i/o psychology - chapter 11/12

6 characteristics of effective groups

1) shared goals and purpose

2) agreed upon decision guidelines/procedures

3) communicate freely w/ each other

4) help each other

5) deal with intragroup conflict

6) identify/improve individual and group processes

types of teams

• groups vs. teams - teams interdependent with complimentary skills and shared goals

• functional teams - daily work on many tasks ongoing and interdependent

  • ex. department functions (marketing, HR, quality assurance)

• problem-solving teams - focus on specific issues

  • ex. consultant teams

• cross-functional teams - bring people with different skills together to find and solve mutual problems

  • ex. green beret special force

• self-managed teams - work together to produce entire product (leaderless team)

  • ex. whole foods, zappos

• can combine any of these too

stages of team development

regardless of team, all go through the following life cycle:

• forming - get the group together, decide on goals

• storming - face conflict

• norming - come to agreement, re-eval standards, set norms

• performing - teams diverge (extend their scope)/branch out, autonomous members

• adjourning - after problem is solved, team dies

⭐ risk of failure in transitory periods between stages

⭐️ maturity/acclimation of team increases as time goes on

influences on team effectiveness

• context

  • ex. trying to cultivate NYC work ethic in middle of Minnesota

• goals

  • is everyone on same page?

• size

  • team size matters!

  • as team size increases, so do leader demands, leader direction, member tolerance of leader direction, member inhibition (not speaking up), policy use, decision making time

• member roles

  • next card

• norms

  • unwritten rules

  • can often govern behavior more than rules

• cohesiveness

  • glue that binds team together

  • member attraction to their group

• leadership

outcomes of these influences:

• performance

• member satisfaction

• other

team member roles and behaviors

• group task role - getting job done

  • initiating, seeking info, giving info, coordinating, eval

• group building role - interpersonal relations

  • encouraging, harmonizing, making standards, following

• self-centered role - satisfying personal goals

  • blocking progress, seeking recognition, dominating, avoiding involvement

groupthink

effective team decision making