TEAM CONCEPTS

AND
TEAM DEVELOPMENT
Why Have Teams Become So Popular
80% of Fortune 500 companies have almost half or more of
their employees on teams.
Teams typically outperform individuals when d tasks being
done require multiple skills, judgement & experience.
Teams use employee talents better.
Teams are more flexible and responsive to changes in the
environment than are traditional depts or groupings.
Teams facilitate employee involvement in decisions.
Teams are an effective way to increase employee motivation.
Group Vs. Team

Work Group
A work group is a group that interacts(interacting & interdependent)
primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each group
member perform within his or her area of responsibility to achieve
certain objectives.
A work group:
supports the leader's goals and the leader-dominated approach to goal
attainment.
The group members are accountable to the leader individually rather than
shared accountability.
A work group have no need or opportunity to engage in collective work dat
requires joint effort.
So, a grps performance is merely the summation of each grp members
individual contribution.
Thus there is only a neutral & not a +ve synergy that would create an
overall level of performance that is greater than the sum of its inputs.
Concept of Team Vs Group?

Groups & teams are not the same thing.
"A team is a small group of people with complementary skills and
abilities who are committed to a common goal and approach for
which they hold each other accountable."
Teams identify and reach consensus on their common goal and
approach, rather than looking to a leader to define the goal and
approach.
Most importantly, teams hold their members accountable.
Work Team
A group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater
than the sum of the individual inputs.
Teams create +ve synergy through coordinated effort that increases
organizations performance.
Positive synergy means that teams have a high level of performance
that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs.

.
Comparing Work Groups and Work
Teams
Types of Teams
Problem-Solving Teams
Groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department
who meet for a few hours each week to discuss/suggest
ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work
environment. Eg: A bank may create a problem solving team
to specifically figure out ways to reduce the no. of days it
takes to open a new account.

Self-Managed Work Teams
Groups of 10 to 15 people who perform highly related or
interdependent jobs & take on many of the responsibilities of
their former supervisors like planning & scheduling of work,
assigning tasks to members, making all operative decisions,
taking action on problems, quality issues & working with
suppliers, customers, etc.
These teams set their own schedules, select their members,
negotiate with suppliers, etc.
Types of Teams
Task force-it is a temporary cross-functional team
Committees- a cross functional team used to coordinate
complex projects like members from production, planning,
design, quality, information systems, etc.to launch a new line of
motorcycles at Harley Davidson.
Cross-Functional Teams
Employees from the same hierarchical level, but from different
work departments, who come together, exchange information,
develop new ideas & solve problems, co-ordinate complex
projects, etc to accomplish a task.
Types of Teams
Team Characteristics(as different from face to face teams):
1. The absence of nonverbal cues like tone of voice, voice volume,
facial expressions, eye movements, hand gestures, etc since people
collaborate online using communication links like WAN, Video
conferencing or e-mail as they may be long distances away
2. A limited social rapport &less direct interaction among members.
3. The ability to overcome time(separated by time zones) and space
(even if 1000s of miles apart)constraints
Virtual Teams
Teams that use computer technology
to tie together physically dispersed
members in order to achieve a
common goal.
What is an effective team?
Effective Teams
Effective teams have interdependent members
The productivity and efficiency of an entire unit is determined by the
coordinated, inter-active efforts of all its members
Effective teams help members be more efficient working together than
alone
Effective teams outperform even the best individuals performance
Effective teams function so well that they create their own magnetism
Team members desire to affiliate with a team because of the advantage
they receive from membership
Effective teams do not always have the same leader i.e. the leadership
responsibility rotates and is shared as team develop over time
In effective teams members care for and nurture one another
All are treated as an integral part of the team
Effective teams have members who cheer for and bolster the leader and
vice-versa
Mutual encouragement is given and received by each member
What is an effective team?
Effective teams have high level of trust among
members
Members demonstrate integrity and are
interested in others success as well as their
own
How do we create effective teams?
The answer lies in studying the team
effectiveness model

A Team-
Effectiveness
Model
Team-Effectiveness Model

The key components making up effective teams can be divided
into 4 categories:
1. Context
2. Team composition
3. Work design
4. Process


