Class 6: Team Dynamics 

Working as a Team Vs. Working Individually 

• Team: small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable 

Key Characteristics of a team:

• Groups of two or more people 

• Exist to fulfill a purpose 

• Interdependence and need for collaboration 

(group members rely to some degree on each other to accomplish goals) 

• Mutual accountability 

• Perceive themselves to be a team 

Advantages of Teams

• Teams are adaptive: more flexible and responsive to changing events (than organization as a whole) then traditional departments or other forms of groupings 

• Teams can achieve the breadth of knowledge: typically outperform individuals when the task requires various skills and capabilities 

• Teams are an effective means for management to democratize organizations, facilitate employee participation and involvement 

• Teams provide emotional support (social identity, sense of belonging) 

Disadvantages/ Challenges of Teams 

Teams are not always effective: 

• For some tasks, individuals are better than teams 

• Process losses: spend more resources on team development & maintenance vs. task performance (ex. Members experience collaboration overload) 

• People may not work as hard in teams vs. working individually (social loafing) 

• Team members can be swayed by fads, peer pressure and herd mentality that leads to biased decisions (groupthink) 

• Teams can also diffuse responsibility to the point of becoming passive and can foster discounting and dismissal of important alternative voices (groupthink)

Task Interdependence

• Definition: the extent to which team members must share materials, information, or expertise to perform their jobs 

Levels: 

• Pooled Interdependence: members share common resources (machinery, technical/financial support) but otherwise operate independently from each other         [ex. Gymnastics team] → standardized tasks

• Sequential Interdependence: each members output is forwarded to the next person for further assembly [ex, Assembly line] → some standards, some uncertainty 

• Reciprocal Interdependence: work output is exchanged back and forth among members = highest level of interdependence [ex. Hockey Team] → high uncertainty