Download Organizational Leadership 1e.

1e.
Chapter 11
Followers in Work Groups
and Work Teams
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook
Chapter Objectives
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
 Differentiate between a work group and a work
team.
 Describe and critically evaluate the theories of
team development.
 Articulate how group norms and group
cohesiveness exert influence on individual
followers and on group behavior.
 Critically analyze and understand theories of group
learning.
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
11–2
Chapter Objectives (cont’d)
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
 Explain the paradoxes associated with team-based
work and how those paradoxes affect leader–
follower dynamics.
 Describe key methods a team leader can employ to
create an effective work team.
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11–3
Assumptions about Teams—True or
False?
• Individual, group, and organizational goals can all be
integrated into common team goals.
• The work–team ideology downplays the importance
of leadership by suggesting that high-performing
teams can dispense with or ignore leadership.
• The team environment drives out psychologically
impoverishing work and conflict, which divert
workers from doing their work efficiently.
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11–4
Why Study Work Groups
• Working in groups and teams has become a
significant feature of North American and European
organizational life.
• Research consistently and persuasively
demonstrates that individual followers act differently
in a work group than they do when working
independently.
• Understanding the nature and dynamics of groups is
an important aspect of understanding followership.
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11–5
Distinguishing Work Groups and Work
Teams
• Psychological Group
 Individuals who perceive themselves to be in a group,
who have a shared sense of collective identity, and
who relate to each other in a meaningful way.
• Work Group
 Two or more people who are in a face-to-face
interaction, aware of their membership in the group,
and striving together to accomplish assigned tasks.
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11–6
Distinguishing Work Groups and Work
Teams (cont’d)
• Formal Work Group
 Work groups or teams created by organizational
leaders to permit collective action on assigned
organizational tasks.
• Informal Work Group
 Groups of employees, not established by leaders, that
emerge from the social interaction of followers; they
act to fulfill social needs of their members for
affiliation and supportive relationships.
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11–7
Distinguishing Work Groups and Work
Teams (cont’d)
• Team
 A small number of employees with complementary
skills who work cooperatively, share a common
purpose, performance goals, and approach for which
they hold themselves mutually accountable.
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11–8
Distinguishing Work Groups and Work
Teams (cont’d)
• Self-Managed Work Team (SMWT)
 A long-term group of employees who are highly
interdependent and collectively accountable for
managing and performing technical tasks that result
in a product or service being delivered to an internal
or external customer.
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
11–9
Reflective Questions ▼
• You have probably experienced working in a
group as part of your management program.
 Did your group have a leader? Why or why not?
 Did each member of the group contribute equally to
completing the assignment?
 What specific behaviors exhibited during the group
sessions were helpful to the group?
 What specific behaviors exhibited were detrimental to
the group? Why?
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
11–10
Theories of Work Groups
• Classical Management Theory (F.W. Taylor)
 Takes a control-oriented approach (Team Taylorism)
to work teams entailing the use of information
systems.
• Human Relations Theory
 Emphasized the importance of social relations within
work groups and the need for followers to be engaged
in decision making related to their work—by enabling
followers to satisfy higher order needs, leaders could
improve productivity.
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11–11
Theories of Work Groups (cont’d)
• Sociotechnical Systems Theory
 Proposed that the labor process could be better
understood in terms of two systems:
 The
technical system (i.e., machinery and
equipment)
 The
social system of relationships and other
interactions among the followers
 The systems that can be redesigned to “enrich” jobs.
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
11–12
Theories of Work Groups (cont’d)
• Job Enrichment Theory
 Refers to a number of different ways of rotating,
enlarging, and aggregating tasks.
 Increases the range of tasks and skills of followers, as
well as the control followers have over the way they
work, either individually or in teams.
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11–13
Theories of Work Groups (cont’d)
• Job Characteristics Model
 Suggests a causal relationship between five core job
characteristics and the follower’s psychological state.
The five core job characteristics are:

Skill variety, task identity, task significance,
autonomy, feedback
 The higher a job scores on the five core job
characteristics, the greater its motivating potential.
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11–14
The Three Dimensions of Job Design:
Technical, Governance, and Sociocultural
Figure 11.2
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11–15
Classification of Work Teams
Figure 11.3
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11–16
Group Dynamics
• Group Dynamics
 Is the study of followers’ behavior in groups.
 Is concerned with the nature of groups, group
development, and interrelations between individual
followers and groups.
 Emphasizes changes in the patterns of activities, the
subjective perceptions of individual group members,
and their active involvement in group life.
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11–17
Group Dynamics (cont’d)
• Group Processes
 Task-oriented activities
 Are
aimed at accomplishing goals, or “getting the
job done.”
 Maintenance-oriented activities
 Involve
the subjective perceptions of group
members and their active interest in maintaining
acceptable standards of behavior and a general
state of well-being within the group.
