Communicating in Teams

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

•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

•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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Communicating in Teams

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Communicating in Teams