Groups, Teams & Culture: Final Exam Prep

• Clarissa Cortland, PhD, presented on the topics of Groups, Teams, and Culture.

Final Exam Information

• The final exam is scheduled for Tuesday, March 25, from 9:30-11:30am.
• A study guide review sheet will be posted on Moodle.
• The syllabus indicates that the exam is cumulative, covering content from lectures and readings.
• The exam is a timed, two-hour in-person exam, and no notes are allowed.
• The format includes: 10 multiple choice questions, 20 true/false questions, 10 matching questions, and 2 short essays.

Decision-Making Bias Review

• Better-than-average effect is linked to overconfidence.
• The tendency to see what we expect to see is confirmation bias.
• Fixating on an initial number/value is anchoring.
• Sunk cost fallacy is related to escalation of commitment.
• When the first thing that comes to mind is the only source that is availability.
• Losses loom larger than gains is loss aversion.

Persuasion Tactic Review

• Giving a gift to make history and compel reciprocation in the case, is reciprocity.
• Asking small initial request that gains agreement, is consistency.
• Complimenting someone's achievements to influence them is liking.
• Listing examples of people breaking the mold to compare situations, is social proof.

Five Characteristics of a Team

• The core characteristics of a team are:
• Teams exist to achieve a shared goal.
• Team members are interdependent, needing each other to achieve the collective goal.
• Teams are bounded and relatively stable over time.
• Members have the authority to manage their own work and internal processes.
• Teams operate within a larger context, such as an organization, program, class, network, or society.

Groups vs Teams

• All teams are groups, but not all groups are teams.
• A group matures into a team when:
• Performance exceeds the sum of individual contributions.
• The goal is collective performance rather than just information sharing.
• Accountability is mutual, as well as individual.
• There's increased "groupiness," indicated by more interaction, goal commitment, and a sense of cohesiveness.

Why Use Teams?

• Teams allow for pooling of resources, skills, and abilities.
• Teams enable specialization of labor.
• A group provides multiple perspectives on issues.
• Decisions made by teams tend to be more easily accepted by others.

Defining Good Team Performance

• Good team performance is defined by the following criteria:
• Task completion involves making good decisions, generating innovative ideas, and creating outputs for stakeholders.
• Maintaining social relations means ensuring team members are willing to collaborate again in the future.
• Individual benefit: satisfaction with personal contribution and success within the team.

Tuckman's Model of Group Development

• Tuckman's Model outlines the stages of group development:
• Forming: Uncertainty about purpose, structure, and leadership.
• Storming: Intragroup conflict arises as members resist constraints.
• Norming: Group becomes cohesive with a strong group identity.
• Performing: Group is fully functional and works towards goals.
• Adjourning: For temporary groups, this involves breaking up.

Social Facilitation

• Social facilitation is the tendency to perform better on simple or well-rehearsed tasks but worse on difficult or unlearned tasks when in the presence of others and their performance can be evaluated.
• Practice and preparation increase social facilitation.

Social Loafing

• Social loafing is the tendency to exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone; it's also known as diffusion of responsibility.
• Social loafing can be prevented by:
• Assigning individual responsibility.
• Setting group goals.
• Increasing intergroup competition.
• Engaging in peer evaluations.
• Distributing rewards based on individual contributions.

Cohesion

• Cohesion has three components:
• People like and trust each other.
• Commitment to the task is apparent.
• Pride in the group as a whole is shared.
• Cohesion impacts performance behaviors more than outcomes, and affects efficiency rather than effectiveness.
• Cohesion can be improved by:
• Shrinking group size.
• Encouraging agreement with group goals.
• Spending more time together including self-disclosure.
• Increasing the status and perceived difficulty of group membership.
• Stimulating competition with other groups.
• Giving rewards to the group rather than to individuals.
• Physically isolating the group if possible.

Conformity

• Conformity involves individuals adhering to group norms, avoiding appearing different.
• Group members with differing opinions may feel pressure to share others' views.

Groupthink

• Groupthink is the practice of maintaining cohesiveness and solidarity rather than considering facts realistically.
• Groupthink occurs when:
• Members rationalize assumptions.
• Members pressure doubters of the group to support the majority.
• Doubters minimize their misgivings.
• Members interpret silence as agreement, assuming it a “yes” vote from those who do not speak.
• Groupthink can be avoided by:
• Limiting group size to fewer than 10 people.
• Encouraging leaders to avoid expressing their opinions right away and to seek input from all members.
• Appointing a devil's advocate.
• Encouraging open debate and dissenting opinions.
• Use private ballots.
• Holding subgroup meetings or individual analysis before group discussion.

"Lost At Sea" Activity analysis

• Excellent scores range from 0-25 signaling demonstrated great survival skills and successful rescue.
• Good scores range from 26-32 indicating above-average results and successful rescue.
• Average scores range from 33-45 indicating seasickness, hunger and fatigue but ultimate rescue.
• Fair scores ranging from 46-55 indicate dehydration and near death but rescue.
• Poor scores from 56-70, individuals needed rescuing at the last minute.
• Very poor scores which are 71 and above means the raft washed up on a beach after the search was called off.

Group Performance

• Individual performance can vary from group performance; in those cases group phenomena affected performance.
• The following applies to performing in groups are they more effective than individuals.
• Actual Productivity (AP) = Potential Productivity (PP) + Synergy (S) – Process Losses (PL). Groups/teams perform better than the average individual but worse than the best individual in the group.
• Reducing process losses is needed to achieve optimal team performance.
• Groups perform better than the best individual when the task is highly complex.

Psychological Safety

• Psychological safety is the climate of interpersonal trust and mutual respect where people are comfortable being themselves.
• There is a shared belief among team members that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.
• Furthermore, they instill confidence and assurance that expressing oneself won't lead to punishment, embarrassment, or rejection.

Building Psychological Safety

• Building psychological safety involves:
• Framing meetings as opportunities for information-sharing.
• Valuing differences as a source of strength and innovation.
• Practicing active listening.
• Posing open questions.
• Gathering information that bridges across expertise and background.

Deciding When to use Teams

• Teams are useful for complex, open-ended tasks, where they lead to better decisions due to diverse contributions, and require consensus and employee buy-in, fostering acceptance through collaborative problem-solving.
• Individuals are more efficient for simple tasks, may be a better option when top performers have abrasive personalities, when status differences are a factor.
• When there are individual with considerable ability differences, top-performing individuals and group discussions, result in many decisions alone.
• Individual brainstorming is more effective when generating a lot of ideas because groups allow one person's brainstorm to affect everyone else.