Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Why Have Teams Become So Popular Teams are more flexible and responsive to changing events can quickly assemble deploy refocus and disband Differences Between Groups and Teams Group two or more individuals interacting and interdependent who have come together to achieve particular objectives Work group is a group that interacts primarily to share info and make decisions to help each member perform within his area of responsibility performance is just a summation of each member s work Work team generates positive synergy through coordinated effort individual efforts result in a level of performance greater than the sum of those individual inputs Types of Teams Problem solving teams groups of 5 12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality efficiency and the work environment only make recommendations Self managed work teams groups of 10 15 people who take on responsibilities of their former supervisors Cross functional teams employees from about the same hierarchical level but from different work areas who come together to accomplish a task Virtual teams teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal Creating Effective Teams Context o Adequate resources no resources hinders the ability of a team to perform need timely information proper equipment adequate staffing encouragement and administrative assistance o Leadership structure Multiteam systems systems in which different teams need to coordinate their efforts to produce a desired outcome o Climate of trust facilitates cooperation reduces the need to monitor others behavior o Performance evaluation and reward systems group based appraisals profit sharing gainsharing small group incentives Team Composition o Ability of members o Personality of members o Allocation of roles linker creator promoter assessor organizer producer controller maintainer adviser o Density of members Organizational demography the degree to which members of a work unit share a common demographic attribute such as age sex race educational level or length of service in an organization and the impact of this attribute on turnover o Size of teams want smaller teams o Member preferences Team processes o Member commitment to a common purpose establishment of specific team goals team efficacy a managed level of conflict and minimized social loafing o Reflexivity a team characteristic of reflecting on and adjusting the o Mental models team members knowledge and beliefs about how master plan when necessary the work gets done by the team Turning Individuals into Team Players contributors into team players What can organizations do to enhance team effectiveness To turn individual o Don t hire them o Assign them to a position that doesn t require teamwork o Undergo training o Provide incentives Beware Teams Aren t Always The Answer Teamwork takes more time and often more resources than individual work How do you know whether the work of your group would be better done in teams o Can the work be done better by more than 1 person simple tasks are left better to individuals o Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the people in the group that is more than the aggregate of individual goals o Determine whether the members of the group are interdependent
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