OB Week 9

Team

two or more people who work independently over some time period to accomplish common goals related to a task oriented purpose

Team Types

Work, Management, Parallel, Project, Action

Work Teams

relatively permanent teams where members work together to produce goods/services

Management teams

Relatively permanent teams focused on participating in managerial-level tasks that affect the entire organization

Parallel Teams

Composed of members from various jobs who provide important recommendations parallel to the organization’s production process

Ex. Commitments

Project teams

formed to take on one time tasks that are generally complex and require a lot of input from members with different types of expertise

Action teams

Teams of limited duration who perform complex tasks that tend to be highly visible and challenging

Multiple team membership

A work arrangement in which employees are assigned to multiple teams simultaneously

Prefer

Research shows people generally (prefer/dislike) working in teams where autonomy and self management is high

High

High levels of self management are appropriate when team members have (high/low) levels of relevant knowledge

Virtual Teams

Teams in which the members are geographically dispersed, and interdependent activitiy occurs through electronic communications

Team Development Model

Model that suggests teams develop in a predictable sequence
Forming → Storming → Norming → Performing → Adjourning

Forming

When members orient themselves by trying to understand their boundaries in a team

-getting a feel for what is expected of them, who’s in charge

Storming

Members remain committed to the ideas they bring and stick with their own ideas, conflict may result

Norming

When members begin cooperating with one another

-Work together to accomplish goals and expectations for members are developed

Performing

Members are comfortable with their roles and the team makes progress towards goals

Adjourning

Members disengage and ultimately seperate from the team

more

The impact of adjourning is more significant for teams that are (more/less) connected to each other

Punctuated equilibrium

Model for team development where team members make assumptions and establish behaviour that lasts until the midway point

Afterwards, members change their approach in order to accomplish the task

Task interdependence

The degree to which team members interact with and rely on other team members for information, materials, resources, needed to accomplish work

Consists of: Pooled, Sequential, Reciprocal, Comprehensive

Pooled interdependence

Group members complete their work assignments independtly then the work is simply put together as the group’s output

Sequential interdependence

Different tasks are done in a prescribed order and the group is structured such that the members specialize in these tasks

Ex. Assembly line

Reciprocal interdependence

Members are specialized to perform specific tasks, and they interact with many other members to complete work

Comprehensive interdependence

Each member has a great deal of discretion in terms of what they do and with whom they interact with

coordinating, adapt

As task interdependence increases, members need to spend more time (blank) which can lower productivity. However, this increases the team’s ability to (blank) to new situations

Goal interdependence

Exists when team members have a shared vision of the team’s goals and align their individual goals with that vision as a result

-Fostsred through a formalized mission statement

Outcome interdependence

Exists when team members share in the rewards that the team earns
(Are rewards given out for the team’s performance or for the individual’s?)

Interdependence

The way in which the members of a team are linked to one another

-Task, Goal, Outcome

Team composition

The mix of people who make up the team
Member roles, Member ability, Member personality, Team diversity, Team size

Role

A pattern of behaviour a person is generally expected to display in a given context

Leader staff teams

When the leader makes decisions for the team and directs members

Team task roles

Behaviours that directly facilitate the accomplishment of team tasks
Examples: Initiator Contributor, Devil’s advocate, Energizer

Initiator Contributor

A role that proposes new ideas

Devil’s advocate

A role that offers challenges to the team’s status quo

-good for high stakes decisions

Energizer

A role that motivates the team to strive to do better

-good when work is boring

Team building roles

Behaviours that influence the quality of the team’s social climate
Ex. Encourager, compromiser, follower

Encourager

Praises the contributions of other team members

Compromiser

Attempts to find the halfway point to end conflict

Follower

Accepts the ideas of teammates

Individualistic Roles

Behaviours that benefit the individual at the expense of the team

Recognition seeker

Brags and calls attention to themselves

Slacker

Acts cynically or nonchalantly, goofs off

-should assign another role for these people

Disjunctive tasks

Tasks with an objectively verifiable best solution

Disjunctive

The member who possesses the highest relevant ability will have the most influence on (blank) tasks

Conjunctive tasks

Tasks where the team’s performance depends on the “weakest link”

-if any member stops their part, the entire team can’t move forward

Additive tasks

Tasks where contributions from every member add up to determine team performance

-pretty much all members are doing the same task

False

True or false: Having all aggreeable people or all extraverts is great for a team

True

True or false: Even just one person with low conscientousness in a team can lead to consequences

Team diversity

The degree to which members are different from one another in terms of any attribute that may be used to categorize people

Misunderstandings and Innovation

Diversity can lead to more (blank and blank)

Value in diversity

Theory that says diversity is beneficial because it provides a larger pool of knowledge the team can draw on

-Leads to more learning and more performance

-Requires people to put in the effort to understand these different perspectives

Similarity attraction

Theory that says people tend to be more attracted to others who they perceive as similar and avoid people they perceive as different

Surface level diversity

Diversity through observable attributes

Fault lines

Informal subgroups based on similarity in surface level attributes that tend to form in diverse groups

