Groups and Teamwork: Organizational Behaviour

Chapter 6:
Groups and
teamwork
Organizational
Behaviour
5th Canadian Edition
Langton / Robbins / Judge

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education
Canada
6-1
Chapter Outline
• Teams vs. Groups: What’s the Difference?

• Why Have Teams Become So Popular?
• Types of Teams
• From Individual to Team Member
• Stages of Group and Team Development
• Creating Effective Teams
• Beware! Teams Aren’t Always the Answer
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed. 6-2
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
Groups and Teamwork
1. What are teams and groups?

2. Does everyone use teams?
3. What kinds of teams are there?
4. How does one become a team player?
5. Do teams go through stages while they work?
6. How do we create effective teams?
7. Are teams always the answer?
Teams vs. Groups:
What’s the Difference?
• Groups
– Two or more people with a common relationship.
• Teams
– A small number of people who work closely together
toward a common objective and are mutually
accountable.
Why Have Teams Become
So Popular?
• A Conference Board of Canada report found that more
than 80 of 109 respondents used teams.
• In the U.S.:
– 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have half or more of their
employees on teams
– 68 percent of small U.S. manufacturers use teams in their
production area.
• The extensive use of teams creates the potential for an

organization to generate greater outputs with no increase in
inputs.
Types of Teams
• Problem-Solving (Process-Improvement) Teams

– Groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department
– Meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving
quality, efficiency, and the work environment.
• Self-Managed (Self-Directed) Teams

– Groups of 10 to 15 people
– Take on responsibilities of their former managers
• Planning, scheduling work, assigning tasks, taking action on problems
etc.
Exhibit 6-1
Four Types of Teams
Technology
Problem-solving Self-managed Cross-functional Virtual
Types of Teams
• Cross-Functional Teams
– Employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from
different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.
• Task force: temporary cross functional team
• Committee: group composed of members from different departments
(more long term in nature)
• Skunkworks: cross-functional teams that develop spontaneously to
create new products or work on complex problems.
• Virtual Teams
– Use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed
members in order to achieve a common goal.
From Individual To Team Member-
Roles
• Roles
– a set of expected behaviour patterns associated with
someone occupying a given position in a social unit.
• Role expectations
– How others believe a person should act in a given
situation.
• Role Conflict
– A situation in which an individual is confronted by
divergent role expectations.
Roles
• Role Ambiguity
– A person is unclear about his or her role.
• Role Overload
– Too much is expected of someone.
• Role Underload
– Too little is expected of someone
– That person feels that they are not contributing
Norms
• Acceptable standards of behaviour within a group that are
shared by the group’s members.
• What Norms Cover

– Performance: work ethic, work quality, levels of tardiness
– Appearance: personal dress, when to look busy, when to
"goof off," how to show loyalty
– Social arrangement: how team members interact
– Allocation of resources: pay, assignments, tools &
equipment
How Norms Develop
• Explicit statements made by a group

member
• Critical events in the groups history
• Primacy: initial patterns of behaviour
• Carry-over behaviour
Why Norms Are Enforced
• Facilitate group survival.
• Make behaviour predictable.
• Minimize embarrassment.
• Express central values.
• Clarify the group’s identity.
Conformity
• Adjusting one’s behaviour to align with the norms
of the group
• People conform to reference groups

– Important groups to which individuals belong or hope
to belong
Exhibit 6-2
Stages of Group Development
Stages of Group and Team
Development
• Stage I: Forming
– Characterized by uncertainty and anxiety
• Stage II: Storming
– Characterized by intra-group conflict
• Stage III: Norming
– Characterized by close relationships and cohesiveness
• Stage IV: Performing
– The stage when the group is fully functional
• Stage V: Adjourning
– The final stage in group development
– Characterized by concern with wrapping up activities rather
than task performance for temporary groups
Putting the Five-Stage Model
Into Perspective
• Groups do not necessarily progress clearly through
the stages one at a time.
• Groups can sometimes go back to an earlier stage.
• Conflict can sometimes be helpful to the group.
• Context can matter: airline pilots can immediately

reach performing stage.
The Punctuated-Equilibrium Model
• Phase 1
– The first meeting sets the group’s direction.
– The first phase of group activity is one of inertia.
• Transition
– A transition takes place at the end of the first phase, which occurs
exactly when the group has used up half its allotted time.
– The transition initiates major changes.
• Phase 2
– A second phase of inertia follows the transition.
• Last meeting is characterized by markedly accelerated

activity.
Exhibit 6-3 The Punctuated-
Equilibrium Model
(High)
Completion
Phase 2
Performance
First
Meeting
Transition
Phase 1
(Low)
A (A+B)/2 B
Time
Exhibit 6-4 Characteristics of an
Effective Team
1. Clear purpose 7. Open communication
2. Informality 8. Clear rules and work
3. Participation assignments
4. Listening 9. Shared leadership
5. Civilized 10.External relations
disagreement 11.Style diversity
6. Consensus decisions 12.Self-assessment
Source: G. M. Parker, Team Players and Teamwork: The New Competitive Business Strategy (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990), Table 2, p. 33. Copyright © 1990
by Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Exhibit 6-5
A Model of Team Effectiveness
Context Composition
• Adequate resources • Skills
• Leadership and structure • Personality
• Climate of trust • Roles
• Performance evaluation • Diversity
and rewards • Size
• Member flexibility
• Member preference for
teamwork
Team
Effectiveness
Work design Process
• Autonomy • Common purpose
• Skill variety • Specific goals
• Task identity • Team efficacy
• Task significance • Managed level of conflict
• Accountability
Creating Effective Teams – Context
• Adequate Resources
• Leadership and Structure
• Climate of Trust
• Performance Evaluation and Rewards
Creating Effective Teams –
Composition
• Skills
• Personality
• Roles
• Diversity
• Size
• Member Flexibility
• Members’ Preference for Teamwork
Skills
• Teams need the following skills to perform

