Nature of Groups and Teams (Team Effectiveness; 10/14/2026)

Groups definition

Two or more individuals who are connected by and within social relationships

Bisi’s crazy example of what could be a group

Pregnant woman

Why study groups?

• Groups are and always will be essential to human life

• We grow, learn and even die in groups

Groups of 150 or more

Nearly impossible for people within it to interact in a meaningful way

Basic types of groups

• Primary

• Social

• Collectives

• Categories

Primary groups

Families, close friends, small combat squads (fireteams), etc.

Social groups

Coworkers, teams, crews, study groups, task forces, etc.

Collectives groups

• Audiences

• Queues

• Mobs

• Crowds

• Social movements

Categories groups

• Men

• Asian Americans

• New Yorkers

• Doctors

• Britons

Composition

Who belongs to the group?

Boundaries

Who does NOT belong?

Size

How large is the group?

Interaction

What do members do when they’re in group?

Interdependence

Do the members depend on and influence each other?H

Structure

How is the group organized?

Goal

What is the group’s purpose?

Origin

Formed or emergent group?

Unity (cohesion & entitativity)

How cohesive is the group? Does the group LOOK like a group (entitativity or single entity)?

Teams

Teams are fundamentally groups; but not all groups are teams. Teams require more from the members in the way of collaboration and coordination

The word team is usually reserved for a particular type of group

• One whose members are working together in the pursuit of a shared goal

• Differ in terms of identifiable goals, nature of tasks, specialized knowledge/role, inclusive nature, interdependence, power to operate

Definition of teams

Group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources, and skills and who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal

The sine qua non of a team

Task-oriented interdependence

Other identifying characteristics of a team

• Collective goal

• Members have complementary KSAs (taskwork and teamwork)

• Different roles and responsibilities

• Well structured; bounded and stable

• Some authority to manage their own work and internal processes

Outcome interdependence

How much does the cost and benefits depend on the interdependence of the team?

Varieties of teams

• Work

• Management

• Project

• Advisory

Work teams

• Production teams

• Construction crews

• Performing ensembles

• Sports teams

Management teams

• Board of directors

• Top management teams (TMTs)

• Executive teams

Project teams

• Commissions

• Research and development teams

• Task forces

Advisory teams

• Panels

• Steering committees

• Review boards

• Mentoring groups

Tactical key objective of teams

• Directive, highly-focused tasks

• Role clarity

• Well-defined operation

• Accuracy

Problem-solving key objective of teams

• Focus on issues

• Separate people from problem

• Consider facts, not opinions

• Conduct thorough investigation

• Suspend judgement

Creative key objective for teams

Explore possibilities and alternatives

Elements of high-performance work teams

• Decision authority over how to achieve goals

• Compelling purpose, clear objectives, and explicit metrics

• Diversity of skills and unambiguous roles (members act as leaders)

• Streamlined team size (6 or fewer)

• Continually raising the performance bar

• Support (H-P leader, PMS) and coaching

Why use teams?

• Information wealth (tech)

• Competition

• Globalization and culture

• Multigenerational employees and different values

When are teams appropriate?

• When tasks are:

  • Difficult

  • Complex (e.g., technical uncertainty)

  • Important

Equifinality

Multiple ways to measure an outcome

Broad dimensions of team effectiveness

• Productivity

• Learning and growth

  • Benefitting the individual member

• Developing social relations

  • Cohesion

  • Team viability

  • Member satisfaction

• Integration

Characteristics of successful teams

• Clear goals

• Appropriate leadership

• Organizational support

• Suitable tasks

• Accountability and rewards

Actual productivity =

Potential productivity - potential losses + potential gains

Steiner’s (1972) task typology and ways to comvine effort

• Additive tasks → sum or mean

• Compensatory tasks → mean

• Disjunctive tasks → maximum (best team member’s value)

• Conjunctive tasks → minimum (least performing member’s value)

Additive tasks → sum or mean

• Painting a house; competing in a tug-of-war

• Pooled interdependence

Compensatory tasks → mean

• Team making judgements about the temperature of a room, estimating the number of beans in ajar, forecasting stock prices

Disjunctive tasks → maximum (best team member’s value)

• The decisions of juries; problem solving by technical team

Conjunctive tasks → minimum (least performing member’s value)

• Assembly-line work

• Sequential interdependence