10 - Understanding Work Teams

• A work group is a group that interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility.
• A work team is a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs.
• Types of Teams:

  • Problem Solving Teams
  • Self Managed Teams
  • Cross Functional Teams
  • Virtual Teams
• A problem-solving teams is a groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment.
• A self-managed work teams are groups of 10 to 15 people who take on responsibilities of their former supervisors.
• A cross-functional teams have employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.
• A virtual teams Teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.
• Factors Affecting Context

  • Adequate Resources
  • Leadership and Structure
  • Climate of Trust
  • Performance Evaluation and Reward Systems
• Factors Affecting Team Composition

  • Abilities of Members
  • Personality of Members
  • Allocation of Roles
  • Diversity of Members
  • Size of Teams
  • Member Preferences
• Organizational demography is the degree to which members of a work unit share a common demographic attribute, such as age, sex, race, educational level, or length of service in an organization, and the impact of this attribute on turnover.
• Factors Affecting Team Processes

  • Common Plan and Purpose
  • Specific Goals
  • Team Efficacy
  • Mental Models
  • Conflict Levels
  • Social Loafing
• Reflexivity is a team characteristic of reflecting on and adjusting the master plan when necessary.
• Mental models are a team members’ knowledge and beliefs about how the work gets done by the team.