Chapter 9 – Understanding Groups and Managing Work Teams

CHAPTER 9 - UNDERSTANDING GROUPS AND MANAGING WORK TEAMS

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After reading this chapter students should be able to:

1.Define group and describe the stages of group development.

2.Describe the major concepts of group behavior.

3.Discuss how groups are turned into effective teams. Describe the five stages of team development.

4.Discusscontemporaryissues inmanagingteams.

Opening Vignette—Up to Speed
SUMMARY
When most people hear the name Ferrari, they think of expensive, super-fast sports cars. The Italian company was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1928, and even in its early days, racing was an important part of the Ferrari legend. Today, Luca Cordero, president and managing director of the company, believes that his employees truly make a difference in producing one of the world’s greatest sports cars. He recognizes that to be the best, he needs employees who understand how to work together and how to achieve common goals. At Ferrari, employee teams combine their efforts to produce an outstanding automobile, with quality befitting its iconic reputation. You won’t find traditional assembly lines in the Ferrari factory, nor will you find production quotas. With prices for a Ferrari starting at $140,000, auto assembly time isn’t measured in seconds. Average time to manufacture one car: three days. The company produces around 6,000 Ferraris in any one year, although the company hopes to boost that number to 10,000 cars by 2010.
Employees at Ferrari truly enjoy being part of a team. They say that working toward a common goal is one of the most satisfying elements in their jobs. They feel as if Cordero and his team treat them as associates, not just as cogs in the Ferrari wheel. Recently, the company won an award for Best Place to Work in Europe.
Is the team concept at Ferrari working? By all accounts, yes. The company has achieved over $2.3 billion in sales. And more importantly, the car still retains its appeal as one of the best and most desired in the world. Although profits have been nominal during the global economic downturn, there are always going to be customers who want to own the car with the rearing-horse logo.
Teaching Notes:
1.Why do many organizations now utilize work teams?
2.What type of team have you been involved with?
3.What were the pros and cons of the team?

I.WHAT IS A GROUP AND WHAT STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT DO GROUPS GO THROUGH?

A.Introduction
  1. Today, it’s the organization that doesn’t use some form of team that is noteworthy.
B.What is a Group?
  1. A group is two or more individuals as two or more interacting and interdependent individualswho come together to achieve specific goals.
  2. Formal groups are work groups that are defined by the organization’s structure and have designated work assignments and specific tasks directed at accomplishing organizational goals.
  3. Exhibit 9-1 provides some examples of formal groups.

a)Command groups—Groups that are determined by the organization chart and composed of individuals who report directly to a given manager.

b)Task groups—Groups composed of individuals brought together to complete aspecific job task; their existence is often temporary because when the task iscompleted, the group disbands.

c)Cross-functional teams—Groups that bring together the knowledge and skills ofindividuals from various work areas or groups whose members have been trained todo each others jobs.

d)Self-managed teams—Groups that are essentially independent and that, inaddition to their own tasks, take on traditional managerial responsibilities, such ashiring, planning and scheduling, and evaluating performance.

  1. Informal groups are social groups that occur naturally in the workplace and tend to form roundfriendships and common interests.
C.What Are the Stages of Team Development?
  1. Most teams find themselves in a continual state of change.
  2. There’s a general pattern to most teams’ evolution. (See Exhibit 9-2.)
  3. Forming is characterized by a great deal of uncertainty about the group’s purpose, structure, and leadership.

a)This stage is complete when members think of themselves as part of a group.

  1. The storming stage is one of intragroup conflict.

a)There is resistance to the control that the group imposes on individuality and conflict over who will control the team.

b)When complete, there will be relatively clear leadership within the team.

  1. Norming stage is one in which close relationships develop and members begin to demonstrate cohesiveness.

a)There is now a stronger sense of team identity and camaraderie.

b)It is complete when the team structure solidifies and members have assimilated a common set of expectations of appropriate work behavior.

  1. The fourth stage is performing.

a)The structure is fully functional and accepted by team members.

b)For permanent teams, performing is the last stage of their development.

  1. For temporary teams, there is an adjourning stage where the team prepares for its disbandment.
  2. Some researchers argue that the effectiveness of work units does increase at advanced stages.

a)Although generally true, what makes a team effective is complex.

  1. Under some conditions, high levels of conflict are conducive to high group performance.
  2. Teams do not always proceed clearly from one stage to the next.

a)Sometimes several stages are going on simultaneously.

  1. It is better to think of these stages as a general framework.

Teaching Notes ______

II.WHAT ARE THE MAJOR CONCEPTS OF GROUP BEHAVIOR?

A.Introduction
1.to understand group behavior, the concepts of roles, norms and conformity, status systems, group size, and group cohesiveness will be explored.
B.What are Roles?
  1. A rolerefers to behavior patterns expected of someone who occupies a given positionin a social unit.
C.How Do Norms and Conformity Affect Group Behavior?
  1. Norms, acceptable standards that are shared by the group’s members.
  2. Norms dictate output levels, absenteeism rates, promptness or tardiness, the amount of socializing allowed on the job, etc.
  3. The most widespread norms may be related to effort and performance. Work groups typically provide their members with explicit cues on how hard to work, what level of output to have, when to look busy, when it’s acceptable to goof off and more.
  4. Formal dress codes are also norms.
  5. Companies have loyalty norms so employees looking for other jobs do so secretly.