Deep level diversity

Diversity with respect to attributes that are not easy to observe initially but can be inferred through knowing more about the person

Less, More

Time leads to (more/less) negative effects of surface level diversity and (more/less) negative effects of deep level diversity

Greater, bad

Having a (greater/less) number of members is good for management and project teams (more complex work)
Having a more members is (good/bad) for production tasks (simpler tasks)

Team process

A term that reflects the different types of interactions that occur within a team as the team works towards its goal

Consist of: Taskwork processes, teamwork processes, team states

Process gain

Getting more from the team that you would expect with the sum of its parts

Process loss

Getting less from the team than you would expect from the sum of its parts

Coordination loss

Members needing to coordinate which consumes time and effort

Production blocking

Members needing to wait for one another before they can do their part of the team task

Motivational loss (social loafing)

Members not working as hard as they could when in a team

Taskwork processes

Activities of team members that relate directly to the accomplishment of team tasks
Consist of: Creative behaviour, decision making, boundary spanning

Creative behaviour

Activities focused on generating novel and useful ideas and solutions

Brainstorming

Face to face meeting of team members in which each offers as many ideas as possible

-Great for building morale

-Not good for actually generating ideas

Nominal group technique

Individuals come up with ideas individually before coming together as a team to discuss, then ranking ideas individually

Decision making

Decisions which result from interaction among team members

-Either consensus or team leader’s discretion

Decision informity

Reflects whether members possess adequate information about their own task responsibilities

Staff validity

Reflects the degree to which members make good recommendations to the leader

Hierarchical sensitivty

The degree to which the leader effectively weighs the recommendations of members

Boundary spanning

Interactions with individuals and groups who are not those part of the team

Consist of: Ambassador, Task coordinator, scout

Scout activities

Refers to things team members do to obtain information about technology, competitors, or the broader marketplace

Team work processses

Interpersonal activities that facilitate the accomplishment of the team’s work but do not directly involve task accomplishment itself
Consist of: Transition, Action, Interpersonal

Transition processes

Team work activities that focus on preperation for future work

-Relevant before the team begins work

Consists of: Mission analysis, strategy formulation, Goal specification

Mission analysis

Involves an analysis of the team’s task, the challenges that face the team, and the resources available for completing the team’s work

Action processes

Activities that are important as the taskwork is being accomplished
Consist of: Monitoring progress, systems monitoring, helping behaviour, coordination

Coordination

Synchronizing the team mmember’s activities in a way that makes them mesh well together

Interpersonal processes

Activities that are important at all times of the taskwork

-Relates to how well members manage their relationships
Consist of: Conflict management

Conflict management

Activities that the team uses to manage conflicts that arise in the course of its work

Relationship conflict

Disagreements among members in terms of interpersonal relationships or disagreements with personal values/ preferences

-Disatisfying and lowers team performance

Task conflict

Disagreements among members about the team’s task

-Tends to result in reduced team effectiveness but can be beneficial at times

Beneficial

Task conflict can be (blank) when:

-members trust one another

-team has effective conflict management

-Members are emotionally stable or open to new experiences

-If majority of team members don’t know it’s happening

Team states

Specific types of feelings and thoughts that form in the minds of team members as a result of working together (an outcome)

4 Types: Cohesion, Potency, Mental models, Transactive memory

Psychological safety

Sense that it is okay to do things that are interpersonally risky and that you won’t be embarrased or rejected by teammates

Cohesion

When members of teams develop strong emotional bonds to other members and to the team itself

Cohesion pros/cons

Pros:

Leads to high levels of motivation and commitment

Leads to high performance

Cons:

Can Lead to conformity/groupthink

Can lead to overconfidence

Groupthink

Conformity at the expense of other team priorities

Potency

The degree to which members believe that the team can be effective across a variety of situations and tasks
(self efficiacy but for teams)

Deterimental

A team that is too confident when early on in the team’s existence can be (positive/detrimental)

Mental models

The level of common understand among team members with regard to im,portant aspects of the team and its task
(Being on the same page)

Transactive memory

Specialized knowledge that is distributed among team members so the entire team has an effective system of collective memory
-knowledge of who knows what

Transportable teamwork competencies

Team training that involves helping people develop general teamwork competencies that they can transport from one team to another

Cross training

Involves training members in the duties and responsibilites of their teammates

3 levels of depth: Personal clarification, Positional modeling, Positional rotation

Team process training

The use of team experiences that facilitate the team’s ability to function and perform more effectively as an intact unit

Team building

Fun activities intended to facilitate team problem solving, trust, relationship  building, and clarification of role responsibilities
Ex. Rope course

Long, High

The life span of a work team is (long/short) member involvement of a work team is (high/moderate/low)

Long, Moderate

The life span of a management team is (long/short) and the member involvement is (high/moderate/low)

Low

The member involvement of a parallel team is (high/moderate/low)

Parallel, Project, Action

For which team types does lifespan vary?