This document discusses leadership in teams and decision groups. It covers the nature of teams including functional work teams, virtual teams, and self-managed teams. It discusses the importance of commitment to shared objectives, accurate shared mental models, internal organization and coordination, external coordination, resources and political support, and collective efficacy and potency for effective team performance. It also covers cross-functional teams, mutual trust and cooperation, decision making groups, factors that determine group processes, and leadership functions in meetings.

1. Leadership in Business
“Chapter 11 - Summary”
“Leadership in Teams and Decision Groups”
By:
Kevin Pratama 3094004
Eka Darmadi Lim 3094802
Eric Ariawan 3094808
Class: Y
University of Surabaya
Faculty of Business and Economics
International Business Networking
2012

2. THE NATURE OF TEAMS
In many of these subunits the members perform the same type of job, but they
work alone, do not depend on each other, and need little coordination. This
type if job unit is sometimes called a “coating group” because there is little
role interdependence among the members.
The word team usually refers to a small task group in which the members have
a common purpose, interdependent roles, and complementary skills. Some
distinct types of teams can be found in organizations, including functional
work teams, cross-functional teams, self-managed teams, and top executive
teams.
FUNCTIONAL WORK TEAMS
Functional work team usually has different responsibilities, but they are all
helping to perform the same basic function. In a functional work team,
leadership responsibilities are usually concentrated in a formal leader,
although other group members may assist in performing specific leadership
functions.
VIRTUAL TEAMS
There are some reasons for increased use of virtual teams, including the rapid
pace of globalization, increased inter organization cooperation, employee
desire for more flexibility in work arrangements, growing emphasis on service
and knowledge management activities, and need for more flexibility and
innovation in product development and delivery of customized services.
COMITMENT TO SHARED OBJECTIVES
Task commitment is higher when the team considers the objectives worthy of
their best effort. An important leadership role in teams is to make sure that all

3. numbers are highly committed and willing to make a maximum effort to
successfully carry out the team mission.
ACCURATE, SHARED MENTAL MODELS
Mental model is how someone perceives the nature and cause of a problem
and likely solutions. A shared understanding about assumption and cause
effect relationship can facilitate the development of effective strategies and
plans by a team and increase their commitment to Implement them.
INTERNAL ORGANIZATION AND COORDINATION
The performance of a team depends not only on the motivation and skills of
members, but also on how members are organized to use their skills.
Performance will suffer if a team has talented people but they are given tasks
for which their skills are irrelevant, or if the team uses a performance strategy
that is not consistent with member skills.
EXTERNAL COORDINATION
The performance of a team also depends upon adjusting their activities to be
consistent with the activities of interdependent units inside or outside the
organization. External coordination requires timely and accurate information
about client needs and outside events which affect the work of the team.
RESOURCES AND POLITICAL SUPPORT
Group performance also depends on getting information, resources, and
political support needed to do the work. Maintaining a dependable supply of
resources is especially important when the work cannot be done without them
and no substitutes can be found.
COLLECTIVE EFFICACY AND POTENCY

4. Member commitment depends in part on the shared belief of members that the
team is capable of successfully carrying out its mission and achieving specific
task objectives. Collective efficacy is likely to be higher for a team with strong
member skills, a high level of mutual trust and cooperation, ample resources,
and a relevant performance strategy.
SELF MANAGED TEAMS
Self-managed teams will help to differentiate between internal and external
leadership roles. The internal leadership role involves the responsibilities of
management assigned to the team and shared by the members of the group. It
is typical for self-managed teams to have an internal team leader who is
elected by the members, and the position may be rotated among different
members on a regular basis.
The role of an external leader involves the responsibilities of managerial
which is not delegated to the team. The type of external leaders is middle
managers, special facilitators, or some of the previous first-line supervisors.
Each external leader usually works with several teams.
CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
The advantages of cross-functional teams are the specific leadership behaviors
used in cross-functional groups to build task commitment, develop effective
performance strategies, ensure member trust and cooperation, obtain necessary
resources, and maintain external coordination.
The difficulties and obstacles facing many cross-functional teams are so great
which the formal leader cannot carry out all of the relevant leadership roles
alone. The difficulties in gaining commitment from members with other duties
and conflicting loyalties increase the need in cross-functional teams for a
designed leader with significant position power and good interpersonal skills.

5. MUTUAL TRUST AND COOPERATION
High level of cooperation and mutual trust among the members in an
organization will help to carry out the mission of the organization. It is
essential for the members to share information and resources and help each
other when team member roles are highly independent. Cooperation will occur
when members identify with the team, value their membership in it, and are
intrinsically motivated to support it. Cooperation is also facilitated by a high
level of mutual trust.
DECISION MAKING GROUP
Groups have more relevant knowledge and ideas that can be pooled to
improve decision quality and active participation will increase member
understanding of decisions and member commitment to implement them.
The quality of a group decision depends in the contribution of information and
ideas by group members, the clarify of communication, the accuracy of
prediction and judgments, the extent to which the discussion focused on the
problem and the manner in which disagreement is resolved.
DETERMIND THE GROUP PROCESS:
1. Group Size
Large group may have more information and a wider variety of
perspective about the problem, as well as more opportunity to involve
all parties who will be affected by a decision.
2. Status differentials
Large differences in member status can inhibit information exchange
and accurate evaluation of ideas, usually low status members are

6. usually reluctant to criticize or disagree with high status members.
However the opinion of high status member has more, influence and
tend to be evaluated more favorably.
3. Cohesiveness
A high cohesiveness can be a mixed blessing. A cohesive group of
people with similar values and attitudes is more likely to agree with the
decision, but members tend to agree too quickly without a complete,
objective evaluation, of the alternatives.
4. Member Diversity
The extent to which members vary with regard to personality,
demographic attributes. And functional specialization has implication
of group process and outcomes. People tend to be less accepting of
other who have different belief, values, and traditions. As noted earlier,
diversity can also impede communication when members use different
language, jargon, measures and criteria.
5. Emotional Maturity
Groups with members, who are low on emotional maturity, tend to
have more disruptive self – oriented behavior and aggressive behavior
like interrupting and shouting down the other members.
6. Physical Environment
The physical environment for a meeting can affect group process, the
seating arrangement can create psychological separation of the leader
from members, resulting in a climate of stiff formality.

7. 7. Communication Technology
The communication technology used by the group can affect group
processes and the resulting decisions. Advances in communication
technology offer benefits not only for virtual groups but also for
groups with face to face meetings.
LEADERSHIP FUNCGTION IN MEETING
A major obstacle to effective problem solving and decision making in
a group that has relevant information and ideas widely distributed
among the members. The leadership role can be shared to some extent,
but members of decision group often prefer to have one designed
discussion leader who has primary responsibility for conducting the
meeting.
Application Guideline for leading meetings:
1. Inform people about necessary preparation for a meeting
2. Share essential information with group members.
3. Describe the problem without implying the cause or solution.
4. Allow ample time for idea generation and evaluation.
5. Separate idea generation from idea evaluation.
6. Encourage and facilitate participation.
7. Encourage positive restatement and idea building.
8. Use systematic procedures for solution evaluation.
9. Look for an integrate solution.
10. Encourage efforts to reach consensus when feasible.
11. Clarify responsibilities for implementation.