Introduction to management 13th schemerhorn bachrach chapter 17

Decision Making in Teams a Ways teams make decisions b Advantages and disadvantages of team decisions c Groupthink d Creative team decision making Copyright ©2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Chapter 17 Teams and Teamwork

17 John R Schermerhorn, Jr.Daniel G Bachrach

Introduction to Management

13th edition

Planning Ahead — Key Takeaways

 Identify the ways teams contribute to

Chapter 17 Outline

1. Teams in Organizations

a) Teamwork pros

b) Teamwork cons

c) Meetings, meetings, meetings

d) Organizations as networks of groups

2. Trends in the Use of Teams

a) Committees, project teams, and task forces

b) Cross-functional teams

c) Self-managing teams

d) Virtual teams

Chapter 17 Outline

3. How Teams Work

a) Team inputs

b) Stages of team development

c) Norms and cohesiveness

d) Task and maintenance roles

e) Communication networks

4. Decision Making in Teams

a) Ways teams make decisions

b) Advantages and disadvantages of team decisions

c) Groupthink

d) Creative team decision making

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 The process of people actively working

together to accomplish common goals

Teams in Organizations

Team and teamwork roles for managers:

 Team leader— serving as the appointed head

of a team or work unit

 Network facilitator — serving as a peer leader

an network hub for a special task force

 Team member — serving as a helpful

contributing member of a project team

 Coach or team developer — serving as a

team’s advisor on ways to improve processes and performance

Copyright ©2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Teams in Organizations

Teams in Organizations

Teams in Organizations

Teams in Organizations

Informal groups

 Not recognized on organization charts

 Not officially created for an organizational

purpose

 Emerge as part of the informal structure and

from natural or spontaneous relationships among people

 Include interest, friendship, and support groups

 Can have positive performance impact

 Can help satisfy social needs

Trends in the Use of Teams

Committees, project teams, and task forces:

 Committees

 People outside their daily job assignments work together in a small team for a specific purpose

 Task agenda is narrow, focused, and ongoing

 Projects teams or task forces

 People from various parts of an organization work together on common problems, but on a temporary basis

 Official tasks are very specific and time defined

 Disbands after task is completed

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Trends in the Use of Teams

 Functional chimneys problem – a lack of

communication across functions

Trends in the Use of Teams

Trends in the Use of Teams

Characteristics of self-managing teams:

Figure 17.1 Organizational and management implications of self-managing work teams

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Trends in the Use of Teams

Virtual (distributed) teams

 Teams of people who work together and solve problems through largely computer-mediated rather than face-to-face interactions

Trends in the Use of Teams

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Trends in the Use of Teams

Trends in the Use of Teams

Team Building

 Activities that analyze teams and make

changes to improve performance

 May include meetings, games and outdoor activities

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Trends in the Use of Teams

How Teams Work

Effective Teams

 Perform tasks

 Satisfy members

 Remain viable for the future

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Figure 17.2 An open-systems model of team

effectiveness

How Teams Work

Team effectiveness may be summarized as

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How Teams Work

Team diversity:

 A variety of values, personalities,

experiences, demographics, and cultures among members

 Greater variety of available ideas,

perspectives, and experiences

 As team diversity increases, complexity of interpersonal relationships also increases

How Teams Work

Team input factors that influence group

process in the pursuit of team

effectiveness:

 Membership characteristics

 Resources and setting

 Nature of the task

 Team size

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How Teams Work

Stages of team development:

Figure 17.3 Criteria for assessing the maturity of a team

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How Teams Work

Norms

 Behavior expected of team members

 Rules or standards that guide behavior

 May result in team sanctions

How Teams Work

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Figure 17.4 How cohesiveness and norms influence team performance

How Teams Work

Guidelines for increasing team cohesion:

 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

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How Teams Work

Task activities

 Actions by team members that contribute

directly to team’s performance purpose

How Teams Work

Maintenance activities

 Support emotional life of a team as an

ongoing social system

How Teams Work

Distributed leadership roles …

 Make every member responsible for recognizing

when task and/or maintenance activities are needed and taking actions to provide them

 Leading through task activities focuses on solving problems and achieving performance results

 Leading through maintenance activities helps

strengthen and perpetuate the team as a social system

17.5 Distributed leadership helps teams meet task and maintenance needs

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How Teams Work

Disruptive activities that detract from team

How Teams Work

 Polarized subgroups contest one another

 Subgroups may engage in antagonistic relations

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Figure 17.6 Interaction patterns and communication networks in teams

Decision Making in Teams

Methods of team decision making:

Decision Making in Teams

Decision Making in Teams

Symptoms of groupthink:

 Illusions of invulnerability

 Rationalizing unpleasant and disconfirming data

 Belief in inherent group morality

 Stereotyping competitors as weak, evil, and stupid

 Applying direct pressure to deviants to conform to group wishes

Decision Making in Teams

Decision Making in Teams

Creativity in team decision making

 Brainstorming

 Open and spontaneous discussion of problems and ideas

 Guidelines

 Go for quantity of ideas

 Don’t criticize each other

 Welcome “freewheeling”

 Build on the ideas of others

Copyright ©2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Decision Making in Teams

Creativity in team decision making (cont’d)

 Nominal Group technique

 Meeting agenda structured to allow participation of all group members

 Individual contributions are brought to the group for discussion