Chapter 15 MGT Exam 2 PDF

CHAPTER 15: EFFECTIVE GROUPS & TEAMS GROUPS, TEAMS, & ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS A group may be defined as two or more people who interact with each other to accomplish certain goals or meet certain need. A team is a group whose members work intensely with one another to achieve...

CHAPTER 15: EFFECTIVE GROUPS & TEAMS GROUPS, TEAMS, & ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS A group may be defined as two or more people who interact with each other to accomplish certain goals or meet certain need. A team is a group whose members work intensely with one another to achieve a specific common goal or objective Groups and teams can help an organization gain competitive advantage because they can o Enhance it performance o Increase its responsiveness to customers o Increase innovation o Increase employee’s motivation and satisfaction One main advantages of using groups is the opportunity to obtain a type of synergy, o People working in a group can produce more or higher-quality outputs than would have been produced if each person had worked separately and all their individual eRorts were later combined To take advantage of the potential for synergy in groups, managers need to make sure that groups are composed of member who have complementary skills and knowledge relevant to the group’s work o Foe example, at Hallmark Card Inc, the company division that sells cards, gift wrap, and related products in more than 30 languages in 200 countries, synergies are created by bringing together all the diRerent functions needed to create and produce a greeting card in a cross-functional team (a team composed of members from diRerent departments or functions). o For instance artists, writers, designers, and marketing experts work together as team members to develop new cards and other products GROUPS, TEAMS, AND RESPONSIVENESS TO CUSTOMERS Being responsive to customers often requires the wider variety of skills and expertise found in diRerent departments and at diRerent levels in an organization’s hierarchy. Sometimes, for example, employees at lower levels in an organizations’s hierarchy, such as sales representatives for a software company, are closest to its customers and the most attuned to their needs. However, lower-level employees, like salespeople, often lack the technical expertise needed for new product ideas; such expertise is found in the research and development department. Bringing salespeople, research and development experts, and members of other departments together in a group or cross-functional team can enhance responsiveness to customers. TEAMS AND INNOVATION  Innovation- the creative development of new products, new technologies, new services, or even new organizational structures- Using teams to innovate has other advantages. o First, team members can often uncover one another’s errors or false assumptions; one person acting alone would not be able to do this o Second, team members can critique one another’s approaches and build oR one another’s strengths while compensating for weaknesses-an advantage of devil’s advocacy and dialectical inquiry GROUPS AND TEAMS AS MOTIVATORS Managers often form groups and teams to accomplish organizational goals and then find that using groups and teams brings additional benefits. Members of groups, especially members of teams )because of the higher of interaction in teams), are likely to be more satisfied than they would have been if they had been on their own The experience of working alongside other highly charged and motivated people can be stimulating and motivating: o Team members can see how their eRorts and expertise directly contribute to the achievement of team and organizational goals, and they feel personally responsible for the outcomes or results of their work. (This has been the case of hallmark) The increased motivation and satisfaction that can accompany the use of teams can also lead to other outcomes, such as increased eRiciency and talent retention TYPES OF GROUPS AND TEAMS Formal groups are those that managers establish to achieve organizational goals The formal work groups are cross-functional teams composed of members from diRerent departments, such as those at Hallmark, and cross-cultural teams composed of members from diRerent cultures or countries, such as the teams at global car makers. THE TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM A central concern of the CEO and president of a company is to form a top management team to help the organization achieve its mission and goals. Top management teams are responsible for developing the strategies hat result in an organization’s competitive advantage; most have between five ad seven members. In forming their top management teams, CEOs are well advised to stress diversity in expertise, skills, knowledge, and experience Thus, many top management teams are also cross-functional teams:  o They are composed of members from diRerent departments, such as finance, marketing, production, and engineering. Diversity also helps guard against group-think- faulty group decision making that results when group members strive for agreement at the expense of an accurate assessment of the situation. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TEAMS Managers in pharmaceuticals, computers, electronics, electronic imaging, and other high-tech industries often create research and development teams to develop new products. COMMAND GROUPS Employees who report to the same supervisor compose a command group When top managers design an organization’s structure and establish reporting relationships and a chain of command, they are essentially creating command groups. Command groups, often called departments or units, perform a significant amount of the work in many organizations TASK FORCES Managers form tasks forces to accomplish specific goals or solve problems in a certain time period; taks forces are sometimes called ad hoc committees SELF-MANAGED WORK TEAMS Self managed work teams are teams in which members are empowered and have the responsibility and autonomy two complete identifiable pieces of work Managers can take a number of steps to ensure that self-managed work teams are eRective and help an organization achieve its goals: o Give teams enough responsibility and autonomy to be truly self-managing. Refrain from telling team members what to do or solving problems for them, even if you (as a manager) know what should be done. o Make sure a team’s work is suRiciently complex so that it entails a number of diRerent steps or procedures that must be performed and results in some kind of finished end product o Carefully select members of self-managed work teams. Team members should have the diversity of skills needed to complete the team’s work, have the ability to work with others, and want to be part of a team. o As a manager, realize that your role with self-managed work teams calls for guidance, coaching, and supporting not supervising. You are a resource for teams to turn to when needed.  