Working Teams and Groups

Working Teams and Groups

• A group is two or more interdependent people interacting to achieve objectives.

Group Classifications

• Formal groups are defined by the organizational structure and have designated tasks.
• Command groups are composed of individuals reporting to a manager.
• Task groups consist of people working together on a job task.
• Informal groups are not formally structured but formed around common interests and friendship.
• Interest groups form around a specific topic and disband when interest declines.
• Friendship groups form when members share common characteristics like age or beliefs.

Why People Form Groups

• People form groups to satisfy needs, be in proximity, be part of a goal, attain, and enjoy economic benefits.
• Social needs may be satisfied through group interaction.
• Labor unions bargain for economic benefits for their members.

Stages of Group Development

• Forming: Initial entry of members is the primary concern, characterized by uncertainty about group purpose, structure, and leadership.
• Storming: Members begin to think of themselves as part of a group, experiencing conflict within the group. Coalitions may form.
• This stage completes when there is a relatively clear hierarchy of leadership.
• Norming: The group begins to come together as a coordinated unit with cooperation and collaboration as characteristics.
• This stage completes when the group structure solidifies and has a common set of expectations.
• Performing: The group is mature, organized, and ready to focus on tasks, also referred to as the total integration stage.
• Group energy moves from getting to know each other to performing the task at hand, when intrinsic motivation and creativity emerge.
• Adjourning: Involves the termination of activities, applicable to temporary groups like committees and task forces.
• Reason for termination includes organizational downsizing, merging, and bankruptcy.

Roles Within Groups

• Knowledge contributor: any group benefits from a member that plays this role.
• Process observer: This person looks at how the group functions.
• People supporter: Provides emotional support and resolves conflicts, and listens actively.
• Challenger: Confronts bad ideas, and challenge for the sake of challenging.
• Their role must be part of the problem-solving process.
• Mediator: this person tries to provide the opportunity for every member to express opinions, will reminds every member about good ideas recognized previously
• Take-charge leader: Assumes leadership when there is a leadership vacuum for group effectiveness.

Advantages of Working in A Group

• Increases inputs, synergism, support for decisions, information exchange, opportunity, and mutual support.

Disadvantages of Working in A Group

• Group activity can be slower, diluted, and have undermined effectiveness.
• Accountability is often a problem, with some members avoiding responsibility and outside criticism being ignored.

Groupthink

• A disadvantage of working in a group, defined as a deterioration of mental efficiency and moral judgment.
• Ways to minimize groupthink are monitoring group size, encouraging an impartial leader, appointing a devil's advocate, and stimulating active discussion.

Techniques in Group Decision Making

• Interacting Groups: Members interact face-to-face, and the essence of interaction is information exchange.
• Brainstorming: Promotes creativity by encouraging members to come up with ideas without criticism.
• Ideas are combined, extended, and imaginative ideas, criticism is withheld
• Nominal Group Technique: Members meet face-to-face to pool judgments systematically but independently.
• Individual members quietly list their ideas and the mathematically pooled outcome of individual votes is used to make decisions.
• Electronic Meeting: Members interact through computers.
• Anonymous comments is allowed and votes are aggregated. Speed, Honesty, and Anonymity are all improved.

Work Teams

• These groups are expected to deliver high performance when the organization requires it.
• A formal group of people interacts closely with a shared commitment to accomplish agreed-upon objectives.
• Workgroups interact primarily to share information and aid members' performance.
• Groups emphasize individual leadership and accountability while teams emphasize shared leadership and accountability for the collective.

Types of Teams

• Problem-solving teams are employees from the same department who meet to discuss ways of improving the environment.
• Self-managed teams: Empowered to make decisions about schedules, tasks, and training, with members held accountable as a whole.
• Cross-functional teams: Composed of employees from different areas who come together to accomplish a task.
• Has the advantage of exchanging information, developing new ideas, solving problems and coordinating projects.
• Disadvantage: requires ample time as members learn diversity and complexity.
• Virtual teams use computer technology, but have the disadvantage of high costs.

Team Players

• Desirable in many organizations, and organizations must make sure they are available when their services are needed.
• Turning individuals into team players through selection, training, and rewards.
• Fully trained team members must be well-versed in the company's philosophy regarding the team.

Potential Team Problems

• Changing membership and social loafing (expending less effort when working collectively) may come up.
• Analyze the nature of the task, qualifications and desires of participants, and time/cost constraints.

Leadership

• May be the most important factor in success.It directs behavior of people and facilitates accomplishments.
• Leading is one of the functions of management

Managers vs Leaders

• Managers are rational problem solvers; leaders are visionary.
• Managers perform administrative functions; leaders are concerned with results.
• Leaders gain power from below; managers from above.

Kinds of Leadership

• Formal leadership influences others to pursue official objectives.
• Informal leadership influences others to pursue unofficial objectives.
• Those satisfied are assets, and and those dissatisfied are liabilities.

