Managing Groups - Seminar 2 RM (PDF)

Segment: Managing Groups Topic: Group Process Group Process Table of Contents 1. Leveraging Your Style in Group Processes...................................................................................... 4 2. Stages of Group Development........................................................................................................ 4 3. Balancing Group Goals.................................................................................................................... 5 3.1 Measuring Group Effectiveness.............................................................................................. 6 4. Strategies for Creating Effective Groups......................................................................................... 7 4.1 Analysing the group structure................................................................................................ 7 5. What Is Empowerment?............................................................................................................... 10 6. Summary....................................................................................................................................... 16 7. References.................................................................................................................................... 16 2 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process Introduction Achieving objectives through groups and teamwork is generally viewed as a means of increasing quality and managing organisational complexity. Unfortunately, group dynamics often lead to more problems than solutions. In this topic, we will discuss about group processes and the attributes of effective work groups. Learning Objectives At the end of this topic, you will be able to: describe the five stages of group development describe the two main goals of work groups identify the various group roles of an effective work group discuss the impact of leadership styles on work groups. 3 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process 1. Leveraging Your Style in Group Processes Working in groups and leading teams is a skill that requires more than just matching employees to jobs. Organisations should recognise that it takes commitment, effort and interpersonal skill from all group members to create an effective work team. Directing workflow is often simplistic on paper but can be difficult in practice. From your own work experience, you can probably describe a number of group achievements and a number of group failures. To improve the group achievements and avoid group failures, you should first learn how to analyse the structure of a group and then how to empower a group. 2. Stages of Group Development According to Champoux (2006), "A group is an interdependent set of people doing a task or trying to reach a common goal." Teams are usually formal groups, organised for a specific reason to accomplish specific goals. According to Tuckman (Tuckman and Jensen, 1977), groups complete a series of developmental stages before emerging as high-performing teams: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Fig. 1: Stages of Group Development 4 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process Stages of Group Development 1. Forming Before a team can work cohesively and productively, members must first get to know each other, called forming. 2. Storming After an initially polite, friendly period, individuals will compete for desired roles, responsibilities and positions within the team. Conflicts will emerge as people compete and attempt to understand expectations. This stage of development is called storming. 3. Norming If roles, goals and expectations are clarified and people understand and embrace their contribution to the team, the team develops cohesion and adopts a set of norms that guide the group. This stage is called norming. Once norms are defined and accepted, the team focuses on activities that will help them to accomplish goals. 4. Performing The fourth stage of team development is called performing and represents a fully functional, task-focused team. Although individual group members may continue seeking for their social and emotional needs to be met through team membership, the greater focus in this stage is on goal achievement. 5. Adjourning The final stage of group development, adjourning, represents the end of the team's work together. Team membership is an evolving and continuous process. Although this model is a useful framework, it does not explain why some team members stay longer than others, or how people come and go within a team. This model suggests that team development is linear; however any change to team membership, goals or leadership could send a performing team back to norming, storming, or forming. Many teams never successfully perform because conflict that arises in the storming stage is not managed properly. 3. Balancing Group Goals Here is a quick recap of what we have learnt so far: As noted above, teams have two key goals that must be satisfied, even though these often conflict. Task completion: directly related to the goal or objective assigned to the group. 5 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process Socio-emotional needs of the group: related to the ability of diverse members to work together efficiently and receive satisfaction in the process. Some argue that both goals deserve equal attention and consideration for a group to succeed. Other researchers suggest that socio-emotional needs have a bigger impact on the ultimate success of the work group than the task goals. To achieve both goals in a satisfactory way, or to decide which goal is a priority, you should be aware of what makes a group effective. Two theorists, Bales and Hackman (1990), studied these conflicting goals. Read below for more information on the results of their studies. Bales and Hackman Studies Arguably, the most important treatise concerning group processes is Bales' seminal work in which he identified the two key goals of any group. Bales argued that all groups are faced with two, often conflicting, needs: task and socio-emotional. Although task needs are those directly relevant to the goal or objective to be met by the group, socio-emotional needs are those that enhance the ability of diverse members to work together and to receive satisfaction from the process. Bales stipulated that both needs must be attended to and negotiated successfully by the group members to succeed. Although Bales's work suggests that both needs are of equal importance or weight, i n Groups That Work: And Those That Don't, Hackman suggests that socio-emotional needs have even more bearing on the ultimate success of the work group than do task needs. Because Hackman's work is derived from experiences with real-world groups, leaders of organisations may find Hackman's mediational theory useful in managing group effectiveness. As a quick caveat on theory: no theory is inherently right or wrong, but a particular theory may have more explanatory power than another in certain circumstances. References Hackman, R. Groups That Work: And Those That Don't. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990. 3.1 Measuring Group Effectiveness Although there are many ways to study and measure group effectiveness, Bales and Hackman developed the criteria below from experiences with actual work groups. Based on Bales' work, Hackman concluded that group effectiveness can be measured by three criteria. 6 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process 1. How much did the group's decisions meet the standards of quantity, quality and timeliness as established by the people who receive, review or use the decision? 2. How much has the decision-making process increased the capability of the team to work together in the future? 3. To what extent did the group experience contribute to the growth and development of each member? The importance of each criterion depends on the situation. For example, when a temporary task force faces an immediate crisis, the effectiveness of its decision should be measured by the first criterion only. If a group is a permanent group, however, the effectiveness of its first task will be determined by the willingness and ability of each member to continue to work together satisfactory on subsequent tasks and should be measured by the second criterion. 4. Strategies for Creating Effective Groups To balance the group goals of task completion and socio-emotional needs and to satisfy the criteria for group effectiveness, leaders and managers can analyse the group structure or empower group members. 4.1 Analysing the group structure Ideally, group membership and interaction centres on specific roles and predetermined norms that help the group successfully navigate both task and socio- emotional needs. As a result, task and relationship roles must be assigned for the group to be effective, as shown in the table below. Group Roles Task Roles Relationship Roles Task Leader: Responsible for the Socio-Emotional Leader: Responsible for the direction and clarification of tasks; direction and clarification of group norms; guides and finalises the process guides the social interaction process and finalises the group's cohesion Initiator: Proposes tasks or goals; Harmoniser: Attempts to reconcile defines problems and suggests disagreements; reduces tension and gets solutions people to explore differences 7 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process Seeker: Requests information, Gatekeeper: Helps to keep communication opinions, suggestions, ideas or channels open; facilitates the participation of expressions of feelings all and suggests procedures that permit group members to share remarks Opinionator: Offers facts and Encourager: Attempts to be friendly, warm opinions and provides relevant and responsive to all team members; information appears to consider and accept all contributions Clarifier: Interprets ideas or Compromiser: Offers a compromise that suggestions; clears up confusion; yields status when one's idea or status is in defines alternatives question; admits error or will modify position in the interest of group cohesion Summariser: Pulls together related Standard Setter: Helps the group set goals ideas; offers a conclusion for the and assess the quality of the process itself group to accept or reject Consensus Tester: Asks the group if it Follower: Agrees with other members; is nearing a decision; often takes an pursues ideas and suggestions of others; informal poll to assess opinions and serves as a subordinate to the task or emotional leader Central Negative: Intentionally Group Observer: Monitors and critiques the argues against an idea to test its group's process and cohesion; operates as an validity; states drawbacks to outsider who is not responsible for the task proposals, encourages alternatives production of the group but may have a and guards against premature group vested interest in its success decisions One group member should assume the role of task leader and a different group member should assume the role of socio-emotional leader. This division of roles will ensure a better balance between the group's two main goals. If one group member assumes both roles, the 8 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process chances are much higher that one group goal will be achieved at the expense of the other. When the task and socio-emotional leadership roles are filled within the group, other group members can fulfil the remaining roles and functions. Identifying the required roles and establishing an optimal group structure is essential to leading an effective group. 