AEC-102 Teamwork Handout PDF

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Teamwork in organizations...

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GENERAL OVERVIEW Group and Team • Groups and teams are not exactly the same thing, however, although the two words are often used interchangeably in popular usage. • A brief look at a dictionary shows that “group” usually refers to an assemblage of people or objects gathered together whereas “team” usually refers to people or animals organized to work together. • A “team” places more emphasis on concerted action than a “group” does. GROUP

TEAM

two or more persons who interact with one another and need not have a common goal.

all team members are committed to a common goal.

in terms of authority, in conventional work groups the supervisor directly controls the daily activities of workers.

the team discusses what activities need to be done and determines for itself who in the team has the necessary skills and who will do each task.

meeting a manager’s demands for results, as in the traditional approach.

mutually accountable for results.

Theories Carl Jung’s Color theory Color is a factor of human behavior, according to Jung's hypothesis. You'll have a better idea of why people on your team do what they do if you grasp this. The best part about these four colors is that there is not one color better than the other, and the best teams have all four colors represented. Knowing your preferred working style and that of your coworkers might help you improve your teamwork.

Belbin’s Theory of Team Roles Belbin believes that we all have a pattern of behavior that characterizes one person's behavior in relation to another in order to help a team go forward. Every team should have nine roles, according to Belbin. Teams can work even with missing roles, but to work at their best they need:

• some kind of leader, a Coordinator to balance tasks and people, or Shaper to drive projects through to completion. • people who communicate and support others: Team Worker, Resource Investigator • various kinds of 'doers': Implementer, Completer-Finisher, Monitor-Evaluator • an 'ideas person': Plant-Innovator • and perhaps an Expert-Specialist to give depth of expertise Bruce Tuckman’s Model of Team Stages The Bruce Tuckman theory was developed in 1965 and has since been used in a variety of organizations and circumstances. This idea is widely referred to as the origin for successful team development and it has four primary stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing.

Matrix Organization “It is an overlay of one type of organization on another so that two chains of command are directing individual employees.” - John Newstrom (2007) “It has a complicated structure in which the reporting relationships are set up as MATRIX – a grid – instead of a traditional vertical hierarchy.” - MBN Video Dictionary (2019)

Matrix Organization is used especially for large, specialized projects that temporarily require large numbers of technical people with different skills to work in project teams. Employees are assigned to a project team for its limited life or as long as their specialty is needed on the project.

Matrix organization is used for a number of reasons: • Its teams focus on a single project, permitting better planning and control to meet budgets and deadlines. • Its distribution of authority and status also is more in agreement with employee desires for increased autonomy. • And many more Cross-functional teams are teams that draw their members from more than one specialty area and often several. Cross-functional groups, while sometimes quickly constructed, pose special problems in the process of becoming true teams.

TEAMWORK Life Cycle of a Team Typical Stages in a team’s evolution: Forming—Members share personal information, start to get to know and accept one another, and begin turning their attention toward the group’s tasks. Key questions faced: Who are these people? What is their unique competence? What information should I share with them? Will they accept me? Will I be doing all the work? Storming—Members compete for status, jockey for positions of relative control, and argue about appropriate directions for the group. Key questions faced: What is our mission? How do we develop team spirit? What resources are available to us? What problems do we foresee with the team? Why can't we agree on anything? Norming—The group begins moving together in a cooperative fashion, and a tentative balance among competing forces is struck. Key questions faced: What do we believe in? What behaviors do we expect of each other? What should we be doing? How will we control each other's actions? How do we handle conflicts? Performing—The group matures and learns to handle complex challenges. Key questions faced: What actions will contribute to our success? Should we take risks? Have we been empowered to succeed? How can we change and grow? Why aren't all groups like this one?

Adjourning—Even the most successful groups, committees, and project teams disband sooner or later. Their breakup is called adjournment, which requires dissolving intense social relations and returning to permanent assignments. Key questions faced: How can we celebrate our successes? What connections should we maintain? What have we learned from our experience? Where do we go from here? How do I resolve my conflicting emotions?

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Ingredients of Effective Teams Supportive Environment - Creating such an environment involves encouraging members to think like a team, providing adequate time for meetings, and demonstrating faith in members’ capacity to achieve.

