1. Chapter 9: Teams and Teamwork
PSYC 352

2. Terminology
 Dyad: Two-person unit
 Group vs. Team
 No real distinction
 Team: A social aggregation in which a limited number
of individuals interact on a regular basis to accomplish a
set of shared objectives for which they have mutual
responsibility.

3. Origins of Work Teams
 Factors that led to the use of teams:
 Information age
 Educated and trained population
 Rate of change in work activities
 Teams are not always better than individuals

4. Level of Analysis
Individual vs. Team vs. Organization
Micro vs. Meso vs. Macro
Organization
Work Groups
Individuals

5. Types of Teams
(Larson & LaFasto, 1989)
 Problem Solving Team: A type of team
created for the purpose of focusing on the
resolution of a particular problem or issue.
 Creative Team: A type of team created for
the purpose of developing innovative
possibilities or solutions.

6. Types of Teams
(Larson & LaFasto, 1989)
 Tactical Team: A type of team created for the
purpose of executing a well-defined plan or
objective.
 Ad Hoc Team: A type of team created for a
limited duration that is designed to address
itself to resolving one particular problem.

7. Types of Teams
(Larson & LaFasto, 1989)
Broad
Objective
Dominant
Feature
Process Emphasis Example
Problem
Resolution
Trust Focus on Issues CDC
Creative Autonomy Explore possibilities and
alternatives
IBM PC
Team
Tactical Clarity Directive, highly focused
tasks, role clarity, well-
defined operational
standards, accuracy
Cardiac
Surgery
Team

8. Principles of Teamwork
1. Feedback provided and accepted
2. Backing up team members
3. Collective group
4. Within-team interdependence
5. Leadership makes a difference

9. Team Structure
 Structure of a team includes:
 Number of members
 Demographic composition
 Experience of members
 Diversity in teams:
 Information diversity
 Value diversity

10. Team Processes:
Stages of Development
Forming Storming
Norming Performing Adjourning

11. Team Structure: Roles
Leader
Shaper
Worker
Completer-
Finisher
Creator
Resource
investigator
Team
Facilitator
Monitor-
evaluator
Diversity within a team is
reflected in the members
filling different roles.
Effective teams are
composed of members
who serve different roles
on the team and their roles
are defined by possession
of selected mental abilities
and personality
characteristics.
Belbin, 1981

12. Team Processes: Socialization
 Socialization: process of mutual adjustment
that produces changes over time in the
relationship between a person and a team.
 How socialization works (Moreland & Levine, 2001):
 Evaluation
 Commitment
 Role transition and phases of membership
(investigation, socialization, maintenance,
resocialization, remembrance)

13. Team Processes:
Interpersonal Processes
 Communication
 Conflict
 Cohesion
 Trust

14. Team Processes:
Shared Mental Models
 Shared Mental Model:the cognitive
processes held in common by members of a
team regarding how they acquire
information, analyze it, and respond to it.
 What is shared (Cannon-Bowers & Salas, 2001)?
 Task-specific knowledge
 Task-related knowledge
 Knowledge of teammates
 Shared attitudes and beliefs

15. Team Processes:
Shared Mental Models
 Groupthink:a phenomenon associated with
team decision making in which members feel
threatened by forces external to the team,
resulting in a deterioration in the cognitive
processing of information.
 3 Causes:
 High level of cohesion
 Structural organizational flaw
 Proactive situational context

16. Groupthink Example
A board of directors of an international air
freight service must decide whether the
company should enter a cost-cutting war with
their competitors. The board begins its
decision-making meeting with the
chairperson’s loaded questions: “Should we
enter into this foolish price war or just keep
rates the way they are?”

17. Team Processes:
Decision Making
 Multi-level theory of team decision
making (Hollenbeck, LePine, & Ilgen,
1996):
 Team informity
 Staff validity
 Dyadic sensitivity

18. Improving Team Decision
Making
 Assign the devil’s advocate role
 Be open to dissenting points of view
 Seek outside opinions
 Break up into smaller groups
 Rethink issues before making final decision
 Use brainstorming

19. Virtual Teams
 Virtual teams: Task-focused teams that meet
without being physically present or working
at the same time.
 Defining Characteristics (Avolio et al., 2001):
 Communication takes place electronically
 Team members are dispersed geographically
 Members may interact synchronously or
asynchronously

20. Virtual Teams
 Challenges:
 Development of shared mental models
 Evaluation of team results
 Achievement of team cohesion
 Problems with leadership

21. Intergroup Conflict
 Causes:
 Lack of resources
 Goal incompatibility
 Time compatibility
 Influence tactics

22. Intergroup Conflict
 Consequences:
 Conflict changes group members’ perceptions of
each other
 Group becomes more cohesive
 Strained interaction between the two groups
 Argumentative behavior
 Attitudes passed on to new members
 Goals focus inward, away from organization as a
whole

23. Overcoming Intergroup
Conflict
 Superordinate Goals: goals that both groups
endorse and that often require cooperative
intergroup behavior to be achieved
 Getting 2 conflicting groups together by itself
will not reduce conflict
 Conflict can be reduced if members cooperate to
achieve superordinate goals.

24. Overcoming Intergroup
Conflict
 One problem occurs in conflicting groups is
that they do not communicate.
 One strategy to overcome the conflict is to
plan a negotiation between the 2 groups.
 Negotiation:facilitates communication and is
usually seen a a fair method of dispute
resolution.

25. Overcoming Intergroup
Conflict
 Member exchanges: members of conflicting
groups role play each other.
 Intergroup team development: team
activities to improve relationships between
groups.

26. Overcoming Intergroup
Conflict
 Reducing need for intergroup interaction:
 Create conditions in which two groups have little
or no need to interact
 Reduce interdependence among groups
 The resource allocation process:
 Ensure groups have similar resources
 Allocate resources fairly

27. Special Issues in Teams
 Personnel Selection
 Training
 Performance Appraisal

28. Personnel Selection in Teams
 Traditional individual personnel selection methods
may not take the social context of teams into
consideration.
 Selection of team members requires best mix of
personnel.
 Establishing team requirements involves
identifying and assessing the congruence among
members with regard to personality and values.

29. Personnel Selection in Teams
Prieto (1993) asserts that 5 social skills are
critical for an individual to enhance group
performance:
1. Gain group’s acceptance
2.Increase group solidarity
3.Be aware of group consciousness
4.Share group identification
5.Manage others’ impressions

30. Team Training
 Logic of team training is similar to individual
training, although mechanism is somewhat
different.
 Team task analysis provides information
about knowledge, skills, and attitudes the
team members must possess to be successful.

31. Team Training
Team
Performance
Cognition
Knowledge
Behaviors
Skills
Attitudes
Affect
Think Do Feel

32. Team Performance Appraisal
 Major issue: extent to which individuals will
slacken their performance within the team.
 Social loafing: a phenomenon identified in
groups or teams in which certain individuals
withhold effort or contributions to the collective
outcome.

33. Team Performance Appraisal:
Social Loafing
Three types of social loafing:
Free riding
Sucker effect
Felt dispensability
Share the same characteristics:
• Concern with impact of
individual contributions on
team performance.
• Expectation of return on effort
• Teamwork can weaken
individual effort-team success-
individual outcome link

34. Team Activity