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OB - CH 6 - Groups and Teamwork - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Characteristics of a Team
        
        Both individual and the team as a whole share accountability for the work of the team
        
        The team develops its own purpose or mission
        
        the team works on problem solving continiously, rather than just at scheduled meeting times
        
        The team's measure of effectiveness is the team's outcomes and goals, not individual outcomes and goles.
        
        Team members share leadership
      - Why teams?
        
        teams are more flexible and responsive to changing events than are traditional departments or other forms of permanent groupings
        
        Teams can be more motivational
        
        Allow for greater task identity
        
        Can quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband
        
        Teams outperform individuals when the tasks being done require multiple skills, judgement, and experience
      - Types of teams
        
        Problem-Solving teams
        
        made of 5 to 12 people
        
        meet a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and work environment
        
        Can be planning teams, task forces, or committees
        
        members share ideas or offer suggestions on how to improve work processes and methods.
        
        these teams normally have no authority to unilaterally implement any of their suggested actions
        
        Self-Managed Teams
        
        made up of 10 to 15 employees
        
        perform highly related or interdependent jobs and take on many of the responsibilities of their managers
        
        type of work: planning, scheduling, assignation of tasks, making operating decisions, taking action on problems, working with suppliers and customers
        
        Fully self-managed teams even select their own members and leader and have the members evaluate one another's performance.
        
        tend to have disputes, and when power struggles ensure, members stop cooperating
        
        When members feel psychologically safe, conflict is usually beneficial and boosts performance.
        
        when team members feel rewards are based on the teams performance, they perform better.
        
        team members report higher job satisfaction, but also higher absenteeism and turnover rates.
        
        Cross-Functional teams
        
        made up of employees from about the same hierarchical level but different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task
        
        they are a valuable way to allow people from diverse areas within an organization (or between organizations) to echange information, develop new ideas, solve problems, and coordinate complex projects.
        
        They are not easy to manage
        
        Early stages are time consuming, as members learn to work with diversity and complexity
        
        it takes time to build trust and teamwork
        
        Virtual teams
        
        use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.
        
        These teams suffer because there is less rapport, some members feel isolated,
        
        Teams are better at sharing unique information, but they share less information overall
        
        for these teams to be effective management must
        
        ensure trust is established
        
        monitor team performance closely
        
        to publicize throughout the organization the team's efforts and achievements
        
        Multiteam systems
        
        a collection of two or more interdependent teams that share a superordinate goal, a "team of teams"
      - Roles, set of expected behaviour patterns of a person in a given position in a social unit.
        
        Role Conflict
        
        Role Expectations, how others believe a person should act in a give situation
        
        Role Conflict, when an individual finds the complying with one role requirement may make it more difficult to comply with another.
        
        Role ambiguity, when a person is unclear about the expectations of his or her role.
        
        can lead to, confusion, stress, bad feelings
        
        groups benefit when individuals know their roles
        
        roles within groups and teams should be balanced
        
        Role overload occurs when what is expected of a person far exceeds what he or she is cable to do
        
        Role under-load, occurs when too little is expected of someone, and that person feels that he or she is not contributing to the group
      - Norms, acceptable standards of behaviour within a group that are shared by the group's members, when agreed to and accepted, norms act as a means of influencing the behaviour of group members, with a minimum of external controls
        
        Formalized norms are written in org manuals
        
        Most norms are informal
        
        Norms can cover almost any aspect of behavior, but these are normally covered
        
        Performance, how hard to work, the level of output, what kind of quality, levels of tardiness
        
        Appearance, dress codes, when to look busy, when to "goof off" how to show loyalty
        
        Social arrangement, with whom to eat lunch, whether to form friendships on and off the job
        
        allocation of resources, pay assignments, allocation of tools and equipment.
        
        How do norms develop?
        
        Explicit statements made by a group member, often instructions from the group's supervisor or a powerful member establish norms.
        
        Critical events in the group's history set important precedents
        
        Primacy, the first behavioral pattern that emerges in a group frequently sets team expectations.
        
        Carry-over behaviours from past situations,
        
        What makes a norm important?
        
        It facilitates the group's survival, since groups don't like to fail, they seek to enforce any norm that increases their chances for success, this means that groups try to protect themselves from interference from other groups or individuals.
        
        It increases the predictability of group member's behaviours, group members can anticipate actions and prepare appropriate responses.
        
        It reduces embarrassing interpersonal problems for group members, if they ensure satisfaction of their members and prevent as much interpersonal discomfort as possible.
        
        It allows members to express the central values of the group and clarify what is distinctive about the group's identity. Norms that encourage expression of the group's values and distinctive identity help solidify and maintain the group.
        
        Conformity
        
        because of your desire for acceptance, you are susceptible to conforming to the group's norms.
        
        why conformity? a desire to form accurate perceptions of reality based on group consensus, to develop meaningful social relationships with others, and to maintain a favourably self-concept
  - - - Pre-group
      - Stage I: Forming
        
        characterized by a great deal of uncertainty about the team's purpose, structure, and leadership.
        
        Members are testing the waters to determine what types of behaviour are acceptable.
        
        This stage is done once members have begun to think of themselves as part of a team.
      - Storming
        
        intragroup conflict, members accept the team, but resist the constraints that the team imposes on individuality.
        
        there's conflict about who will control the team.
        
