Organizational Behaviour, emerging knowledge and practice for the real world, by S. McShane, M. Von Glinow (fifth edition) – Summary chapter 8

Teams are groups of two or more people who interact with and influence each other, are mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization. Different types of teams can be distinguished by team permanence (1), skill diversity (2) and authority dispersion (3). Team permanence refers to how long that type of team usually exists. Authority dispersion refers to the degree that decision-making responsibility is distributed throughout the team or is vested in one or a few members of the team.

There are three types of teams: departmental teams (1), self-directed teams (2) and task force teams (3). Informal groups exist because humans are social animals, they want to belong to a group, they accomplish personal objectives and we are comforted by the presence of others.

People are more motivated in groups because they have a drive to bond, because of the accountability to fellow team members and because co-workers are used for comparisons. Teams make use of process losses, which are resources expended toward team development and maintenance rather than the task. If a task can be performed by one person, process losses can make a team less effective than an individual working alone. Process losses are amplified when more people are added or replace others on the team. Brook’s law states that adding more people to a late software project only makes it later. Social loafing is a problem that occurs when people exert less effort when working in teams than when working alone. Social loafing is more likely when individual performance is difficult to distinguish (1), the work is not very significant (2), employees lack motivation (3) and because of individual characteristics (4).

There are several strategies to reduce social loafing: form smaller teams (1), specialize tasks (2), measure individual performance (3), increase job enrichment (4) and select motivated, team-oriented employees (5).

A team is effective when it benefits the organization and its members, and survives long enough to accomplish its mandate. The team effectiveness model includes organizational and team environment, team design, team processes and team effectiveness. The organizational and team environment represents all conditions beyond the team’s boundaries that influence its effectiveness. The environment is a drive but can also generate drivers for change within teams, such as societal expectations.

There are several team design elements:

1. Task characteristics
   The task characteristics are important for the effectiveness of a team. The more complex a task, the more process losses. This also includes task interdependence which refers to the extent to which team members must share materials, information or expertise in order to perform their jobs. The three levels of task interdependence are pooled interdependence (1), this occurs when people share a common resource. Sequential interdependence (2), this occurs when the output of one person becomes the input for another person. Reciprocal interdependence (3), this occurs when work output is exchanged back and forth among individuals. The higher the level of task interdependence, the greater the need of teams.
2. Team size
   Teams should be large enough to provide the necessary abilities and viewpoints to perform the work, yet small enough to maintain efficient coordination and meaningful involvement of each member.
3. Team composition
   Team effectiveness depends on the qualities of the people who are members of those teams. Teams perform better when their members are highly motivated, possess the required abilities, and have clear role perceptions to perform the assigned task activities. The five C’s of team member behaviour describe effective team member behaviours: cooperating (1), comforting (2), communicating (3), coordinating (4) and conflict handling (5).

The advantage of team diversity is that diverse groups make better decisions than homogeneous teams and diverse teams have a broader pool of technical abilities. The disadvantage of team diversity is that it can lead to more conflict and effective problem solving and communication takes longer.

Team development is a team process and consists of several stages:

1. Forming
   This is the first stage and it’s a period of testing and orientation in which members learn about each other and evaluate the benefits and costs of continued membership.
2. Storming
   This stage is marked by interpersonal conflict as members become more proactive and compete for various team roles. Members try to establish norms of appropriate behaviour and performance standards.
3. Norming
   This stage is marked by role establishments and consensus forms around group objectives.
4. Performing
   Team members have learned to efficiently coordinate and resolve conflicts.
5. Adjourning
   This stage occurs when the team is about to disband. Team members shift their attention away from task orientation to a relationship focus.

Developing team identity and developing team mental models and coordinating routines are the two set of processes that are the essence of team development. Team development occurs when employees make the team part of their social identity. Team development includes forming shared mental models of the work and team relationship.

A role is a set of behaviours that people are expected to perform because they hold certain positions in a team and organization. Roles can help the team achieve its goals or maintain relationships within the team. Team building is a process that consists of formal activities intended to improve the development and functioning of a work team. Team-building interventions are often organized in four categories and activities can include two or more of these categories: goal setting (1), problem-solving (2), role clarification (3) and interpersonal relations (4). Team-building interventions are most effective when participants receive training on specific team skills.

Norms are the informal rules and shared expectations that groups establish to regulate the behaviour of their members. Norms develop during team formation because people need to anticipate or predict how others will act. The best way to establish desirable norms is to clearly state them when the team is created or to select people with appropriate values. Leaders can introduce new norms or alter existing norms and team-based rewards can be used to subdue dysfunctional norms while developing useful norms.

Team cohesion refers to the degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members. Team cohesion is an emotional experience. There are six important influences on team cohesion: member similarity (1), team size (2), member interaction (3), somewhat difficult entry (4), team success (5) and external competition and challenges (6).

Teams with higher cohesion tend to perform better than those with low cohesion. A team’s existence depends on a minimal level of cohesion. The relationship between team cohesion and team performance depends on task interdependence and whether the team’s norms are compatible with the organizational objectives.

Trust refers to positive expectations one person has toward another person in situations involving risk. Trust is based on calculus, knowledge and identification. Calculus-based trust represents logical calculations that other team members will act appropriately because they face sanctions if their actions violate reasonable expectations. Knowledge-based trust is based on the predictability of other team members’ behaviour. Identification-based trust is based on mutual understanding and an emotional bond among team members. Swift-trust is an initial trust and exists because people usually believe fellow team members are reasonably competent.

Self-directed teams are cross-functional workgroups that are organized around work processes, complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks and have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks. The successful implementation of self-directed teams depends on several factors. They should be responsible for an entire work process (1), they should have sufficient autonomy (2) and when the worksite and technology support coordination and communication among team members and increase job enrichment (3).

Virtual teams are teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks. Virtual teams differ from traditional teams because their members are not co-located and the members depend primarily on information technologies. High virtuality exists when team members are spread around the world.

There are four common problems of team decision making:

1. Time constraints
   Teams take longer than individuals to make decisions. Production blocking is a time constraint in a team decision making due to the procedural requirement that only one person may speak at a time.
2. Evaluation apprehension
   This is a decision-making problem that occurs when individuals are reluctant to mention ideas that seem silly because they believe that other team members are silently evaluating them.
3. Pressure to conform
   Team conformity can be a problem in decision making.
4. Overconfidence (inflated team efficacy)
   Team efficacy is the collective belief among team members in the team’s capability to successfully complete a task. Teams make worse decisions when they become overconfident and develop a false sense of invulnerability.

There are four team structures that encourage creativity in a team setting: brainstorming (1), brainwriting (2), electronic brainwriting (3) and nominal group technique (4). Brainstorming refers to a freewheeling, face-to-face meeting where members aren’t allowed to criticize but are encouraged to speak freely generate as man ideas as possible and build on the ideas of others. Brainwriting is a variation of brainstorming whereby participants write and share their ideas. Electronic brainstorming is a form of brainwriting that relies on networked computers for submitting and sharing creative ideas. Nominal group technique is a variation of brainwriting and consists of three stages. In the first stage, participants silently and independently document their ideas. In the second stage, participants collectively describe these ideas without critique and in the third stage participants silently and independently evaluate the ideas presented.