Teamwork and Team

Performance
Teams are worth the
work
Study Questions
 What is a the nature of teams and
teamwork?
 What is team building?
 How does team building improve
performance?
 How do teams contribute to the high-
performance workplace?
 Teams :Special Kinds of groups
• The importance of teams was first realized from
the results of the famous Hawthorne studies in
the1030s.

• It was McGregor who gave special attention to

teams in the 1960s.

• Likert during the same period focused attention

on teams as important elements in the
humanization of organizations.
Team

A group whose
members have
complementary skills
and are committed to
a common purpose or
set of performance
goals for which they
hold themselves
mutually accountable.
 Teams :Special Kinds of groups
• A team has several characteristics .
• -members are interdependent
• -it has a common goal or goals
• -each member’s contribution is as important as
any other contribution
• -there is congrurence between achievement of
individual goals and that of the team goal.
Team Versus Group: What’s
the Difference
Work Group
A group that interacts primarily
to share information and to
make decisions to help each
group member 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 the
individual inputs.
Difference between
Work Groups and Teams
Work Groups Teams
Purpose Same as organisation Specific

Work Products Individual Collective

Process Discuss, decide, Discuss, decide, do

delegate
Leadership A single leader Shared

Meetings Efficient Open, problem-solving

Accountability Individual Individual and mutual

Evaluation Indirect (e.g. financial) Direct (collective work

product)
Comparing Work Groups and
Work Teams
Groups vs. Teams
Work Teams: Then and Now
What is the nature of team and
teamwork?
 Types of teams
– Teams that recommend things
• Established to study specific problems and
recommend solutions to them(Task force,
ad hoc committees)
– Teams that run things
• Have formal responsibility for leading other
groups(top management team)
– Teams that make or do things
• Functional groups that perform ongoing
tasks(functional groups-marketing
,manufacturing)
Types of Teams.Five major
dimensions
Continuum of Autonomy
 In work groups, bosses have
responsibility over decisions
and are accountable for work
outcomes. The workers
themselves have very little
autonomy.
 By contrast, in self-managed
work teams, the workers
themselves have
responsibility over decisions
and are accountable for work
outcomes.
 Semiautonomous work
groups are positioned
between these two extremes.
Teams in the high performance work
place.
Organizations everywhere in the new work place are
finding ways are finding creative ways of using
teams to solve problems and make changes to
improve performance .

The catchwords of these new approaches to

teamwork are empowerment,participation,and
Involvement. The setting is increasingly described
as an organization that looks and acts much more
lateral or horizontal than vertical.
Teams in the high performance work
place.
Problem –Solving teams.(use teams in creative
problem solving)
 Employee involvement team
– applies to a wide variety of teams whose
members meet regularly to collectively
examine important workplace issues
 Quality circle
– small group of persons who meet periodically
to discuss and develop solutions for problems
relating to quality and productivity
Teams in the high performance work
place.
 Cross-functional teams
– Consist of members representing
different functional departments or work
units
Teams in the high performance work
place.
 Functional silos problem
– occurs when members of functional
units stay focused on matters internal
to their function and minimize their
interactions with members dealing with
other functions
– also called functional chimneys
problem
Types of Teams (cont’d)
Virtual Teams
Teams that use computer
technology to tie together
physically dispersed
members in order to
achieve a common goal.

Team Characteristics
1. The absence of paraverbal and nonverbal cues
2. A limited social context
3. The ability to overcome time and space constraints
Teams in the high performance work
place.
 Advantages of virtual teams
– Cost-effectiveness and speed where
members are unable to meet easily
face-to-face
– Computer power fulfills typical team
needs for information processing and
decision making
Teams in the high performance work
place.
 Disadvantages of virtual teams
– The lack of personal contact between
team members
– Group decisions are made in a limited
social context
Teams in the high performance work
place.
 A high-involvement workgroup design that
is increasingly well established today is
known as the self managing team.
 Self-managing teams
– small groups empowered to make the
decisions needed to manage
themselves on a day-to-day basis
– also called self-directed work teams
Teams in the high performance work
place.
How self –managing teams work.
 Self –managing teams also called self –directed
teams or empowered teams,are permanent and
formal elements in the organizational structure.
 They replace the traditional workgroup headed by
a supervisor.
 Multiskilling
 A self managing team should probabily include
between 5 and 15 members.Large enough to
provide a good mix of skills and resources but
small enough to function efficiently.
Teams in the high performance work
place.
 Advantages of self-managing teams
– Productivity and quality improvements
– Production flexibility and faster
response to technological change
– Reduced absenteeism and turnover
– Improved work attitudes and quality of
work life
Teams in the high performance work
place.
 Disadvantages of self-managing
teams
– Structural changes in job classifications
and management levels eliminate the
need for first-line supervisors
– Managers must learn to deal with teams
rather than individuals
– Supervisors who are displaced by self-
managing teams may feel threatened
Self-Managed Teams vs.
Traditional Work Groups
Team Development
• Team takes time to develop.
• A team is not formed merely by declaring some
individuals a team.