9 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process 5. What Is Empowerment? Mohrman et al. (1995) define an empowered workforce as an organisational system in which employees are trained to make key decisions at the lowest level of management. In practice, empowerment is a matter of degree with variations between organisations in the importance of the decisions that are delegated to low levels, and to how low down in the hierarchy decisions are delegated. In even weaker forms of empowerment, subordinates contribute ideas and discuss them with their boss, who then takes the decision; this practice is sometimes called "participation in decision- making". While it is arguable that participation, or trivial degrees of empowerment should not be called empowerment, there is some tendency today for all of them to be lumped together under the term empowerment. The significance for leadership is that the more truly empowered the group, the more its members take decisions through discussion among themselves and the less the group is directed by a formal (organisationally-appointed) leader–the leadership is emerging from within the group itself. Although empowered teams still need some overall management and broad direction from higher levels, the role of leadership in an empowered environment shifts from a managing function to a facilitating function. In other words, your job as the manager overseeing an empowered group is to take a "hands off" approach. It is to facilitate, for example by ensuring that the team has adequate resources to do its job (including training of members) and support from the rest of the organisation, rather than directing the team on what to do. Similarly, as a member of an empowered group, one exercises leadership through influence, persuasion and consideration of other group members, rather than by wielding any formal authority conferred by higher management. How can you use your leadership style to empower? Click on your leadership style below to learn more about this. You should be aware of how the strengths and weaknesses of your leadership profile emerge in groups and what roles you are likely to assume. To explore the group roles typically associated with the other leadership styles, click on the other tabs. 10 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process Leadership Styles and Group Roles Authoritarian Authoritarians naturally assume the role of task leader. They are adept at defining the group's goal and offering procedures for negotiating that goal. They are likely to direct and help finalise the team's efforts as required by the role of task leader. Authoritarians can easily work as clarifiers because they can quickly assess situations and generate solutions. They are extremely effective with groups that lack an individual with strong opinions and will likely assume that role to facilitate task achievement. Team Leader Because you are a team leader, you are likely to assume the role of task leader. As a result, you need to empower someone in your group to be the socio-emotional leader. Your job is to engage in role clarification. Who among your team is well-liked, respected and respectful of other team members? To empower another, you should create role contracts and during group processes, reinforce the socio-emotional contributions of your socio-emotional leader by praising and agreeing with that person's interactions. Reticent Reticents naturally assume the roles of consensus tester and gatekeeper. They are adept at facilitating the contributions of all members and getting members to accept ownership of the group process and task completion. Because they depend on the skill and motivation of their team members, they often serve as the group observer, ensuring that the process and task follow corporate protocol and meet strategic objectives. Reticents are extremely effective in groups comprised of highly-skilled and vested employees. Socializer Socializers naturally assume the roles of harmoniser and gatekeeper. They are adept at reducing interpersonal tensions, facilitating participation, and encouraging contributions, feelings and opinions from all group members. Because they are concerned with team morale, they often serve as the encourager, ensuring that all members are heard and respected in the group. They are extremely effective with groups that lack a strong socio-emotional leader and will likely assume that role to 11 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION achieve group cohesion. Group Process Although your natural preferences and styles are necessary and useful for effective group interaction, you cannot fulfil all the required roles and functions because that would defeat the purpose of working in a group. By understanding your natural preferences and tendencies, you can focus on areas in which you excel, and on empowering other team members to take on other roles necessary for the team to work effectively. When you lead a group, you can use analyses of the group structure and empowerment of group members to enable a group to successfully navigate both the task and social dimensions of group interaction. Effective use of both structure and empowerment can lead to optimal results according to Bales's and Hackman's three criteria of group effectiveness described earlier. Read below on analysis of group structure and empowerment. 12 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process Group Processes Katie is a reticent leader. She knows that a clear task leader such as an authoritarian type is required to enable group effectiveness but she is also concerned about the ability of the group to work together again in the future. Katie will take several steps to handle the situation. She asks Carla to establish the ground rules and define the task, implicitly rewarding and affirming Carla as the group's task leader. After Carla explains the group's processes and outlines the details of the task at the first meeting, Katie asks Tim what he "feels" about the group and their ability to get the job done. By focusing on feelings, Katie affirms Tim's right and his ability to take over the socio-emotional leadership of this team. As the group proceeds, Carla and Tim work together: Carla directs the group task and Tim maintains the cohesion of the group. Jennifer continues to ask probing questions and makes useful suggestions. Katie responds by saying things like, "That's a great idea", or "We should consider this alternative". Katie is empowering Jennifer to serve as the central negative for this team, a role that protects the team from faulty analysis. Finally, Katie asks Perry for his opinion when she thinks that the group is either stuck or, conversely, nearing a decision. Katie is empowering Perry to serve as both a summariser and consensus tester, roles that are comfortable for Perry and essential for the group. Katie acts mainly as the group observer, encourager and harmoniser, roles that uniquely work with Katie's strength as a reticent leader. So, Katie has successfully empowered her editorial task force to fulfil the roles and functions that she alone cannot fulfil. By analysing the structure of the group and using empowerment, Katie has enabled Carla and Tim to each guide the group in their task and in their social needs. She has also balanced the group with central quality checks by empowering both Jennifer and Perry to serve in key critical roles. 13 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process Exercise: Group Roles Group Roles As a senior-level executive in a high-tech industry, you are responsible for leading a strategic planning committee. Your company has decided that, due to recent declines in the market, it needs to have a contingency plan in place immediately. You, along with five other senior members of your company, have been asked to draft emergency recommendations. The members of the committee are as follows: Susan, from the legal department, who is bright, assertive and well-organised; Daryl, from the research department, who is aggressive, opinionated and highly informed; Naomi, from the executive office, who is considerate, thoughtful and introspective; Carol, from development, who is witty, charming and highly motivated; and Jim, from the finance department, who is abrupt, legal-minded, smart and aggressive. Each member can contribute ample resources and information for the group to successfully draft the emergency recommendations and achieve the corporate objective. First, analyse how you would engage in role fulfilment. Next, devise a strategy that Next, based on the situation read above, complete the exercise on Group Roles. empowers these role clarifications. Now, excluding you, who would you empower to be the task leader? 14 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process As you work on the exercise, think about role clarification and empowerment, and then choose strategies that will help you reach your objectives. Also, remember that you are appointing a task leader only. Although a particular team member may be an excellent task leader, it is possible that a task leader may not succeed in other team roles. Note: To carry out the exercise, refer to the online subject. There are a number of decision points in this exercise. For each decision point, click the letter that corresponds to your answer. When you arrive at the final point, you can return to the beginning by clicking the top arrow. You may find it interesting to see how making different decisions brings you to different outcomes. Below is the first decision point. What is your response? A. You appoint Susan as the task leader. Because Susan is bright and well organised, you believe she will be able to keep the group focused on task production. Additionally, you see Susan as having the capacity to lead the team toward crafting excellent strategic plans that will keep your company in its premier position. B. You appoint Daryl as the task leader. Because Daryl is highly informed, you believe in his ability to lead the team toward strategic plans that are likely to keep your firm in its premier position. You believe Daryl, as task leader, will aggressively pursue the standard of excellence required by your team's task. C. You appoint Naomi as the task leader. Because Naomi is introspective, you believe she will carefully and thoughtfully use each member's contributions and then craft strategic plans that will not only keep your company afloat but will continue to keep your firm in its current premier position. D. You appoint Carol as the task leader. Because Carol is witty and highly motivated, you believe her energy will help the team stay motivated. You also believe the motivation Carol brings to this team will enable your group to craft superior strategic plans that will lead to the firm's continued success. E. You appoint Jim as the task leader. You believe Jim's abrupt and legal-minded style will allow the team to function with efficiency and keep them focused on the necessary task. You know that with Jim leading your team's task production, the strategic plans they craft will be of superior quality. 