11. Work Groups & Work Teams

Work Groups vs. Work Teams

• Basic definitions
  • Work group = a collection of n \,(n \ge 2) people who interact and share inter-related task goals.
  • Work team = a subtype of work group that satisfies three extra criteria:
  – Members’ actions are interdependent & coordinated.
  – Distinct roles are formally or informally assigned to every member.
  – Members pursue shared, explicit task goals & objectives.

• Logical relationship
  • All teams are groups, not all groups are teams.
  • Mnemonic: “You can spell TEAM in GROUP, but you must add M for mutual dependence.”

• Functional distinction
  • Group → people could still accomplish their own jobs in isolation.
  • Team → members cannot reach objectives without one another.

Virtual Teams

• Definition: Teams that collaborate without face-to-face interaction by relying on e-mail, IM, phone, webcams, VR, etc.

• Empirical findings
  • Purely text-based virtual teams →
  – Slower task completion.
  – Lower task performance.
  – Lower member satisfaction.
  • Adding richer media (voice, video) mitigates these deficits and can outperform text-only groups.
  • Main culprit = reduced social/semantic bandwidth ➔ hinders coordination & socio-emotional bonding.

Core Group-Related Concepts

Roles

• Formal roles : listed in job descriptions, created via job analysis (e.g., supervisor, analyst).

• Informal roles : emerge organically through interaction (e.g., “the joker,” “the tech-guru”).

• Clear, complementary roles ↓ ambiguity and ↑ efficiency; overlapping or vague roles ↑ conflict.

Norms

• Definition: Unwritten, socially enforced rules governing behaviour (dress, speech, effort).

• Influence strength
  • Violations prompt immediate corrective pressure; sometimes members forego \ rewards to stay normative.
  • Norm power can exceed that of supervisors or official policy.

• Productivity lever: Leaders can shape norms to raise performance (e.g., “zero-defect,” “safety-first” cultures).

Group Cohesiveness

• Definition: Net attractive forces binding members together.

• Properties
  • Requires that most members are motivated to stay.
  • Highly cohesive groups vigorously enforce norms; breaking key norms feels existentially threatening.

• Performance link: Cohesion can boost satisfaction & coordination but can also lock in bad norms.

Process Loss

• Definition: Resources (time, effort) diverted away from core production toward secondary social processes.

• Examples: norm negotiations, intra-group conflict resolution, chit-chat, meeting logistics.

• Dual nature : Some loss is inevitable—and can foster future efficiency (relationship-building, knowledge sharing).

Core Team-Related Concepts

Team Conflict

• Two qualitative modes
  • Cooperative conflict : open sharing, mutual respect, solution-oriented → correlates positively with team performance.
  • Competitive conflict : self-promotion, dismissive of others, win-lose framing → correlates negatively with performance.

Team Commitment

• Tripartite definition
  • Acceptance of team goals.
  • Willingness to exert effort.
  • Desire to remain.

• Empirical outcomes: High team commitment → ↑ performance, ↓ turnover, ↑ satisfaction.

• Contrast with cohesion: Cohesion = attraction; commitment = attraction plus goal endorsement & effort.

Team Mental Model

• Definition: A shared cognitive map of task, team, equipment, and context.

• Two sub-models
  • Taskwork (WHAT) : shared knowledge of tasks & procedures.
  • Teamwork (HOW) : shared understanding of interaction patterns & coordination.

• Failing to share a model → coordination breakdowns, errors, conflict spikes.

Group & Team Performance

Group vs. Individual Work

• Groups can outperform additive individual contributions when synergy emerges (“whole > sum”).

• However, process loss and divided attention can tip the balance in favour of solo work on some tasks.

Performance in Presence of Others (Social Facilitation / Inhibition)

• Classic observation (Triplett) : cyclists ride faster versus real competitors.

• Zajonc’s Arousal Model (1965)
  • Presence of others → ↑ physiological arousal.
  • Arousal improves simple/well-learned tasks (social facilitation).
  • Arousal impairs complex/novel tasks (social inhibition).

