Group and Team Dynamics

Group and Team Dynamics

Understanding Teams

  • Teams consist of 2 or more people who:
    • Interact or influence each other.
    • Are mutually accountable for achieving common organizational goals.
    • Perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization.

Informal Groups

  • Primarily benefit their members.
    • Exist for reasons such as:
    • Social needs
    • Social identity
    • Goal accomplishment
    • Informational and emotional support
  • Improve employee well-being and reduce stress.

Benefits and Limitations of Teams

  • Benefits:
    • Improved decision-making and product quality.
    • Enhanced information sharing and coordination.
    • Increased motivation from team membership.
  • Limitations:
    • Individuals may outperform teams on certain tasks.
    • Process losses can occur from time and energy spent on team dynamics instead of tasks.
    • Social loafing can lead to less individual effort in teams.

Social Loafing

  • Causes:
    • Indistinguishable individual performance.
    • Tasks lack intrinsic motivation.
    • Low conscientiousness, agreeableness, and collectivist values.
  • Remedies:
    • Form smaller teams.
    • Establish individual accountabilities.
    • Implement individual and team-based rewards.
    • Select motivated, team-oriented employees.

Factors Influencing Team Effectiveness

  • Organizational Context:
    • Adequate resources, supportive leadership, and trust.
  • Team Composition:
    • Diverse skills and values, optimal team size.
  • Team Processes:
    • Stages of development, norms, roles, cohesion, trust.

Stages of Team Development

  1. Forming: Uncertainty and establishing expectations.
  2. Storming: Interpersonal conflict and norm establishment.
  3. Norming: Developing close relationships and cohesiveness.
  4. Performing: High functionality and conflict resolution.
  5. Adjourning: Disbanding and wrapping up activities.

Norms in Teams

  • Informal rules governing behavior.
  • Developed to improve performance and predictability.
  • Can create conformity pressure among team members.

Roles in Teams

  • Expected behaviors associated with team positions.
    • Taskwork Roles: Focus on task accomplishment.
    • Teamwork Roles: Support team relationships and maintenance.

Team Cohesion

  • Degree of attraction and motivation to remain in the team.
    • Strengthened by member similarity, smaller size, frequent interaction, and success.

Trust in Teams

  • Built through expectations regarding rewards and responsibilities.
    • Types of trust include:
    • Calculus-based Trust: Based on agreements and monitoring.
    • Knowledge-based Trust: Based on understanding and shared values.
    • Identification-based Trust: Anticipation of needs without verification.

Building Trust in Teams

  • Foster psychological safety and authentic communication.
  • Encourage destigmatization of failure and deep listening.

Team Mental Models

  • Cognitive frameworks about tasks and relationships.
    • Shared Mental Models: Members have similar expectations.
    • Complementary Mental Models: Unique but compatible perspectives among members.