• A lot of research has been done on group

formation and development.

• Tuckman’s theory

• Kormanski and Mozente integrated the various

theories and suggested five stage of team
development.
 A Model of Team Building
Stage Theme Task Relationship
Outcome Outcome

One Awareness Commitment Acceptance

Two Conflict Clarification Belonging

Three Cooperation Involvement Support

Four Productivity Achievement Pride

Five Separation Recognition Satisfaction

TEAM ROLES (BELBIN)

Belbin identified eight team roles.

1. Chairman/Coordinator: -person of character and
discipline
2. Shaper: -extrovert
3. Plant:- has High IQ(introvert)
4. Monitor/Evaluator: -high IQ
5. Company worker- Stable,controlled and practical
organizer.
6. Resource investigator- dominant, friendly,
extrovert(most popular member)
7. Team worker-sensitive ,extrovert,concerned with people
and their needs.
8. Completer/ finisher- anxious, introvert-fussy about
details
1
TEAM ROLES (BELBIN)
Belbin has also developed instruments to identify these
eight team roles.

• The results have been used in

selection,placement,formation of teams,diagnosis
of teams,and improvement of team effectiveness.In
India the RPG Group used Belbin’s approach with
success.

1
Team Roles (Margerison and McCann)
1. Creator: Initiates creative ideas
2. Promoter: champions ideas after they are
initiated
3. Assessor: offers insightful analysis of
options
4. organizer: provides structure
5. Producer: provides direction and follow-
through
6. Controller: examines details and enforces
rules
7. Advisor: encourages search for more
information
8. Maintainer: fights external battles
9. Linker: coordinates and integrates
What is the nature of team and
teamwork?
 Teamwork
– occurs when group members actively
work together in such a way that all
their respective skills are well utilized to
achieve a common purpose
 A Team-
Effectiveness
Model
 What is the nature of team and
teamwork?
 High Performance Teams
 Teams whose members are deeply committed to one
another’s personal growth and success.
 Characteristics:
– People are free to make their own decisions without
checking with others.
– Everyone on the team shares responsibility.
– All members agree on what they are trying to
accomplish.
– Everyone cares about results and members
coordinate their individual talents to achieve them.
What is the nature of team and
teamwork?
 How to Create a High-Performing
Team
– Communicate high-performance
standards
– Set the tone in the first team meeting
– Make sure that the members have the
right skills
– Establish clear rules for team members
What is the nature of team and
teamwork?