15 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process In this topic, you have examined group process, team roles, the impact of leadership styles on teams, and how empowerment can enhance team effectiveness. These important lessons, however, do not fully explain the dynamic nature of groups and group processes. Groups are constantly changing and redefining themselves. 6. Summary Here is a quick recap of what we have learnt so far: A group is an interdependent set of people doing a task or trying to reach a common goal. A group tends to go through the stages of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. The two key goals that a group needs to balance are the task completion goals and the socio-emotional needs of the group. Therefore, both task and relationship roles must be assigned for the group to be effective. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of one's leadership style, a manager can use his or her leadership style to empower group members. 7. References Blake, R.R. and J.S. Mouton. The Managerial Grid III: A New Look At The Classic That Has Boosted Productivity and Profits for Thousands of Corporations Worldwide. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Co., 1985. Champoux, J. Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups and Organizations. 3rd ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Publishing, 2006. Hersey, P. and K.H. Blanchard. “Life Cycle Theory of Leadership. “Training and Leadership Journal33, no. 6 (June 1979). http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb (accessed 14 December 2000). Hackman, R.Groups That Work: And Those That Don't. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990. Hewes, D.E."A Socio-Egocentric Model of Group Decision-Making."In Communication and Group Decision-Making, edited by Randy Y. Hirokawa and M.S. Poole, 265-91. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1986. Mohrman, S., Cohen, S. and Mohrman Jr., A.M. Designing Team-Based Organizations: New Forms for Knowledge Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995. 16 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Group Process Okhuysen, G.A. and K.M. Eisenhardt “Excel Through Group Process. “In the Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Behaviour, edited by Edwin A. Locke, 211-225. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers 17 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Segment: Managing Groups Topic : Teams Teams Table of Contents 1. Why Use Teams?................................................................................................................................. 4 2. Exercise and Reflection...................................................................................................................... 4 3. Team Set-up....................................................................................................................................... 8 4. Team Dysfunction............................................................................................................................ 22 5. Effective and Ineffective Teams....................................................................................................... 24 5. Summary.......................................................................................................................................... 32 6. References........................................................................................................................................ 32 2 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Introduction Teams have become an integral part of the business environment. Whether the company is trying to reduce costs, solve a problem, bring a product to market, or begin a recycling programme, establishing a team to address the issue has become a way of corporate life. Learning Objectives At the end of this topic, you will be able to:  describe the four factors of team set-up in relation to the context in which it exists  distinguish between effective and ineffective teams  explain the concept of process loss and the seven conditions that may lead to it. 3 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams 1. Why Use Teams? Companies as diverse as General Electric, Burlington Northern and the Tallahassee Democrat in the United States have used teams to streamline processes, respond to a competitive industry and conquer business challenges. By using the power of teams, these companies have been able to thrive in uncertain times. Indeed, the ability to use teams effectively can become a competitive advantage for an organisation. Therefore, it is important today for organisations, their managers and informal leaders to know how to run teams effectively. Read below for more information about why companies use teams. Why Use a Team? Teams help accomplish what individuals cannot accomplish alone. If the volume, complexity or the sophistication of the work exceeds one person's ability, creating a team to undertake the task may be a good solution. Using a team is also a good strategy when the task requires support from many different stakeholders. For instance, a company may have a problem that involves a number of different functions. Bringing together those stakeholders intimate with the problem will make it easier to find a solution that can be supported by all. A team can also be used to develop the skills of team members. Participating on a team gives team members a chance to learn different knowledge, skills and perspectives from each other. Keep in mind that forming teams does not guarantee success. Many factors influence the performance of any team initiative. Even a team staffed with capable and committed members can fail. A team is a sophisticated work arrangement that requires thoughtful set-up and maintenance to perform effectively. 2. Exercise and Reflection The following exercise will introduce you to an established team that is experiencing difficulties. You will get to know the company, team members and the task that they are to address. 4 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Li Jinsong, President of Alexis Pharmaceutical, has created a team and charged the team members with a crucial task – developing a process to bring a new product to market. Read the memo from Li Jinsong given below. To: Employees of Alexis From: Li Jinsong, President As you know, we're in a race with our major competitor, TX Drugs, to launch an entirely new product – a medication designed to double patients' high-density lipoprotein, or "good" cholesterol. The Marketing department estimates that this drug could save more than 25,000 lives per year in the United States and abroad. If we're first to market with this drug, we'll dominate this market. To that end, I've pulled together a high-powered team to speed up this product launch. The team will report to the vice president of product development. Team members are  Antonio Reyes, team leader and vice president of Marketing  Anu Nallamothu, director of Corporate Public Relations  Marie Andrada, Ph.D., research scientist  Gerald Parks, Ph.D., manager of Research and Development for Mass Production  Tommy Cho, general manager, US Operations This product launch is crucial to our survival. Join me in supporting this team any way you can. Li Jinsong Now that you have been introduced to the team, you will be privy to a typical team meeting. 5 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams This is the team's seventh meeting. Although the team has been meeting weekly, it is rumoured to be behind schedule. Three members of the team, Antonio Reyes, Tommy Cho and Anu Nallamothu, seem to have created a close and cohesive working relationship. They always have lunch together before the team meetings. Today, another team member, Gerald Parks, is running late. Read below for the team meeting. Meet the Team Tommy: We've got just six months before product launch. That's not a lot of time, but I think if we all complete our assignments, we can get our product to the market before the competition. I'm optimistic that we can meet this deadline. You can take a closer look at this report later. I think it will help with the product launch. Anu: These statistics are hard to believe. I mean, they look great, no offence, but they're not credible without the lab results to back them up. Antonio: He probably couldn't get them. I've been trying to get a password to the R and D server, but information services keep dragging its feet. Anu: Those guys are tough to deal with. I've left messages with them on several occasions. Cell phone rings. Anu speaks into her phone. Antonio: I've always said, "Just give us access to the lab server, and we can get the results we need ourselves!" Anu is still on the phone. Tommy: I.S. wouldn't go for that. Last week I tried to get remote access while I was on the road—it was a nightmare! Antonio: Don't get started on I.S. We'll be here all day. Gerald enters. Anu says goodbye and hangs up phone. Anu: Mr. Parks, glad you could fit us in. Group laughs. Gerald: Actually, it may not have occurred to some of you, but I have another job to do. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to give my report and go back to work. Tommy: We were just about to hear from Antonio. Antonio: Um, sure. I actually don't have much to share. I guess I could go over the marketing research. Anu's cell phone rings again. Gerald: Really. This is a waste of time. I have more important things to do than be ignored. Gerald storms out of the room. Anu is still on the phone. 