1. Communicating in Teams 1
Teams and
Teamwork
Planning Ahead
How do teams help organizations?
How do teams work?
How do teams make decisions?
How can leaders build high-
performance teams?
(Revised from: Organizational Behavior, Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn)

2. Communicating in Teams 2
Teams in
Organizations
 A team is a small group of
people with complimentary
skills who work together to
achieve a common purpose
and hold themselves mutually
accountable for its
accomplishment

3. Communicating in Teams 3
Teams in
Organizations
Teamwork is the
process of people
working together in
teams to accomplish
common goals

4. Communicating in Teams 4
Teams in
Organizations
Synergy
means that a team is using its
membership resources to the
fullest and is achieving more as a
unit than could otherwise be
achieved

5. Communicating in Teams 5
Teams in
Organizations
 Usefulness of Teams
 increasing resources for problem solving
 fostering creativity and innovation
 improving quality of decision making
 enhancing members’ commitments to
tasks
 raising motivation through collective
action
 helping control and discipline members

6. Communicating in Teams 6
Teams in
Organizations
What can go wrong in teams?
social loafing
personality conflicts
task ambiguity
poor readiness to work
poor teamwork

7. Communicating in Teams 7
Teams in
Organizations
Committees
usually operate with an
ongoing purpose
membership may change
over time

8. Communicating in Teams 8
Teams in
Organizations
 Task Force
usually operates on more
temporary basis
tasks very specific and time
defined
often disbands after task is
completed
creativity and innovation are very
important processes

9. Communicating in Teams 9
Teams in
Organizations
 Cross-Functional Teams
Members come from different
functional units and parts of an
organization.
Teams are created to knock
down “walls” separating
departments.
Team works on a specific
problem or task with the needs
of the whole organization in
mind.

10. Communicating in Teams 10
Teams in
Organizations
Employee Involvement Teams
Groups of workers who meet on
a regular basis outside of the
formal assignments.
Have the goal of applying their
expertise and attention to
important workplace matters.
Quality circles represent a
common form of employee
involvement teams.

11. Communicating in Teams 11
•Teams in
Organizations
 Virtual Teams
employees who work together
and solve problems through
largely computer-mediated
interactions
local area networks
wide area networks
intranets
electronic meeting rooms

12. Communicating in Teams 12
•Teams in
Organizations
 Self-Managing Work Teams
workers whose jobs have been
redesigned to create a high
degree of task interdependence
and who have been given
authority to make many
decisions about how they go
about doing the required work

13. Communicating in Teams 13
Teams in
Organizations
 In Self-Managing Work Teams,
Members
 are held collectively accountable for
performance results
 have discretion in distributing tasks
 have discretion in scheduling work
 are able to perform multiple tasks
 evaluate one another’s performance
contributions
 responsible for total quality of team
products

14. Communicating in Teams 14
How Teams Work
Team Effectiveness
two key results
task performance
member satisfaction
effective teams have high levels of
both results

15. Communicating in Teams 15
•How Teams Work
Team Effectiveness
input factors that influence
good group process
organizational setting
nature of the task
team size
membership characteristics

16. Communicating in Teams 16
How Teams Work
 Stages of Team Development
Forming - initial orientation and
interpersonal testing.
Storming - conflict over tasks and
ways of operating as a team.
Norming - consolidation around
operating task and agendas.
Performing – teamwork and
focused task performance.
Adjourning – task accomplishment
and eventual disengagement.

17. Communicating in Teams 17
How Teams Work
Norms and
Cohesiveness
behavior expected
of team members
can be enforces
with reprimands
and other sanctions

18. Communicating in Teams 18
How Teams Work
How to Build Positive Norms
acting as positive role model
reinforcing desired behaviors
controlling results by regular feedback
orienting and training new members to adopt
desired behaviors
holding regular meetings to discuss progress
using team decision-making methods to
reach agreement

19. Communicating in Teams 19
How Teams Work
 Cohesiveness
degree to which members are
attracted to and want to remain
part of a team
can be good if paired with
positive performance norms
more cohesiveness the greater
conformity of members to norms

20. Communicating in Teams 20
How Teams Work
 Task and Maintenance Needs
 Task Activities
contribute directly to team’s performance purpose
 Maintenance Activities
support emotional life of team
Distributed Leadership
makes every member responsible for
 correctly recognizing when task and/or
maintenance activities are needed and responding
appropriately

21. Communicating in Teams 21
How Teams Work
 Communication Networks
Decentralized
All members communicate directly with one another
Centralized
Activities are coordinated and results pooled by
central point of control
Restricted
Polarized subgroups contest one another.
Subgroups may engage in antagonistic relations.

22. Communicating in Teams 22
Decision Making in
Teams
 Methods for Team
Decisions
lack of response
authority rule
minority rule
majority rule
consensus
unanimity

23. Communicating in Teams 23
Decision Making in
Teams
 Assets and Liabilities of Team
Decisions
Potential Advantages
information
alternatives
understanding, acceptance and commitment
Potential Disadvantages
social pressure to conform
minority domination
time demands

24. Communicating in Teams 24
Decision Making in
Teams
 Groupthink
tendency for highly
cohesive groups to
lose their critical
evaluative
capabilities

25. Communicating in Teams 25
Decision Making in
Teams
Symptoms of Groupthink
illusions of group invulnerability
rationalizing unpleasant data
belief in inherent group morality
negative stereotypes of competitors
pressure to conform
self-censorship
illusions of unanimity
mind guarding

26. Communicating in Teams 26
Leadership and High
Performance Teams
High performance teams
clear and elevating goal
task-driven, results oriented structure
competent and committed members
collaborative climate
high standards of excellence
external support and recognition
strong and principled leadership

27. Communicating in Teams 27
Leadership and High
Performance Teams
Team-Building Process
Step 1 – problem awareness
Step 2 – data gathering
Step 3 – data analysis and diagnosis
Step 4 – action planning
Step 5 – action implementation
Step 6 - evaluation

28. Communicating in Teams 28
Leadership and High
Performance Teams
Leadership Challenges
establish clear vision of future
create change
unleash talent