Chapter 17 ( Teams and Teamwork) & 18 (Communication, Conflict, and Negotiation) PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Chapter 17 ( Teams and Teamwork) & 18 (Communication, Conflict, and Negotiation) PDF

Description

Chapter 17 : Teams and Teamwork 1. Teams in Organizations A team is a collection of people who regularly interact to pursue common goals. Teamwork is the process of people actively working together to accomplish common goals. Managers must be prepared to perform at least four important teamwork roles :

   

A team leader serves as the appointed head of a team or work unit. A team member serves as a helpful contributing part of a project team. A network facilitator serves as the peer leader and networking hub for a special task force. A coach or developer serves as a team’s advisor on ways to improve processes and performance.

Interdependence is the extent to which employees depend on other members of their team to carry out their work effectively. A. Teamwork pros Although teams can be hard work, they are worth it when things turn out right. Their beauty is accomplishing something far greater than what’s possible for an individual alone. This is called synergy, the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Many Benefits of Teams :

 Performance gains through synergy  More resources for problem solving  Improved creativity and innovation  Improved quality of decision making  Greater member commitment to tasks  Increased motivation of members  Increased need satisfaction of members B. Teamwork cons We all know that things don’t always work out as intended with teams and teamwork. There are a lot of disadvantages from teamwork such as :

     

Problems can easily turn their great potential into frustration and failure. Personality conflicts and work style differences can disrupt a team. Unclear tasks, ambiguous agendas, and ill-defined problems can cause teams to work too long on the wrong things. Takes too much time from other tasks, deadlines, and priorities. A lack of success also hurts morale. And, it’s easy for members to lose motivation when the team is poorly organized and led, or other members slack off who appearing social loafing, the presence of “free-riders” who slack off because responsibility is diffused in teams and others are present to do the work.

Inorder to solve Social Loafing, there are things a leader or concerned team members can do in such cases. The possibilities include making individual contributions more visible, rewarding individuals for their contributions, making task assignments more interesting, and keeping group size small so that free-riders are more subject to peer pressure and leader evaluation.

C. Meetings, meetings, meetings Spotting the Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings :

 People arrive late, leave early, and don’t take things seriously.  The meeting is too long, sometimes twice as long as necessary.  People don’t stay on topic; they digress and are easily distracted.  The discussion lacks candor; people are unwilling to tell the truth.  The right information isn’t available, so decisions are postponed.  Nothing happens when the meeting is over; no one puts decisions into action.  Things never get better; the same mistakes are made meeting after meeting. Because of that Good meetings don’t happen by chance. People have to work hard and work together to make them productive and rewarding. Face-to-face and virtual meetings are where lots of information is shared, decisions get made, and people gain understanding of issues and one another.

D. Organizations as networks of groups A formal group is a team officially recognized and supported by the organization. An informal group is unofficial and emerges from relationships (friendship groups and support groups ) and shared interests among members

2. Trends in the Use of Teams A. Committees, project teams, and task forces A committee is designated to work on a special task on a continuing basis. A project team or task force is convened for a specific purpose and disbands when its task is completed.

B. Cross-functional teams A cross-functional team operates with members who come from different functional units of an organization. These teams help reduce the functional chimneys problem by eliminating “walls” that may otherwise limit communication and cooperation among people from different departments and functions.

C. Self-managing teams Members of a self-managing work team have the authority to make decisions about how they share and complete their work. Typical characteristics of self-managing teams include:

    

Members are held collectively accountable for performance results. Members have discretion in distributing tasks within the team. Members have discretion in scheduling work within the team. Members are able to perform more than one job on the team. Members train one another to develop multiple job skills.

 Members evaluate one another’s performance contributions.  Members are responsible for the total quality of team products. D. Virtual teams Members of a virtual team or distributed team work together and solve problems through computer-based interactions. Advantages :  virtual teams can save time and travel expenses when members work in different locations.



They can also be easily expanded to include more members as needed, and the discussions and shared information can be archived for later access.  Virtual teams are usually quite efficient because members are less prone to stray off task and get sidetracked by interpersonal difficulties. Disadvantages :  It limits the role of emotions and nonverbal cues in communication and allows relationships to stay depersonalized. The following guidelines can help keep the possible downsides of virtual teamwork to a minimum :

     

Select team members high in initiative and capable of self-starting. Select members who will join and engage the team with positive attitudes. Select members known for working hard to meet team goals. Begin with social messaging that allows members to exchange information about each other to personalize the process. Assign clear goals and roles so that members can focus while working alone and also know what others are doing. Gather regular feedback from members about how they think the team is doing and how it might do better.