Right or Wrong?
You’ve been hired as a summer intern in the events planning department of a public relations firm in Dallas. Employees know that supervisors won’t discipline them for ignoring company rules. No expense check has ever been denied because of failure to turn in a receipt. Your coworkers use company phones for personal long-distance calls even though it's prohibited by the employee handbook. And one of the permanent employees told you to “help yourself” to any paper, pens, or pencils you might need here or at home.
1.What are the norms of this group?
2.If you were the manager, how would you go about changing the norms?
From the Past to the Present
Does the desire to be accepted as a part of a group leave one susceptible to conforming to the group’s norms? Will the group exert pressure that’s strong enough to change a member’s attitude and behavior? According to the research by Solomon Asch, the answer appears to be yes. Asch’s study involved groups of seven or eight people who sat in a classroom and were asked to compare two cards held by an investigator. One card had one line; the other had three lines of varying length. As shown in Exhibit 9-3, one of the lines on the three-line card was identical to the line on the one-line card. The difference in line length was quite obvious; under ordinary conditions, subjects made errors of less than 1 percent. The challenge was whether the individuals would conform based on group behaviors. The tendency, as Asch showed, is for individual members to go along with the pack. To diminish the negative aspects of conformity, managers should create a climate of openness in which employees are free to discuss problems without fear of retaliation.
D.What is Status and Why is it Important?
  1. Status is a prestige grading, position, or rank within a group. As far back as scientists havebeen able to trace human groupings, they’ve found status hierarchies: tribal chiefs and theirfollowers, nobles and peasants, the haves and the have-nots.
  2. Status systems are important to understanding behavior.
  3. Status may be informally conferred by characteristics such as education, age, skill,or experience
E.Does Group Size Affect Behavior?
  1. Small groups complete tasks faster than larger ones.
  2. Dispersion of responsibility encourages individuals to slack off; a behavior referredto as social loafing.
  3. The implication is that managers who use work groups should also provide a means by which individual efforts can be identified.
F.Are Cohesive Groups More Effective?
  1. Group cohesiveness, the degree to which members are attracted to one another and share the group’s goals.
  2. Highly cohesive groups are more effective than are those with less cohesiveness.
  3. See Exhibit 9-4 for research on group cohesiveness and productivity.

Teaching Notes ______

III.HOW ARE GROUPS TUREND INTO EFFECTIVE TEAMS?

A.Aren't Work Groups and Work Teams the Same?
  1. A work group is a group that interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions that will help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility.

a)Work groups have no need to engage in collective work that requires joint effort.

b)There is no positive synergy.

  1. A work team, on the other hand, generates positive synergy through a coordinated effort.
  2. Exhibit 9-5 highlights the main differences between work groups and work teams.
  3. Management is looking for that positive synergy that will increase performance.

a)The extensive use of teams creates the potential for an organization to generate greater outputs with no increase in (or even fewer) inputs.

  1. Nothing inherently magical in the creation of work teams guarantees that this positive synergy, and its accompanying productivity, will occur.
B.What are the Different Types of Work Team?
  1. Four most common forms of teams in an organization—problem-solving, self-managed, and cross-functional, and virtual teams.
  2. Problem-solving teams: members from the same department or functional area that share ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved.
  3. A self-managed work team is a formal group of employees that operates without a managerand is responsible for a complete work process or segment that delivers a product or service to an external or internal customer.
  4. A cross-functional team consists of employees from about the same hierarchical level but from different work areas in the organization
  5. Virtual teams, are teams that uses technology to link physically dispersed membersin order to achieve a common goal.

Technology and the Manager's Job
IT and Teams
Work teams need information to do their work. Technology has enabled greater online communication and collaboration for teams of all types. The internet was originally a way of connecting scientists and researchers. Search engines help find information while wikis, blogs and virtual reality games share information. Managers can use IT to help improve the way work teams get their work done.
1.What type of technology do students use now to improve productivity?
C.What Makes a Team Effective?
  1. Teams differ in form and structure.
  2. The model in Exhibit 9-6 assumes that managers have already determined that teamwork is preferable to individual work.
  3. Team effectiveness includes objective measures of a team’s productivity, managers’ratings of the team’s performance, and aggregate measures of member satisfaction.
  4. Four key components of effective teams including the context, the team’s composition, work design, and process variables.
  5. Four contextual factors appear to be most significantly related to team performance.

a)Adequate resources can include timely information, proper equipment, encouragement, adequate staffing, and administrative assistance

b)Agreeing on the specifics of work and how all the team members’ individual skills fit together requires team leadership and structure.

c)Members of effective teams trust each other.

d)The final contextual factor of an effective team is a performance evaluation and reward system where team members have to be accountable both individually and jointly.

