Groups and Teams Overview

Groups and Teams

• Groups are two or more people who interact to reach goals or meet needs
• Teams are groups with high intensity working towards a shared objective
• Groups and teams offer competitive advantage by improving performance, increasing customer responsiveness, driving innovation, and boosting employee motivation and satisfaction
• Synergy is a main advantage of groups - members produce more or better than if they worked alone and combined results later
• For synergy, teams need complementary skills and knowledge relevant to their work, such as cross-functional teams bringing together various departments like artists, writers, designers, and marketing experts
• Responsiveness to customers benefits from the diverse skills and expertise across different departments and levels of the organization's hierarchy
• Teams can innovate better - team members can catch errors and false assumptions together, and build on strengths while compensating for weaknesses
• Groups are often used to reach organizational goals, but they also offer additional benefits like increased member satisfaction, motivation from working with other driven individuals, seeing their contribution to the overall goal, and feeling personally responsible for results
• Increased motivation and satisfaction can boost efficiency and talent retention within organizations

Types of Groups & Teams

• Formal groups: established by managers to achieve organizational goals. Examples include cross-functional teams and cross-cultural teams.
• Top Management Team: responsible for developing strategies for competitive advantage, usually has 5-7 members with diverse expertise, skills, knowledge, and experience. Designed to combat groupthink.
• Research and Development Teams: focus on creating new products, common in industries like pharmaceuticals, computers, and electronics.
• Command Groups: employees reporting to the same supervisor, often called departments or units, contribute significantly to organizational work.
• Task Forces: formed to achieve specific goals or solve problems within a set timeframe, also known as ​ad hoc committees.
• Self-Managed Work Teams: empowered members with responsibility and autonomy to complete identifiable work.
• Managers need to ensure these teams are effective: provide ample responsibility and autonomy, delegate problem solving, ensure complex work with multiple steps and a final product, carefully select members with diverse skills, teamwork abilities, and desire to be part of a team, and shift from supervision to guidance, coaching, and support.
• Teams may have appointed leaders (formal leaders) or naturally emerging leaders (informal leaders). In self-managed teams, members may choose leaders or rotate the role.
• Leaders, regardless of origin, play a crucial role in maximizing group/team performance.

Group Development Stages

• Forming: members get to know each other, understand group goals, and set behavioral expectations. Managers aim to make everyone feel valued.
• Storming: conflicts and disagreements emerge due to differing opinions and desires for control.
• Norming: strong bonds form, feelings of friendship develop, consensus is reached on goals and behavior.
• Performing: actual work is completed. Managers need to take specific actions depending on the group type to ensure effectiveness.
• Adjourning: only for temporary groups like task forces, involves disbanding and concluding activities.

Group Norms

• Shared guidelines or rules for behavior.
• Examples include working hours, information sharing, task execution procedures, and even dress codes.

Group Cohesiveness

• Degree to which members are drawn to and loyal to the group.
• Affects group performance and effectiveness.

Managing Groups & Teams for Performance

• High-performing work teams are important for organizational success:
• Motivation Strategies: Use a combination of individual and group-based incentives to motivate members towards organizational goals. Pay can be based on individual or both individual and group performance when individual performance is measurable. When individual performance is difficult to assess, group performance should be the primary factor in determining pay.
• Reducing Social Loafing: Address the tendency for individuals to put in less effort when working in a group than alone.
• Managing Conflict Effectively: Help groups effectively handle both internal and external conflict.

This quiz delves into the concepts of groups and teams, highlighting their definitions, differences, and the advantages they offer in a workplace setting. Explore how synergy and diverse skill sets contribute to improved performance and innovation within teams. Assess your understanding of team dynamics and the impact of collaborative efforts.