9 WORK GROUPS AND TEAMS



9 WORK TEAMS and GROUPS

Chapter Scan

Groups and teams continue to play a vital role in organizational behavior and performance. Advanced technologies give organizations the ability to use virtual teams that may have members from anywhere in the world. Although all teams are also groups, the reverse is not true.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

AFTER READING THIS CHAPTER, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THE FOLLOWING:

1. Define group and work team.

2. Explain four important aspects of group behavior.

3. Describe group formation, the four stages of a group's development, and the

characteristics of a mature group.

4. Explain the task and maintenance functions in teams.

5. Discuss quality circles and quality teams.

6. Identify the social benefits of group and team membership.

7. Discuss empowerment, teamwork, and self-managed teams.

8. Explain the importance of upper echelons and top management teams.

key TERMS

Chapter 9 introduces the following key terms:

group

work team

norms of behavior

group cohesion

social loafing

loss of individuality

status structure

task function

maintenance function

quality team

quality circle (QC)

psychological intimacy

integrated involvement

self-managed team

upper echelon

THE CHAPTER SUMMARIZED

I. THINKING AHEAD: Teamwork without Teams?

II. GROUP BEHAVIOR

This is a good opening place to remind students of the differences between groups and organizations, and between groups and teams.

A. Norms of Behavior

The standards a work group uses to evaluate the behavior its members are referred to as norms of behavior. Group members must understand both the stated and implied norms of the group(s) to which they belong.

B. Group Cohesion

Group cohesion is defined as the "interpersonal glue" that makes members of a group stick together.

C. Social Loafing

Social loafing refers to the failure of a group member to contribute personal time, effort, thoughts, or other resources to the group. Students can readily relate examples from their experiences of working in groups.

D. Loss of Individuality

Loss of individuality is a social process in which individual group members lose self-awareness and its accompanying sense of accountability, inhibition, and responsibility for individual behavior.

III. GROUP FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT

All groups go through four predictable stages of development after formation. They may fluctuate between stages, and some never reach the last stage.

A. Group Formation

Groups may be informal or formal. Ethnicity, gender, culture, and interpersonal diversity are important considerations in the formation of groups. Informal groups often evolve in order to meet inclusion and affection needs not met by formal groups.

B. Stages of Group Development

Groups typically go through four stages of development.

1. Mutual Acceptance

In this stage, members focus on interpersonal relationships. Trust and emotional comfort are important, and some power, influence, and authority issues may also arise.

2. Decision Making

This stage emphasizes decision making activities related to the task and how it should be accomplished. It is the planning stage in the group’s development, during which it addresses authority issues not resolved in the first stage.

3. Motivation and Commitment

Self-motivation and motivation of other group members become the primary focus during the third stage of group development. The emphasis shifts in this stage to task execution and achievement. Maintenance functions include encouragement and support of group members.

4. Control and Sanctions

At this stage, the group should have a clear purpose and mission, established norms, and a high level of cohesiveness. Both positive and negative sanctions are used in this stage to control member behavior.

C. Characteristics of a Mature Group

Mature groups have four distinguishing characteristics.

1. Purpose and Mission

The purpose and mission may be assigned or it may emerge from within the group. A clear purpose and mission enhance performance in groups.

2. Behavioral Norms

Behavioral norms take time to develop, but are typically well understood by group members. They provide benchmarks by which group members evaluate one another. Attendance policies, dress codes, and ethical standards are examples of behavioral norms.

3. Group Cohesion

Low cohesion in a group results in low commitment to the group’s goals. On the other hand, groupthink can result in poor decision making in highly cohesive groups. Conflict can cause problems in groups with low cohesion, but it can also contribute to a group’s maturing process, eventually resulting in higher cohesion.

4. Status Structure

Status structure refers to the set of authority and task relations among a group’s members. Effective resolution of authority issues creates a clearly understood status structure. Groups typically have one well-defined leader, while teams typically share leadership based on the characteristics of each group member.

5. Task and Maintenance Functions

A task function is an activity directly related to the effective completion of a team's work. Maintenance functions relate to satisfying interpersonal needs within the group or team. Some task functions are more important at one time in the life of a group, and other functions are more important at other times. Students might want to try to identify specific activities from their own personal experiences related to these functions.

IV. WORK TEAMS IN ORGANIZATIONS

A. Why Work Teams?

Teams are effective when work is complex, complicated, interrelated, or more extensive than one person can manage. Organizations must be careful, however, to provide adequate training and direction to any teams that are formed.