        The stage is done when there's a relatively hierarchy of leadership arises within the team
        
        some teams never finish this stage, they go back and forth towards this stage and never develop the ability to complete the task because of personal problems
      - Norming
        
        close relationships develop and cohesiveness arises
        
        there exists a strong sense of team identity and camaraderie.
        
        norming is complete when the team structure solidifies, the team also assimilates a common set of expectations of what defines correct member behaviour.
      - Performing
        
        the structure is fully functional and accepted, team energy has moved from getting to know and understand one another to performing the task at hand
      - Stage V: Adjourning
        
        the group prepares for disbandment, high performance is no longer the group's priority.
      - Putting the Five-Stage Model into perspective
        
        the assumption: as the group progresses, the group becomes more productive
        
        groups pass through the model in varying speeds, groups not always follow a straight line in development
        
        The model ignores organizational context, some org context can make it easy to perform
        
        strong org context surrounding the tasks of the cockpit crew
        
        Context provided rules, task definitions, information, and resources needed for the team to perform.
        
        They did not need to develop plans, assign roles, determine and allocate resources, resolve conflicts, and set norms the way the five-stage model predicts.
    - - First meeting sets the group's direction
      - phase 1 of group activity is one of inertia
        
        Once the direction becomes written in stone, it is unlikely to be re-examined throughout the first half of the team's life.
        
        the team is locked into a fixed course of action.
      - A transition takes place exactly when the group has used up half its allotted time
      - Transition initiates major changes
      - second phase of inertia follows the transition
        
        teams experience their transition precisely halfway between the first meeting and the official deadline, whether the project is 1 hour or 6 months.
        
        midpoint works like an alarm clock
        
        burst of changes, dropping of old patterns, adoption of new perspectives.
      - The group's last meeting is characterized by markedly accelerated activity.
  - - - Clear purpose
      - Informality, an informal, comfortable, relaxed environment.
      - Participation
      - Listening
      - Civilized disagreement, the team is comfortable with this and hows no signs of avoiding, smoothing over, or suppressing conflict.
      - Consensus decisions, For important decisions, the goal is substantial but not necessarily unanimous agreement through open discussion of everyone's ideas, avoidance of formal voting, or easy compromises
      - Open communication, team members feel free to express their feelings on the tasks as well as on the group's operation, there are few hidden agendas, communication takes place outside of meetings
      - Clear rules and work assignments, there are clear expectations about the roles played by each team member, when action is taken, clear assignments are made, accepted, and carried out. Work is distributed among team members.
      - Shared leadership, it has a formal leader, but leadership functions shift from time to time depending on the circumstances, needs of the group, skills of team members, formal leader models the appropriate behaviour and helps establish positive norms.
      - External relations, team spends time developing outside relationships, mobilizing resources, and building credibility with important players in other parts of the organization
      - Style diversity, the team has a broad spectrum of team-player types including members who emphasize attention to task, goal setting, focus on process, and questions about how the team is functioning.
      - Self-assessment, periodically, the team stops to examine how well it is functioning and what may be interfering with its effectiveness.
    - - Context
        
        Adequate resources
        
        Leadership and structure
        
        ensuring the team operates within a supportive org context
        
        making sure the team structure will support working effectively
        
        a clear and meaningful direction for the team's work
        
        Climate of trust
        
        they must feel that the team will not harm the individual or his or her interests
        
        Performance evaluation and rewards
      - Composition
        
        Skills
        
        knowledge, skills, abilities, etc, these sett limits on what members can do and how effectively they will perform as a team, for a complex problem to be solved, high intelligence individuals are preferred.
        
        Orients team to problem-solving situations
        
        organizes and manages team performance
        
        Promotes a positive team enviroment
        
        Facilitates and manages task conflict
        
        Appropriately promotes perspective
        
        Personality
        
        Many of the dimensions identified in the Big Five should be taken in consideration to create better teams.
        
        Roles
        
        put your most able, experienced, and conscientious employees in the most central roles in a team.
        
        Roles that build task accomplishment
        
        Initiating
        
        Seeking information and opinions
        
        Providing information and opinions
        
        Clarifying
        
        Elaborating
        
        Summarizing
        
        Consensus taking
        
        Roles that build and maintain a team
        
        Harmonizing
        
        Compromising
        
        Gatekeeping
        
        Encouraging
        
        Diversity
        
        Group diversity, the presence of a heterogeneous mix of individuals within a group, functional characteristics, demographic or cultural.
        
        organizational demography, age, gender, race, educational level, length of service, etc.
        
        Size
        
        Keeping teams small is a key to improving group effectiveness
        
        5 to 9 members
        
        If bigger than what is needed
        
        cohesiveness and mutual accountability decline
        
        social loafing increases
        
        tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually.
        
        less communication
        
        when each team members contribution is not clearly visibile.
        
        Member's preference for teamwork
      - Process
        
        Common plan and purpose
        
        reflexivity, reflect and adjust their master plan when necessary
        
        have a master plan, mission and objectives that all agree to
        
        Specific Goals
        
        SMART goals
        
        Team efficacy
        
        have confidence in themselves, they believe they can succeed
        
        cohesiveness builds efficacy, degree to which members are attracted to one another and are motivated to stay on the team.
        
        Mental models
        
        organized mental representation of the key elements within a team's environment that team members share
        
        Managed level of conflict
        
        Relationship conflict, interpersonal incompatibility, tension, and animosity towards other, are almost always dysfunctional
        
        task conflicts, disagreements about task content
        
        Accountability
        
        members should be clear on what they are individually responsible for and what they are jointly responsible for on the team
    - - teams differ in form and structure
      - model assumes that it's already been determined that teamwork is preferable over individual work.