6 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Antonio: These marketing research reports are self-explanatory. I don't think we need to spend time going over them. Tommy: OK. Well, since Gerald left, I guess that's it. Now that you know about the company, the team and its task, what would you recommend to help improve the team’s performance? Read below to consider a list of possible suggestions. What would you do? Consider the following list of possible recommendations that could be made to help improve this team's performance. These are a few of the most common options. Other options not listed here may be equally feasible. Based on what you now know about the company, the team and its task, think about what you would suggest to the team if you had the opportunity. Read the feedback for the recommendation of your choice. What would you do? A. Call a meeting to ask the team to work together to get the job done Appealing to everyone’s sense of commitment seems to be a quick and easy request to make. However, if the team cannot agree on its purpose or how to complete the task, this kind of request may stifle discussion or seriously undermine the airing of minority opinions. This will just suppress conflict. It will resurface eventually. B. Ask Gerald to resign from the team Feedback: Asking someone in conflict with other team members to leave is a quick and easy way to reduce the team’s tension. However, Gerald has the expertise needed to help bring the product to market as quickly as possible. If he leaves the team, the team will lose a very valuable source of information. This also sets a precedent-the team will deal with conflict by asking someone to leave. C. Ask for more time to complete the project Feedback: Giving the team more time is a quick and easy way to help the team. However, the company is depending on the success of this team for its very survival. Giving the team more time will not help address the problem the team was asked to solve. If the team is 7 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams not responsible for meeting deadlines, this suggests the team’s work isn’t important, and the team will be rescued whenever necessary. D. Ask another team member to chair the meetings on an ongoing basis Feedback: Appointing someone else to chair the meetings is a quick and easy way to bring order to the meetings. However, it undermines the team leader position and the tram’s responsibility for establishing and maintaining constructive relationships as well as holding productive meetings. Every team member needs to engage in both identifying and performing the work that needs to be done. E. Introduce meeting rules, such as no cell phones, meetings start and end on time, etc Feedback: The team does need to establish meeting guidelines, and it would be tempting to give them some by decree. All too often, team members read their mail, answer cell phones, or do other things that undermine the meeting. Sometimes they are trying to manage their time and priorities, other times they are simply being rude. However, you can’t legislate good behaviour. If you suppress behaviour with rules and regulations, different symptoms may appear at a later date. Team members sometimes need help setting their priorities and agreeing on meeting processes. Reflection: Managing team problem Once you have completed the Alexis Team Scenario exercise above, think about the following question. Was there a better approach to managing the Alexis team problem? 3. Team Set-up As a group evolves through its developmental stages, leaders and members must take steps to ensure that the team is properly set up and designed. Poor team dynamics are difficult to correct because they quickly become embodied in the character of the team. For that reason, decisions made about the team's initial set-up and early operation are more important than most other decisions. Although it takes time to set up a team well – and it is the period of time when the team is most anxious to get started – it is time well spent if it enables the team to perform effectively. 8 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Read below to learn about the aspects of team set-up that can influence team performance. Aspects that influence team performance The following four aspects of team set-up can influence team performance:  The way tasks are defined and distributed.  The team members' skills and the departments they represent.  The formal rules and structures created by the team.  The informal norms and expectations that affect team behaviour. These four aspects play a significant role in a team's success for the following reasons:  Task distribution may make the work more difficult to do.  Task assignments may not pair the skills of team members with the right type of work.  The team's formal rules may make it more difficult to get the work done.  The team's culture may lessen team commitment to completing the work necessary for team success. Team leaders and team members must be able to make the right decisions at the very beginning if they are to avoid problems later. Team set-up is critical to team success. Although you may not be able to decide who is assigned to your team, you can set up your team in a way that will help it perform as effectively as possible. Many companies, team leaders, and team members underestimate what is required to set up a successful team. An effective team set-up helps team members  understand why they are working together  believe they can accomplish their goals together  use their collective knowledge, skills and perspectives to contribute to the completion of the task  use processes and procedures to facilitate their work Four factors to consider There are four factors to consider when setting up an effective team: task, people, formal organisation and informal organisation. 9 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Fig.1: Factors to Consider when Setting up an Effective Team Every team exists in a context. Someone creates a team to perform a specific task. That someone identifies the task and assigns team members. The team is located somewhere in an organisation, within a formal organisational structure with policies that affect the team and an informal organisation of relationships, cultures and politics which also affect the team. Once the team starts to operate, these same factors: task, people, formal organisation and informal organisation, can be found within the team. The team task has to be divided into smaller projects; team members are assigned to work on different aspects of the task and interact within the team; the team creates processes and structures to do its work; and, within the team, a culture develops. Unlike the context, however, the team leader and team members have control over how they set up the team as it begins to function. Read below for an overview of team set-up and how it relates to the team context wheel. 10 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Team Set-up Wheel Picture a team as a circle within a circle. The inner circle represents factors that are specific to the set-up of each team. The outer circle is the context within which the team operates. There are four aspects of teams, just as there are four aspects of any organisation. These are the key elements that must be aligned if people are to work successfully together to accomplish goals. Task: During team set-up, the team's work must be divided into separate component tasks. Each component task must be completed by individuals, subgroups, or the entire team, and must be done in a logical order. Occasionally, the tasks performed by individuals must be compared and integrated to turn them into one coherent approach. People: During team set-up, each team member's skills must be utilised for the benefit of the team. Teams must assign tasks and roles to different members. This requires matching the task to the member's abilities, balancing the work among the members, and ensuring that members working together in subgroups are compatible. Formal Organisation: Setting up the formal organisation of the team involves creating processes and structures that will help the team accomplish its task. These policies are specific to the team, such as how it will make decisions and how work will be done. The team should develop specific procedures that will help the team work efficiently, keep track of decisions, stay on time, and hold productive discussions. Informal Organisation: Another critical part of setting up a team is developing the team's culture. In the first few team meetings, the team develops norms and values that will guide the behaviour of its members. Teams should adopt norms that are realistic, given the organisational context, and that help team members work effectively. Norms can include expecting work to be prepared on time, prioritising the work of the team, or listening to minority opinions. The following sections describe in detail the set up of each factor of the team context wheel. Setting Up the Task Teams are usually assigned tasks that are large and complex. When you set up a team, you need to decide how to divide the team's work into components – individual analyses need to 11 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams be conducted, products need to be created, decisions must be made, or individual actions must be taken. Those components are usually assigned to individuals or team subgroups. Some teams conduct all their work as a unit. This tends to be inefficient because all components of the task generally do not require all members to perform them. But even in these cases, the task must be divided into smaller components so that each meeting accomplishes a discrete part of the overall team task. A process to dividing tasks is as follows.  Tasks should be divided in such a way that each piece is coherent and meaningful, but small enough to be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time.  Tasks need to be ordered logically and distributed in a fair manner.  The individual tasks components needs to be integrated into a unified team product. Many teams are successful at dividing their task into smaller components and creating individual products, but they may fail at the last step, which is essential. For complex work, this requires regular sharing of information among team members and intermittent integration of individual tasks. In other words, the team needs to follow a process such as the one below.  Divide the team into subgroups to accomplish small tasks or assign small tasks to individuals.  As a team, share results and integrate the work.  Assign new tasks to individuals or team subgroups.  Repeat the process. If a team does not regularly integrate the work performed by individuals or subgroups, it is easy for those team members to take different directions, make different assumptions and create components of different projects. If this happens, individuals may produce excellent work, but the team's product will be inferior, and the team is not likely to achieve its goals. 12 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Setting Up Team Members When starting a team, you must decide how to use team members. Each person has different knowledge and skills, networks within the organisation, abilities, attitudes and needs. These affect how each team member can best contribute to the team and how team members interact with one another. Read below for more information about the factors to consider when setting up a diverse team. What to Consider When Setting Up a Diverse Team Working in teams gives team members the opportunity to include different perspectives in their work. However, these different perspectives can challenge productivity. When addressing diversity during team setup, consider  recognising the different perspectives team members bring to the team and acknowledging their value to the team  helping team members agree on a goal that transcends their individual differences  distributing tasks and influence according to each member's ability to contribute to the task  developing constructive working relationships built on mutual respect  giving the team feedback on processes and outputs References Adler, N.J. International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. 