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11–18
A Model of Group Dynamics
Figure 11.4
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11–19
Factors Affecting Group Dynamics
• Group Context
 The aspects of the organization—organizational and
job design, organizational control systems, and
organizational resources—that constrain the
operations of the group.
• Group Structure
 Structure is the stable pattern of relationships among
differentiated elements in the group that is affected by
variables such as size, roles, status, and leadership.
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11–20
The Incremental Effects of Group Size
on Relationships
Figure 11.5
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11–21
Factors Affecting Group Dynamics (cont’d)
• Group Formation
 Developmental stages for groups:
 Forming:
setting ground rules
 Storming:
developing roles and responsibilities
 Norming:
acceptance of roles and differences
 Performing:
high cohesion and productivity
 Adjourning:
disbandment of the group
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
11–22
Factors Affecting Group Dynamics (cont’d)
• Group Norms
 Expected patterns of behavior established and shared
by the group’s members that inform followers of
proper group behavior (group socialization).
• Group Cohesiveness
 Is the complex forces that give rise to followers’
perceptions of group identity and the attractiveness of
group membership.
 Can help or harm organizational performance
depending upon whether or not the group’s goals are
aligned with organizational goals.
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11–23
Reflective Question ▼
• A commonly held view, long studied by
sociologists, is that relationships formed in
groups shape people’s behavior.
 Think about your experience working in a group.
 What norms and values did the group exhibit?
 Did any individual member challenge a particular
norm?
 If so, how did the other group members respond
to the challenge? If not, why not?
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11–24
Factors Affecting Group Dynamics (cont’d)
• Disadvantages of Highly Cohesive Groups
 A small group is likely to control individual members
completely.
 Groups of individuals are likely to follow the directions
of appointed authority figures.
 The pressure to maintain a group’s consensus can
lead to groupthink and harm its decision making
process.
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11–25
Factors Affecting Group Dynamics (cont’d)
• Group Outcomes
 Task performance: groups that are highly cohesive
and have performance norms supportive of
organizational goals will have high productivity.
 Decision making: the decision-making ability of a
cohesive work group can be significantly greater than
the sum of all members’ individual capabilities
(synergy).
 Conflict: Intergroup conflict can be an outcome of
group-based work structure.
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11–26
Factors Affecting Group Dynamics (cont’d)
• Intergroup Conflict
 Social identity theory
 Argues that followers use group membership as a
source of pride and self-worth.
 Functional theory
 Assumes that conflict is the result of one group’s
perceiving another group as a threat
 Interactionist view
 Conflicts at an “optimal level” in organizations and
work groups are productive and can increase
rather than decrease performance.
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11–27
Group Learning
• Group Development
 In order for a group or team to make relatively
permanent changes in behavior, individual members
of the group must be able to learn— that is, to share
and build on their individual knowledge.
 Team learning: a social process in which a group
creates knowledge for members, for itself, and others
in the organization
 Fragmented learning
 Pooled learning
 Synergistic learning
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11–28
Group Cohesiveness, Norms,
and Task Performance
Figure 11.6
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11–29
Team-Learning Conditions, Processes,
Modes, and Outcomes
Source: Adapted from Kasl, E, Marsick, V., and Dechant, K. (1997). “Teams
as Learners,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 3 (2), pp. 227–246.
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
Figure 11.7
11–30
View CD
• Go to the CD-ROM and click on Focus on
Followers; then choose the leadership and
learning button.
 What are the implications for leadership
practitioners when an organization becomes a
“learning organization”?
 What role do leaders play in facilitating group
learning?
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11–31
Determinants of Group Learning
Group’s Belief
System
Past Experiences
Group
Learning
Self-Esteem
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Job Design
11–32
The Determinants of Group Learning
• Past Experiences
 Followers learn from their personal pasts and from their
observations of others in similar contexts.
• Group’s Belief System
 The group’s understanding of its task, of itself as a group,
and of its organizational and external environment as it
experiences it.
• Job Design
 High-quality informal learning is contingent on high-quality
job design.
• Self-Esteem
 Beliefs about individual capabilities affect the ability to
learn.
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11–33
Teams: Paradoxes and Prescriptions
• Positives
• Negatives
 Dignity and selfworth
 Intensifies
management control
 Commitment
 Increases the
intensity of work
 Synergy
 Expands skills
 Empowers
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 Increases peer
pressure
11–34
How to Lead Work Teams
• Determine if teams are necessary to accomplish the
organization’s goals.
• Provide adequate resources for the team to
accomplish its tasks.
• Ensure that all team members know and understand
the team’s goals.
• Design work structures that provide flexibility and
autonomy.
• Provide training for team leaders so that they can
play a supportive role.
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11–35
How to Lead Work Teams (cont’d)
• Take careful account of the knowledge and skills that
each follower brings to the team.
• Provide regular feedback to team members
regarding their performance.
• Design a compensation system that encourages
followers to contribute to the overall performance of
the team.
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11–36