Organizational Behavior

13th Edition
Stephen P. Robbins I Timothy A. Judge I Seema Sanghi

Iffat Sabir Chaudhry, PhD. Scholar, Lecturer

Management Sciences Dept, Preston University, Islamabad Email: ch.iffat@yahoo.com

Ch 10: Understanding Work Teams

1. Difference between Group & Team
2. Types of Teams 3. Factors Determining Team Effectiveness

1. Difference between Groups and Teams

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 outputs.

2. Types of Teams
There are four types of work teams. 1. Problem-Solving Teams: Groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment. 2. Self-Managed Work Teams: Groups of 10 to 15 people who take on responsibilities of their former supervisors. 3. Cross-Functional Teams: Employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task. 4. Virtual teams: Teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.

3. Factors determining Team Effectiveness

1. Context: There are four factors that affect team performance in terms of its context. a. Adequate Resources: Availability of appropriate resources required for team performance have an impact on team output. b. Leadership and Structure: Effective team leadership and structure (i) ensure that team members contribute equally to the team workload; (ii) determine work schedule and skills to be used, (iii) determine how decisions will be made, and (iv) how to resolve conflicts. c. Climate of Trust: Interpersonal trust among team members and the trust on the leader have tremendous positive impact on team performance. d. Performance Evaluation and Rewards: Individual performance evaluation and rewards are not consistent with teams. The performance assessment and rewards both must be related to the team as a whole.

3. Factors determining Team Effectiveness

2. Composition: This category includes seven variables that determine as to how members of a team should be picked up. a. Abilities of Members: For effective performance, a team requires to have people with three sets of skills: (i) technical expertise, (ii) problem-solving and decision-making skills, (iii) interpersonal skills. b. Personality: Teams that have higher mean ratings on extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability, tend to have higher team performance. c. Allocating Roles: In a team, individuals may play multiple roles, but it is essential for success that all nine roles are available within the team members. d. Diversity: Heterogeneous teams are more likely to have diverse abilities and information and are more effective. e. Size of Teams: Size of team has an impact on its performance. Ideally the team size should be between 5 and 10. f. Member Flexibility: High team performance occurs when team members have enough flexibility to complete each others tasks when needed. g. Member Preferences: High performing teams have members whose strong preference is to work in a team rather than work alone.

3. Factors determining Team Effectiveness

3. Work Design: The work design category includes variables such as: a. freedom and autonomy of the team as a whole; b. the opportunity to use different skills and talents for optimal output; c. the ability to complete a whole and identifiable task or product; and d. Working on a task or product that has substantial and significant impact on the organization.

3. Factors determining Team Effectiveness

4. Process: This category includes five process variables. a. Common Purpose: A common purpose provides direction, momentum and commitment. It is broader than goals and reflects group vision. b. Specific Goals: Successful teams derive specific, measurable, realistic goals from their team purpose. Goals energize teams, give them direction, and keep them focused. c. Team Efficacy: Team Efficacy implies that team members have a high motivation derived from a strong belief that they can succeed as a team. d. Conflict Levels: While conflict arising out of interpersonal incompatibilities, tension, and personal animosity is detrimental to team performance, the conflict due to disagreements on work stimulates positive discussion and promotes team performance. e. Social Loafing: Successful teams focus on team performance, yet they require individual accountability which removes any tendency for social loafing.

ThankYou