Creating Effective Teams
1. Context

Factors that determine the team effectiveness:
Adequate Resources: in terms of timely informatn, proper equipment, adequate
staffing, administrative assistance, etc within the budget, policies & practices set by
the corporate office. A scarcity of resources directly reduces the teams ability to
perform its job effectively.
Effective team Leadership and structure: Leader to direct all team members
towards goal & he must ensure dat all members contribute equally in sharing d
workload. Also team structure for functioning efficiency i.e. teams must determine
how schedules wil be set, how they wil resolve conflicts, how they wil make
decisions,etc.
Climate of Trust: Belief/trust on each other & trust in their leaders, that is belief on
the honesty and reliability on each other. This interpersonal trust facilitates co-
operation & bonds members
Performance Evaluation and Reward System: there must be an objective way of
evaluating the achievements and results and giving appropriate credit to the team
members. This makes them both individually & jointly accountable. So, along with
evaluating & rewarding them for their individual contributions, mgt shd consider
group-based appraisals, profit-sharing, grp incentives & other rewards dat wil
reinforce team effort & commitment.
Creating Effective Teams
2. Team Composition


i.e. how teams shd be staffed
Abilities of members: in terms of KSAs(Knowledge, Skill, Abilities) of its members-
a good team must have people with technical expertise, problem solving &
decision making skills, conflict resolution, interpersonal skills, functional skills, etc.
Also, matching team ability to the task is imp such as high ability teams(composed
of intelligent members) shd b saved to tackle the tough prob.
Personality of team members: Big Five Personality Traits are also relevant to team
effectiveness.
Allocation of roles: Distributing specific tasks to members. Successful teams hav
ppl to fill up all the 9 roles based on their skills & preferences.
Diversity of members: Dissimilar experience and hence multiple views, approaches
and alternatives
Size of teams: Manageable 5 to 7(under 10 is preferable), for mutual
accountability, co-ordination , cohesiveness and minimising social loafing.
Member Flexibility: The quality of being adaptable and reduced rigidity. They shd b
able to complete each others tasks.
Member Preference for teamwork: Consider individual preferences and select
team members accordingly as not every employee is a team player.High
performing teams r composed of ppl who prefer working as part of a group.
Big Five Traits (OCEAN)

Openness to experience - appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual & novel
ideas, creativity, curiosity, and variety of experience. Open ppl better communicate
with one another & throw out more ideas.
Conscientiousness - a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, good at
backing up fellow team members and aim for achievement; planned rather than
spontaneous behavior. This dimension is a measure of reliability.
Extraversion active energy, positive emotions, outgoing and the tendency to
stimulate, motivate the struggling team members and ones comfort level in
company of others, social relationships.
Agreeableness - a tendency to be compassionate, good natured and cooperative,
avoid conflict rather than suspicious and antagonistic/acting in opposition towards
others.
Emotional stability- this dimension taps a persons ability to withstand unpleasant
emotions/stress easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, i.e. Ppl with +ve
emotional stability r better at adapting & helping others to adapt and r calm, self-
confident & secure.
Big Five Traits (OCEAN)
When an unforseen change happens, teams comprised of conscientious,
emotionally stable & open members cope & adapt better.
Also extroverted & agreeable teams respond vely to indl competitive
rewards because such individualistic incentives tend to run counter to d
social nature of extroverted & agreeable teams.

9 Key Roles
of Teams
Creating Effective Teams
3. Work Design

Art and science of arranging the work so that teams work together & tke
collective responsibility to complete significant tasks.
Autonomy: Providing some level of autonomy or freedom to employees in
their job leads to enthusiasm and less stress
Skill Variety: designing jobs that require variety of diff activities so d
worker can use a no. of different skills & talents. Skill variety breaks the
monotony and makes the job enjoyable
Task Identity: Task identity helps the employee to understand their tasks
better and understanding of work completion of an identifiable piece of
work.
Task Significance: Task significance helps the employee to become an
engaged employee i.e. he likes working on a task or project dat has a
substantial impact on others
The above characteristics thus enhance member motivation as they increase
members sense of responsibility, ownership over d work & increase team
effectiveness.
Creating Effective Teams
4. Process

Set of essential activities dat go on in d team dat influences effectiveness:
Common Purpose: Understanding of the common team objective by
members dat provides direction,guidance, momentum & commitment for
members.
Specific team Goals: The clarity of the goal and SMART goals(Specific,
Measurable,Attainable,Realistic/Relevant,Time bound) energize team.
Team Efficacy: Collective belief on teams capability for achieving success,
self confidence to deliver results. Eg: teams dat hav been successful in d
past raise their beliefs about future successes, which inturn motivates
them to work harder.
Appropriate Conflict Levels: Need for an optimum level of conflict dat can
actually improve team effectiveness by stimulating discussion on critical
assessment of prob & can eventually lead to better team decisions.
Minimizing Social Loafing: Tendency for individuals to spend less efforts
when working collectively than working individually as in team tasks each
members contribution is not clearly visible/identifiable. Thus, wen using
teams, mgrs must take care dat social loafing doesnt tke place as it
illustrates a process loss & represents ve synergy wheras +ve synergy
indicates process gains. S.L. can b minimised by holding members
accountable at both individual level & grp level.