2nd ed. pp 139-141. Boston: PWS-Kent Publishing, 1991. Despite the diverse nature of most teams, there are times when team members do not have the expertise or skills necessary to accomplish the team's task. An effective team will recognise this gap and take steps to access or acquire the necessary expertise. The team might need to consult with an outside expert, invite an employee with the necessary skills to join the team, or provide training to an existing team member. 13 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams During team set-up, teams must assign tasks and roles to different members. This requires matching tasks to team members' abilities, balancing the work among the members, and ensuring the compatibility of team members working together in subgroups. Read the text below for more information and tips on teams and managing team meetings Team Roles: What Role Do You Play on Your Team? Here are examples of some of the informal roles that team members play. The informal roles include the:  Initiator  Information seeker  Information giver  Coordinator  Evaluator  Summariser  Orienter  Harmoniser  Gate Keeper  Encourager References Benne, K.D. and P. Sheats. "Functional Roles of Group Members." Journal of Social Issues 4 (1948):41-49. 14 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Which Team Member Most Influences Others? The Scribe Many people underestimate the importance of the role of team note-taker, or scribe. The team member who takes the notes for a team, particularly if this is done in a visible way such as on a flip chart or whiteboard, can exercise a great degree of control over a team's decisions. The scribe can  let some ideas disappear by neglecting to write them down  change the way team members view ideas by how they are phrased  focus attention on ideas by making them larger or adding stars, underlines or check marks to them Even if the team has not agreed to this particular slant of an idea, team members are subtly influenced by it, and it may, in fact, affect their perception of it. The scribe also determines what ideas are carried forward to future meetings. Raising Flags: Red, Yellow and Green Flags Some teams use the term "raising a flag" to signal agreement when making decisions. Each team member tells the others his or her opinion of a decision by using the terms "red", "yellow" or "green flag".  Raising a green flag means the team member fully supports the decision.  Raising a yellow flag means the team member supports the decision if minor issues are addressed in a certain way.  Raising a red flag means the team member cannot support the decision. By raising a red flag, the team member agrees to help develop a recommendation he or she can support. The "raising the flag" system formalises how a team reaches agreement and defines the parameters for that agreement. It also means that team members cannot raise objections without offering solutions or agreeing to re-work the recommendation to address their concerns. 15 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Have you ever been to a team meeting where team members spend time debating the merits of a particular agenda item, only to discover that it is something they cannot control? That wastes time and is frustrating as well. To avoid those types of problems, some teams adopt the "Information, Consultation, Approval" code for agenda items. Code “Information” If an item is for information only, the first choice is to find another way to share the information without spending meeting time discussing it. If the item will need clarification or is likely to prompt questions, it is coded on the agenda as "information". An example of an information item might be feedback from a presentation that has implications for future team work. Code “Consultation” If an item requires team input, it is coded "consultation". The team will then discuss and provide input on the item. An example of a consultation item might be a subgroup requesting input from the team about the options they are considering concerning their assignment to determine how to spend the team's training budget. Code “Approval” If the item requires a team decision, the item is coded "approval". An example of an item for approval might be the same subgroup bringing forward its final recommendations concerning the team's training budget. This process notifies team members to what type of discussion is expected, and sets up a mechanism by which the team can delegate work to individuals and subgroups. Setting Up the Team's Formal Organisation 16 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams When setting up a team, you must create structures and processes that you will use to manage the team and accomplish tasks. These may include role structure, decision-making processes and assess team performance processes. Read below to learn more about the aspects of the team’s formal organisation. Role Structure When setting up a team, you must create processes and structures that you will use to manage the team and accomplish tasks. These include the rules the team follows, the roles played by team members and team subgroups that may be created to perform the work. The team should assign specific roles to team members that will help the team work efficiently, keep track of decisions, stay on time and hold productive discussions. These roles include time- keeper, discussion-facilitator, agenda-setter and team secretary or notetaker. Some of these roles, such as agenda setter, come with a certain amount of power, whereas others may be resented by the team. Many teams rotate roles to balance power within the team, develop members' skills, and avoid resentment caused by having to perform unpleasant tasks. During set-up, team members also begin to develop informal roles through the way they behave and interact with others. Team leaders are usually assigned to teams, but informal team leaders often develop as well. These members have no formal authority but tend to participate, guide decisions, help coordinate tasks and support team harmony. This can be very effective if they supplement the formal leader, but it can result in conflict if they try to move the team in a different direction. Decision-making process A key function of teams is decision-making. When setting up a team, establishing a decision- making process will help the team function more efficiently. Some processes will work better than others. Deciding what process will work best for a team depends on its members and the assigned task. For instance, generating ideas and options by brainstorming can lead to great creativity. On the other hand, it can also lead to the most forceful and talkative team members dominating the discussion. Using a decision-making process that allows ideas to be evaluated through general discussion can also lead to minority views being ignored. Other decision-making processes include taking turns sharing ideas to give everyone a chance to provide input having one team member solicit each person's opinion individually, integrate them into one document, and share the summary with the team 17 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Although slower, these techniques tend to equalise the opportunity for all team members to speak and focus on ideas rather than the people offering them. Once ideas are generated and discussed, the final decision can be made in a number of ways including by consensus, voting, or designating a team member or subgroup as the decision- maker. Consensus can put pressure on team members with minority views to keep silent, as even one person in opposition can stop a decision. Designating a team member or subgroup as the decision-maker requires the team to trust certain knowledgeable people to make the right decision. Assess team performance Another critical process to establish during team set-up is a means to assess team performance. The team should create some way to measure the quality of its work and the team's progress toward achieving its goal. For most teams, there is no objective measure of work quality. However, teams can benchmark quality and progress. In fact, the team should regularly examine its work for quality and progress towards completing its goal. Is the team on schedule for achieving its goal? Will the quality of the team's work be acceptable to the target audience? The team should also examine how well it is operating. In other words, are the right processes in place for the team to effectively perform its task? is the team efficient? is the team experience rewarding to its members? is there dysfunctional conflict? The team needs to know this type of information to keep on schedule and revise processes when necessary. Setting Up the Team's Informal Organisation Another critical part of setting up a team is developing the culture within the team. The very first meetings develop norms and values that will guide the behaviour of team members. One of the reasons why teams need to discuss how they will operate is that not all members join with an accurate understanding of what the word "team" means. When seeking to form a team or to manage one, it is helpful to keep in mind that some members may join with a quite 18 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams inadequate meaning of "team", which will undermine their ability to be good team members. Hence it is important to discuss what it means to be in a team when forming one. Read below to learn about establishing norms and values in a team set-up. Establishing Norms and Values in Teams  Establishing Norms Each team will develop norms, or expectations, for how the members will behave. Norms are either explicitly or implicitly set around issues such as whether o meetings will start on time o members will be expected to meet deadlines o the team's work will take priority over other, non-emergency work o members will accept phone calls during meetings o members engage in multiple conversations at once or take turns o interruptions are acceptable The more these types of norms are shared explicitly, the better the chance that each team member will adhere to norms. Teams should adopt norms that are realistic given the organisational context. For instance, a team that works in a hospital should not have a norm that says "no pagers". Better rules might state "set your pagers to vibrate instead of to ring" and "only answer messages that are work-related". However, a wide range of norms can be effective if all team members share them. Once norms are established, team members need to be able to give and receive constructive feedback when norms are broken. Teams must accept norms to follow them and teams are more likely to accept norms if they themselves set the norms. Discussing norms at initial team meetings gives team members a chance to share what is important to them. This can be the first step in building a bond among team members.  