Wk 6

• Work group


  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
• Work group performance


  Merely the summation of each group member's individual contribution
• There is no positive synergy that would create an overall level of performance that is greater than the sum of the inputs in a work group
• Work team


  A group whose individual efforts result in a performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs
• Work team performance


  Generates positive synergy through coordinated effort
• The extensive use of teams creates the potential for an organization to generate greater outputs with no increase in employee head count
• Problem-solving teams


  • Employees from the same department who meet to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment
  • Members share ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes & methods can be improved, although they rarely have the authority to unilaterally implement any of their suggested actions
• Self-managed work teams


  • A team of employees who autonomously implement solutions and take responsibilities for the outcomes of the solutions (responsibilities normally adopted by supervisors)
  • Includes planning & scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work, making operating decisions, taking action on problems, and working with suppliers & customers
  • Fully self-managed work teams even select their own members & have the members evaluate each other's performance
• Cross-functional teams


  • Employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task
  • An effective means of allowing people from diverse areas within or even between organizations to exchange information, develop new ideas, solve problems, and coordinate complex projects
  • Challenging to manage
• Virtual teams


  • A team of employees that uses technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal
  • Allow people to collaborate online
  • Face special challenges
• Effective teams


  • Show reflexivity, meaning they reflect on and adjust their purpose when necessary
  • Members share accurate mental models, an understanding of the key elements within their task environment
  • Avoid social loafing, the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when alone
• Turning individuals into team players

  1. Selecting: Hiring team players

  2. Training: Creating team players

  3. Rewarding: Providing incentives to be a good team player
• Many people are not inherently team players, and many organizations have historically nurtured individual accomplishments
• Selecting team players


  Hiring candidates who already possess the interpersonal skills to be effective team players, and ensuring they can fulfill their team roles as well as technical requirements
• Many job candidates do not have team skills, especially those socialized around individual contributions
• Personal traits appear to make some people better candidates for working in diverse teams
• Training to create team players

  Conducting exercises that allow employees to experience the satisfaction teamwork can provide
• Developing an effective team doesn't happen overnight, but good team training has tangible positive effects on performance
• Rewarding team players


  • Reworking the organization's reward system to encourage cooperative efforts rather than competitive ones
  • Providing promotions, pay raises, and other forms of recognition to individuals who work effectively as team members
  • Balancing individual contributions with selfless contributions to the team
  • Providing intrinsic rewards, such as camaraderie, that employees can receive from teamwork
• Teamwork takes more time and often more resources than individual work, and the benefits have to exceed the costs
• Three tests to see if a team fits the situation: Is the work complex and is there a need for different perspectives? Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the group that is larger than the aggregate of the goals for individuals? Are members of the group involved in interdependent tasks?