HHUMBEHV

1. TEAM
DYNAMICS
HHUMBEHV
M. ALDANA, SHTM FACULTY

2. Learning Objectives
1. Explain why employees join informal groups and discuss the benefits and
limitations of teams.
2. Outline the team effectiveness model and discuss how task characteristics,
team size, and team composition influence team effectiveness.
3. Discuss how the four team processes – team development, norms,
cohesion, and trust – influence team effectiveness.
4. Discuss the characteristics and factors required for success of self-directed
teams.
5. Identify four constraints on team decision making and discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of four structures aimed at improving team
decision making.

3. 3
Teams - Definition
• Teams are groups of two or more people who interact with and
influence each other, are mutually accountable or achieving common
goals associated with organizational objectives, and perceive
themselves as a social entity within an organization.

4. 4
Teams - Definition
• Teams exist to fulfill a purpose
• Are held together by their
interdependence and need for
collaboration
• Influence each other
• A team exists when team members
perceive themselves to be a team.

5. 5
Types ofTeams
• Departmental Teams
• Production/service/leadership teams
• Self-directed teams
• Advisory teams
• Task force (project) teams
• Skunkworks
• Virtual teams
• Communities of practice

6. 6
Informal Groups
• All teams are groups, but many groups do not satisfy our definition of
teams.
• Groups include people assembled together, whether or not they have
any interdependence or organizationally focused objective.
• Why do they exist?
• Our drive to bond
• Social identity theory
• They accomplish goals that individuals working alone cannot achieve
• We are comforted by the mere presence of other people and are motivated to
be near them in stressful situations

7. 7
Advantages and Disadvantages ofTeams
• In many situations, people are potentially
more motivated when working in teams
than when working alone.
• One reason is that employees have a drive to
bond and are motivated to fulfill the goals of
groups to which they belong
• They are accountable to fellow team members
• Coworkers become benchmarks of comparison

8. 8
The Challenges ofTeams
• Process losses – resources (including time
and energy) expended toward team
development and maintenance rather than
the task.
• It is much more efficient for an individual to
work out an issue alone than to resolve
differences of opinion with other people.
• Social loafing – occurs when people exert
less effort when working in teams than
when working alone.

9. 9
A Model ofTeam Effectiveness
• A team is effective when
it benefits the
organization, its
members, and its own
survival.

10. 10
A Model ofTeam Effectiveness
• Most teams exist to serve some
organizational purpose, so effectiveness is
partly measured by the achievement of
those objectives.
• A team’s effectiveness relies on the
satisfaction and well-being of its members.
People join groups to fulfill their personal
needs, so effectiveness is partly measured
by this need fulfillment.
• Team effectiveness includes the team’s
viability – its ability to survive. It must
maintain the commitment of its members.

11. 11
Organizational andTeam Environment
• The organizational and team environment all conditions beyond the
team’s boundaries that influence its effectiveness.
• Team members tend to work together more effectively when they are at
least partly rewarded for team performance.
• Teams flourish when organized around work processes because their
structure increases interaction and interdependence among team
members and reduces interaction with people outside the team.
• Leaders who provide support and strategic direction while team
members focus on operational efficiency and flexibility.
• Physical layout

12. 12
Team Design Elements
• Leaders need to carefully design
the team itself, including task
characteristics, team size, team
composition, and team roles.

13. 13
Task Characteristics
• Task Interdependence
• The extent to which team members must
share materials, information, or expertise to
perform their jobs.
• As a rule, the higher the level of task
interdependence, the greater the need to
organize people into teams rather than have
them work alone.

14. 14
Task Characteristics
• Team Size
• Generally teams should be large enough to
provide the necessary competencies and
perspectives to perform the work, yet small
enough to maintain efficient coordination
and meaningful involvement of each
member.

