMS IN ORGANIZATIONS Lecture Notes 1 Groups and Teams A. Groups and Teams Defined 1. A group is two or more people who interact to achieve a common objective. in the social sciences, groups have been seen as living, self-regulating systems that sense and interact with their environments groups develop structures; they affect and are affected by group members groups go through a variety of stages of development 2. A membership group is one that an individual belongs to by virtue of birth or life circumstances. membership is not voluntary can be characterized by your ethnic, racial, and sexual grouping 3. A reference group is any group to which we belong or aspire to belong and which we use as a basis for judging the adequacy of our behavior. 4. A team is a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks share responsibility for outcomes see themselves and are seen by others as an intact social entity embedded in one or more larger social systems manage their relationships across organizational boundaries 5. The terms “work team” and “work group” will be used interchangeably. 6. Distinguishing features of a work group members and observers must be able to distinguish people who are a part of the team from those who are not have a distinct and recognizable task have a shared goal that its members can identify with members are working together and relying upon one another’s contributions to accomplish a common goal that will affect other people members work together to complete a whole and identifiable piece of work members have the authority to make a wide range of decisions on matters affecting them and their performance have a definable membership that is relatively stable over time Key Point: For those who attempt to make the distinction between groups and teams, the degree of “bondedness” is commonly employed as the primary distinction. 7. 8. B. Table 14-1 p. 511 Committees produce a different dynamic than teams, and frequently are less effective. the composition and dynamics of committees produce a splintered body their work is conflictual in nature through this process, the view of the organization as a total system gets lost The team approach to group activity reflects a focus on the fact that the subsystems need to be joined as one if the organization is to be effective and efficient. Types of Groups and Teams 1. Formal vs. informal groups formal groups consciously created to serve an organizational objective typically, managers identify one or more objectives for a group and specify who will be members in open and organic organizations, formal groups may form as the result of employee initiative informal groups arise spontaneously grow out of people’s social needs, physical proximity, common interests, and mutual attraction 14-1 14 The Nature of Groups and Teams 2. Manager-led vs. self-managing work teams manager-led place the responsibility for task performance with the group essentially all of the management functions remain the responsibility of management in keeping with the classical school of management self-managing operate with goals given to them by management are also given the authority to develop plans for goal attainment often redesign the work system so that it accommodates their changing needs, strengths, and weaknesses need to emphasize organizational learning Key Point: Self-managing teams are well-suited for complex, ill-defined and ambiguous tasks, embedded in a rapidly changing environment. 3. Vertical vs. horizontal teams vertical teams consist of members from several hierarchical levels horizontal teams consist of members from different departments at the same hierarchical level both groups have been referred to as cross-functional teams Key Point: Once an organization employs work teams, the next step toward the high involvement system is to nurture the evolution of the organization and its teams to the stage of self-management. 4. C. Cohen and Bailey: four types of teams work teams: responsible for producing an organization’s goods or services parallel teams: perform functions that the regular organization is not equipped to perform well (e.g., problem solving team, quality circle) project teams: formed to work on a single task and disband when it is completed typically work on non-routine tasks members are often drawn from different functional area management teams: manage sub-units and activities under their control can be found at different levels in the hierarchy increases in environmental turbulence and complexity has brought about an increase in the use of top management teams Self-Managing Work Teams 1. Distinguishing characteristics stable membership small in size intelligent members 2. Self-managing teams tend to perform a multiple skill-based task and perform a whole and identifiable piece of work. 3. High interdependence among members can lead to high levels of commitment and/or conflict. 4. Key recommendations the team should be responsible for a whole and identifiable piece of work the work should be designed so that it causes social and cooperative interactions members of the team should eventually learn all of the jobs that are a part of the team’s responsibility the team should have the necessary power, information, skills, knowledge, materials, and equipment needed to perform its work without having to look outside the team teams should have the power and information needed to evaluate their performance 5. Many organizations (e.g., Johnsonville Foods, Quad/Graphics, General Mills) have increased productivity as a result of developing work teams. An Inside Look: Self-Managing Work Teams as a Step to Success 14-2 14 The Nature of Groups and Teams Industry Week recognized ten companies for successful operations. One element shared by most of these companies is their use of self-managing work teams. Employees involved in self-managing work teams work together to resolve issues of productivity, quality, and safety issues. Because employees have such a high level of participation, organizations train members extensively in team communications, group decision making, and problem solving. Communicating organizational and team goals effectively and making sure that they are accepted by all employees are also critical steps in using teams successfully. The most effective size in these organizations is 7-15 people. Eaton Corporation uses two types of teams: work teams and problem-solving teams. A year after launching the teams program, managers were no longer present on the plant floor, and teams assumed responsibility for nearly all aspects of the production process. Safety also improved dramatically. 