Establishing Values Values are beliefs or standards that people consider important. Values are not rules about specific behaviours but are general beliefs about how the team should operate. For example, some teams value minority opinions because they believe the correctness of a decision is not dependent on the number of people who take that view. Such teams often stop 19 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams and listen to concerns expressed by a single member. Although this may slow down the decision-making process, it may lead to higher-quality decisions than decisions made by teams that value the majority opinion. Other critical values involve hierarchy versus egalitarianism. If a group values hierarchy, the emphasis is on formal roles and giving deference to the team leader. If a group values egalitarianism, the emphasis is on informal roles and considering everyone's opinion equally. Neither value is better than the other, but they support different decision making processes and team roles. Teams should discuss their values during team set-up so members can adopt values that help them achieve their goals. Balancing Team Set-up Fig.2: Balancing Team Set-up The different aspects of the way teams are set up – the way tasks are divided and integrated and the use of team members, formal processes and informal culture – affect one another. Because of this, the decisions a team makes about one aspect must reflect the decisions made about other aspects, as well as the context in which the team operates. For example, if a team task requires creativity, a team may be more successful with diverse team members or subgroups, a high value on minority opinions and formal policies to deal with conflict. However, if a team task involves tactical decision-making, the team may need to 20 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams reduce internal conflict, have homogeneous subgroups make decisions and place a value on consensus and decisions made by the majority. Exercise-Team Set-Up In the following exercises, you will read about the process used by two companies to set up cross-functional teams. In each case, you will see why the team was created, how it was created and what task was assigned to it. Based on what you read, you will be asked to make recommendations to help determine how the team should have been set up to function more effectively. Exercise: Team 1 Set-up In this exercise, you begin by reading a scenario, then answer four questions by choosing the options provided for each question. Feedback is provided for each option. Dane, the owner and CEO of Tarun (a medium-sized construction company), formed a task force of three to investigate the challenges and opportunities of conducting business in Brazil and to report to him on whether to pursue business opportunity there. The team members include Bill Wilson, Janelle Johnson and Dick Smith. 1. How should the team divide the tasks so that it can provide Dane with the best recommendation on whether or not to pursue the Brazilian venture? 2. How should the team assign to the team members the various tasks that must be performed to achieve the team's goal? 3. What formal decision-making processes should the team establish, particularly given the team's inexperience with international issues and the CEO's distrust of teams? 4. What values does the team need to establish to be successful? Given that the organisation has a culture that does not support effective teams, this group cannot simply adopt all existing organisational values. Exercise: Team 2 Set-up In this exercise, you begin by reading a scenario, then answer four questions by choosing the options provided for each question. Feedback is provided for each option. George, CEO of New Life Networks, wants to offer a wider selection of customised products and services than those offered by his competitors. To accomplish this, he has created a team of six to identify existing products and services that can be customised for sale to different markets. George created a cross-functional team based on the recommendations of his top managers. 21 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams The six team members represent finance, sales, marketing, research and development, operations, and human resources. George wants the team to identify custom packages for different potential markets and make its recommendations one month from today. To help the team become productive as quickly as possible, select the response you think best addresses the setup question. 1. How do you suggest the team divide the task into manageable projects and assign those projects? 2. How can the skills and experience of the team's members best used to accomplish the goal? 3. How should roles and responsibilities be assigned to team members? 4. How should the team establish norms? 4. Team Dysfunction Not all teams perform well. Sometimes problems with the environment in which a team operates, or poor decisions made during team set-up, cause the team to experience severe dysfunction. A dysfunctional team may experience extremes such as  an unreasonable amount of conflict  the inability to focus on the work at hand  total agreement  the inability to make good decisions  an unwillingness to do work  a conflict with other employees and groups of employees that prevent the team from completing its work and implementing its decisions Many factors need to be in place in order for the team to have high performance. The context in which the team does its work has to be supportive, and the team must be set up to operate in an effective manner. One kind of context is not always better than another, and one kind of set-up is not better; instead, they have to be aligned. If that does not happen, teams are likely to have problems. 22 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Teams are often offered as the cure to whatever problems an organisation may be experiencing. But what if the team itself is "ailing" and cannot solve the organisation's problems? Once a team has developed problems in the way it functions, it is much harder to solve than if it had been aligned properly in the first place. For example, once one member has started to dominate a group, others may learn to stop working as hard because they assume they will not have the chance to affect decisions. This makes it much more difficult to stop the individual from dominating the group However, when teams have these kinds of problems they can be fixed with the right interventions. Team leaders and team members must be able to identify the cause of performance problems and solve them to ensure that the team is effective. Understanding the type of problem affecting your team will go a long way toward improving its performance. Read below for a tip on how to stay focused yet allow for creative digressions during team meetings. Staying Focused and Allow for Creative Digressions Using “aside coins” The members of a team really enjoyed working together. During their meetings, they would tell stories, make jokes, and generally never get to the work that needed to be done to accomplish the team's task. When they realised how unproductive their meetings had become, they found a way to manage the fun – and get the work done. The team instituted "aside coins". At the beginning of each meeting, the team decided how many aside coins each team member could use that meeting. Using poker chips as coins, team members were charged one aside coin every time they digressed from the topic under discussion. When that happened, the digressing team member would toss one coin, or poker chip, into the centre of the table. Team members who used all of their coins were not allowed to digress from the discussion topic for the remainder of the meeting. If they did, they were charged a monetary fine. Any team member could label a discussion as an "aside", including the offender. This approach was a fun way for the team to stay focused on the topic while still allowing for creative digressions. Eventually, members of the team traded and even bought and sold "aside coins" from each other. 23 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams 5. Effective and Ineffective Teams Signs of an Effective Team What are signs of an effective team? Effective teams  meet their objectives  stay on schedule  produce quality work Within an effective team, team members  work well together  think the workload is fairly distributed  know they are all working toward the same goal Does that mean team members are always in agreement? No. Contrary to popular opinion, conflict is not a symptom of an ineffective team. Conflict is a valuable way for a team to identify and evaluate different ideas, actions, and approaches to achieving its task. When Good Teams Go Bad A number of actions, conflict being one of them, can be constructive or destructive to a team's performance. If conflict is well-managed, it can be a powerful tool for team members to use to consider a wide range of options available to them. If it is not managed, however, it can tear a team apart. The same holds true for process loss. "Process loss" refers to the time a team spends attending to non-task-related issues, such as developing team norms and relationships, correcting communication errors, and solving interpersonal problems. Some degree of process loss is inevitable because running teams takes time. The challenge to the team leader is to determine if the amount of process loss is acceptable or a result of an unproductive element, such as conflict. 24 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Causes of Process Loss Process loss results from seven common conditions.  Individual dominance  Social loafing and "free riding"  Team procrastination  Team conflict  Groupthink  Minority opinions ignored  In group/out group Individual dominance Individual dominance occurs when one team member speaks much more often, takes on many more tasks, or has much more influence than others on the team. Although team members' contributions are not equal all the time, when one team member consistently overshadows the others, team performance is likely to be negatively affected. Why do some team members dominate a team? For some, it may be their nature or personality. For others, however, it may be a vision they have for the team, a personal agenda, or the belief that they are the only ones who contribute. Sometimes it is intentional, and sometimes it is not. As team leader, you can influence dominant team members in a number of ways. Read below for suggestions on how to do this. How to Influence Dominant Team Members As team leader, you can influence dominant team members in a number of ways. You may  Provide feedback You may meet with dominant team members one-on-one to give them feedback and coach them on how they might temper their contributions. You could suggest they help others in the team to encourage them to contribute more or suggest they use their skills to take on an informal leadership role. 25 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams  Conduct process check You may invite team members to reflect on or change team processes to eliminate this problem by conducting a process check. To conduct a process check, you invite team members to examine how the team is working together, including the members' individual contributions to the team. Are they balanced? Are team members encouraging each other to contribute? Are team members helping each other use their membership on the team to develop skills and advance their knowledge base? Ask team members how they might change their behaviours or the team's processes to improve effectiveness.  