Notes on Work Groups and Work Teams

Work Groups Versus Work Teams

• Definition of Group: People working towards a goal, coordinated by someone else (e.g., a manager).
• Definition of Team: People working towards a common goal, coordinating their work among themselves.

Work Groups

• Comprise two or more individuals who interact and share interrelated task goals.
  • Example: A university department faculty, where members collaborate on educational objectives like teaching required courses.

Work Teams

• A subtype of work groups with three specific properties (West, Borrill, & Unsworth, 1998):
  1. Interdependence and Coordination: Members' actions are interdependent.
  • Example: In a surgical team, the surgeon, surgical nurse, and anesthesiologist must coordinate to perform surgery successfully.
  1. Specified Roles: Each member has designated responsibilities.
  • Example: In surgery, roles are divided among the surgeon, nurse, and anesthesiologist.
  1. Common Task Goals and Objectives: Team shares goals.
  • Example: A surgical team’s goal is completing the surgery successfully, without complications.

Virtual Teams

• Advantages:
  • Enhanced flexibility for employees, alleviating work-family conflicts.
  • Access to global expertise for organizations.
• Disadvantages:
  • Issues with communication, decreased member motivation, feelings of isolation, and reduced trust.
• Evidence suggests face-to-face teams often outperform virtual teams regarding task performance and satisfaction.

Important Group and Team Concepts

1. Roles: Functions and responsibilities within a group.

   • Formal Role: Job titles and descriptions that ensure clarity.
   • Informal Role: Social roles (e.g., “greeting card sender”).

2. Norms: Unwritten rules governing behavior.

   • Reinforced by social sanctions, from reminders to verbal reprimands and ostracism.

3. Group Cohesiveness: Collective attraction among members, fostering unity.

   • Highly cohesive groups may prioritize group interests over individual concerns.

4. Group Conflict: Disagreements within a group that hinder productivity.

   • Cooperative Conflicts: Involve sharing differing views respectfully.
   • Competitive Conflicts: Focus on individual viewpoints.

5. Process Loss: Factors impeding optimal performance in groups (e.g., poor communication).

6. Team Commitment: Dedication towards shared goals, correlating with performance and satisfaction.

7. Team Mental Models: Shared understanding among members about roles and objectives, promoting coordination.

   • Taskwork Model: Focus on task specifics.
   • Teamwork Model: Focus on how members interact and coordinate efforts.

Group and Team Performance

• Belief in Group Superiority: Common belief that group performance surpasses individual performance due to synergy.
  • Limitations: Not all tasks benefit from group collaboration. Process loss can affect overall performance.

Performance in the Presence of Others

1. Social Facilitation Effect: Simple tasks benefit from the presence of others due to increased arousal.
2. Social Inhibition Effect: Complex tasks often suffer from decreased performance due to the stress of being observed.
3. Task Design Implications: Complex tasks may require privacy to maintain optimal arousal, while simple tasks can benefit from others’ presence.

Group Versus Individual Performance on Additive Tasks

• Additive Tasks: Output is the sum of individual contributions (e.g., total sales by cashiers).
• Interacting Groups: Members work together;
• Nominal Groups: Individuals work independently but combine outputs.
• Social Loafing: Tendency for individuals to exert less effort in larger groups.

Group Problem Solving

• Groups can perform as well or exceed the performance of their best members when solving problems, suggesting advantages in collaborative problem-solving settings.

Group Decision Making

1. Autocratic vs. Democratic Approaches: Organizations vary in decision-making styles.
   • Groupthink: Occurs in highly cohesive groups where the desire for harmony leads to a lack of critical evaluation.
   • Mitigating Groupthink: Employ impartial leadership, encourage diverse perspectives, and break into smaller subgroups for discussions.
2. Group Polarization: Group decisions can be either riskier or more conservative than individual decisions, leading to extremity based on consensus views.

Team Innovation

• Definition of Innovation: Involves bringing new ideas or procedures into teams, focusing on implementation rather than invention.
• Drivers of Innovation:
  • Internal factors: Organizational constraints push innovation.
  • External factors: Competition drives teams to innovate.
• Team Orientation to Innovation: Those that discuss improvements are typically the best innovators.

KSAO’s (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics)

1. Cognitive Ability: Predicts higher team performance; includes problem-solving and decision-making skills.
2. Knowledge of Teamwork: Understanding how to collaborate and resolve conflicts.
3. Social Skills: Important for communication and influence within teams; includes emotional intelligence.
4. Personality Traits: Collectivistic values enhance teamwork.
5. Importance of Soft Skills: Essential for effective teamwork, complementing technical skills.

Interventions With Work Groups in Organizations

1. Autonomous Work Teams: Self-managing teams that enhance efficiency.
   • Implementation: Teams create own work processes.
   • Example: Teams in manufacturing assemble entire products.
2. Quality Circles: Employee groups addressing work-related problems for productivity solutions.
   • Example: Assembly line workers proposing solutions to bottlenecks.
3. Team Building: Planned activities to improve cooperation and trust.
   • Implementation: Facilitated discussions and exercises.
   • Example: Office consultants leading team-building activities.