  1. Team composition factors include team member abilities, personality, role allocation, diversity, size of teams, member flexibility, and member preferences.

a)Part of a team’s performance depends on its members’ knowledge, skills, and abilities.

b)Personalitysignificantly influences individual behavior.

c)There are nine potential roles that work team members often can play.

(See Exhibit 9-7.)

(1)Creator-innovators are imaginative and good at initiating ideas or concepts. They are typically very independent and prefer to work at their own pace in their own way—and very often on their own time.

(2)Explorer-promoters like to take new ideas and champion their cause. They are good at picking up ideas from the creator-innovator and finding the resources to promote those ideas. They often lack the patience and control skills to ensure that the ideas are followed through in detail.

(3)Assessor-developers have strong analytical skills. They’re at their best when given several different options to evaluate and analyze before a decision is made.

(4)Thruster-organizers like to set up procedures to turn ideas into reality and get things done. They set goals, establish plans, organize people, and establish systems to ensure that deadlines are met.

(5)Concluder-producers are concerned with results. Their role focuses on keeping todeadlines and ensuring that all commitments are followed through.Concluder-producers take pride in producing a regular output to a standard.

(6)Controller-inspectors have a high concern for establishing and enforcing rules and policies. They are good at examining details and making sure that inaccuracies are avoided. They want to check all the facts and figures to make sure they’re complete.

(7)Upholder-maintainers hold strong convictions about the way things should be done. They will defend the team and fight its battles with outsiders while strongly supporting fellow team members. These individuals provide team stability.

(8)Reporter-advisers are good listeners and don’t tend to press their point of view on others. They tend to favor getting more information before making decisions. They perform an important role in encouraging the team to seek additional information and discouraging the team from making hasty decisions.

(9)The linkers—overlaps the others. This role can be assumed by any actors of the previous eight roles. Linkers try to understand all views. They are coordinators and integrators. They dislike extremism and try to build cooperation among all team members. If forced to, most individuals can perform in any of these roles. Most have two or three they strongly prefer.

(a)Team diversityis another factor that can influence team effectiveness.

(b)Size of teams can impact effectiveness.

(c)Team member preferencesneed to be considered.

Developing Your Coaching Skill
About the Skill
Effective managers are increasingly being described as coaches rather than bosses. Just like coaches, they’re expected to provide instruction, guidance, advice, and encouragement to help team members improve their job performance.
Steps in Practicing the Skill
1.Analyze ways to improve the team’s performance and capabilities.
2.Create a supportive climate.
3.Influence team members to change their behavior.
Practicing the Skill
Collaborative efforts are more successful when every member of the group or team contributes a specific role or task toward the completion of the goal. To improve your skill at nurturing team effort, choose two of the following activities and break each one into at least six to eight separate tasks or steps. Be sure to indicate which steps are sequential, and which can be done simultaneously with others. What do you think is the ideal team size for each activity you chose?
a)Making an omelet
b)Washing the car
c)Creating a computerized mailing list
d)Designing an advertising poster
e)Planning a ski trip
f)Restocking a supermarket’s produce department
Teaching Tips:
After students list the steps, have them consider whether or not team members would have different roles and how they would structure the group process. For example, if the steps are sequential, would they have clearly specialized roles for each individual? Or, would all team members be “generalists” and able to complete each step? Be sure that the students acknowledge the complexity of the task, and consider whether or not a team is even necessary---they should consider whether a diverse set of perspectives is necessary.
D.How Does Work Design Affect Team Effectiveness?
  1. Important work design elements include autonomy, using a variety of skills, being able to complete a whole and identifiable task or product, and working on a task or project that has a significant impact on others.
E.What Team Processes Are Related To Team Effectiveness?
  1. An effective team has a common plan and purpose. This common purpose provides direction, momentum, and commitment for team members
  2. Teams also need specific goals that facilitate clear communication and help teams maintain their focus on getting results.
  3. Team efficacydescribes when teams believe in themselves and believe they can succeed. Effective teams have confidence in themselves and in their members.
  4. Effective teams need some conflict, that is managed.
  5. Effective teams work to minimize the tendency for social loafing,

MANAGING DIVERSITY | The Challenge of Managing Diverse Work Teams
Managing teams composed of people who are similar isn’t always easy. Four interpersonal factors are important for meeting the challenge of coordinating a diverse work team: understanding, empathy, tolerance, and communication. You know that people aren’t the same, yet they need to be treated fairly and equitably. You need to understand and accept these differences and encourage each team member to do the same. Empathy is closely related to understanding. As a team leader, you should try to understand others’ perspectives. Tolerance is another important interpersonal consideration. Just because you understand that people are different and you empathize with them doesn’t mean that it’s any easier to accept different perspectives or behaviors. Open and two-way communication is important to managing a diverse team. Diversity problems may intensify if people are afraid or unwilling to openly discuss issues that concern them. If a person wants to know whether a certain behavior is offensive to someone else, it’s best to ask.
Likewise, a person who is offended by another’s behavior should explain his or her concerns and ask that person to stop. Such communication exchanges can be positive when they’re handled.
1.What are some of the challenges of diverse teams?
2.As a manager, what can you do to maximize your employees’ potential?

F.How Can a Manager Shape Team Behavior?