PART 3

Social and Group

Processes in
Organizations

CHAPTER 7

Groups and
Teams
Chapter Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter you should be able to:

1. Define groups and teams and identify and describe several types of
each.
2. Identify the five core group performance factors and relate them to
groups and teams in organizations.
3. Discuss the stages of group and team development, other team
performance factors, and the implementation process in the context
of creating new teams.
4. Identify the primary benefits and costs of teams, how managers can
promote effective team performance, and important team
competencies.
5. Describe emerging team opportunities and challenges related to
virtual teams and diversity and multicultural teams.

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permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Types of groups &
teams
1. Workgroup
2. Teams
3. Informal groups

Group performance
factors Opportunities &
Challenges
1. Composition
1. Virtual teams
2. Size
2. Diversity &
3. Norms
multicultural teams.
4. Cohesiveness Groups
&
Teams

Creating
groups/teams
1. Stages of
development
Managing Teams
2. Factors of team
- Cost and benefits
performance
3. The
implementation
process
 Group
Groups
-Two or more people who
interact with one another.

Formal Group Informal

(Work group) Group
• established by • self-created by
organization members

Command Group Affinity Group Friendship Group Interest Group

• relatively • relatively • Draws benefits • Organized
permanent permanent from the social around a
group • Members are relationships common
• functional from the same among its activity or
reporting hierarchical members interest
relationships level • Relatively
• meet regularly temporary
to share
information
and solve
problems
Types of Teams
Team - An interdependent group of at least two people who share a common
goal and accountability for outcomes

Functional Team • Members come from the same department or

functional area
Cross-Functional • Members come from different departments or
Team functional areas
Problem Solving • Team created to solve problem and make
Team improvement
Self-Directed Team • Set their own goals and purse them in ways defined
by the team
Venture Team • Semi-autonomous/ develop new product, process
or business
Virtual Team • Geographically/ organizationally dispersed
• Communicate using ICT
Global Team • Face to face/virtual teams whose members are
from different countries
 Group Performance Factors

Factors
FactorsAffecting
Affecting
Group
GroupPerformance
Performance

Composition
Composition Size
Size Norms
Norms Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness

Informal
Informal
Leadership
Leadership
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitte
d in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitte
d in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use
Team Performance Factors
Factor
Process Gain • Performance improvements that occur because people
work together rather than alone
Process Loss • Performance decrements that occur when a team
performs worse than the individual members would have
had they worked alone
• Social loafing is a common cause
Team Efficacy • A shared belief of ability to organize and execute
necessary behavior to reach team’s goals.
Trust • Confidence that other people will honor their
commitments without behavior monitoring.
Social • Occurs when people are motivated to look good and
Facilitation maintain positive image in front of others.
Roles • Define the expected behaviors and tasks of the position.
Other factors • Positive norms, shared team goals, feedback, team
rewards, and new member integration.
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d in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Benefits of Teams in Organizations

Team-Based
Team-Based
Environment
EnvironmentBenefits
Benefits

Other
Other
Enhanced
Enhanced Employee
Employee Reduced
Reduced Organizational
Organizational
performance
performance benefits
benefits costs
costs Benefits
Benefits

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permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Costs of Teams in Organizations

Managerial
Managerialrole
role
confusion/frustration
confusion/frustration

Managerial
Managerialsense
senseof
ofloss
loss
of
ofusefulness
usefulness
Difficulties
Difficultiesin
in
changing
changingto toaa Employee
Employeeresistance
resistance
team-based to role changes
to role changes
team-based
organization
organization
Cumbersome
Cumbersomeand
andlengthy
lengthy
team development process
team development process

Losses
Lossesdue
dueto
topremature
premature
abandonment
abandonment of theprocess
of the process

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permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Promoting Effective Performance

Necessities
Necessitiesfor
forTeam-Based
Team-Based
Organizational
Organizational Success
Success

Top
Top Changing
Changing
Understanding
Understanding
Management
Management Organizational
Organizational
Time
TimeFrames
Frames
Support
Support Rewards
Rewards

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tted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Changing Organizational Rewards

Reward
RewardSystems
Systems
for
forTeams
Teams

Skill-based
Skill-based Gain-sharing
Gain-sharing Team-bonus
Team-bonus
pay
pay systems
systems plans
plans

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tted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Virtual Teams

• Challenges:
– Geographic and temporal separation
– Isolation: hard to feel “part of the team”
– Difficult to perform standard integration, mentoring,
and development functions
– Many functions must be performed by the team
without the leader being present

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tted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Virtual Teams (cont’d)

• Important Virtual Leadership Skills:

– Communicate effectively by matching technology to
the situation
– Build community among members based on trust,
respect, and fairness
– Establish a clear and motivating shared vision, team
purpose, goals, and expectations
– Lead by example and focus on measurable results
– Coordinate and collaborate across organizational
boundaries

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tted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Diversity and Multicultural Teams

• Benefits of Diverse Teams:

– Creativity and innovation
– Improved decision making
– Improved problem solving
• Challenges of Diverse Teams:
– More misunderstandings and conflict
– Less integration and communication
– Less able to provide for all members’ needs

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tted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Diversity and Multicultural Teams (cont’d)

• Other Challenges
– Direct vs indirect communication
– Differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority
– Conflicting decision making norms

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permi
tted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.