Team Dynamics & Human Resource Management Notes

What is a Team?

• A team is a unit of two or more people who interact and coordinate their work to accomplish a common goal.
  • Requires 2 or more people.
  • Members possess complementary skills.
  • Regular interaction among members is essential.
  • Shared goal and commitment are necessary.
  • Members are mutually accountable.
• Teamwork: The process of people actively working together to accomplish common goals.

Model of Team Effectiveness

• The model comprises several elements that contribute to work team effectiveness including:
  • Organizational context:
    • Leadership.
    • Environment.
    • Culture.
    • Strategy.
    • Reward and control systems.
  • Team type:
    • Formal.
    • Self-managed.
    • Virtual/global.
  • Team characteristics:
    • Size.
    • Diversity.
    • Roles.
  • Team processes:
    • Stages of development.
    • Cohesiveness.
    • Norms.
    • Conflict resolution.
  • Team composition:
    • Knowledge and skills.
    • Benefits and costs.
  • Work team effectiveness is measured by:
    • Productive output.
    • Personal satisfaction.
    • Capacity to adapt and learn.

Input: Team Characteristics

• Team diversity:
  • Different values, personalities, experiences, etc., can create challenges.
    • E.g., interdisciplinary teams.
  • However, complexity brings a greater variety of ideas, perspectives, and experiences that add value to problem-solving and task performance.
  • Solving initial process challenges can take time.

Process: Stages of Team Development

• Forming: Orientation, breaking the ice.
• Storming: Conflict, disagreement.
• Norming: Establishment of order and cohesion.
• Performing: Cooperation, problem-solving.
• Adjourning: Task completion.

Process: Cohesiveness

• Cohesiveness is the extent to which members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain part of a team.
  • Members of highly cohesive teams are often committed to team activities, attend meetings, and are happy when the team succeeds.
  • Beneficial when paired with positive performance norms.
• How to increase team cohesion:
  • Shared goals.
  • Increase interaction among members.
  • Introduce competition with other teams.
  • Team success.
• Cohesiveness leads to:
  • Better morale & productivity.

Process: What Can Go Wrong in Teams?

• Common problems:
  • Personality conflicts.
  • Differences in work styles.
  • Task ambiguity.

Process: Conflict

• Two types of conflict, relating to issues / disagreements on:
  • Tasks:
    • Substantive issues regarding e.g., goals.
  • Relationships:
    • Emotional issues arising from feelings of e.g., distrust, and personality clashes.
• Conflict that is well managed can help promote high performance, creativity, and innovation.

Functional Conflict

• Often task conflict.
• Moderately intense conflict.
• Constructive; stimulates people towards greater work efforts, cooperation, and creativity.
• Can prevent groupthink.

Dysfunctional Conflict

• Often relationship conflict.
• Low-intensity and very high-intensity conflict.
• Destructive; hurts task performance.

Balancing conflict and cooperation

• Optimal team performance occurs with a moderate amount of conflict.
  • Low conflict leads to low performance.
  • Excessive conflict also leads to low performance.

Social Loafing

• "A reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task compared to when working either alone or coactively."
• As group size increases, new members have a decreasingly significant impact.
• Free-rider effect.

Final Model of Team Effectiveness

• The model reiterates the elements that contribute to work team effectiveness including:
  • Organizational context:
    • Leadership.
    • Environment.
    • Culture.
    • Strategy.
    • Reward and control systems.
  • Team type:
    • Formal.
    • Self-managed.
    • Virtual/global.
  • Team characteristics:
    • Size.
    • Diversity.
    • Roles.
  • Team processes:
    • Stages of development.
    • Cohesiveness.
    • Norms.
    • Conflict resolution.
  • Team composition:
    • Knowledge and skills.
    • Benefits and costs.
  • Work team effectiveness is measured by:
    • Productive output.
    • Personal satisfaction.
    • Capacity to adapt and learn.