15. 15
Task Characteristics
• Team Composition
• In most workplaces, employees must have
more than technical skills; they must also be
able and willing to work in a team
environment.
• 5 C’s:
• Cooperating
• Coordinating
• Communicating
• Comforting
• Conflict Resolving

16. 16
Task Characteristics
• Team Diversity
• Seems to have both positive and negative effects on team effectiveness.
• Benefits:
• better at making decisions – people come from different backgrounds, broader pool of
technical competencies
• Better representation of the team’s constituents
• Challenges:
• Take longer to become a high performing team
• Susceptible to “fault lines” that undermine team effectiveness by reducing the motivation
to communicate and coordinate with teammates

17. 17
Team Processes
• Team processes include team development, norms,
cohesion, and trust.
• Team Development – team members must resolve
several issues and pass through several stages of
development before emerging as an effective work
unit.
• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning

18. 18
Stages ofTeam Development
• Forming – period of testing and orientation in which team members
learn about each other and evaluate the benefits and costs of continued
membership
• Storming – marked by interpersonal conflict as members become more
proactive and compete for various team roles, establish norms
• Norming – team develops its first real sense of cohesion
• Performing – members learned to efficiently coordinate and resolve
conflicts.
• Adjourning – occurs when the team is about to disband

19. 19
Team Roles
• A role is a set of behaviors that people are expected to perform because
they hold certain positions in a team and organization.
• In a team setting, some roles help the team achieve its goals; other
roles maintain relationships within the team.
• Some team roles are formally assigned to specific people.
• Team members are assigned specific roles within their formal job
responsibilities. Yet, team members also assume informal roles that suit
their personality and values as well as the wishes of other team
members.

20. 20
Team Building
• Team Building consists of formal
activities intended to improve the
development and functioning of a work
team.
• Team building attempts to speed up the
team development process.
• It may also be applied to new teams, but
it is commonly introduced for existing
teams that have regressed to earlier
stages of team development due to
membership turnover or loss of focus.

21. 21
Team Building
• Some team-building interventions are
task focused.
• Some tries to improve problem solving
skills
• Some clarifies and reconstructs each
member’s perceptions of his or her role
as well as the role of expectations that
member has of other team members.
• Some are aimed at improving relations
among team members.

22. 22
Team Norms
• Norms are informal rules and shared expectations that groups establish
to regulate the behavior of their members.
• Norms are enforced in various ways, but only apply to behavior and not
to private thoughts or feelings.
• Norms develop when teams form because people need to anticipate or
predict how others will act.
• Team norms often become deeply anchored, so the best way to avoid
norms that undermine organizational success is to establish desirable
norms when the team is first formed.

23. 23
Team Cohesion
• Team Cohesion refers to the degree of attraction people feel toward the
team and their motivation to remain members.
• Team Cohesion is an emotional experience, not just a calculation of
whether to stay or leave the team. It exists when team members make
the team part of their self-concept.
• Influences: members similarity, team size, member interaction,
somewhat difficult entry, team success, external competition and
challenges.

24. 24
TeamTrust
• Trust refers to positive aspects expectations one person has toward another
person in situations involving risk.
• Trust is built on three foundations: calculus, knowledge, and identification
• Calculus based trust represents a logical calculation that other team
members will act appropriately because they face sanctions if their actions
violate reasonable expectations.
• Knowledge based trust is based on the predictability of another of another
team member’s behavior.
• Identification-based trust is based on mutual understanding and emotional
bond among team members.

25. 25
Self-DirectedTeams
• Self-Directed Teams are cross-
functional groups organized around
work processes, that complete an
entire piece of work requiring
several interdependent tasks, and
that have substantial autonomy over
the execution of those tasks.

26. 26
VirtualTeams
• Virtual Teams are teams whose
members operate across space,
time, and organizational
boundaries and are linked through
information technologies to
achieve organizational tasks.

27. 27
Team Decision Making
• Under certain conditions, teams
are more effective than individuals
at identifying problems, choosing
alternatives, and evaluating their
decisions.

28. 28
Constraints toTeam Decision Making
• Time Constraints – teams take longer to make decisions
• Production Blocking – creates time constraint due to procedural requirement
that only one person may speak at a time
• Evaluation Apprehension – individuals are reluctant to mention ideas
that seem silly because they believe other team members are silently
evaluating them
• Pressure to Conform – cohesion leads to employees to conform to
team’s norms
• Groupthink – refers to the tendency of highly cohesive groups to value
consensus at the price of decision quality.

29. 29
Team Structures to Improve Decision Making
• Constructive Conflict – occurs when people focus on the issue and maintain
respect for people having other points of view.
• Brainstorming – is a team event where participants try to think up as many
ideas as possible.
• Electronic Brainstorming – is a variation of brainstorming that relies on
networked computers to submit and share creative ideas.
• Nominal Group Technique – another variation of brainstorming that tries to
combine benefits of team decision making without the problems. It consists
of three stages: (1) silently and independently document ideas, (2)
collectively describe these ideas to other team members without critique,
and then (3) silently and independently evaluate the ideas presented.