B. Work Team Structure and Work Team Process

The primary structural issues for work teams include goals and objectives, operating guidelines, performance measures, and specification of roles within the team and for managers who oversee the team’s work. Process issues include management of both cooperative behaviors and competitive behaviors.

C. Quality Teams and Circles

A quality team is a formal group empowered to act on its decisions regarding product and service quality. Quality circles (QCs) are small groups of employees who work voluntarily on company time to address quality-related problems, such as quality control, cost reduction, production planning and techniques, and even product design.

D. Social Benefits

The social benefits of teams are psychological intimacy and integrated involvement. Psychological intimacy is emotional and psychological closeness to other team or group members. Integrated involvement is closeness achieved through tasks and activities.

V. EMPOWERMENT AND SELF-MANAGED TEAMS

Teamwork can be implemented in organizations through self-managed teams. Self-managed teams deal with broader issues than just quality. Members of these teams are empowered to solve problems and take action, but must also be properly focused through careful planning and preparation.

A. Empowerment Skills

Empowerment through employee self-management is an alternative to empowerment through teamwork. Empowerment requires that employees demonstrate competence skills, process skills, cooperative and helping behaviors, and communication skills.

B. Self-Managed Teams

Research indicates that participation in self-managed teams positively influences employee attitudes, but not absenteeism or turnover. Self-managed teams can generate substantial results over time, but they rarely become fully functional and self-directed in the short term.

VI. UPPER ECHELONS: TEAMS AT THE TOP

A top-level executive team in an organization is referred to as upper echelon. The background characteristics of the top management team can often predict organizational characteristics.

A. Multicultural Teams

Diversity within a group may increase the uncertainty, complexity, and inherent confusion in group processes. However, diverse groups tend to generate more and better ideas, which may limit the risk of groupthink.

VII. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: TEAMWORK FOR PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY

VIII. LOOKING BACK: Teamwork through Natural Work Groups

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Groups are often composed of diverse people at work. Teams in organizations are a key to enhance quality and achieve success.

Important aspects of group behavior include norms of behavior, group cohesion, social loafing, and loss of individuality.

Once a group forms, it goes through four stages of development. If successful, the group emerges as a mature group with a purpose, clear behavioral norms, high cohesion, and a flexible status structure.

Quality circles, originally popularized in Japan, and quality teams contribute to solving technological and quality problems in the organization.

Teams provide social benefits for team members, as well as enhancing organizational performance.

Empowerment and teamwork require specific organizational design elements and individual psychological characteristics and skills.

Upper echelons and top management teams are key to the strategy and performance of an organization. Diversity and a devil's advocate in the top team enhance performance.

Managing in the new team environment places new demands on managers, teams, and individuals. Managers must create a supportive and flexible environment for collaborative teams and empowered individuals. Team leaders must nurture the team's development.

REVIEW QUESTIONS: suggested answers

1. What is a group? A work team?

A group is a collection of two or more people with common interests or objectives. A work team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common mission, performance goals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

2. Explain four aspects of group behavior. How can each aspect help or hinder the group's functioning?

Norms of behavior are standards that a work group uses to evaluate the behavior of its members. Group cohesion is the ‘interpersonal glue’ that makes members of a group stick together. Social loafing is the failure of a group member to contribute personal time, effort, thoughts, or other resources to the group. Loss of individuality occurs when group members lose self-awareness and its accompanying sense of accountability, inhibition, and responsibility for individual behavior. In general, norms are facilitative. Cohesiveness can have positive effects such as satisfaction, but it can also lead to problems such as groupthink. Social loafing is detrimental because it creates conflict. Loss of individuality, or deindividuation, can lead to aberrant behavior.

3. Explain what happens in each of the four stages of a group's development. When does the group address interpersonal issues? Task issues? Authority issues?

The group forms and members determine what to expect from each other. This first stage is the mutual acceptance stage. This first stage focuses on interpersonal relations among the members. The second stage, decision making, marks the beginning of a task orientation, and is thought of as a planning stage. The motivation and commitment stage determines the contributions of teammates and is concerned with execution, achievement, and authority. The final stage, control and sanctions, is the maturity stage. The group controls its members by using positive and negative reinforcements.

4. Describe the four characteristics of mature groups.

A mature group has a clear purpose and mission, well-understood norms and standards of conduct, a high level of group cohesion, and a flexible status structure.

5. Why are work teams important to organizations today? How and why are work teams formed?

In addition to having creative ideas evolve from groups, employees become loyal to and psychologically intimate with team members. Teams can meet the needs for integrated involvement as well. Work teams may be formed by management to address specific organizational needs (formal teams), or they may develop as a means of meeting other unsatisfied employee needs for inclusion and affection (informal teams).

