Groups & Teams

Organizational Behavior

Team Characteristics

A team consists of two or more people working interdependently towards common task-oriented goals over time.

Task Interdependence

Type of Team Interdependence - Refers to the degree team members rely on each other for information, materials, and resources to accomplish work.

Goal Interdependence

Type of Team Interdependence - Occurs when team members share a vision of the team's goal and align individual goals with that vision.

Team Composition

Includes aspects like member roles, abilities, personalities, diversity, and size, influencing team effectiveness.

Team Processes

Reflect various activities and interactions within a team, impacting its effectiveness through aspects like process gain and loss.

Taskwork Processes

Involve creative behavior, decision making, boundary spanning, and other activities related to task accomplishment.

Teamwork Processes

Include transition processes for future work preparation and action processes for ongoing task completion. along with interpersonal processes.

Interpersonal Processes

Focus on managing relationships within the team, including motivating, conflict management, and building confidence.

Team States

the specific types of thoughts and failings in the minds of team members and the consequence of working together. Represent specific thoughts and feelings within team members, such as cohesion, groupthink, potency, mental models, and transactive memory.

Work Teams

Produce goods or services (self-managed, production team, maintenance team, sales team)

Management Team

Integrates activities of sub-units across business functions (Top management team)

Parallel Team

Provide recommendations and resolve issues (quality circle, advisory council, committee)

Project Team

Produce a one-time outputs (e.g. product, service, plan, design, etc.) (product design team, research group, planning team

Action Team

Perform complex tasks that vary in duration and take place in highly visible or challenging circumstances (surgical team, musical group, expedition team, sports team)

Predicable Sequence of Team Development

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning

Punctuated equilibrium

at first, teams develop patterns of behavior and those behaviors are continued until about the middle part, because of inertia. And then a process revision takes place, leading team to a higher level of performance.

Outcome Interdependence

Type of team interdepence - exists when team members share in the rewards that team earns

Team Composition

Consists of Member roles, member ability, member personality, team diversity and team size

Team Task Roles

Behaviors that directly facilitate the accomplishment of team tasks (Initiator-contributor, coordinator, orienter, devil’s advocate, energizer, procedural technician)

Team Building Roles

Behaviors that influence the quality of the team’s social climate (Encourager, harmonizer, compromiser, gatekeeper-expediter, standard setter, follower)

Individualistic Roles

Behaviors that benefit the individual at the expense of the team (Aggressor, blocker, recognition seeker, self-confessor, slacker, dominator)

Member Ability

Cognitive and physical abilities needed in a team depend on the nature of the team’s tasks

Disjunctive Tasks

member with highest level of ability will have the most influence on the effectiveness of the team

Conjunctive Tasks

teams performance depends on the “weakest link”

Additive Tasks

contributions from all team members determine team’s performance

Value in Diversity problem-solving approach

diversity is good because different people have different approaches to solving problems

Similarity-attraction approach

diversity may cause problems because people are attracted to those more like them, than those not like them

Surface-level diversity

based on observable attributes - can lead to problems because people make have difficulty communicating with others perceived to be different

Deep-level diversity

based on attibutes that are inferred with experience. (attitudes, values, personality) may not cause problems initially, but can lead to problems over time

Team characteristics

member diversity, task interdependence, team size, etc. affect team processes. Team processes have a strong impact on team effectiveness

Process gain

“Synergy” - team performance level is higher that level of combined individual members

Process loss

getting less from the team than expected based on capabilities of member (coordination loss/motivational loss)

Coordination loss

driven by production blocking - when team members have to wait for one another before starting their part of the task

Motivational loss

driven by social loafing - when members exert less effort due to presence of others

Taskwork processes

Creative behavior, Decision Making, Boundary Spanning

Decision Making

Decision Informity, Staff Validity, Hierarchical Sensitivity

Boundary Spanning

Activities with individuals and groups who are not part of the team. (Ambassador activities, Task coordinator activities, scout activities)

Transition processes

teamwork actitivites that focus on prepartion for future works

Action processes

important as tasks are being completed

Interpersonal processes

manner in which team members manage their relationships

Groupthink

when highly cohesive teams try to maintain harmony by striving toward consensus without considering alternate viewpoints

Potency

degree to which members believe that the team can be effective across a variety of situations and tasks (similar to self-efficacy at individual level)