2 Informal and friendly peer pressure contributes to employee bonding and morale at Eaton. New employees are hired on a temporary basis to evaluate how well they fit into the team-based structure; permanent employment requires the approval of the full team. Without the expertise and cooperation of all workers, the organization would not have seen such dramatic increases in productivity, customer service, and safety. Team Properties A. Table 14-2 p. 515 Table 14-3 p. 516 B. Levels of Employee Involvement 1. At the lowest level of involvement teams are used for information sharing. management makes all operational decisions managers meet with employees to inform them of what is going on and why 2. More involvement characterizes teams made up of a selected group of organizational members who meet with management on a regular basis to work on problems members have expertise that management wants to tap into often cross-functional 3. Self-managed work teams have the most involvement. 4. Short teams handle a group of tasks that were performed by a traditional service or manufacturing department (e.g., motor assembly). 5. Long teams perform a complete operation from beginning to end (e.g., building a motorcycle). Size 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. C. Team size refers to the number of individuals who are recognized as being a part of the social system. It is recommended that teams be small in size and yet large enough to get the task done. Team size affects many factors such as team development, performance, and member attitude, motivation, and behavior. As size increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for members to build and develop trust prevent subgroups from forming keep alienation from setting in have genuine participatory opportunities achieve a consensus have strong psychological ownership The ideal team size is thought to be from 5 to 7 members. Norms 1. Team norms are collectively held expectations. 2. A set of informal rules, shared beliefs and values that serve to guide member behavior. 3. Origins of norms precedents set over time values brought into the group from other situations explicit statements from others 14-3 14 The Nature of Groups and Teams 4. 5. critical events in the group’s history Citizenship behavior, work attendance, and quality of work can be strongly influenced by group norms. Norms may signal sources of support or resistance to organizational activities. Key Point: Managers can work to develop groups, to shape group norms, and to satisfy group needs that make these groups work as organizational allies. D. Table 14-4 p. 518 Roles 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. E. Figure 14-1 p. 519 A role is a set of behaviors that characterize a person in a social setting. Groups have two basic needs to be met if the group is to survive task-oriented social-emotional (maintenance) As a result of these two needs, some group members tend to play a task-oriented role, while others play more of a group maintenance function. Some groups have members who are not fully participating and are self-oriented. contribute very little to the task or maintenance needs tend to occupy peripheral roles; membership is tenuous at best Each role defines a set of expectations for a member’s behavior. Role conflict and role ambiguity are two major sources of stress experienced by organizational members. Perceptions of roles expected role: the image of behavior that exists in the minds of others transmitted role: written or verbal description of the role given to the person filling it perceived role: a definition of the role as the individual understands it enacted role: how the role occupant actually fulfills it There are often contradictions among these roles, and it is the manager’s job to see that the contradictions are kept to a minimum. Social Facilitation and Impairment 1. Social facilitation occurs when performance is enhanced by the presence of others. 2. Social impairment occurs when performance is impaired by the presence of others. 3. Increases in arousal facilitate individual performance. 4. There is, however, a critical point at which additional arousal overwhelms the individual and performance suffers. 5. Easy vs. difficult tasks for easy tasks, even very high arousal improves performance for difficult/new tasks, even moderate arousal can be detrimental to performance Key Point: Managers should capitalize on this important psychological phenomenon in decision-making groups. If the decision making involves simple or familiar situations, employees should be allowed to work in the presence of others to increase performance levels. If decision making deals with complex, unfamiliar situations, managers should encourage employees to make the decision privately to keep performance levels high. 6. F. Steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood of overarousal and to take advantage of the social facilitation process. Homogeneity/Heterogeneity 1. Homogeneous groups are made up of individuals with high levels of similarity. 2. Heterogeneous groups are made up of individuals with high levels of diversity. 3. As globalization spurs organizational restructuring, organizations will find that their teams are more and more internally diverse. Key Point: The challenge facing team leaders and management will be to learn how to enhance a team’s competitive advantage through this diversity. 