6. Describe at least five task and five maintenance functions that effective work teams must perform.

Task functions include initiating activities, seeking information, giving information, elaborating concepts, coordinating activities, summarizing ideas, testing ideas, evaluating effectiveness, and diagnosing problems. Maintenance functions include supporting others, following others' leads, gatekeeping communication, setting standards, expressing member feelings, testing group decisions, consensus testing, harmonizing conflict, and reducing tension.

7. Describe the necessary skills for empowerment and teamwork.

Competence skills and process skills are essential, as are the development of cooperative and helping behaviors and communication skills.

8. What are the benefits and potential drawbacks of self-managed teams?

Self-managed teams can positively impact employee attitudes and enhance productivity. They do not appear to positively impact absenteeism or turnover, are susceptible to problems such as groupthink, and may take long periods of time to reach their full potential.

9. What is the role of the manager in the new team environment? What is the role of the team leader?

The manager is responsible for creating an organizational environment that promotes and supports work teams. Managers set limits, remove barriers, and establish flexible charters for their work groups and teams. The team leader is responsible for nurturing the development and performance of the team. Team leaders teach, listen, solve problems, manage conflict, and enhance team functioning.

DISCUSSION AND COMMUNICATION QUESTIONS: suggested answers

1. Which was the most effective group (or team) of which you have been a member? What made that group (or team) so effective?

Students can use the characteristics from the chapter, and can probably name others. Issues of leadership, empowerment, cohesion, norms, and diversity are especially applicable.

2. Have you ever experienced peer pressure to act more in accordance with the behavioral norms of a group? Have you ever engaged in a little social loafing? Have you ever lost your head and been caught up in a group's destructive actions?

Students who have worked in groups that met outside class will have experience in peer pressure. Be sure to point out that social loafing and not meeting the requirements of the group are not the same thing. Destructive actions have also been referred to as "mob mentality." Both the Los Angeles riots and the spring break fiascoes in Florida are examples of destructive actions.

3. Name a company that successfully uses teamwork and empowerment. What has that company done that makes it so successful at teamwork and empowerment? Has its team approach made a difference in its performance? How?

The six focus companies from the textbook are logical suggestions for students who will not be able to single out individual organizations. The Ritz-Carlton is also a good example, because it is the only hotel that has ever won the Malcolm Baldrige Award.

4. Name a person you think is a particularly good team member. What makes this person a good team member? Name a person who is a problem as a team member. What makes this person a problem?

This can be constructive, and students should identify the criteria they used in deciding whether a person is a good team member or a problem when discussing their examples.

5. Think about your current work environment. Does your work environment use quality circles or self-managed teams? What are the barriers to teamwork and empowerment in that environment? What elements of the environment enhance or encourage teamwork and empowerment? (If you do not work, discuss this question with a friend who does.)

In class, students with experience in teams have an opportunity to tell other students their frustrations and their rewards in working with teams. Cultural differences are relevant, and international students from collectivist cultures can be encouraged to share their views of teamwork.

6. Prepare a memo describing your observations about work teams and groups in your workplace or your university. Where have you observed teams or groups to be most effective? Why? What changes might be made at work or in the university make teams more effective?

Encourage students to consider different types of teams that they might observe, particularly those at different levels in the organization. Students should draw on the material from the text in discussing the effectiveness of the teams.

7. Develop an oral presentation about what the most important norms of behavior should be in an academic community and workplace. Be specific. Discuss how these norms should be established and reinforced.

In addition to outlining important norms, students should also provide support for why those norms are important. Discuss whether norms should be the same for faculty, staff, administration, and students. If there has been a recent debate on your campus regarding a particular norm and how it is reinforced, this is a good opportunity to discuss the issue.

8. Interview an employee or manager about what he or she believes contributes to cohesiveness in work groups and teams. Ask the person what the conclusions are based on. Be prepared to discuss what you have learned in class.

If the comments of the person interviewed differ from the text material, students should probe as to why this is the case. During class discussion, compare and contrast the different perspectives of the people interviewed.

9. Do you admire the upper echelons in your organization or university? Why or why not? Do they communicate effectively with groups and individuals throughout the organization?

Students should consider whether others in the organization or university share their opinion about the upper echelons. Discuss why there might be differences in perspectives between individuals and groups.

ETHICS QUESTIONS: suggested answers

1. Assume that someone is engaged in social loafing in a group of which you are a member. What should you do? Is this person acting in an unethical manner?