Change team processes You may change the process that the team uses if a team member is not able or willing to stop dominating decisions. Some decision-making processes, such as brainstorming or open discussion, invite forceful team members to have more influence. Other decision-making processes, such as taking turns, delegating decisions to the leader, requesting input in writing, or having one team member integrate the views of others, can eliminate the excessive influence of a dominant person. Social loafing and free riding Social loafing describes the tendency many people have to exert less effort when working in a team than they would when working alone. This type of behaviour may occur in any type of team; however, it typically occurs on larger teams where an individual contribution is more difficult to identify. "Free riding" occurs when one individual exerts little effort, relying on others to do the work. The whole team suffers when team members engage in this type of behaviour. Not only does the team lose the contributions these team members are capable of making, other team members must work harder. Either way, the team's performance suffers. As a team leader, you can minimise this type of behaviour in a number of ways. Read below for suggestions on how to do this. 26 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams How to Minimise Social Loafing and Free Riding As a team leader, you can minimise social loafing and free riding of team members in the following ways:  Highlight the importance of the team's task.  Design interesting or specialised activities to engage team members.  Measure individual performance.  Form smaller groups within the team so that each person's work is more visible. Keep in mind that sometimes the members of your team do not participate as much as they would like. This is not social loafing. Team members may not have the time available to work on the team's tasks, or they may not have the necessary knowledge or skills. Team procrastination Gersick discovered that most teams do not begin to actually work on their tasks until they are half-way through their available time. Generally, team members are not wasting time on purpose. They are busy discussing and generating a wide range of possibilities and making plans that may not be realistic. When they reach this point, teams often realise how little progress they have made. This is when the team first begins completing the work necessary to achieve its goal. The best solution for this common problem is to break the team's task into segments and set deadlines for completing each one. Awareness of the problem can also help team members avoid it. Team conflict Team conflict can be constructive. It can change perspectives, solve problems and increase the involvement of team members; however, it can become a problem if it is left unchecked. It can prevent a resolution from being reached, divert energy from the team's task, demotivate team members, or cause them to leave the team. Team conflict can arise from differences between team members in terms of power, values and attitudes. It tends to arise when resources are scarce, the team situation is ambiguous, members have different goals and the tasks assigned have some connection – if there is no 27 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams relationship between tasks, there is no reason to disagree. On the other hand, if the tasks are the same, then the goals are likely to be the same, so there is less reason to quarrel. As a team leader, you need to identify, discuss and reduce team conflict before it gets out of control. Symptoms of a team in conflict include indecisiveness, hostility and a lack of team cohesiveness. Read below to learn about strategies for managing conflict in teams. How to Manage Team Conflict Team conflict has both positive and negative consequences. You need to reduce conflict in situations where it becomes personalised and disruptive to the team's performance. In some instances, you can reduce conflict by solving the problems that are causing it. For example, if two team members are in conflict over resources they both need, you can obtain more resources or create rules to allocate or share resources. You can focus on the team's goal and reward team members equally for achieving it. To avoid the negative consequences of conflict, deal with disputes quickly and openly. Team conflict usually remains unmanaged because team leaders do not expect conflict, do not develop plans to address it and do not have the skills to effectively deal with it. Managing team conflict constructively means  having direct, open discussions about disagreements  acknowledging the presence of conflict and normalising it  acknowledging the importance of the issue being debated  acknowledging how the conflict affects those involved  focusing on the issue rather than the team members involved  identifying and examining the differences in viewpoints  developing rules of engagement that include active listening Plan early to deal with conflict. Following are some processes and rules you can establish to ensure that conflict is healthy instead of harmful.  Help team members understand the role of conflict in a team.  Set rules about expressing conflict. o Keep all disagreements focused on work processes and not on people. o Maintain a respectful tone and manner when speaking to others.  Develop procedures for dealing with conflicting views. 28 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams o Take turns presenting arguments. o Agree to disagree. o Put items to a vote. o Consult an expert. o Let a third person, such as the team leader, decide.  Offer training in areas crucial to team building, such as facilitation skills, meeting management, systematic problem solving, decision-making and conflict management. Minority opinions When teams ignore minority opinions, team members miss valuable input and marginalise that team member's point of view. Ignoring the minority opinion may happen in teams where "majority opinion rules" is a team norm or in teams that do not value diverse opinions. It also happens on teams where groupthink prevails. As a team leader, how do you ensure the minority opinion gets heard? Read below for suggestions on how to do this. How to Solicit Minority Opinions You need to create a norm of listening to minority views which requires changing the way the team works. One way to do this is to have one team member solicit and sponsor minority opinions. This team member's role is to invite team members who do not agree with the majority opinion to share their views and to ensure that others listen to their perspective. Other approaches include  coaching team members who most often hold the minority opinion to help them better present the minority view  designing interesting or specialised activities to engage team members  creating a specific time in team discussions for considering minority opinions  instituting a decision-making process that does not reveal how many team members back each position This could be done by having the team communicate ideas to one team member who integrates them and presents them to the team, or by using closed or secret ballots rather than open voting as a way to make decisions. If your opinion is often the minority on a team, the best way to get your point across or to change the team's support of minority views is to find allies. The more powerful the allies, the more help you will receive in getting your ideas considered. 29 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams In group/out group When team members bond together against external groups, an in group/out group situation may develop. This may lead to conflict with employees outside the team and an us-versus- them mentality within the team. A number of problems may result from this type of situation. The team may begin to perceive all information that comes from outside the team in a negative light. Team members may distort outside information or view it as unbelievable. This may lead to the team's work receiving no support from the rest of the organisation. Collaborations with employees outside the team will be difficult if not impossible. This type of situation may result from the closeness of team members or from an external political situation. As a team leader you will want to help your team focus on how its task and performance are connected to the needs of the organisation. Read below for suggestions on how to do this. How to Manage in Group/Out Group To help your team focus on its task and performance and ensure that they are connected to the needs of the organisation, you can publicise the team's mandate, along with its performance, within the team and throughout the organisation. You may want to examine how the team's relationship with the organisation affects its success and how this behaviour contributes to the situation. Without effective relationships with others in the company, team members will not receive the information and resources necessary to perform their tasks and will need clear prediction, rules and agreement, and will focus on the importance and well-being of the group over individuals. In these cultures, team members are pressured to conform, group membership is important and the team leader is viewed with respect and deference. 30 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams Groupthink "Groupthink" describes a decision-making process that occurs in highly-cohesive teams. With a groupthink mentality, the team  has an inflated view of its performance  accepts consensus prematurely without determining that all team members are in agreement. In this case, silence is read as approval.  believes its members are morally superior, so there is no need to debate important issues  underestimates its competitors by failing to critically examine them, their motives and their capabilities  fears disturbing consensus, so team members do not raise concerns  protects itself from bad news  coerces members who raise concerns into agreeing with the others Groupthink commonly occurs in teams where the members have strongly bonded, are adverse to conflict, have common backgrounds, have a strong leader and find it difficult to express dissenting views. Some team members may find groupthink to be very appealing – there is little overt conflict, team members appear to get along and the team seems to make good progress. As a team leader, if you think your team is experiencing groupthink, how do you involve your team to adopt different perspectives? Read below for suggestions on how to do this. How to Avoid Groupthink As a team leader, if you think your team is experiencing groupthink, give team members feedback on their behaviours and help them broaden their discussion. Consider inviting stakeholders or employees with different viewpoints to advise the team. You may even want to raise contradictory issues or offer minority opinions yourself. Some teams deliberately adopt different perspectives when evaluating a problem. Members are asked to evaluate a situation in terms of opportunity, growth potential, problem potential, and resource constraints. Team members will raise objections, consider various outcome 31 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Teams possibilities, and voice different points of view so that a problem is fully examined from all positive and negative angles. In any group, some members will find looking for the positives easier, while other team members will find looking for the negatives to be easier. The key is to involve all team members in looking at problems from multiple perspectives. 