Chapter 10—Managing Teams

Work Teams

A small number of people with complementary skills who are mutually accountable for: Pursuing a common purpose, Achieving performance goals, and Improving interdependent work processes

Cross-training

training team members to do all or most of the jobs performed by the other team members

Groupthink

members feel the pressure not to disagree with each other

Minority domination

one or two people dominate team discussions

Social Loafing

One team member not doing their work

technical work group

composed of two or more people who work together to achieve a shared goal

employee involvement team

team that provides advice or makes suggestions to management concerning specific issues

semi-autonomous work group

a group that has the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks or producing a product or service

self-managing teams

a team that manages and controls all of the major tasks of producing a product or service

self-designing team

team that has the characteristics of self-managing teams but also controls team design, work tasks, and team membership

cross-functional teams

a team composed of employees from different functional areas of the organization

virtual team

a team composed of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use telecommunication and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task

project team

a team created to complete specific, onetime projects or tasks within a limited time

work-team characteristics

to make teams an effective part of organizations, managers need to understand the characteristics of work teams

team norms

informally agreed-on standards that regulate team behavior

team cohesiveness

the extent to which team members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain in it

team size

for most teams the right size is somewhere between six and nine members

cognitive (c-type) conflict

problem-related differences of opinion

affective (a-type) conflict

emotional reactions that can occur because of personal disagreements

1. forming

2. storming

3. norming

4. performing

5. de-norming

6. de-storming

7. de-forming

Stages of Team Development

forming

team members meet each other, form initial impressions, and “begin” to establish team norms

storming

conflict and disagreement, in which team members disagree over what the team should do and how it should do it

norming

team members begin to settle into their roles, group cohesion grows, and positive team norms develop

performing

performance improves because the team has matured into an effective, fully functioning team

de-norming

team performance begins to decline as the size, scope, goal, or members of the team change

de-storming

team’s comfort level decreases, team cohesion weakens, and angry emotions and conflict may flare

de-forming

team members position themselves to control pieces of the team, avoid each other, and isolate themselves from team leaders

specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

individualism-collectivism

the degree to which a person believes that people should be self-sufficient and that loyalty to one’s self is more important than loyalty to team or company

team level

the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team

team diversity

the variances or differences in ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team

skill-based pay

compensation system that pays employees for learning additional skills or knowledge

gainsharing

a compensation system in which companies share the financial value of performance gains, such as increased productivity, cost savings, or quality, with their workers