 Provide regular feedback to team members about team accomplishments. E. Team building Team building is a sequence of activities to analyze a team and make changes to improve its performance

3. How Teams Work An effective team does three things well—perform its tasks, satisfy its members, and remain viable for the future.



On the task performance side, a work group or team is expected to transform resource inputs (such as ideas, materials, and information) into product outputs (such as a report, decision, service, or commodity).



In respect to member satisfaction, members should take pleasure from both the team’s performance accomplishments and their contributions toward making it happen. And as to future viability, the team should have a social fabric and work climate that makes its members willing and able to work well together in the future, again and again as needed.



Team Effectiveness Equation Team effectiveness = Quality of inputs + (Process gains - Process losses)

A. Team inputs 1) Membership Characteristics The blend of member characteristics on a team is critically important. Teams need members with the right abilities, or skill sets, to master and perform tasks well. Teams must also have members whose attitudes, values, and personalities are sufficiently compatible for everyone to work well together. Team diversity is the differences in values, personalities, experiences, demographics, and cultures among the membership.

 

Homogeneous teams : ones whose members share similar characteristics.

Heterogeneous teams : ones whose members are quite dissimilar to one another. 2) Resources and Setting The available resources and organizational setting can affect how well team members use and pool their talents to accomplish team tasks. Teams function best when members have good information, material resources, technology, organization structures, and rewards. The physical work space counts too, and many organizations are being architecturally designed to directly facilitate teamwork.

3) Nature of the Task The nature of the task not only sets standards for the talents needed by team members, it also affects how they work together.

 

Clearly defined tasks are easier to deal with. Complex tasks ask a lot more of members in things like information sharing and coordinated action 4) Team Size Team size affects how members work together, handle disagreements, and make decisions.

B. Stages of team development Team process is the way team members work together to accomplish tasks

1) Forming Stage

2)

3)

4)

5)

The forming stage of team development involves the first entry of individual members into a team. This is a time of initial task orientation and interpersonal testing. It is in the forming stage that people begin to identify with other members and with the team itself. This may also be a time when some members rely on others who appear “powerful” or especially “knowledgeable”. Difficulties in the forming stage tend to be greater in more culturally and demographically diverse teams. Storming Stage The storming stage is a period of high emotionality and can be the most difficult stage to pass through successfully. The storming stage is part of a “critical zone” in team development, where successes create long-term gains while failures create long-lasting problems. Norming Stage It is in the norming stage that team members begin to cooperate well with one another. The norming stage is also part of the critical zone of team development. As members develop initial feelings of closeness, a division of labor, and shared expectations, this helps protect the team from disintegration. In fact, holding the team together may seem more important than accomplishing important tasks. Performing Stage Teams in the performing stage are more mature, organized, and well-functioning. Performing is a stage of total integration in which team members are able to deal in creative ways with complex tasks and any interpersonal conflicts. The team operates with a clear and stable structure and members are motivated by team goals. The primary challenges are to continue refining how the team operates and building member relationships to keep everyone working well together as an integrated unit. Adjourning Stage The final stage of team development is adjourning, when team members prepare to achieve closure and disband. Adjourning is a time when it is important to acknowledge everyone for their contributions, praise them, and celebrate the team’s success. A team

ideally disbands with everyone feeling they would like to work with one another again sometime in the future.

C. Norms and cohesiveness A norm is a behavior, rule, or standard expected to be followed by team members. Cohesiveness is the degree to which members are attracted to and motivated to remain part of a team. 1) Managing Team Norms Here are some things leaders can do to help their teams build positive norms :

 Act as a positive role model.  Reinforce the desired behaviors with rewards.  Control results by performance reviews and regular feedback.  Train and orient new members to adopt desired behaviors.  Recruit and select new members who exhibit the desired behaviors.  Hold regular meetings to discuss progress and ways of improving.  Use team decision-making methods to reach agreement. Team Virtuousness indicates the extent to which members adopt norms that encourage shared commitments to moral behavior 2) Managing Team Cohesiveness Here are some things leaders can do to help their teams build high cohesiveness :

      

Create agreement on team goals. Reward team rather than individual results. Increase membership homogeneity. Increase interactions among members. Decrease team size. Introduce competition with other teams. Provide physical isolation from other teams.

D. Task and maintenance roles

A task activity is an action taken by a team member that directly contributes to the group’s performance purpose. A maintenance activity is an action taken by a team member that supports the emotional life of the group. Distributed leadership is when all members of a team contribute helpful task and maintenance behaviors.



Leading through task activities involves making an effort to define and solve problems and to advance work toward performance result.

 

Leading through maintenance activities, helps strengthen the team as a social system. Disruptive activities are self-serving behaviors that interfere with team effectiveness.