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Skills and Role Clarity - Team members must be reasonably qualified to perform their jobs and have the desire to cooperate. Beyond these requirements, members can work together as a team only after all the members of the group know the roles of all the others with whom they will be interacting.

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Superordinate Goals - Major responsibility of managers is to try to keep the team members oriented toward their overall task. Superordinate goals can be attained only if all parties carry their weight. Such goals serve to focus attention, unify efforts, and stimulate more cohesive teams.

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Team Rewards - Another element that can stimulate teamwork is the presence of team rewards. These may be financial, or they may be in the form of recognition. Rewards are most powerful if they are valued by the team members, perceived as possible to earn, and administered contingent on the group’s task performance.

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Empowered Teams - Member motivation plays a powerful role in team success. Team members will likely feel more motivated and empowered when they: o Share a sense of potency (have a can-do attitude) o Experience meaningfulness (have a commitment to a worthwhile purpose) o Are given autonomy (have freedom and discretion to control resources and make decisions) o See their impact on results (can assess, monitor, and celebrate their contributions and results) Potential Problems When members share common values and are equally responsible for executing a project, then the flow of productivity in the organization is strong. However, team problems can still arise even if teams are the ideal units of the modern workforce. The most disruptive team problems are Changing Composition and Social Loafing. Changing Composition Despite the flexible design of teams, big or frequent changes among the members can still interfere with group relationships and disturb their growth in teamwork. Members may be transferred to different projects, experience personal problems which result in taking a leave of absence, or be swayed by another company with better working conditions. To deal with these circumstances, teams must learn to handle internal turnovers.

Firstly, they must anticipate and accept the likelihood of turnovers happening within their team. Secondly, they should devise a plan to manage team turnovers at the very start of the team’s formation. Lastly, is thinking of how best to integrate new members. The team must determine the best welcome, the appropriate materials and training, and the time needed to get the new members up to speed with their values, norms, and objectives. Social Loafing Social Loafing is the tendency of members to exert less effort in group projects in contrast to individual tasks, since it would be difficult to distinguish the contribution of every single person in a combined group outcome. This is highly damaging in workplaces if almost every member in the team has the same mindset. This problem may be settled by expressing expectations of improvement to the loafer, attempting to train the individual, or offering pep talks. Since a poorly managed team can lead to numerous issues, an effective manager must determine if forming a team is the appropriate move. If so, the manager must prioritize team building to ensure the effectiveness of the team and the guarantee of a well-accomplished task.

TEAM BUILDING The Need for Team Building • Strong teams need to be built through activities designed to bring employees together. • Cooperation is needed among all the teams that make up the whole organization. • Higher-level managers integrate one collaborative group through TEAM BUILDING. Team building is any action or method, which brings a group together and motivates them to work collaboratively. Team-building exercise build a stronger unit of employees. Team building encourages team members to examine: • How they work together • Identify their weaknesses • More effective ways of cooperating The GOAL is to “make the team more effective.” Team building has many benefits for businesses: • It improves productivity. • Increases employee motivation. • Make employees feel valued. • Enable employees to see each other in a different light. • Encourages collaboration. • Improves business relationships all around. • Builds trust and respect among employees.