4. Advantages of homogeneous groups encourage the building of good interpersonal relationships 14-4 14 The Nature of Groups and Teams tend to have better communication are easier to coordinate are more likely to reach a consensus often engage in more organizational citizenship behaviors Key Point: Heterogeneous groups have one major advantage over homogeneous groups: they bring a greater variety of information and ideas. This variety frequently results in higher decision quality. 5. G. Cohesiveness 1. Cohesiveness is an interpersonal relationship reflecting the degree to which group members all adhere to the group’s norms. 2. Two forms of cohesiveness (paralleling the two major group needs) task-oriented social-emotional 3. Figure 14-2 p. 521 Figure 14-3 p. 522 Other characteristics of heterogeneous groups often more creative extra energy and effort is directed toward building trust, communicating openly, creating shared norms, and establishing cohesiveness 4. 5. Characteristics of highly cohesive teams members accept the goals of the group norms are internalized member work toward meeting the teams task- and maintenance-oriented needs Factors strengthening team cohesiveness threats to the team’s needs success time spent together team attractiveness small group size similarity Consequences of cohesiveness team members enjoy being part of the team lower voluntary turnover and absenteeism high levels of motivation directed toward one or both of the group’s needs members accept norms and tend to participate more fully teams often have higher productivity than less cohesive teams more effective, efficient decision making Key Point: High levels of cohesion and satisfaction do not necessarily increase performance. Performance is dependent upon a match between the goals of the group and those of the organization. Managers need both to foster strong cohesion within a group and to direct it towards organizationally desirable goals. 6. H. The negative side of team cohesion tendency for group members to follow the wishes of team leaders or group members when the ultimate consequences are negative social pressures to conform a disproportionate amount of energy is directed toward the maintenance needs of the group Spatial Arrangement and Team Structure 1. People’s physical location when they interact strongly affects behavior, attitudes and motivation. 2. Spatial arrangement affects the transfer of information, conflict, and leader emergence, among other things. 14-5 14 The Nature of Groups and Teams 3 Team Formation, Development and Facilitation A. Figure 14-4 p. 523 Table 14-5 p. 524 Stages of Team Development 1. Stage 1: Orientation members are often uncertain about the team’s purpose, rules, leadership, roles members exchange information, ask questions about other members, and attempt to define the nature of the team 2. Stage 2: Conflict often, team members compete for leadership and role assignments disagreements may aside over procedures and the merits of the team itself Key Point: Because the conflict stage is unpleasant and often ineffective, many teams try to deny its onset or deal with its issues superficially; however, forcing a team to bypass the conflict stage greatly increases the chances of regression to this stage at a later date. 3. 4. 5. 6. B. 4 Stage 3: Cohesion team members work through personal differences, develop a set of norms, and agree on their roles group structure emerges a sense of team identity emerges significant increases in team effectiveness are common during this stage Stage 4: Delusion members believe that significant problems no longer exist at this stage, a team may fall prey to groupthink and commit errors due to its false sense of perfection Stage 5: Disillusion members are shocked into awareness of the problems that still confront the team cohesiveness decreases, and members may be tempted to leave the team “team puberty” Stage 6: Acceptance members discuss their differences rather than fighting over them aggressively attack issues; de-emphasize personal interests team effectiveness increases rapidly, as does members’ satisfaction Individual Differences and Group Fit 1. Like a successful marriage, there will be work adjustment and the motivation to continue the relationship by both the individual and the organization when each’s needs are met. 2. Work adjustment (a fit between the individual and the organization) exists when the needs of the individual are appropriately reinforced by the benefits and opportunities offered by the organization the needs of the organization are fulfilled by the skills and abilities of the employee 3. Characteristics of effective team players extroverted conscientious agreeable internal locus of control high need for affiliation collectivist 4. In addition to the opposites of the factors listed above, people with strong needs for autonomy, achievement, and Machiavellianism do not generally work well in teams. 5. It is important to construct groups with individuals who are more likely to fit with the group and find their membership personally fulfilling. Team Performance A. Figure 14-5 p. 527 Team Performance Capacity 1. A team’s capacity to perform is strongly influenced by the knowledge, skills, abilities, 14-6 14 The Nature of Groups and Teams 2. 3. 5 and information that the team possesses and that can be brought to the task. Also refers to the team’s culture, norms, level of group development, and structure. Two important elements of team structure interdependence: the degree to which team members are dependent upon and affected by one another as they perform their respective team roles team autonomy/self-leadership: the degree to which an external supervisor performs the activities representing leadership it is believed that high interdependence and levels of autonomy are positively associated with team performance B. Team Performance Motivation 1. Team motivation is reflected by the strength of the motivation brought individual members and whatever synergistic effects that might occur among the team members. 2. Extrinsic motivators are incentives administered to the group by others. 