The central point here is related to the previous chapter on communication. Groups should foster an environment of open communication as a group norm so that when there is a variance in the quality of effort, members can address the individual honestly and openly.

2. Does a moral dilemma arise when an individual is expected to subordinate his or her individuality and autonomy to the will of the work group or work team? Suppose you are a member of a work group or work team that is getting ready to act in a way you believe is unethical or immoral. What should you do? Will you be responsible for the actions of the entire team?

The film, Twelve Angry Men, is an excellent example of staying with your convictions once you are convinced that it is an ethical issue. Even in organizations where you are ordered to obey a command, individuals are ultimately responsible for their actions. (Students can see this illustration through the film, A Few Good Men.)

3. Assume that a very mature group decides that it is necessary to resort to threats to one of the members to keep the person in line with the group's norms. Further assume that the behavior of the person in question is not endangering anyone inside or outside the group. Is the proposed group action unethical? What should your position be on the issue?

Threats are not an appropriate way to communicate. They are a form of manipulation and coercion. Again, ask students to refer to the previous chapter on communication. Threats, especially severe ones, are unethical. Managing behavior is best accomplished by training, reinforcement, coaching, and counseling.

4. Suppose an empowered employee makes a mistake at your place of work that damages some property but does not hurt anyone. Assuming the employee was empowered to act, should the employee be punished for the unfortunate consequences of the action? Would your answer differ depending on whether the employee had been properly trained and supervised before being empowered?

Most organizations are fairly specific regarding accidents at work. Accidents are rarely punished, particularly if the employee has not received training related to the equipment. An individual may be empowered but may not necessarily be liable.

CHALLENGES

1 HOW COHESIVE IS YOUR GROUP?

This challenge could be assigned prior to class discussion on cohesiveness. During class discussion, students could be asked to share the experiences from the group they evaluated in the challenge to help illustrate the points related to cohesiveness.

2 ARE YOU AN EMPOWERED EMPLOYEE?

As you cover the material on empowerment in class, encourage students to share their experiences as empowered or unempowered employees.

EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES

9.1 TOWER BUILDING: A GROUP DYNAMICS ACTIVITY

This exercise gives students an opportunity to examine group dynamics in a task-oriented situation. Students must take responsibility to bring materials to class for building a tower. All materials must fit into a box no greater than eight cubic feet. This exercise is a favorite exercise for many to uncover the dynamics of group and leadership behavior. The advantage of this exercise is that it takes far less time than game-oriented simulations.

9.2 DESIGN A TEAM

This exercise provides students with an excellent opportunity to apply much of the material from the text and to think in depth about how teams should be formed. As groups share their responses to the questions be sure and discuss similarities and differences in responses. At the conclusion of the group presentations, try to reach agreement as a class on the ideal profile for this team.

Alternative Experiential Exercise:

Putting the Beat Back in Groups

Instructor's Notes:

This exercise may be discussed in at least three ways. (1) Students may use this opportunity to review or teach the chapter components to each other in the group, (2) this serves as a team development exercise, where the instructor may ask how cohesive the group is and where the group development is on this project, and (3) this is a lighthearted avenue to receive different contributions from students than are normally provided. Creativity is a difficult subject to convince students that they utilize throughout their lives. This exercise provides an avenue for students to risk being creative among their peers.

Putting the Beat Back in Groupwork

Adapted from Donald D. Bowen, The University of Tulsa

You and the members of your team are lyricists for a major must publishing house, Country & Western, Inc. (CWI). CWI specializes in country music, and has developed a unique approach to the creative business of developing hit country songs. In contrast to the normal approach to song writing, artists under contract to CWI provide only the music to their songs. CWI employs specialists in lyrics (you and your teammates) to write the titles and words.

When a musician submits a new melody to CWI, the Vice President of Creativity listens to the tune, identifies a topic he believes to be appropriate for the melody, then assigns one of the lyric production teams to develop a catchy title for the song including the words (or variations of them) the Vice President used to designate the topic of the song. For example, if the assigned topic was "love", acceptable titles might include:

"I ain't had a beer since breakfast so what I'm feelin' must be love,

or

"Lovin' you sure beats punchin' cows.

The Vice President of Creativity has just assigned the following topics for titles. Make a creative country and western song title out of as many as possible in the time allotted.

Topic Proposed Title

1. Empowerment

2. Group cohesion

3. Team

4. Group development

5. Quality circles

6. Social loafing

7. Upper echelon

8. Psychological intimacy

EXTRA EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES:

The following exercises to supplement the material in the textbook can be obtained from:

Marcic, Dorothy, Seltzer, Joseph, & Vaill, Peter. Organizational Behavior: Experiences and Cases, 6th Ed. South Western College Publishing Company, 2001.

