LO4 - Team Processes

• Team Processes


  third set of elements in the team effectiveness model
• Team Processes

  includes team development, norms, roles, cohesion, trust, and team mental models.
• Team Processes


  Cognitive and emotional dynamics of the team that continually change with the team’s ongoing evolution and development.
• Team development 


  is at the heart of team processes because the other dynamics—shaping norms, roles, cohesion, trust, and mental models—are embedded in team development.
• Stages of Team Development​

  
• Stages of Team Development​

  1. Forming
  2. storming
  3. norming
  4. performing
  5. adjourning
• Forming


  • the first stage of team development
  • is a period of testing and orientation in which members learn about one another and evaluate the benefits and costs of continued membership.
  • People tend to be polite, will defer to authority, and try to find out what is expected of them and how they will fit into the team.
• storming


  • is marked by interpersonal conflict as members become more proactive and compete for various team roles.
  • Members try to establish norms of appropriate behaviour and performance standards.
• norming


  • the team develops its first real sense of cohesion as roles are established and a consensus forms around group objectives and common as well as complementary team-based mental models.
• performing


  • team members have learned to efficiently coordinate and resolve conflicts.
  • In high-performance teams, members are highly cooperative, have a high level of trust in one another, have functional shared mental models of group objectives and work processes, and identify with the team.
• adjourning


  • occurs when the team is about to disband.
  • Team members shift their attention away from task orientation to a relationship focus.
• Norms


  informal rules and shared expectations that groups establish to regulate the behaviour of their members.
• Norms


  apply only to behaviour, not to private thoughts or

  feelings.
• Norms


  exist only for behaviours that are important to the team
• Teams develop norms for a few reasons


  1. most norms develop when members associate these behaviours with the team’s performance or the well-being of its members.
  2. team norms develop because they improve predictability and conflict-avoidance in co-worker relations.Newcomers, for instance, try to fit in with the group by actively discovering and behaving consistently with the team’s norms.
  3. teams develop norms to routinize behaviour with minimal cognitive effort, which improves social order and coordination of each member’s activities.
• An important feature of team norms is that they are

  enforced
• Two of the best ways to establish desired norms in new teams are

  1. to select team members whose values
  2. past behaviour are compatible with those norms and to clearly state the norms when those people are assigned to the team.
• Developing and changing team norms

  • Select team members with preferred values and past behaviour.​
  • State desired norms when forming teams.​
  • Ongoing coaching of norms to team members.​
  • Introduce team-based rewards that counter dysfunctional norms.​
  • Disband teams with dysfunctional norms.
• Role


  A set of behaviours that people are expected to

  perform because they hold specific formal or informal positions in a team and organization.
• Roles versus norms

  • Both establish/reinforce behaviour.​
  • Roles apply to one/few people, norms to all members.
• Roles 


  are acquired formally or informally.
• Types of roles:​

  • Taskwork roles – assist the team’s performance.​
  • Teamwork roles – support team development/dynamics.
• team cohesion


  The degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members.
• Six of themost important influences on team cohesion

  • Member similarity

  • Team size

  • Member interaction

  • Somewhat difficult entry

  • Team success

  • External competition and challenges
• High cohesion teams usually perform better because:​

  • Motivated to maintain membership, achieve team objectives.​
  • Share information more frequently.​
  • Higher coworker satisfaction.​
  • Better social support (minimizes stress).​
  • Resolve conflict more swiftly and effectively.
• Cohesion increases performance when:​

  • Task interdependence is high.​
  • Team norms are consistent with organizational objectives.
• trust

  Positive expectations one person has toward another person or group in situations involving risk.
• Three levels of trust:​

  • Calculus-based (lowest).​
  • Knowledge-based.​
  • Identification-based (highest).
• Calculus-based trust

  • represents a logical calculation that other team members will act appropriately because they face sanctions if their actions violate reasonable expectations.
  • It offers the lowest potential trust and is easily broken by a violation of expectations.
• Knowledge-based trust


  • is based on the predictability of another team member’s behaviour.
  • This predictability refers only to “positive expectations”—as the definition of trust states—because you would not trust someone who tends to engage in harmful or dysfunctional behaviour.
• Identification-based trust 


  • is based on mutual understanding and an emotional bond among team members.
  • It occurs when team members think, feel, and act like one another.
• swift trust


  The main explanation why people have high trust
• swift trust


  at the outset is that they usually believe fellow

  team members are reasonably competent (knowledge-based trust) and they tend to develop some degree of social identity with the team (identification-based trust).
• Swift trust


  initially a moderate or high level of trust in co-workers when people join a team.
• Identification based trust


  • Based on common mental models and values

  • Increases with person’s social identity with team
• Knowledge based trust


  • Based on predictability and competence

  • Fairly robust
• Calculus based trust


  • Based on deterrence

  • Fragile and limited potential because dependent

  on punishment
• mental models 


  Knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, and predict the world around us.
• Team members have both shared and complementary mental models.
• Shared mental models


  all team members hold similar images and expectations about the team.