5. Summary Here is a quick recap of what we have learnt so far:  As teams form an important part of many business organisations, it is important for managers to learn how to run teams effectively.  The four aspects of team set-up that can influence team performance are the way tasks are defined, the team member's skills, the formal rules and structures as well as the informal norms and expectations in the team. The factors to consider when setting up an effective team are task, people, formal organisation and informal organisation.  Team leaders and members must be able to identify performance problems in order to prevent team dysfunction.  Process loss refers to the time a team spends on issues not relating to tasks and are caused by individual dominance, social loafing, team procrastination, team conflict, groupthink, neglect of minority opinions as well as in group/out group conflict. For each of these causes, managers should learn ways and approaches in combating such problems in order to build effective teams. 6. References  Fischetti, M. "Team Doctors, Report to ER," FastCompany, February:March, 1998. http://fastcompany.com/online/13/sickteams.html (accessed 28 January 2003). 32 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Segment: Managing Groups Topic: Team Performance Team Performance Table of Contents 1. Judging Team Success........................................................................................................................ 4 2. Organisational Context...................................................................................................................... 5 3. Four Factors of Context...................................................................................................................... 6 4. Analysing and Solving Team Problems............................................................................................. 17 5. Solving Team Performance Problems.............................................................................................. 20 6. Summary.......................................................................................................................................... 22 7. Glossary............................................................................................................................................ 22 8. References........................................................................................................................................ 23 2 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Team Performance Introduction How do you decide if a team is successful? What makes effective and ineffective teams? In this topic, you will learn about the environmental factors necessary to create high-performing teams; you will also learn how to solve team problems by analysing contextual factors. Learning Objectives At the end of this topic, you will be able to:  describe the three measures of team performance  explain how the four factors of organisational context affect team performance  describe the four-step approach to solving team performance problems. 3 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Team Performance 1. Judging Team Success Fig.1: Judging team success The success of a team can be measured in three ways: task completion, individual contributions and team member commitment. Depending on your perspective – a team leader, team member or executive sponsor – you may emphasise one area more than another when measuring a team's success. Read below to learn more about each area of measurement. Measuring the Success of a Team  Task completion Most teams are created to address a specific task, solve a problem, or deliver a product or service. When the success of a team is measured by task completion, consider both the quality of the work and the timeliness of the work.  Individual contribution To perform effectively, individuals need to make strong contributions to the team. If some team members do not produce as much work as others, or their work does not effectively further the team's success, the team is using the time of its members inefficiently. Successful and efficient teams maintain team member motivation by making sure that individuals contribute their best.  Team member commitment The team's survival is also a measure of its success. Keeping team members committed to the team's task is an important factor contributing to the team's performance. This is especially true during team development when turmoil is a natural phenomenon. Successful teams, with committed team members, can continue to attract new members and support. 4 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Team Performance You will want to keep these measures in mind as you learn how to diagnose and solve team problems. In the end, your efforts to lead, participate and work with teams will be judged by these three criteria. 2. Organisational Context Various factors enable teams to succeed. These factors should be considered when establishing a team and when analysing the success or failure of a team after the fact. These factors can be grouped into three categories: context, set-up and operations. All three contribute to a team's success.  Context describes the team's environment – an environment that may or may not support the team.  Set-up describes how the team leader adapts to the team's context and establishes effective processes.  Operations describes how the team functions, which must be monitored and changed if you identify team performance problems. Reflection-Organisational Context Consider this scenario: you lead a team of stellar performers, yet nothing seems to get done. You need four departments to work together to address a quality issue, yet they cannot seem to fix the problem. Your design approval process takes too long to complete, yet those involved cannot seem to streamline it. What can you do to get more from your teams? To perform well, effective teams require more than proper set-up, more than productive team members, and more than the ability to work well together. None of this, in fact, guarantees team success. The best team will fail if it is operating in a context that does not support it. Organisational context refers to the conditions, or environment, in which a team operates. Context factors affect how the team operates, how it accomplishes its tasks, what happens once it completes its job and, ultimately, its success or failure. Although it is difficult for team members to change the context in which the team operates, being aware of the context and influencing it when possible will help the team avoid problems it may encounter as it strives to achieve its goal. Those who create teams should be aware of 5 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Team Performance how the context will affect teams, establish teams in a supportive context such as assigning members, tasks and positions, and then provide resources for the team carefully. 3. Four Factors of Context As introduced in the topic “Teams”, context includes four factors.  "Task" or "mandate" describes the team's project.  "People" describes those assigned to the team.  "Formal organisation" describes the way the team fits into the company's formal structure and any formal guidelines describing how the team will work.  "Informal organisation" describes the way the team fits into the company's culture and political structure. These four factors play a significant role in how well or how badly a team performs. For instance, the team may  be assigned work that is more efficiently performed by an individual  include the wrong mix of personnel  lack the necessary resources, e.g., time, money, information  work in a type of corporate culture that discourages taking time away from day-to- day responsibilities to devote to team responsibilities Team leaders and members must be able to identify problems caused by the context and solve them to ensure their team's work leads to a positive outcome. 6 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Team Performance Fig.2: Four Factors of Context When you think of your team's context, picture your team as a circle within a circle. The outer circle influences everything about the team's context. Knowing how that outer circle will affect your team is key to your team's success. Read the text below for an overview of team context and how it relates to the team context wheel. Team Context Wheel Picture a team as a circle within a circle. Every action the team makes is influenced by the outer circle, the team's context. Knowing how that outer circle affects the team is key to the team's success. Task: The task describes the team's overall assignment, or objective. Tasks are assigned to the team before it begins, so they are a part of its context. It is important to acknowledge the 7 ©COPYRIGHT 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MANIPAL ACADEMY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Team Performance contextual elements in the assigned tasks. Some tasks lend themselves to the team approach and some do not. For example, a task that can easily be addressed by an individual, or a task that needs immediate action, should not be assigned to a team. People: Teams are usually assigned specific members when they are created. Team members are appointed to the team before it begins, so they are also part of its context. A careful analysis of the team task should reveal what kinds of team members a task requires. Also, the company must have the human resources available to meet the needs of the team. Formal Organisation: Formal organisation describes the formal support the team receives from the company and includes the support from upper management and the allocation of resources. It also includes the team's location within the organisational structure, and any policies, roles, responsibilities, and rewards established for the team. Informal Organisation: The informal organisation in which a team operates refers to the company's political and cultural environment. There are aspects of the organisational culture that affect team

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