When it is more appropriate to devote attention to the team-building process. These signals include: • Interpersonal conflicts among team members, or between the team and its leader. • Low degree of team morale or low team cohesiveness. • Confusion or disagreement about roles within the team. • Large influx of new members. • Disagreement over the team’s purpose and tasks. • Negative climate within the team, evidenced by criticism and bickering. • Stagnation within the team, with members resisting change and new ideas. The Process The team-building process follows the pattern shown in the photo where a highly participative process is used: 1. Team members provide data and then use the data for self-examination. Often a skilled facilitator may assist the members in diagnosing and addressing a problem. 2. The Data are collected from individual group members and then fed back to the team for analysis. 3. The group works on development of action plans (their problem-solving task of the moment) while doing this, the 4. Members are also encouraged to direct equal attention toward the group’s interaction process. By monitoring, examining, and adjusting its own actions, the group learns to evaluate and improve its own effectiveness. 5. The Result of this continuing process can be a high-performance team with high levels of morale and cooperation. Specific Team-Building Issues Team building usually focuses on one or more specific types of problems identified in the First stage of the developmental process portrayed in TYPICAL STAGES IN TEAM BUILDING. 1. If team members seem to be unaware of, or in disagreement about, the purpose of the team, then the focus might best be placed on clarifying the goals and priorities of the team. 2. When the team is confused about its fit within the larger organizational system, the focus might be on the nature of the organization’s culture, its workplace facilities, its strategic directions, or the reward system. 3. When there is confusion about work relationships between people and tasks, job functions may need definition, authority relationships might be revisited, and patterns of workflows might require clarification. 4. When interpersonal conflicts seem to dominate the workplace, issues of respect and trust might be explored, listening skills might be reviewed, or various models for understanding interpersonal styles might be introduced. Skills useful in Team Building The facilitators who assist the development of effective teams need to apply a broad range of skills that includes the following: • Consultation skills (diagnosing, contracting, designing change) • Interpersonal skills (trust building, coaching, and listening)

• Research skills (planning and conducting a study and evaluating results) • Presentational skills (public speaking and report preparation) Two additional and closely related skills stand out as critical to success- process consultation and feedback. These are skills that both team leaders and team members need. Characteristics of a Mature Team Successful teams typically exhibit several attitudinal and behavioral characteristics that organizations value. 1) Members take pride in their achievements and the contributions of their colleagues; they feel comfortable asking questions when they don’t understand something; 2) No one dominates the team or is a wall-flower or non-contributor; 3) Members know how to criticize others constructively and accept feedback from others; 4) There is an atmosphere of respect and trust; 5) The group is not threatened by instability or change; the atmosphere is relatively informal and tension-free; and members encourage and assist each other. “They are,” as one team member put it, “a joy to behold, and to be a part of.” Most of al’, of course, the team consistently achieves its goals and sets aggressively higher standards for itself. Common Outcomes of Effective Teams • • •

Performance/Productivity Improvements- Product quality, Response time, Degree of innovation, Customer/client satisfaction, Decision quality, and Efficiency. Member Behaviors- Lower absenteeism, Diminished turnover, Improved safety record, and Increased acts of organizational citizenship. Member Attitudes- Individual satisfaction, Interpersonal trust, Organizational commitment, and Team cohesiveness.

Individual Territories versus Team Space Individual Territories Some employees desire for privacy and personal space • Many workers feel a need to establish their own employee territory spaces they can call their own, within which they can control what happens. • Cubicles provide an opportunity for them to have their own territory, design and modify their work layout, and even decorate to their own satisfaction. Team Space Team-based organizations want layouts that encourages: • easy interaction • an exchange of ideas among employees engaged in related tasks, • and a stronger feeling of team identity.

CASE DISCUSSION Case Study: Teamwork at IDEO IDEO is a global award-winning design firm. Every year teams of people including psychologists, mechanical engineers, biologists, and industrial designers work on projects ranging from Apple’s first computer mouse to heart defibrillators to the Neat Squeeze toothpaste tube. IDEO’s corporate philosophy is that teamwork improves innovation and creativity. Group brainstorming is used to spark a lot of new ideas at once. Project teams share and improve ideas by leveraging members’ skills and solving problems together. The company believes that the diversity of interdisciplinary teams allows higher quality, faster innovation. Regardless of the project, IDEO teams use the same process. First, they identify similar products and experiences, then they observe people using them. The teams then visualize, evaluate, refine, and implement innovative solutions to their clients’ problems drawing from their research and observations. IDEO team members lack status or formal titles, and every team member is given equal respect. Questions: 1. How does teamwork influence innovation at IDEO? 2. How does diversity influence the effectiveness of teamwork at IDEO? 3. What characteristics would you look for in staffing a project team at IDEO?

References: Bickmeier, L. and Bickmeier, L., 2021. How to Create a Supportive Work Environment - The Association. [online] The Association. Mojica, K. (2019, October 4). Why Team Building is Important for Your Business. The Compliance and Ethics Blog. Newstrom, John W.. (2007). Organizational Behavior : human Behavior at Work / W. John Newsrtom (12th Ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill....