Business Teams and Communication

Module Learning Outcomes

• Teamwork and effective communication in a business environment is important.
• Groups vs teams, the characteristics of different types of teams can be differentiated.
• Factors that contribute to team success and stages of team development can be explained.
• Effective communication is important within an organization; common barriers can be described.
• Typical communication channels, flows, and networks within an organization can be described and explain when different channels are appropriate.
• Risks and ethical issues common to electronic communication in business can be identified.

Teams

• To differentiate between a group and a team and to describe the characteristics of different types of teams.
• Groups and teams can be differentiated.
• Can differentiate manager-led teams, self-led teams, functional teams, cross-functional teams, virtual teams, and project teams.
• A group is comprised of two or more individuals who share common interests or characteristics.
• Members of groups identify with one another due to similar traits.
• A team is a group of people with different skills and tasks.
• A team works together on a common project, service, or goal.
• Teams combine their functions and provide mutual support.
• Organizations build teams since teams allow an organization to achieve goals that individuals working alone may not.
• Teams help achieve higher-quality outcomes, higher efficiency, faster speed, more thoughtful ideas, and greater effectiveness.
• Teams provide a better context for individuals through mutual support and a greater sense of accomplishment.

Types of Teams

• Self-managed
• Project
• Cross-functional
• Manager-led
• Virtual
• A self-managed team is a group of employees working together who are accountable for most or all aspects of their task.
• Self managed teams determine how they will accomplish assigned objectives.
• Teams decide what route they will take to meet their objectives.
• Their responsibilities are to plan, schedule, organize, direct, control, and evaluate their processes.
• They will select their members and evaluate their performance.
• A project team is a team whose members are assembled for a specific project.
• The teams can be drawn from different departments or can all be from the functional area.
• Project teams are typically used for a defined period and are disbanded after the project.
• Project teams provide autonomy and flexibility to the team in meeting their goals.
• Project teams consist of a variety of members working under the direction of a project manager or senior member of the organization.
• Cross-functional teams have team members with different functional expertise.
• They often come from different levels of the organization.
• Diversity of experience aids with innovation.
• Cross-functional teams are self-directed and focus on tasks that require the input and expertise of numerous departments.
• They make sense for large corporate projects that touch and affect the work across an entire organization.
• In a manager-led team the team members complete the required tasks but someone outside the team performs the executive functions.
• Tension exists between the degree of manager control in a team and the ability of team members to guide and manage their own actions.
• Manager-led teams provide more control, but they can hamper creativity and individual expression.
• A virtual team is a group of individuals in different geographic locations that use technology to collaborate on work tasks and activities.
• The use of this kind of work team has become prevalent in organizations due to reduced costs of technology and collaborative technologies
• The emergence of globalization in business and greater use of outsourcing and temporary workers.
• They offer flexibility around the logistics of doing business since team members can "meet" from any location and at any time.

Team Development and Success

• Team development and success include the stages of team development and the factors that contribute to team success.
• Stages are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.
• Factors that contribute to team success can be explained.
• When teams are formed, individuals may evolve into a cohesive unit.
• The first stage of team development is forming
• The second stage of team development is storming.
• The third stage of team development is norming.
• The fourth stage of team development is performing.
• The fifth stage of team development is adjourning.
• During the forming stage a group of individuals is brought to together.
• Focus on defining and assigning tasks, organizing the teams work, and other start up matters.
• The team focuses on the scope of the team's purpose and means of approaching it.
• Members gather impressions and information about one another; people generally want to be accepted by others.
• People usually avoid conflict.
• Within the storming stage, clarification of team activities and goals take place.
• How team members will work independently and collectively is determined.
• Members begin to share ideas about what to do and how to do it.
• Members start to open up and confront one another's ideas and perspectives.
• The storming stage can be contentious.
• Members who are averse to conflict may find it unpleasant or painful
• The team can become stuck and unable to do its work.
• Patience and consideration toward team members and their views go a long way during this stage.
• During the norming stage the shared values about how team members will work together are focused on.
• Norms of collaboration can address issues ranging from when to use certain modes of communication to how team meetings will be run
• Norms become a way of simplifying choices and facilitating collaboration, since members have shared expectations about how work will get done.
• Team members work together easily on interdependent tasks and communicate and coordinate effectively in the performing stage.
• There are fewer time-consuming distractions based on interpersonal and group dynamics
• Resulting in high motivation and confidence in their ability to attain goals.
• The adjourning stage includes the last steps of completing the task and breaking up the team.
• Some work teams are ongoing so they may not actually "adjourn"
• They may still participate in aspects of this stage by winding up a particularly intense period of collaboration for example.
• Project-based teams have been formed for a limited time period,
• The stage provides an opportunity to formally mark the end of the project
• Provides closure to a project.