Bases of Power

• Position power comes as a consequence of the leader's position.
• Personal power results from the leader's characteristics.
• Legitimate power is also referred to as authority.
• Reward power emanates one's ability to grant rewards to those who comply with a request.
• Coercive power arises from the expectation of punishment for non-compliance.
• Reduced by the presence of unions and organizational policies.
• Expert power happens when those who possess and can dispense information exercise power over others.
• Referent power happens from the ability of leaders to develop followers from their own personalities.

Theories About Leadership

• Trait theories consider leaders to possess common traits.
• Good leaders have extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, and emotional intelligence.
• Behavioral Theories: Propose that specific behaviors differentiate leaders from non-leaders.
• "Leaders are born than made."

Theories Related to Leadership

• Ohio State University Studies: These findings indicate that successful leaders engage in both initiating and consideration.
• Two dimensions include initiating structure (defining roles) and consideration (creating emotional support).
• University of Michigan Studies: These researchers located behavioral characteristics of leaders related to performance effectiveness.
• Two distinct styles of leadership: job-centered and employee-centered.
• Employee-centered leaders are more productive.
• Yukl Studies: Gary M. Yukl identified nineteen behaviors of performance emphasis, consideration, praiserecognition, decision-participation, training-coaching, problem solving, and work facilitation.
• Managerial Grid: A graphic portrayal of two-dimensional view of concern for people and production, developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton.
• Team management is considered to be ideal.

Contingency Theories

• Believes that leadership situations are not similar.
• Continuum of Leadership Behavior: Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt proposed alternative ways for how much participation should be allowed.
• Three Factors and Situational Forces affect success: forces in the manager, subordinates, and situation (organizational style, work group, task nature, time pressures, environment).
• Contingency Leadership Model: Fred Fiedler proposed that group performance depends on the match between the leader's style and the situational favorableness.
• Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale-Assesses feelings toward someone they least prefer to work with.
• The LPC is a reflection of the task-oriented style. Three Factors:
• Leader-member relations (trust and respect).
• Task structure (extent tasks are structured).
• Position power (power inherent in position).
• Path-Goal Model: Robert House and Terrence Mitchell state that the leader's job is to create a beneficial work environment
• House identifies four leadership behaviors as directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented.
• Hershey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory: Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard suggests the leader's style depends on the subordinate's maturity level (readiness).
• Readiness comes from job readiness (or task competence) and psychological readiness (or commitment).

Four Leadership Styles

• Directing: Best for low follower readiness.
• Coaching: Best for low to moderate follower readiness.
• Supporting: Best for moderate to high follower readiness.
• Delegating: Best for high readiness.

The Leader-Member Exchange Approach

• George Graen and his associates which recognizes that leaders develop unique relationships with each group member.
• In-group members have similar attitudes and values and Out-group members are treated formally.
• Normative Decision Model: Victor and Philip Yetton view leadership as a decision-making process to determine which is the most effective.
• Some years later, the model was revised by Vroom and Arthur Jago to make it more accurate.

Five Decision Making Styles

• Autocratic I - The leader individually solves the problem using available information.
• Autocratic II - The leader obtains data from subordinates and then decides.
• Consultative I - The leader explains the problem to individual subordinates and obtains ideas before deciding.
• Consultative II - The leader meets with subordinates to share the problem and obtain inputs, and decides.
• Group II - The leader shares problem with group and facilitates a discussion of alternatives aiming to reach a group agreement on a solution.
• Muczyk-Reimann Model - Jan P. Muczyk and Bernard C. Reimann says leaders should be allowed to adapt to different situations.

Four Leadership Styles

• The directive autocrat: Closely supervises the subordinates.
• The permissive autocrat: the leader makes decision unilaterally, but allows subordinates a great deal of latitude in execution.
• The directive democrat: wants full participation and closely supervises subordinates.
• The permissive democrat: highly allows participation.

Performance Management and Rewards

• Refers to the procedures and systems for improving employee outputs and performance. through economic incentives.
• HR strategic planning is the process of providing capable/motivated people to carry out the organization's mission and strategy.
• One key element of strategic planning is implementing the provision of qualified people to identified job openings, also known as Staffing.

Staffing Process

• A technical procedure to define the duties, responsibilities, and accountabilities of a job, also known as Job Analysis.
• The results are useful in: preparing job descriptions, training and career development, performance appraisal, other HR aspects
• A job description contains information listing the job duties and responsibilities, equipment/materials used, working conditions, supervision, schedules, etc.

Recruitment

• Designed to find and attract job applicants.

Internal Recruitment

• Attract applicants from those currently working for the firm.
• The Computerized Career Progression System (CCPS) stores information about employees.
• The advantage of CCPs is that candidates can be found quickly but the disadvantage is that is the skill inventory is limited.
• Supervisor recommendations: give total discretion and good capabilities in selecting the right employee, but this can be very subjective.
• Job posting: Posts a job vacancy notice.
• Career Development System - an organization places "fast-track" employees on a career path.
• The top performers are more likely to remain with the organization, while anyone not selected becomes uncertain.