– As a leader, model expected behaviors

– Find ways to create early “successes”
– Continually introduce new information
– Have members spend time together
– Give positive feedback
– Reward high performance
What is the nature of team and
teamwork?
Diversity and Team performance
 Homogeneous teams
– Members are similar with respect to
such variables as age, gender, race,
experience, ethnicity, and culture
– Quickly build social relationships. Can
also limit the group in terms of ideas,
viewpoints and creativity.
What is the nature of team and
teamwork?
 Heterogeneous teams
– Members are diverse in demography,
experiences, life styles, and cultures
– Diversity offers a rich pool of
information, talent, and varied
perspectives that can help improve
team problem solving and increase
creativity.
 Creating Teams
 Stage One: Prework
– Determining whether a team should be formed
– Establishing the team’s objectives
– Creating an inventory of needed skills
– Determining the team’s authority
 Stage Two: Creating Performance Conditions
– Ensuring the team has the resources to carry out its work
 Stage Three: Forming and Building the Team
– Establishing who is and is not a member of the team
– Ensuring members accept the team’s mission
– Clarifying the team’s mission and responsibilities
 Stage Four: Providing ongoing assistance
How Successful are Teams?
People enjoy working in teams after they
have adjusted to them.
Teams help enhance commitment among
employees.
Teams appear to be an effective way of
eliminating layers of management,
allowing more to be done by fewer people.
Teams are not always responsible for
making individuals and organizations
more productive.
Why Teams Fail
Members are unwilling to cooperate
with each other.
Teams fail to receive support from
management.
Some managers are unwilling to
relinquish control to teams.
Teams may fail to cooperate with
other teams.
Developing Successful Teams
1. Provide training in team skills.
2. Compensate team performance.
3. Provide support.
4. Communicate the urgency of the team’s
mission.
5. Promote cooperation within and between
teams.
6. Select team members based on their
skills or potential skills.
7. Be patient.
What is team building?
 Team building
– sequence of planned activities designed
to gather and analyze data on the
functioning of a group and to initiate
changes designed to improve teamwork
and increase group effectiveness
What is team building?
 Formal retreat approach
– Team building occurs during an offsite
“retreat”
 Continuous improvement approach
– The manager, team leader, or group members
take responsibility for ongoing team building
 Outdoor experience approach
– Members engage in physically challenging
situations that require teamwork
 APPROACHES TO TEAM BUILDING

1. Role Negotiation or Role Contribution

Approach
2. Team Roles Approach –Belbins eight team
roles
3. Behavior Modification Approach
4. Simulation Approach
5. Johari Window Approach
6. Action Research Approach
7. Appreciative Inquiry Approach
STEPS FOR TEAM BUILDING

1. Projection into the future

2. Linkage with individual goals
3. Forcefield analysis
4. Strengthening positive forces
5. Reducing negative forces
6. Monitoring
How does team building improve
performance?
 Groups members should avoid the following
disruptive behaviors:
– Being overly aggressive toward other
members
– Withdrawing and refusing to cooperate with
others
– Horsing around when there is work to be done
– Using the group as a forum for self-confession
– Talking too much about irrelevant matters
– Trying to compete for attention and
recognition
Structural Dynamics
The pattern of interrelationships between
the individuals constituting a group; the
guidelines of team behavior that make team
functioning orderly and predictable.
Roles: The hats we wear
Norms: A teams’s unspoken rules
Status: The prestige of team’s
membership(formal status,perks,job title)
Cohesiveness: Getting the team spirit
 Role
– set of expectations associated with a
job or position on a team
 Role ambiguity
– occurs when a person is uncertain
about his or her role
 Role overload
– occurs when too much is expected and
the person feels overwhelmed with work
 Role underload
– occurs when too little is expected and
the person feels underutilized
 Role conflict
– occurs when a person is unable to meet
the expectations of others
– Forms of role conflict
• Intrasender role conflict
• Intersender role conflict
• Person-role conflict
• Interrole conflict
 Norms
– represent beliefs about how group or
team members are expected to behave
– rules or standards of conduct
Key norms that can have positive or negative
implications
Performance norms
 Ethics norms
 Organizational and personal pride norms
 High-achievement norms
 Support and helpfulness norms
 Improvement and change norms
 Cohesiveness
– the degree to which members are
attracted to and motivated to remain a
part of the team
 High team cohesiveness occurs when:
– Members are similar in age, attitudes, needs,
and backgrounds
– Group size is small
– Members respect each others’ competencies
– Members agree on common goals
– Members work on interdependent tasks
– Groups are physically isolated from others
– Groups experience performance success or
crisis
Developing successful teams

• Compensate team performance.

• Communicate the urgency of the team’s mission

• Train members in team skill(team building)

• Select teams members based on their skills or

potential skills.
References
 Greenberg,Baron A.Robert(2009). Behavior in
Organizations,PHI Learning Private Ltd,New Delhi

 Jr,Schermerhorn.R.J(2006)Organizational Behaviour,Wiley
India,New Delhi

 Luthans, Fred(2010). Organizational Behaviour, McGraw-

Hill, New York.

 Pareek.U and S.Khanna.(2012)

(UnderstandingOrganizational Behaviour, Oxford University
Press.
 .Robbins, Stephen P. and Timothy A. Judge.Seema Sanghi
(2010)Organisational Behaviour, Prentice -Hall, New Delhi.