Understanding Work Teams

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Understanding Work Teams
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Chapter Outline

• Teams versus Groups Whats the Difference?
• Why Have Teams Become So Popular?
• Employee Involvement The Precursor to Teams
• Types of Teams
• Linking Teams and Group Concepts Towards
  Creating High-Performance Teams
• Contemporary Issues in Managing Teams

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Understanding Work Teams

• Explain the growing popularity of teams in
  organizations
• Contrast teams with groups
• Identify three types of teams
• Demonstrate the linkage between group concepts
  and high-performing teams
• Identify ways managers can build trust among team
  members
• Explain how organizations can create team players
• Describe the advantages and disadvantages of
  diversity to work teams
• Explain how management can keep teams from
  becoming stagnant and rigid

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Teams versus Groups

• Work Group
• A group that interacts primarily to share
  information and to make decisions to help each
  other perform within his or her area of
  responsibility
• Work Team
• A group whose individual efforts result in a
  performance that is greater than the sum of those
  individual inputs

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Exhibit 8-1Comparing Work Groups and Teams
Work Groups
Teams
Strong focused leader Individual
accountability Group and organizational purpose
are same Individual work products Efficient
meetings Measures effectiveness indirectly Discu
sses, decides, delegates
Shared leadership Individual and
mutual accountability Specific team
purpose Collective work products Open-ended
discussion Measures performance directly Discuss
es, decides together
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Employee Involvement Programs

• A participative process that uses the entire
  capacity of employees and is designed to
  encourage increased commitment to the
  organizations success.
• Examples of Employee Involvement
• Participative Management
• Representative Participation
• Work Councils
• Board Representatives

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Types of Work Teams

• Problem-Solving
• Groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same
  department who meet for a few hours each week to
  discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency,
  and the work environment
• Self-Managed
• Groups of 10 to 15 people who take on
  responsibilities of their former supervisors
• Cross-Functional Teams
• Employees from about the same hierarchical level,
  but from different work areas, who come together
  to accomplish a task

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Exhibit 8-2Three Types of Teams
Problem-Solving
Self-managed
Cross-functional
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Exhibit 8-3How a Typical Quality Circle Operates
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Creating High Performance Teams

• Organizational Supports
• Team Size and Composition
• Appropriate Performance Evaluation
• Reward Systems That Acknowledge Team Effort
• Internal Team Needs
• Leadership and Structure
• Having Commitment to a Common Purpose
• Establishing Specific Goals
• Accountability
• Developing High Mutual Trust

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Exhibit 8-6Dimensions of Trust
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Dimensions of Trust

• Integrity
• Honesty and truthfulness
• Competence
• Technical and interpersonal knowledge and skills
• Consistency
• Reliability, predictability, and good judgment in
  handling situations
• Loyalty
• Willingness to protect and save face for a person
• Openness
• Willingness to share ideas and information freely

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Building Trust

• The following summarizes ways you can build
  trust.
• Demonstrate that youre working for others
  interests as well as your own.
• Be a team player.
• Practice openness.
• Be fair.
• Speak your feelings.
• Show consistency in the basic values that guide
  your decision making.
• Maintain confidence.
• Demonstrate competence.

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Contemporary Issues in Managing Teams

• Teams and Work Force Diversity
• Diversity typically provides fresh perspectives
  on issues but it makes it more difficult to unify
  the team and reach agreements.
• Reinvigorating Mature Teams
• Teams dont automatically stay at the performing
  stage. Familiarity breeds, apathy. Success can
  lead to complacency. And maturity brings less
  openness to novel ideas and innovation.
• Mature teams are particularly prone to
  groupthink, and as a result team members become
  reluctant to express their thoughts and less
  likely to challenge each other.

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Exhibit 8-7Advantages and Disadvantages of
Diversity

• Multiple perspectives
• Greater openness to new ideas
• Multiple interpretations
• Increased creativity
• Increased flexibility
• Increased problem-solving skills

• Ambiguity
• Complexity
• Confusion
• Miscommunication
• Difficulty in reaching a single agreement
• Difficulty in agreeing on specific actions

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Reinvigorating Mature Teams

• Prepare members to deal with problems of maturity
• Offer refresher training
• Offer advanced training
• Encourage teams to treat their development as a
  constant learning experience

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Shaping Team Players

• Selection
• Care should be taken to ensure that candidates
  can fulfill their team roles as well as technical
  requirements.
• Training
• A large proportion of people raised on the
  importance of individual accomplishment can be
  trained to become team players.
• Performance Evaluation
• Performance as a team member has to be evaluated
  alongside individual performance
• Rewards
• Reward systems needs to be reworked to encourage
  cooperative efforts rather than competitive ones.

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Summary and Implications

• The introduction of teams into the workplace has
  greatly influenced employee jobs
• High-performing teams have common
  characteristics
• they contain people with special skills
• they commit to a common purpose, establish
  specific goals
• they have the leadership and structure to
  provide focus and direction
• they hold themselves accountable at both the
  individual and team levels
• there is high mutual trust among members
• It is difficult to create team players. To do
  so, managers should
• select individuals with interpersonal skills
• provide training to develop teamwork skills
• reward individuals for cooperative efforts
• Mature teams can become stagnant and complacent.
  Managers should support mature teams with
• advice
• guidance
• and training

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PointTeams The Way to Go

• The value of teams is now well known. The
  following are benefits that can result from the
  introduction of work teams.
• Increased employee motivation.
• Higher levels of productivity.
• Increased employee satisfaction.
• Common commitment to goals.
• Improved communication.
• Expanded job skills.
• Organizational flexibility.

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CounterPointTeams Are Not Always the Answer

• A critical look at four of the assumptions which
  seem to underlay this team ideology.
• Mature teams are task oriented and have
  successfully minimized the negative influences of
  other group forces.
• Individual, group, and organizational goals can
  all be integrated into common team goals.
• Participative or shared leadership is always
  effective.
• The team environment drives out the subversive
  forces of politics, power, and conflict that
  divert groups from efficiently doing their work.