Effective Team Management - Essentials of Contemporary Management Chapter 11 16/10/10

(LG2) What is the difference between groups and teams? What types are there?
(LG3) How is a well-functioning team characterized?
(LG4) Are there different roles in team/group?
(LG5) How do the interpersonal roles affect the team? (Mintzberg)
(LG6) How can leadership facilitate or harm creativity and learning? (Chapter 2)

Groups, Teams and Organizational Effectiveness: (LG2)

A group is defined as two or more people who interact to accomplish certain goals or meet certain
needs. A team is a group whose members work intensely with one another to achieve a specific
goal. All teams are groups but not all groups are teams! Groups and teams can help to gain a
competitive advantage:

 Performance Enhancers:
Through Synergy the outputs of people who work together are more worth as if there
would work separately. Advantages of Synergies are:
o Bounce Ideas against each other
o Correct one another mistakes
o Solve problems as they arise
o Diverse knowledge base
o Accomplish Work that is to vast for an individual

“The whole is more than the sum of its parts.”

Teams should be composed to have complementary skills and relevant knowledge for the
work (e.g. cross-functional teams).

 Responsiveness to Customers:
Being responsiveness often requires a wide range of skills and expertise found in different
departments and at different level within an organizations hierarchy.
o The lowest level are usually the closest to customers and know their needs
o The higher levels possess the required technical expertise
The diversity of expertise and knowledge need to be responsive to customers when
mangers form a team.

 Teams and Innovation:

Innovation can be encouraged by creating teams of diverse individuals who have together
the relevant knowledge and individual alone is lacking.
o Team members are able to uncover errors or false assumptions
o Teams can critique one another’s approaches (devils advocacy)
Teams should be empowered by their managers and made fully responsible and behold
accountable for their performance. A Managers role is to provide guidance, assistance,
coaching and resources not direct supervision of activities.

 Groups and Teams as Motivators:

o Team Members can see more how their efforts and expertise result in the
achievement of team and organizational goals and feel more responsible
o Groups and Teams can satisfy the need for social interaction
 Friends or Family Members might not understand work related issues or
problems as goods as colleagues or other team members
Types of Groups and Teams: (LG2)
Formal groups are those established by a manager in order to achieve organizational goals. Formal
work groups can be cross-functional teams (composed of members from different departments) or
cross-cultural teams (composed of members from different cultures and countries).
Informal group is a group that, formed by managers or non-managers, which helps to achieve own
goals or meet own needs.

 The Top-Management Team: formal

It is responsible for the development of strategies that help to gain a competitive advantage.
CEOs are advised to stress diversity in expertise, skills, knowledge and experience of their
top-managers.
o Diversity ensures that enough resources and background are provided to make good
decisions
o Diversity helps to prevent groupthink

 Research and Development Team: formal

It is responsible to develop new products and should be selected on basis of expertise and
experience in certain areas of team members (can be cross-functional – marketing,
engineering, manufacturing)

 Command Groups: formal

Subordinates who report to the same supervisor, they are also often called departments or
units.

 Task Forces: formal

Managers form a task force to accomplish specific goals or solve problems in a certain time-
period. They are also called ad hoc committees and usually disperse after the job is done.
They can be valuable tools for busy managers who do not have the time to explore an
important issue in detail.

 Self-Managed Work Teams: formal

These are teams in which team members are empowered and have the responsibility and
autonomy to complete a certain task. Mangers provide and overall goal but the team
decides how to achieve the goal.
o Teams should be given enough responsibility to be truly self-managing
o The work has to be sufficiently complex and includes different steps in order to be
accomplished
o Team members should have the diversity of skills required and the ability to work
together
o Managers should be guidance and seen as resource the team can turn to
o Provide necessary training for team members
  Virtual Teams: formal
Is a team whose members rarely or never meet each other face to face but interact via
forms of information technology. Virtual Teams are becoming more and more important in
terms of globalization and global organizing.
o Synchronous Technology: team members interacting in real time, such as
videoconferencing, teleconferencing and electronic meetings
o Asynchronous Technology: communication through email, electronic bulletin boards
and Internet Web-Sites.
Managers have to try to build up as sense of trust among the team members (e.g. activities
to get known with each other). Teams should be formed trough:
o A few members who already know each other
o Members who have contacts to people outside the team
o Voluntary team members
It is advantageous to have a web site where people can learn about each other, share online
workspace which can be accessed by every team member around the clock.

 Friendship Groups: informal

Groups composed of employees who enjoy one another´s company and socialize with one
another. Friendship groups can be helpful to solve work-related problems.

 Interest Groups: informal

Employees form interest groups when they seek to achieve a common goal. The can provide
a manager with an insight in job-related issues and concerns and they are a signal for
change.

Group Dynamics: (LG3)

The group function depends on the group characteristics and group processes, which are known as
group dynamics.

 Group Size:
o Small Groups:
Advantages Disadvantages
 Interact more with each other  Fewer resources available
 Easier to coordinate (expertise, different skills,
 Easier to share Information experience, etc.)
 Recognition of personal
contribution

o Large Groups:
Advantages
 More resources at disposal
(knowledge, experience, skills,
etc.)
 Division of labour possible
(specialising in task to become
expert)
Disadvantages
 Communication Problems
 Coordination Problems
 Lower levels of Motivation
 Difficult to share Information

Groups should have not more members than necessary to perform division of labour and
have sufficient provided resources and their disposal to achieve their goals.
 Group Roles: (LG4)
A group role is a set of behaviour and task a member is expected to perform because of her
or his position in the group. It has to be clearly communicated to members what they are
expected to be in a group and what is required from them.
o Role Making: is the process by which group members take initiative to further
responsibilities and modify their role in a group
o If groups assign their own roles a manager should act as advisor
o Group roles can help to control group performance.