Prisoner’s Dilemma: An Intergroup Competition. p. 135-136. Time: 50 minutes.

Purpose: To explore trust and its betrayal between group members through demonstrating the effects of interpersonal competition.

Windsock, Inc. p. 95-97. Time: 50 minutes or more.

Purpose: To explore intergroup relationships.

CASE QUESTIONS: SUGGESTED ANSWERS

The Eden Alternative: Implications for Teamwork

1. Using Table 9.1, discuss the extent to which the characteristics of well-functioning, effective groups accurately describe the Edenized facilities discussed in the case.

Table 9.1 outlines eight characteristics of a well-functioning, effective group. In the following bulleted list, each characteristic is italicized and the relevant case evidence is presented below the appropriate characteristic.

The atmosphere tends to be relaxed, comfortable, and informal. All the facilities were engaged in creating more of a ‘human habitat’ for the residents (and for the staff members themselves). The notion of a ‘human habitat’ implies comfort, relaxation, and informality.

The group’s task is well understood and accepted by the members. The multidisciplinary teams at the North Carolina facility were given responsibility for ensuring that all the elements of Edenization are being implemented and nurtured, and for addressing client-centered issues and working on continual improvement of the residents’ quality of life. At the Virginia nursing center, registered and licensed nurses, nursing assistants, and activities staff members share many duties. For either nursing facility’s approach to work effectively, their employees need to understand and accept the group’s task.

The members listen well to one another; most members participate in a good deal of task-relevant discussion. The evidence cited for the previous characteristic applies here as well.

• People express both their feelings and their ideas. At Chase Memorial, staff members initially expressed negative attitudes but subsequently began to embrace the Eden Alternative. Based on the case information that was cited with respect to the two preceding characteristics, one might reasonably assume that both feelings and ideas are being expressed.

Conflict and disagreement are present and centered around ideas or methods, not personalities or people. The initial reaction of staff members at Chase Memorial indicates conflict and disagreement surrounding the concept of Edenization only. No other evidence in the case seems to be relevant to this characteristic.

The group is aware and conscious of its own operation and function. Empowerment and staff leadership of the multidisciplinary teams at the North Carolina long-term care facility strongly suggest that the group is aware and conscious of its own operation and function. This observation is also supported by the previously mentioned responsibilities assumed by the staff members. Group awareness of its operation and function is indicated as well by the shared responsibilities of staff members at the Virginia facility.

Decisions are usually based on consensus, not majority vote. No evidence exists in the case to either support or refute this characteristic.

When actions are decided, clear assignments are made and accepted by members of the group. One might assume, based on the teamwork approaches used at the North Carolina and Virginia facilities, that clear assignments are made and accepted by group members. However, no explicit evidence can be cited to support this.

2. Explain why teamwork is important for the effective implementation of the Eden Alternative.

The chapter indicates that teamwork becomes important when the work is more complicated, complex, interrelated, and/or voluminous than one person can handle. When all the dimensions of Edenization—both cosmetic and the underlying cultural and work changes—are considered, the conclusion that the Eden Alternative is complicated, complex, interrelated, and voluminous is inescapable. The cultural change alone necessitates teamwork because the culture of Edenization is one of staff empowerment. Effectively implementing the Eden Alternative adds responsibilities to the staff, and requires them to significantly modify the ways of working that are common to traditional nursing homes. Teamwork is needed to foster, support, and reinforce these types of cultural and behavioral changes.

3. Using Table 9.2, explain how the task functions and maintenance functions might be used to facilitate effective implementation of teamwork in a facility undergoing Edenization.

The multidisciplinary teams that are used at the North Carolina nursing facility provide a useful context in which to begin discussing this question. This facility emphasizes “building and empowering staff for total commitment and participation in the project.” The multidisciplinary teams, led by staff members from different areas, are responsible for ensuring that all the elements of Edenization are being implemented and nurtured. These teams also meet regularly to discuss residents’ needs and capacities, and are responsible for addressing resident-centered issues and working on continually improving the residents’ quality of life. Edenization is always evolving; always changing as the teams look for problems and solutions, and examine resident needs and how best to meet them. This context suggests that all of the task functions and all of the maintenance functions have roles to play in effective Edenization of a long-term nursing care facility.

Using the discussion of this facility as a point of departure, the students should be asked to imagine themselves as staff members at a nursing home that is attempting to implement the Eden Alternative. Have them brainstorm regarding how they could use each of the task functions and maintenance functions to facilitate the teamwork process.

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