effectively:
– Technical expertise
– Problem-solving and decision-making skills
– Interpersonal skills
Exhibit 6-6
Teamwork Competencies
Personality
• Team members should be selected based on

personalities and preferences
• According to research on the subject:
– Teams under perform when there are one or more
highly disagreeable members
– Conscientious people help teams perform
• they sense when support is needed and back members up
– Open team members communicate better
• which leads to more creativity and innovation
Roles
• Task-oriented roles
– These group members ensure that the tasks are accomplished.
• Maintenance roles
– These group members maintain good relations within the group.
• Individual roles
– Roles performed by group members that are not productive for
keeping the group on task.
Exhibit 6-7 Roles Required for
Effective Team Functioning
Diversity
• Diversity in personality, age, gender, and

experience promotes conflict
– stimulates creativity and idea generation
– leads to improved decision making.
• Cultural diversity in groups initially leads to more
difficulty in building cohesion, gaining
satisfaction and being productive.
– Problems pass with time (certainly by three months).
– Culturally diverse groups bring more viewpoints out.
Exhibit 6-8 Advantages and
Disadvantages of Diversity
Group Size
• Research shows that:

– Smaller groups are faster at completing tasks.
– When problem solving, larger groups do better.
• Social Loafing
– The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working
collectively than when working individually.
• How can we reduce social loafing?
– teams should not be larger than necessary
– individuals should be held accountable for their actions.
Team Member Attributes
• Member Flexibility
– The ability of team members to complete each others’
tasks.
• Members’ Preference for Teamwork

– Team members who would prefer to work on their own
threaten the team’s morale.
Creating Effective Teams –
Work Design
• Effective teams need to work together and take
collective responsibility to complete significant
tasks. They must be more than a “team-in-name-
only.”
Creating Effective Teams – Process
• Common Purpose
• Specific Goals
• Team Efficacy
• Managed Level of Conflict
• Accountability
Exhibit 6-9 Relationship Between Team
Cohesiveness, Performance Norms,
and Productivity
Cohesiveness
High Low
Performance Norms
High Moderate
High
productivity productivity
Low Moderate to
Low
productivity low productivity
Beware! Teams Aren’t Always the
Answer
• Teams work best when the answer is yes:
– Can the work be done better by more than one person?
– Does work create a common purpose or set of goals for

the people in the group that is more than the aggregate
of individual goals?
– Are members of the group interdependent?
Summary and Implications
1. What are teams and groups?

• Groups are simply the sum of individual efforts. Teams generate
positive synergy through coordinated efforts.
2. Does everyone use teams?
• Teams have become an essential part of the way business is
being done, with a large majority of companies now using them.
3. What kinds of teams are there?
• Four most common forms: problem-solving (process-
improvement); self-managed (self-directed); cross-functional
(project); virtual teams.
4. How does one become a team player?
• Individuals on a team need to understand their roles and then
work together to create a set of group norms
Summary and Implications
4. Do teams go through stages while they work?

– Two different models were presented:
• The five stage model: forming, storming, norming,
performing, and adjourning
• The punctuated-equilibrium model: describes the pattern of
development of specific to temporary groups with deadlines
6. How do we create effective teams?
• For teams to be effective, careful consideration must be given to
resources, the team’s composition, work design, and process.
7. Are teams always the answer?
• Can the work be done better by more than one person?
• Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for
the people in the group that is more than the aggregate of
individual goals?
• Are the member of the group interdependent?

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Chapter 6:

Langton / Robbins / Judge

• Teams vs. Groups: What’s the Difference?

1. What are teams and groups?

• The extensive use of teams creates the potential for an

• Problem-Solving (Process-Improvement) Teams

• Self-Managed (Self-Directed) Teams

Problem-solving Self-managed Cross-functional Virtual

• What Norms Cover

• Explicit statements made by a group

• Critical events in the groups history

• Primacy: initial patterns of behaviour

• Facilitate group survival.

• Make behaviour predictable.

• Express central values.

• Clarify the group’s identity.

• People conform to reference groups

• Groups can sometimes go back to an earlier stage.

• Conflict can sometimes be helpful to the group.

• Context can matter: airline pilots can immediately

• Last meeting is characterized by markedly accelerated

• Leadership and Structure

• Performance Evaluation and Rewards

• Teams need the following skills to perform

– Problem-solving and decision-making skills

• Team members should be selected based on

• Diversity in personality, age, gender, and

• Research shows that:

• Members’ Preference for Teamwork

• Managed Level of Conflict

– Can the work be done better by more than one person?

– Does work create a common purpose or set of goals for

– Are members of the group interdependent?

1. What are teams and groups?

4. Do teams go through stages while they work?

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