Teamwork

Differences between ‘group’ and ‘team’
 Team is a group that generates positive
synergy through coordinated effort.
 Collective performance in a team may be more
than the sum of individual performance.
 A team is formed for a limited time.
 Team tasks require members to work
interdependently.

Types of team tasks
1. Generative
2. Executing
3. Negotiating
4. Decision making

Types of teams
 Problem solving teams: Members share ideas and
offer suggestions on how a situation or a process
can be improved.
 Self-managed teams: are groups of employees
who perform interdependent tasks and take the
responsibilities of their actions.
 Self-managed teams may be involved in
planning, scheduling, assigning tasks to
members, collective controlling, decision making,
and even selecting their own members.

Types of teams (continued)
 Cross-functional teams: consist of employees from different
work areas but with similar hierarchical levels who come
together to accomplish a task.
 The main idea in forming cross-functional teams is that every
aspect of a client’s work can be handled within one team
instead of separate departments.

Types of teams (continued)
 Virtual teams: collaboration on-line.
 Virtual teams can be effective in many
situations. However, it may have limitations in
non-verbal communications and using
emotional signs.
 Some have recommended using virtual teams
for task-oriented jobs.

Important factors in forming a team
 Inspirational team leadership;
 Clarification of team tasks;
 designing different roles to cover all aspects of team tasks;
 Allocation of roles based on individuals’ strengths;
 Considering appropriate size (5-10)
 Composition/Diversity (gender, age, expertise, ethnic
backgrounds, cultural/industrial/departmental values and norms,
etc.);
 Socialization and trust building.

Some important factors in
team effectiveness
 Team composition
 Groupthink
 Social loafing and free riding
 Cohesiveness
 Communication
 Shared mental models and team
learning
 Collective efficacy

Types of composition
 Personality
 Gender
 Age
 Education
 Functional specialization
 Experience
 Cultural background

Heterogeneous or indigenous?
 Group composition must be formed
based on the nature of the team.
 Diversity is appropriate for cognitive
and creativity-demanding tasks.
 Similarity is appropriate for specific
executive tasks.

Deep-level composition variables as predictors of team
performance: A meta-analysis
Suzanne T Bell. Journal of Applied Psychology. Washington:
May 2007. Vol. 92, Iss. 3; pg. 595.
Abstract (Summary)
 This study sought to unify the team composition literature by using meta-analytic techniques to
estimate the relationships between specified deep-level team composition variables (i.e.,
personality factors, values, abilities) and team performance.
 The strength of the team composition variable and team performance relationships was moderated
by the study setting (lab or field) and the operationalization of the team composition variable.
 In lab settings, team minimum and maximum general mental ability and team mean emotional
intelligence were related to team performance. Only negligible effects were observed in lab
settings for the personality factor and team performance relationships, as well as the value and
team performance relationships.
 In contrast, team minimum agreeableness and team mean conscientiousness, openness to
experience, collectivism, and preference for teamwork emerged as strong predictors of team
performance in field studies.
 Results can be used to effectively compose teams in organizations and guide future team
composition research.

What is groupthink?
 It describes situations in which group
pressure for conformity deter the group
from critically evaluating unusual,
minority or unpopular views.
 It is related to group norms.

How to overcome groupthink?
 Intellectual stimulation
 Brainstorming
 Nominal group technique

What is social loafing?
 Consciously or unconsciously, individuals may
not exert as much effort in group settings as
when they are alone.
 Social loafing is based on the de-individuation
that can occur when people work in groups
as opposed to working alone.

Important antecedents of social loafing
 Lack of identification and uniqueness of individual contribution
to the group;
 Low intrinsic involvement;
 Individualistic orientation;
 Lack of peer appraisal;
 Large group size;
 Task visibility (hiding in the crowed);
 Distributive justice

Social loafing and expectancy theory
 Expectancy: A group member may realize
that other factors aside from their own effort
will influence his/her group’s performance.
 Instrumentality: A group member may realize
that valued outcomes (rewards) are divided
among all group members, and she/he may
not receive a fair share given his or her level
of effort.

Definition
 The degree to which members are
attracted to each other and are
motivated to stay in the group.
 This is an important predictor of team
effectiveness when performance norms
are high.

