Managing groups

1
Managing groups

• What is a group/team?
• Which are the different types of groups?
• How to evaluate team effectiveness?
• Which factors affect group effectiveness?

2
What is a team?

• A team is a unit of two or more people who
  interact and coordinate their work to accomplish
  a specific objective.

3
Which are the different types of groups?

• Formal vs. informal groups.
• Formal
• Horizontal and vertical teams (see Exh. 16.2).
• Informal
• When can they play a negative role in the
  organization?

4
Measures of team effectiveness.
5
Which factors affect team effectiveness?

• Depends on team characteristics and team
  processes.

6
Team characteristics

• Group size
• Member roles
• Group norms
• Group cohesiveness

7
Group size
8
Member roles

• Task specialist role
• Socioemotional role
• Member roles can be viewed as existing in a
  continuum (Shortell-Table 6.2).
• Teams must be well-balanced satisfy social needs
  and accomplish the teams task.

9
Team Member Roles
High
Task Specialist Role
Dual Role
Member Task Behavior
Nonparticipator Role
Socioemotional Role
Low
Member Social Behavior
High
Low
10
Group norms

• Informal.
• Relate to day-to-day behavior and employee output
  and performance.

11
Group cohesiveness

• Is group cohesiveness good or bad?

12
Groupthink

• Mode of thinking that people engage in when they
  are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, and
  when the members strivings for unanimity
  override their motivation to realistically
  appraise alternative courses of action.

13
Techniques to diminish groupthink

• Devils advocate
• Multiple advocacy
• Brainstorming
• Strive for group heterogeneity.

14
Team processes/Stages of team development (Exh.
16.5)

• The five stages usually occur in sequence.
• Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing,
  Adjourning.
• Not all groups go through all stages
• Managers need to consider the stage of team
  development in establishing group expectations.