External Recruitment

• A process of attracting job applicants from outside the organization.
• It is used when no suitable candidates are available for utilization.
• Employee referrals are used by organizations to ask their employees to find qualified associates, and a disadvantage of this method is the limited choice offered to the organization.
• Applicant-Initiated Recruitment: Organizations accept unsolicited applications or resumes, and is one which concerns timing.
• Help-wanted Advertisements places positions in the appropriate media.
• It allows the organization to reach a large audience in a relatively short period of time, and may be less efficient.
• Private employment agencies & executive search firms find the qualifications needed for questions.
• Campus Recruiting-The organization's recruiters visit various college and university and this can be used for specialized entry-level jobs.

Selection

• Involves choosing among job candidates.
• The selection process includes the following steps: finishing the application, interviewing, completing any tests, deciding whether to hire or not, etc.
• Socialization is important in involving new employees into the organization, to assist them in becoming productive.
• Key organizational factors provide overviews, accident prevention, employee/union relations, physical facilities, and economic factors
• Training: process of changing employee behavior for guided experience.

Ways to Conduct Training Programs

• On-the-job training provides is conducted while performing job-related tasks and can be most direct during training.
• Internships, apprenticeships, and job rotations all fall under this training practice.
• Off-the-job training deals with work skills in settings away from their workplace.
• Classroom lectures, media simulations, vestibule training, and programmed instruction are all techniques that involve off the job training.

Career Development and Planning

• the pattern of work experiences that span the course of someone's life.

Career Stages

• Establishment Stage for apprenticeship by the employee.
• Advancement Stage is used by an employee seeing an increased responsibility.
• Maintenance Stage has the employee work as an independent contributor.
• Retirement Stage helps by preparing for retirement. Career Plateau: can be either either for organizational or persona reason.
• Career plateaus of three types include structural, content and life plateaus.

Performance Appraisal

• Involves the process of evaluating the performance of employees.
• Criteria for Performance Appraisal includes individual task outcomes and behavior (instances where behavior is hard to measure).
• Organizations use traits for appraising employee performance and set standards. Measuring performance is the third step in the appraisal process. Information may be derived from the following sources: -personal observation and statistical, oral, written reports.

Methods of Performance Appraisal

• Absolute Standards appraise where appraisal subjects are not compared with one another.

• Essay appraisals are used to use narratives to describe the type of performance.

• Essay Methods provide great opportunities to point out employee traits and characteristics.

• Critical Incident Appraisals perform effective/ineffective statements on particular employees.

• Checklists are perform appraisal method that uses list behavior to check employees to see what applies.

• Reduces some bias since rater's and scorers are different.

• Adjective Rating Scales provide practical traits that have great cost and little to develop.

• Forced Choice Appraisals use many subordinates.

• Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) is an anchored instrument of traits rated by job behaviors.

• Relative standards make comparisons of the individuals against each other, the is group order ranking.

• Objectives: Joint goal setting between supervisor and subordinates/management by objectives (MBO) is performed.

Errors in Performance Appraisal

• Halo Error is when rating based off of either positive/negative
• Leniency Error: People are nice to everyone
• Central Tendency Error puts people in the middle
• Recency Error relies on a particular event and biases that exist.

Types of Organizations

• Rewards enhance an organizational success and motivate people.
• Intrinsic rewards provide accomplishment.
• Extrinsic Rewards are rewards that provide promotion
• Organizations are the means by which societies reach their goals and it is a structure that performs certain objectives.

Organizational Structure

• The formal pattern of how people and jobs are grouped in an organization.
• Coordination is the manner by which tasks and departments are interrelated, and control regulates those activities.

Basic Elements of Organizational Structure

• Work specialization and compartmentalizations refer to dividing up tasks to separate jobs.
• Departments can be grouped so that authority can be placed with a manager. Groups can be allocated based on knowledge, function, time, or product.
• The extent to which organization members are allowed to make decisions without outside support refers to the extent of authority by which decision making are made.
• Decentralized Authority offers efficiencies that support training, initiative and development.

Types of Organizational Design

• The simple structure minimizes departmentalization, has authority in one central person, and some formalization with little formalization.
• The bureaucracy relies on organizational precise regulations and rules to conduct business.
• The matrix structure product or project bases on the function-based design.
• Outsourcing organizations have work performed outside other sides
• Team structures make use of teams to coordinate work

Organization

• Means by which societies achieve goals.
• This means one can perform structural goals by completing two categories of conflict structural factors such as how it's organized versus conflict.
• In compatible situations, goals and emotions can create opportunities of disagreement or opposition.

Levels of Intrapersonal Affect

• Intrapersonal: the person experiences frustration or anxiety. the approach is a positive influence but its equally affective
• Substantive: occurs when disagreement exists over an interpersonal dislike

Categories of conflict

• Structural comes from how work is arranged while the personal comes from the result of different attitudes
• In the stages of conflict, can become felt in antecedent, then into a problem

Stages of conflict

• Antecedent conditions set first stage, and perceived indicates an awareness of existence
• Resolution includes problems and altering to superordinate conditions
• This suppression makes no change and manifest the behaviors are controlled

Supression

• is a superifical temporary form of control

Negotiation

• A process where the party reaches the best results
• Distributive: win at one group and maximize resources
• Integrative focuses around it Negotiation happens in 5 steps:
• the planning
• establishing needs
• clarification
• bargaining
• and enforcement