Groups and Teams
Groups and Teams
Groups and Teams
MGMT2008
OrganisationalBehaviour
Lecture 6: Groups and Teams
Nicole Knight
Levels of Analysis
Components of Organizational
Behavior
Organizational Level
Understanding
organizational behavior
requires studying
Group Level
Individuals in Organizations
Individual
Level
Importance of Groups in
Organizations
What is a group?
Task performance.
Members attain performance goals regarding quantity, quality, and
timeliness of work results.
Group Types
Group Types
Formal groups.
Officially designated to serve a specific
organizational purpose.
May be permanent or temporary.
Informal groups.
Emerge without being officially designated by the
organization.
Group types
Formal groups
Informal groups
Interest group
Task group
Reference group
Organisational benefits
stages.
Forming.
Storming.
Organisational benefits
1.
2.
1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
2.
3.
Confirm identity
Satisfy need for affiliation
Reduces feelings of insecurity
3.
Individual benefits
Norming.
Performing.
Adjourning.
Individual benefits
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Tuckman (1965)
Group structure
Group roles:
Roles can be functional (help the group) or dysfunctional (help the
individual)
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Group structure
Company worker
Shaper
Group norms
Plant
Monitor-evaluator
Resource
investigator
Team worker
Completer-finisher
Chair
(Specialist)
Performancerelated
Appearance
Informal social arrangements
Allocation of resources
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Group structure
Group cohesiveness
Degree of attractiveness and closeness of interpersonal bonds
between members
Sources of cohesiveness:
Disadvantages of groups
compared to individuals
Group members could have competing
goals and this can lead to conflict
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Tasks.
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Tasks cont.
Appropriate goals.
Welldesigned reward systems.
Adequate resources.
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Technology.
Provides the means to get work accomplished.
The right technology must be available for the
task at hand.
members interact.
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Group size.
As group size increases, performance and
member satisfaction increase up to a point.
group.
Status congruence.
Occurs when a persons position within the group is
equivalent in status to positions held outside the
group.
When status incongruence is present, problems will
likely occur.
satisfaction.
Communication and coordination problems occur, in
members.
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organization.
Emergent behaviors.
Those that group members display in addition to what
the organization asks of them.
Emergent behaviors often supplement and extend
required behaviors.
take.
Interactions interpersonal communications and
contacts.
Sentiments the feelings, attitudes, beliefs, or values
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Intergroup dynamics.
groups.
Work harder.
Become more focused on key tasks.
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problem.
A greater number of alternatives are examined.
The final decision is better understood and accepted by all
group members.
More commitment among all group members to make the
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Groupthink.
making.
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A team
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Groups
Leadership
Individual
Accountability
Performance
Skills
Diverse
Complementary
Responsive
Selfimposed demands
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Mohrman et al (1995):
Teams are the best way to enact the strategy of some organisations
Allows speedy, costeffective and high quality products and services
Allows organisations to learn more effectively
Crossfunctional teams promote quality management
Innovation is promoted via crossfertilisation of ideas
Flat organisations can be monitored and directed more effectively if
the functional unit is the team
Teams can integrate in ways that individuals cannot and this is
important in complex organisations
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Types of teams
Personality
Social
conformity
Satisficing
Groupthink
Lack of
communication
skills
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Group
polarisation
Domination
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Team effectiveness
__________
Task
Team composition
INPUTS
PROCESS
OUTPUTS
_____________
_____________
_____________
Task
Leadership
Performance
Team composition
Communication
Innovation
Organisational
context
Decision making
Wellbeing
Cohesiveness
Viability
Cultural context
INPUTS
TASK
Task characteristics account for most of the
variance in team performance
Hackman (1990) 5 characteristics:
Team climate
Organisational
context
Cultural context
Autonomy
Task variety
Task significance
Task identity
Task feedback
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Team composition
The mix of people within the team can
affect effectiveness
Team diversity:
INPUTS
INPUTS
Organisational context
__________
__________
Task
Task
Team composition
Team composition
Organisational
context
Organisational
context
Cultural context
Cultural context
Taskrelated diversity
Each individual will have relevant and diverse
skills that they can contribute
Relationsoriented diversity
Attributes inherent within the individual (age,
gender, race)
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Cultural context
INPUTS
__________
Task
composition
Effect of culture can impact on what team areTeam
Organisational
context
seen as
Cultural context
Hofstedes work:
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Leadership
Leaders will influence effectiveness of
teams
PROCESS
__________
Leadership
Communication
Decision making
Cohesion
Team climate
Transactional:
Contingent reward & punishment, taskoriented,
interventions to reward required behaviour but punishment
for undesired behaviour
Transformational:
Influencing through charisma and visioning; charisma,
inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and
individualised consideration
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Communication
Communication ensures that the team
survives.
Need for a facilitator:
PROCESS
__________
Leadership
Communication
Decision making
Cohesion
Team climate
Decisionmaking
Describe the problem:
Team should recognise if a problem exists and be problem
minded
PROCESS
__________
Leadership
Communication
Decision making
Cohesion
Team climate
Impact of IT:
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Team climate
Atmosphere within the team and the shared
perceptions of the informal and formal policies,
procedures and practices
Can include: support, respect for rules, goaloriented
information and innovation
West (1990) 4 factors for innovation:
PROCESS
__________
Leadership
Communication
Decision making
Cohesion
Team climate
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OUTPUTS
Outputs
__________
Performance
Performance
Innovation
Wellbeing
Viability
Innovation:
Working in teams promotes innovation
Wellbeing:
Working in groups improves the health and satisfaction of
employees
Viability:
Extent that the group is cohesive, with shared values and
commitment vs. destructive, turnover intention and
dissatisfaction
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Developing teams
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References
Katzenbach, J. R. & Smith, D. K. (1993). The Discipline of Teams.
Harvard Business Review, 71, 111120.
West, M. A., & Anderson, N. R. (1996). Innovation in top
management teams. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 680693.
West, M. A., Borrill, C. S., & Unsworth, K. L. (1998). Team
effectiveness in organizations. In C. L. Cooper and I. T. Robertson
(Eds.), International Review of Industrial and Organizational
Psychology. Chapter 1.
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