3. Intrinsic motivators individual-based: forces operating upon each team member from within themselves group-based: forces coming from within the group, operating upon group members 4. Collective efficacy: the degree to which members of a group believe that the group has the capacity to achieve one or more of its performance objectives. there is emerging evidence that collective efficacy is crucial for what a group of people choose to do the strength of a group lies partially in its sense of collective efficacy 5. Influences on the development of individual self-efficacy enactive mastery: repeated performance accomplishments vicarious experiences: modeling of self or others in task performance verbal persuasion: receipt of information about one’s capacity for task performance logical verification: deriving new knowledge from things already known emotional arousal: being sufficiently stimulated to focus on task performance 6. Level of team empowerment is also related to the strength of its motivation to perform. 7. A team is empowered when the following characteristics are present: collective efficacy meaningfulness autonomy impact 8. Goal setting, especially setting specific goals, has a positive impact on performance. C. Team Performance Strategy 1. Having a clear outcome toward which the team is working, coupled with an action plan that details how they are to proceed and interact with one another. 2. Performance expectations frequently have a process component. D. Team Performance Context 1. The environment surrounding the team impacts it, yet remains out of members’ control. 2. Team performance context represents the rest of the organization that lies outside of the team’s formal boundaries. Managing Team Effectiveness A. Table 14-6 p. 530 Components of Team Effectiveness 1. Customer satisfaction 2. Performance quantity 3. Performance quality 4. Member satisfaction 5. Member commitment 6. Cooperation 7. Absenteeism 8. Turnover 9. Citizenship behavior 14-7 14 The Nature of Groups and Teams B. Figure 14-6 p. 531 Impediments to Team Effectiveness 1. Social loafing individuals fail to put forth their best efforts in the belief that their contributions will get lost in the group effort the ability to observe and evaluate individual effort is the most effective way to reduce the likelihood of social loafing 2. Diffusion of responsibility individuals fail to act in the belief that it is the job of others to act, or because the presence of others reduced feelings of accountability often difficult to identify 3. Polarization the group takes a position that is more extreme than that which would have been taken if members were acting alone risky shift: the group makes a decision that is more prone to risk than the average individual operating alone cautious shift: the group makes a decision that is less prone to risk than the average individual operating alone risky shift occurs more often polarization happens because of familiarization with the situation diffusion of responsibility individual members persuading others to take risks cultural values 4. Escalation of commitment a group and/or individual continually sticks with a commitment, even when signals suggest that a bad decision has been made occurs for psychological, social, and structural reasons factors which reduce the tendency of escalation frequent and timely feedback numerous decision opportunities low visibility 5. Premature closure a rush to resolution commonly occurs when a member has a preferred solution to avoid hurt feelings and reduce uncertainty, the problem is not explored adequately adopting a systematic decision making/problem solving process reduces the likelihood of premature closure 6. Groupthink happens when a group has illusions of invulnerability that lead it to accept excessive risks members believe that the group’s purpose is to righteous that they do not question the morality of its assumptions or tactics highly cohesive groups are commonly victims of groupthink consequences few alternatives are considered reexamination of decisions is unlikely reexamination of a rejected alternative is unlikely outside experts are seldom used facts that do not support the group are ignored risks are ignored or glossed over can cause highly capable groups to make terrible decisions some examples of bad decisions made as a result of groupthink Challenger space shuttle disaster Bay of Pigs invasion escalation of the Vietnam conflict Watergate cover-up to prevent groupthink encourage members to evaluate ideas openly and critically 14-8 14 The Nature of Groups and Teams 6 ask influential members to adopt an initial neutral stance discuss the group’s decision with an independent outside body use expert advisors to challenge group views have outside experts attend group meetings assign a devil’s advocate role to one or more group members explore alternative scenarios for possible external reactions use subgroups to develop alternative solutions meet to reconsider decisions prior to implementation groups with high levels of task-oriented cohesion and low levels of social-emotional cohesion are less likely to suffer from groupthink Employee Responses to Work Teams A. Figure 14-7 p. 534 Figure 14-8 p. 535 B. Effects of Groups upon Members 1. Informational: groups affect the beliefs and knowledge that group members possess 2. Affective: members’ job satisfaction is likely to be affected by the work that they do as a work group member 3. Behavioral: Group properties such as size, cohesiveness, etc. affect member performance, attendance, and acts of citizenship 4. Motivational: Groups may posses the ability to stir the enthusiasm of their members by their ability to satisfy an individual’s motives Groups as Organizations 1. Groups fit the definition of organizations. two or more people a common purpose joined together with a communication and command system relatively enduring people-to-people and people-to-work interaction network 2. Each can be seen as a socio-technical system. 3. Decision-making, planning, directing, and controlling need to take place for or within the group. 4. There appears to be a consistent pattern of teams leading to worker satisfaction. 14-9