Teams in Organizations

1
Teams in Organizations

• Chapter 1

2
Characteristics of Teams

• Shared goal
• Mutual accountability, shared responsibility,
  shared rewards
• Members interdependent
• Dependent on each other for what?
• Bounded (identity) stable over time
• Members have authority to self-manage
• Operate within a larger social system context.

3
Working Groups

• How does a team differ from a working group?
• Leadership
• Accountability
• Time
• Authority
• Skills
• Goals.

4
Why Use Teams?

• Customer service focus
• Trend from transactional to relational view of
  customers. Why?
• Competition
• Used to coordinate activities as we become more
  specialized (therefore interdependent)
• Information technology
• Role of managers is changing
• Globalization
• Changes in structure require integration
  coordination of stakeholders

5
Manager-Led Team

• Outside manager acts as team leader
• Sets goals ( strategies to reach them), monitors
  performance, selects members, interacts with org.
• The teams only responsibility is assigned work
• No autonomy or empowerment
• Ideal when the goal is clear the task is
  simple.
• Examples?
• Advantages?
• Disadvantages?

6
Self-Managing Teams

• Leader designs the team defines purpose/goal
  (team determines strategies)
• Leader manages organizational context
• Team given authority to hire, discipline, monitor
  performance of motivate one another
• Examples?
• Advantages?
• Disadvantages?

7
Self-Directing Teams

• Teams determine their own goals strategies to
  reach them
• Teams design themselves self-manage
• Leader manages organizational context only
• Ideal for ambiguous or complex problems next
  generation planning
• Examples?
• Advantages?
• Disadvantages?

8
Self-Governing Teams

• Team completely autonomous
• Designs organizational context, manages own
  performance, determines goals, designs the team
• Can replace president or COO
• Can be used to investigate serious problems
• Advantage?
• Disadvantage?

9
Trekronerskolen, Roskilde, Denmark

• Teachers team work at a comprehensive school in
  Denmark

10

• Started up with 9 classes in 2001
• Today 30 classes and 615 students
• Age 6 to 16 years
• 3 classes of each year group
• 50 teachers 12 men and 38 woman - age average
  37 years
• 9 self-governing teams of teachers

11

• Self-governing team
• A group of adults, who have a committing
  co-operation and the responsibility for planning,
  carrying out and evaluating the social and
  learning sides of teaching children.

12

• Each self-governing team consists of 5-6
  teachers, who
• Teach all subjects
• Work flexible timetables
• Handle special education
• Cover substitute teaching
• 4 teachers to 3 classes.

13
Advantages

• Cooperation between teachers
• High level of interdisciplinary knowledge
• Organize more qualified teaching
• Sharing of knowledge
• Lessons are never cancelled
• Supervision between teachers
• Full control over school development.

14
Consider this

• Teams have the potential to outperform
  individuals, but if poorly designed lead to
  confusion, slowed poor D/M
• Consequences of team misattribution error
• Blaming team failure on uncontrollable external
  factors or a person on the team
• Team failure should be viewed as an opportunity
  to learn from mistakes
• Conflict is necessary for effective D/M
• Functional vs. dysfunctional

15
Role of Team Leader?

• Design team environment (manage org. context)
• Provide resources, access to information
  training
• Set working conditions
• Align teams goals w/ org. goals
• Provide incentives to cooperate
• Coach
• Provide support
• Leaders should not attempt to____? Why?

16
Team Building

• Appropriate when?
• Fail when dont address underlying design
  problems (better to do this in teams natural
  environment)
• Often encourages members to blame failures on
  personalities
• Your experiences?

17
Results of Research

• Ideal team size is ___ members.
• Need to balance innovation control. How?
• Team longevity? average time together 2 yrs
• Biggest challenges?
• Maintaining motivation
• Minimizing confusion
• Coordinating

18
Expert Learning

• -The ability to learn from mistakes.
• -Effective leaders engage in-
• Double Loop Learning
• Leaders coach direct teams, while teams help
  leaders learn
• Not Single Loop Learning
• The leaders perception that he has nothing to
  learn from subordinates, but they can learn from
  him