How to improve cohesiveness?
 Make the group smaller;
 Encourage agreement with group goals;
 Increase the time members spend together;
 Increase the status of the group and perceived
difficulty of attaining membership in the group;
 Stimulate competition with other groups;
 Give reward to the group rather than individual
members;
 Physically isolate the group.

Communication process
Source Encoding Channel Decoding Receiver
Feedback

Important forms of
communication
 Oral communication;
 Non-verbal communication;
 Written communication.
Actions can impact a receiver more than spoken words
(93%).
Nonverbal
symbols
93%
Spoken words
7%

Barriers to effective communication
 Hearing instead of listening;
 Information overload;
 Selective perception;
 Using jargons;
 Dysfunctional emotions;
 Lack of attention to non-verbal
communication.

Non-verbal communication
 Body language:
(1) the extent to which an individual
likes another and interested in their
views;
(2) the relative perceived status
between a sender and a receiver.
 Eye contact
 10% of the time with Asians;
 75% of the time with Americans;
 100% of the time with the French.
 Facial expression;
 Physical distance and space.

Physical distance and space
Public zone (over 3.6m)
Social zone (1.2-3.6m)
Personal zone (46cm-1.2m)
Intimate zone (15-46cm)

Shared mental models and
team learning

Mental models
 Mental models can be thought of as
knowledge structures, images,
assumptions, beliefs, and attitudes in
an individual’s cognitions.
 Mental models such as belief systems,
implicit theories, and assumptions affect
our reasoning and behaviour.

Mental models in teams
 Cannon-Bowers and colleagues (1993)
have proposed one of the most popular
conceptual framework for different
types of mental models in the context
of teamwork.
 They considered mental models to be
multidimensional, and categorised
multiple mental models into four types.

Types of mental models
 equipment models: equipment functioning and
limitations, technologies
 task model: procedures, strategies,
environmental constraints
 team interaction model: roles, responsibilities,
expectations
 team model: team members’ knowledge and
skills, attitudes, beliefs, and preferences

Shared mental model
 Shared mental model (or shared
cognition) may improve and facilitate
group work and coordination and may
result in high group performance and
effectiveness.

What does “shared” mean?
Two approaches have been proposed to
conceptualise shared mental models:
 the similarities of members’ mental models
(Cannon-Bowers & Salas, 2001).
 In addition to similarity, the extent to which
group members are familiar with each other’s
mental models and their differences and
similarities (Klimoski & Mohammed, 1994;
Kraiger & Wenzel, 1997).

How to develop shared mental
models?
 Job rotation and cross-training
 Team training
 Role playing
 Team learning activities

Team learning
Two important team skills for team learning:
 Reflection refers to “slowing down our thinking
processes to become more aware of how we
form our mental models” (Senge et al., 1994, p.
237).
 Inquiry refers to “holding conversations where
we openly share views and develop knowledge
about each other’s assumptions” (p. 237).

Team learning and developing shared
mental models
 learning as modifying mental models
and developing shared mental models
needs openness to oneself and to other
team members (Gibson, 2001).
 dialogue is a vital process for group
learning, and distinct from discussion.

Collective efficacy
 According to Bandura (1997),
“collective efficacy is defined as a
group’s shared belief in its conjoint
capabilities to organize and execute
the course of action required to
produce given levels of attainments”
(p. 477).
 Sources of collective efficacy can be
similar to sources of self-efficacy.

Sources of self-efficacy
 Mastery experiences: Successful experiences are likely to enhance self-efficacy,
while failures may reduce self-efficacy. These are the most influential
sources of self-efficacy.
 Vicarious experiences: refer to those by which people appraise their
capabilities in relation to others’ attainments. The information acquired from
these experiences is likely to be more influential for one’s self-efficacy when
the others are similar to the individual.
 Verbal persuasion: persuasion that one possesses certain capabilities can
affect self-efficacy. However, verbal persuasion may be ineffective when it is
used alone and inconsistent with other sources, especially mastery
experiences.
 Physical and affective states: Personal efficacy may also be appraised
when people interpret their physiological or affective states. People may judge
their fatigue, aches, pains, and tensions to be signs of physical or affective
incapability.

Teamwork

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