Team Success Factors

• Members should trust one another.
• Effective communication.
• Common goals.
• Defined team roles and responsibilities.
• Group cohesion.

Effective Communication and Barriers

• Effective communication within an organization is important.
• Common barriers to effective communication can be described.
• The simplest model of communication relies on three distinct parts: sender, message, and receiver.
• Sender and receiver roles can be filled by many people.
• Business communication is used to promote products, services, or an organization.
• Includes topics such as consumer behavior, advertising, public relations, event management, corporate communication, research, and measurement.
• Effective communication builds job satisfaction.

Barriers to Effective Communication.

• Use of jargon: Overcomplicated and technical terms can create confusion.
• Withholding information: Within an organization, some information is kept confidential.
• Chain of command: Hierarchy can reduce the flow of communication.
• Lack of trust: In companies with a competition-driven culture, there may be a lack of trust between employees.
• Physical barriers or disabilities: hearing, vision, or speech problems can make communicating challenging.
• Bias: Preconceptions or prejudice can lead to stereotyping and false assumptions.
• Filtering: People may hear what they expect to hear or want to hear, rather than what is said.
• Language and cultural differences. Language use and social norms vary greatly across cultures.

Communication Channels, Flows, and Networks

• Typical communication channels, flows, and networks within an organization can be described.
• The different channels determine when are appropriate.
• Involves differentiating face-to-face, written, oral Web-based, and other channels of business communication.
• Need to differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate uses of different communication channels.
• Differentiate between downward, upward, horizontal, diagonal, and external communication flows.
• Communication networks can be Formal and informal.
• Communication involves a sender, a message, and a receiver to create a channel.
• Rich channels are interactive, provide opportunities for two-way communication, allow both sender and receiver to read the nonverbal messages
• Lean Channels: Present information without allowing for immediate interaction, convey "just the facts."
• Richest channels: face-to-face meeting; in-person oral presentation.
• Rich channels: online meeting; video conference.
• Lean channels: teleconference; phone call; voice message
• Leanest channels: blog; report; brochure; newsletter; flier; email; phone text; social media posts (e.g., Twitter, Facebook).
• When deciding which communication channel to use, factors to consider:
• Audience and their reaction to the message. Length of time it will take to convey the information. Complexity of the message.
• Need for a permanent record of the communication. Degree to which the information is confidential. Cost of the communication.
• Communication can occur between different types of employees and different functional parts of an organization.
• These patterns of communication are called flows and are classified according to the direction of the interaction: downward, upward, horizontally, diagonally, and external.
• Downward communication: Leaders or managers share information with lower-level employees.
• Upward communication: Transmission of information from lower levels of an organization to higher ones; the most common situation is employees communicating with managers.
• Horizontal communication, also called lateral communication, involves the flow of messages between individuals and groups on the same level of organization.
• Diagonal communication: The sharing of information among different structural levels within a business.
• Formal communication comprises communication that runs along the official lines of authority.
• Informal communication comprises communication that arises from social affiliation of members of an organization.
• Formal Communication Traits:
• Shaped by hierarchy, technology systems, and official policy, documented, often one-way, initiated by management to employees, occurs inside established channels and is often perceived as authoritative.
• Informal Communication Traits:
• Multi-directional, between individuals of varying status, commonly separate from workflows: often occurs between people who do not work together directly, occurs outside of established channels.

Risks and Ethics of Electronic Communication

• This is to identify ethical issues associated with electronic business communications and information.
• The rise of information technology that makes business communication faster and more efficient brings unique ethical challenges and risks.
• Risks related to E-communication.
• Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses
• Spoofing or phishing; Denial-of-Service attacks
• Electronic communication is forever, someone may be watching Innocent messages can still harm Email avalanche.
• Ethical Issues:
• Employer and employee rights to employee email; HR use of technology to screen applicants; Data collection about a person and sale of that data to other companies.