E. Communication networks A decentralized communication network allows all members to communicate directly with one another. A centralized communication network, communication flows only between individual members and a hub, or center point. A restricted communication network, subgroups have limited communication with one another.

4. Decision Making in Teams Decision making is the process of making choices among alternative possible courses of action.

A. Ways teams make decisions 

In decision by lack of response, one idea after another is suggested without any discussion taking place.



In decision by authority rule, the leader, manager, committee head, or some other authority figure makes a decision for the team. In decision by minority rule, two or three people are able to dominate or “railroad” the team into making a decision that they prefer.

  



One of the most common things teams do, especially when signs of disagreement arise, is to take a vote and arrive at a decision by majority rule. Teams are often encouraged to achieve decision by consensus. This is where full discussion leads to one alternative being favored by most members, and the other members agree to support it. A decision by unanimity may be the ideal state of affairs. “Unanimity” means that all team members agree on the course of action to be taken.

B. Advantages and disadvantages of team decisions When teams take time to make decisions by consensus or unanimity, they gain special advantages over those relying more on individual or minority decision methods.

  

The process of making a true team decision makes more information, knowledge, and expertise available. It expands the number of action alternatives that are examined, and helps to avoid getting trapped by tunnel vision and considering only one or a few options. Team decisions also increase understanding and acceptance by members.



This helps build commitments of members to work hard to implement the decisions they have made together. The potential disadvantages of team decision making trace largely to the difficulties with group process.

 



It can be hard to reach agreement when many people are trying to make a team decision. There may be social pressure to conform and even minority domination, where some members feel forced or “railroaded” to accept a decision advocated by one vocal individual or small coalition. And for sure, the time required to make team decisions can sometimes be a disadvantage. As more people are involved in the dialogue and discussion, decision making takes longer. This added time may be costly, even prohibitively so, in certain circumstances.

C. Groupthink Groupthink is a tendency for highly cohesive teams to lose their evaluative capabilities. when the groupthink symptoms listed here are spotted, managers and team leaders can prevent them from causing too much harm.



Illusions of invulnerability: Members assume that the team is too good for criticism, or beyond attack.



Rationalizing unpleasant and disconfirming data: Members refuse to accept contradictory data or to thoroughly consider alternatives.



Belief in inherent group morality: Members act as though the group is inherently right and above reproach.



Stereotyping competitors as weak, evil, and stupid: Members refuse to look realistically at other groups. Applying direct pressure to deviants to conform to group wishes: Members refuse to tolerate anyone who suggests the team may be wrong.

  

Self-censorship by members: Members refuse to communicate personal concerns to the whole team. Illusions of unanimity: Members accept consensus prematurely, without testing its completeness.



Mind guarding: Members protect the team from hearing disturbing ideas or outside viewpoints How to Avoid Groupthink :

    

Assign the role of critical evaluator to each team member; encourage a sharing of viewpoints. As a leader, don’t seem partial to one course of action; do absent yourself from meetings at times to allow free discussion. Create subteams to work on the same problems and then share their proposed solutions. Have team members discuss issues with outsiders and report back on their reactions. Invite outside experts to observe team activities and react to team processes and decisions.

 

Assign one member to play a “devil’s advocate” role at each team meeting. Hold a “second-chance” meeting to review the decision after consensus is apparently achieved.

D. Creativity in team decision making





When team creativity is needed in special situations, managers shouldn’t hesitate to use the time tested brainstorming and nominal group techniques. Both can be done in face-to-face or virtual team settings. Brainstorming engages group members in an open, spontaneous discussion of problems and ideas. Classic brainstorming usually asks members to follow these strict guidelines.  Don’t criticize each other—withhold judging or evaluating ideas as they are being presented.  Welcome “freewheeling”—the wilder or more radical the idea, the better.  Go for quantity—the more ideas generated, the greater the likelihood that one or more will be outstanding.  Keep building on one another’s ideas—don’t hesitate to piggyback and tweak one or more existing ideas into new forms. The nominal group technique structures interaction among team members discussing problems and ideas

Chapter 18 : Communication, Conflict, and Negotiation Whether you work at the top of an organization—building support for strategies and goals, or at lower levels—interacting with others to support their work eff orts and your own, your career toolkit must include abilities to achieve positive impact through communication and collaboration. They are foundations for social capital, the capacity to attract support and help from others in order to get things done.

1. The Communication Process Communication is the process of sending and receiving symbols with meanings attached. The communication process is the glue that binds together the four functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.  Planning is accomplished and plans are shared through the communication of information.  Organizing identifies and structures communication links among people and positions.  Leading uses communication to achieve positive influence over organization members and stakeholders.  And, controlling relies on communication to process information to measure performance results. A. Effective communication In effective communication the intended meaning is fully understood by the receiver. Efficient communication occur...