 Group Leadership:
Leadership is needed and a key element to high performing groups, teams and
organizations.
o Formal Leaders: those appointed by a manager
o Informal Leaders: those who emerge naturally
Leaders play an important part in ensuring that groups are meeting their expectations and
true potential (motivating, guiding, etc.).

 Group Development over Time:

It can take quite a bit of time until a group or team is performing own its true capabilities.
What a group is capable of depend on their stage of development.
1. Forming: members get to known with each other and reach a common
understanding
2. Storming: conflicts and disagreement arose because some members do not meet the
demand of the group
3. Norming: close ties develop and feelings of friendship
4. Performing: the real work of a group gets accomplished
5. Adjourning: applies only to group which disperse after accomplishment, such as task
force.

A managers needs to have at all stages a flexible approach and need to be a resources for
the group. They should always try to find ways to help the group functioning more
effectively and efficiently.

 Group Norms:
These are shared guidelines or rules for behaviour that most of the group fellow, such as
working hours, sharing information, how certain group task should be performed or how
group members should be dressed. Norms should contribute to group performance and the
attainment of group/organizational goals. Like Group Roles they are a control device.
Group members confirm to norms for three reasons:
1. Obtainment of rewards or Avoidance of Punishment
2. Imitate group members they like or admire
3. Internalized that the norm or believe is the right way to do behave

o Conformity and Deviance:

Failure to conform or deviance occurs when a member of a group violates group
norms. Groups usually respond in three different ways:
1. The group tries to change the members behaviour
2. The group expel the member
 3. The group changes to the member´s behaviour
The last alternative suggests that the change of the member is functional for the
group. Deviance can cause group members to reflect on their norms and change
them if necessary to be effective and efficient.
 Need for balance between conformity and deviance
 Ensure enough tolerance of deviance
The Mangers as role model: (LG6)
 should encourage and accept employees suggestions for changes
 should let their employees know that there are always ways to improve
group process and performance
 Encourage groups and teams to periodically asses their existing norms.

 Group Cohesiveness:
Is the degree to which members are attracted to or loyal to their group or team. Research
suggests a moderate/balanced level of cohesiveness.

o Level of Participation within a group: as group cohesiveness increases the extend of

group members participation within the group increases.
 High level not recommended because it can lead to non-work-related
conversation
 At a moderate level meetings are more efficient because ideas are
discussed and communicated as needed
o Level of Conformity to Group Norms: as group cohesiveness increases the
conformity to group norms increases
 At a high group members will have little deviance and this can result
dysfunctional norms
 A balanced level of conformity leads to best outcomes because conformity
and deviance are in balance
o Emphasis on Group Goal Accomplishment: as group cohesiveness increases the
emphasis on group goal accomplishment increases.
 a high emphasis on group goal accomplishment does not lead always to
organizational effectiveness because group goals become more important
than organizational goals

Four factors lead to the level of group cohesiveness and by influencing these determinants
of group cohesiveness; managers can raise or lower the level of cohesiveness to promote a
moderate/balanced level.

o Group Size: managers should form groups that are small to medium size (e.g. If a
group is low in size Mangers might decide to split the group in two smaller parts)
o Effectively Managed Diversity: diversity in groups, teams or organizations helps to
gain a competitive advantage because divisive groups (in knowledge, experience,
expertise) are more innovative and creative (e.g. one reason why cross-functional
teams are so popular)
o Group Identity and healthy competition: if group cohesiveness is low managers try
to encourage groups to develop their own personalities and engage in healthy
competition with other groups. If it is too high managers might promote more
organizational identity and goals.
o Success: When cohesiveness is low managers can increase it by making sure that the
group achieves some noticeable and visible success.
Managing Groups and Teams for High Performance: (LG3)
Managers can increase performance and the motivation to perform on a high level by making sure
that the group themselves benefits from performing high (e.g. bonuses for getting a job fast done).
― Managers can try to base bonuses on individual performance if identifiable if not they should
base it on team performance (see merit pay chapter 9)
― Teams who performed at a high level could also be rewarded with interesting assignments
(e.g. Microsoft)
“The more you do for your employees, the more they do for shareholder
and the more they do for the community.”

 Reducing Social Loafing in Groups:

Social Loafing is the tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they work in groups
that when they work alone.
1. Make Individual contributions to a group identifiable.
 Group members should perceive that low and high levels of effort are
noticed
 Assigning specific task to group members and holding them accountable
 Cooperation between group members to eliminate social loafing by making
contributions identifiable (e.g. daily division of labour)
2. Emphasize the valuable contributions of individual members.
 Necessary because some people think that their efforts are unnecessary or
unimportant for the group
 Clearly communicating that each person’s contribution are valuable to the
effectiveness of the group itself
 Illustrated in cross-functional teams
3. Keep group size at an appropriate level.
 As size increase identifying individual contributions becomes more difficult
 As stated early just enough members to make a division of labour and to
have sufficient resources