Team Cohesiveness and Performance

Team Cohesiveness

• Team cohesiveness is the degree to which members are attracted to and motivated to remain part of a team.
• Highly cohesive teams value their membership and strive to maintain positive relationships with other members.
• Cohesive teams are more energetic during group activities.
• Cohesive teams are less likely to be absent.
• Members of cohesive teams are more likely to be happy about successful performance and sad about failures.
• Team cohesiveness isn't always beneficial for an organization.
• Cohesiveness's impact on performance is complex.

How Cohesiveness Influences Performance

• Generally, the more cohesive the team, the more members conform to team norms.
• Optimal performance is found in a highly cohesive team with positive performance norms.

Influencing Team Cohesiveness

• Factors that increase or decrease cohesiveness are influenced by various targets.
• Methods to increase cohesiveness include promoting agreement on goals, reinforcing group homogeneity, improving internal interactions, creating smaller teams, and encouraging team-focused rewards.
• Methods to decrease cohesiveness include fostering disagreement, increasing heterogeneity, restricting internal interactions, expanding team size, prioritizing individual rewards, and encouraging isolation.

How to Manage Conflict

• Provide ample recognition for each team member.
• Focus on a win-win situation beneficial for the individual and the team.
• Create a team chart outlining responsibilities.
• Mediate personal differences between team members.
• Identify shared areas of agreement.
• Help team members address behaviors that hinder progress.

Types of Workplace Teams

• There are various types of workplace teams, including employee involvement teams, problem-solving teams, self-managing teams, and virtual teams.
• Some team types focus on employees addressing workplace issues for continuous improvement.
• Other team types focus on problem-solving and are often temporary.
• Virtual teams involve independent members working toward a shared goal over large distances.

Employee Involvement Teams

• Employee involvement teams are a type of team composed of 5-10 members, who meet outside of their normal work units.
• These teams seek to improve quality and customer satisfaction.
• The teams look for continuous improvements in workplace operations.
• Management support and empowerment are crucial for the involvement team's success.

Problem-Solving Teams

• Problem-solving teams are created to develop solutions for problems like quality, productivity, and costs.
• Team members receive training in information gathering and problem analysis.
• These teams often employ a democratic approach.
• Taskforces are a type of problem-solving team addressing a specific task with a defined time horizon.

Virtual Teams

• Virtual teams enable independent members to achieve collective goals across different locations and time zones.
• Success depends on elements including supportive HR policies, training, team processes, effective technology, shared leadership, and a collaborative culture.
• Team members and leaders must have adequate skills to coordinate remote operations effectively.

Self-Managing Teams

• Self-managing teams comprise small groups of workers who operate as equals to solve problems and improve their work processes.
• The teams require members with sufficient technical expertise, problem-solving and decision-making skills, and strong interpersonal skills.
• The teams take over duties that were previously handled by supervisors, such as quality control, task scheduling, and performance evaluations.

Self-Managing Teams: Advantages

• These teams improve productivity and product quality.
• They respond quickly to technological changes.
• Fewer management levels and job classifications are needed.
• Absence and employee turnover are reduced.
• Work attitudes improve as responsibility is shared throughout the team.

Team Leadership

• Team leadership extends beyond self-management to self-leasing teams.
• Team leaders should empower team members to make decisions autonomously.
• Intrinsic motivation is crucial, encouraging work fulfillment through tasks and work content rather than external incentives.
• Teams need full employee involvement in setting organizational direction.
• Teams should have the opportunity to shape the organizational goals to influence success.