• Practical tip : Provide private, low-arousal space for complex work.

Additive Tasks & Social Loafing

• Additive task : Group output = sum of individual measurable outputs (e.g., total items scanned by supermarket cashiers).

• As group size ↑, mean individual effort ↓ for two reasons:
  • More process loss.
  • Social loafing (a.k.a. Ringelmann effect).

• Mitigation: Make individual contributions identifiable & rewardable.

Brainstorming

• Face-to-face brainstorming often underperforms because of:
  • Process loss (turn-taking bottleneck).
  • Evaluation apprehension / shyness.
  • Cognitive load of listening vs. generating.

• Electronic brainstorming removes turn-taking, elevating idea count & quality.

• Hybrid solution (Paulus, 2000) : initial group discussion → individual idea generation → regroup & refine.

Problem Solving & Decision Making

• Problem-solving tasks : Groups ≳ best individual ➔ synergy possible.

• Decision-making quality varies with evaluation criteria and group dynamics.

• Two well-studied distortions:

Group Polarization

• Group average drifts toward a more extreme position than pre-discussion mean.

• Direction (risky vs. conservative) depends on initial majority leanings.

Groupthink

• Cohesive, leader-dominated, insulated groups may rubber-stamp sub-optimal decisions.

• Antecedents: high cohesion, strong/directive leader, isolation, conformity pressures.

• Symptoms: illusion of unanimity, self-censorship, rationalization.

• Prevention:
  • Leader as impartial facilitator.
  • Critical evaluation & devil’s-advocate roles.
  • Breakouts into sub-groups; seek external input.

Team Innovation & KSAOs

• High-innovation teams regularly critique and redesign their own processes.

• Innovation drivers:
  • Internal stresses (resource limits, workload).
  • External turbulence (market change, technology shifts).

• Mean team cognitive ability proportional to performance.

• Key KSAOs for members
  • Knowledge of teamwork principles.
  • Strong social/communication skills.
  • Personality traits favouring collectivism & cooperation.

Group Diversity

• Cognitive diversity : differences in knowledge, skills, and values → fuels creativity & innovation.

• Demographic diversity : visible attributes (age, gender, ethnicity) → aids market responsiveness and legitimacy with diverse clients.

• Optimal diversity strategy aligns type of diversity with task needs.

Interventions for Work Groups

1 Autonomous Work Teams (AWT)

• Small teams build an entire product; supervisors coach rather than command.

• Participative culture with frequent meetings → ↑ job satisfaction, empowerment.

2 Quality Circles (QC)

• Voluntary employee groups meet periodically to diagnose problems & craft solutions.

• Benefits: participative climate, creative break from routine, continuous process improvement.

• Variant: Health Circles (Gesundheitszirkel) focusing on employee well-being initiatives.

3 Team Building (TB)

• Any structured activity aimed at boosting team effectiveness.

• Two foci:
  • Task-oriented (procedures, goal alignment).
  • Interpersonal (communication, trust).

• Hallmarks:

  1. Pre-planned exercises with explicit objectives.

  2. Guided by an external or internal facilitator.

  3. Applied to an existing work team, not ad-hoc strangers.

Practical & Ethical Takeaways

• Match team vs. group arrangement to interdependence requirements; avoid pseudo-teams.

• Use rich communication media for distributed teams to curb performance loss.

• Shape norms intentionally; left alone, strong but counter-productive norms may arise.

• Monitor arousal and social contexts for complex tasks—provide private focus spaces.

• Guard against social loafing with clear metrics, feedback, and accountability.

• Blend individual and group work sequentially for maximal ideation (e.g., hybrid brainstorming).

• Foster constructive conflict and psychological safety; discourage zero-sum competition.

• Leverage diversity as a strategic asset—align type of diversity with innovation vs. market-link goals.

• Periodically audit teams for groupthink markers; institutionalize devil’s-advocate roles.

• Select and train on team KSAOs; collective intelligence is not just the arithmetic mean.

Exam tip: When given a scenario, first diagnose whether it involves a group or a team (apply the three criteria), then choose concepts/interventions accordingly.