Work teams. Source: Williams, C. (2012) MGMT 4, Management, South-Western, Cengage Learning, USA

Transcription

1 8 Managing Teams 1

2 Work teams Work teams consist of a small number of people with complementary skills who hold themselves mutually accountable for pursuing a common purpose, achieving performance goals, and improving interdependent work processes. Should we always use teams? 2

3 Teams: Pros and Cons PROS Increased customer satisfaction Increased product and service quality Job satisfaction Cross-training Group decision making CONS Initially high turnover Social loafing Disadvantages of group decision making Groupthink Minority domination Accountability 3

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5 Types of Teams 5

6 Special kinds of teams Cross-Functional Teams Groups that bring together the knowledge and skills of individuals from various work areas or groups whose members have been trained to do each others jobs. E.g. developing a product Virtual teams Groups of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task Project teams created to complete specific, one-time projects or tasks within a limited time 6

7 WORK TEAMS CHARACTERISTICS Norms - informally agreed-upon standards that regulate team behavior (positive or negative punctuality, absenteeism, dress ) Cohesiveness - the extent to which team members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain in it (lower turnover, cooperation) Team size (6-9) Team conflict (a-type and c-type increased or decreased performance) (Reasons: tasks, interpersonal incompatibilities, fatigue) 7

8 Stages in Group Development Forming Members join and begin the process of defining the group s purpose, structure, and leadership. Storming Intragroup conflict occurs over who will control the group and what the group needs to be doing. Norming Close relationships develop as the group becomes cohesive and establishes its norms for acceptable behavior. Performing A fully functional group structure allows the group to focus on performing the task at hand. Adjourning The group prepares to disband and is no longer concerned with high levels of performance (for temporary groups e.g. project teams). Source: Robbins, S.P., Coulter, M. (2009) Management 10 th ed., Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 8

9 Stages of Group Development Sometimes groups regress to previous stages 9 Source: Robbins, S.P., Coulter, M. (2009) Management 10 th ed., Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey

10 ENHANCING WORK TEAM EFFECTIVENESS Setting team goals and priorities (SMART) Selecting people for teamwork Team level - the average level of ability, experience, personality, on a team. Team diversity the variances or differences in ability, experience, personality, or any other factor of a team Individualism-collectivism Teams should work together as long as possible 10

11 ENHANCING WORK TEAM EFFECTIVENESS Team training Interpersonal skills Conflict management Technical training Decision making Team compensation Skill-based pay Gainsharing 11

12 Sources: 1. Robbins, S.P., Coulter, M. (2009) Management 10th ed., Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 2. Williams, C. (2012) MGMT 4, Management, South-Western, Cengage Learning