o Analyze what type of training team members need, and provide it. Working in a self-managed work team often requires that employees have more extensive technical and interpersonal skills. VIRTUAL TEAMS Virtual teams are teams whose members rarely or never meet face-to-face but, rather, interact by using various forms of information technology such as email, text messaging, collaborative software programs, videoconferences, and various meeting and management apps. FRIENDSHIP GROUPS Friendship groups are informal groups of employees who enjoy one another’s company and socialize with one another. Members of friendship groups may have lunch together, take breaks together, or meet after work for meals, sports, or other activities. Friendship groups help satisfy employees’ needs for interpersonal interaction, can provide needed social support in times of stress, and can contribute to people’s feeling good at work and being satisfied with their jobs. INTEREST GROUPS Employees form informal interest groups when they seek to achieve a common goal related to their membership in an organization. Employees may form interest groups, for example, to encourage managers to consider instituting flexible working hours providing on-site child care, improving working conditions, or more proactively supporting environmental protection. Interest groups can give managers valuable insights into the issues and concerns that are foremost in employees’ minds. GROUP DYNAMICS GROUP SIZE Large groups also let managers obtain the advantages stemming from the division of labor- splitting the work to be performed into particular tasks and assigning tasks to individual workers. Workers who specialize in particular. Tasks are likely to become skills at performing those tasks and contribute significantly to high group performance. GROUP TASKS The appropriate size of a high-performing group is aRected by the kinds of tasks the group is to perform. An important characteristic of group tasks that aRects  performance is task interdependence - the degree to which the work performed by one member of a group influences the work performed by other members. GROUP LEADERSHIP All groups and teams need leadership. Indeed, as we discussed in detail, eRective leadership is a key ingredient in high-performing groups, teams, and organizations. Sometimes managers assume the leadership role in groups and teams, as ins the case in many command groups and top management teams. Or a manager may appoint a member of a group who is not a manger to be group leader or chairperson, as is the case in a task force or standing committee. In other cases, group or team members may choose their own leaders, or a leader may emerge-naturally as group members work together to achieve group goals, When managers empower members of self-managed work teams, they often let group members choose their own leaders. Some self-managed work teams find it eRective to rotate the leadership role among their members. Whether or not leaders of groups and teams are managers, and whether they are appointed by managers (often referred to as formal leaders) or emerge naturally in a group (often referred to as informal leaders), they play an important role in ensuring that groups and teams perform up to their potential. GROUP DEVELOPMENT OVER TIME In the first stage, forming, members try to get to know one another and reach a common understanding of what the group is trying to accomplish and how group members should behave. During this stage, managers schools strive to make each member feel that they are a valued part of the group. In the second stage, storming, group members-experience conflict and disagreements because some members do-not wish to submit to the demands of other group members. During the third stage, norming, close ties between group members develop, and feelings of friendship and camaraderie emerge. Group members arrive at a consensus about what goals they should seek to achieve and how group members should behave toward one another. In the fourth stage, performing, the real work of the group is accomplished. Depending on the type of group in question, managers need to take diRerent steps at this stage to help ensure that groups are eRective. The last stage, adjourning, applies only to groups that eventually are disbanded, such as task force. GROUP NORMS Group norms are shared guidelines or rules for behavior that most group members follow. Groups develop norms concerning a wide variety of behaviors, including  working hours, the sharing of informations among group members, how certain group task should be performed, and even how members of a group should dress. GROUP COHESIVENESS Another important element of group dynamics that aRects group performance and eRectiveness is group cohesiveness, which is the degree to which members are attracted to or loyal to their group or team. MANAGING GROUPS AND TEAMS FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE The concept of high performing work teams is not new; it has been used by successful organizations for more than 20 years. Ways to create such a high performance begin with three key strategies o Motivating group members to work toward the achievement of organizational goals o Reducing social loafing o Helping groups manage conflict eRectively MOTIVATING GROUP MEMBERS TO ACHIEVE ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS Manager often rely on some combination of individual and group-based incentives to motivate members of groups and teams to work toward the achievement of organizational goals When individual performance within a group can be assessed, pay is often determined by individual performance or by both individual and group performance. When individual performance within a group cannot be accurately assessed, group performance should be the key determinant of pay levels. Many companies that use self-managed work teams base team member’s pay in part on teams performance. A major challenge for managers is to develop a fair pay system that will lead to both high individual motivation and high group or team performance. REDUCING SOCIAL LOAFING IN GROUPS Social loafing is the tendency of individual to put forth less eRort when they work in groups than when they work alone. HELPING GROUPS TO MANAGE CONFLICT EFFECTIVELY At some point, practically all groups experience conflict wither within the group (intragroup conflict) or with other groups (intergroup conflict).