Chapter 17 Teams and Teamwork
17.1 Teams in Organizations
Team: Relatively small set of people with complementary skills who regularly interact with one
another, working together independently to achieve shared goals.
Teamwork: The process of team members working together to accomplish these goals.
- Team Leader: serves as the appointed head of a team/unit
- Team Member: serves as a contributing part of a project team
- Network Facilitator: serves as the peer leader & networking hub for a special task force
- Coach/Developer: serves as a team’s advisor on ways to improve team performance
Synergy: The creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its individual parts
Pros: Achieve goals that an individual cannot and exceed expectations as a group.
- Performance gains through synergy
- More resources for problem solving
- Improved creativity and innovation
- Increased need satisfaction of members
- Improved decision-making quality
Cons:
- Personality conflicts and workstyle differences
- Unclear tasks and ambiguous agendas
Social Loafing: Presence of free-riders who slack off because responsibility for various tasks is
diffused in teams and others are present to do the work.
Interdependence: Team members are put in a position where they depend on each other to
fulfill tasks and carry out work effectively.
Formal Groups: Officially recognized and supported by the organization. These groups form
interlocking networks that serve as an organization’s foundation. (Also known as departments,
units, divisions, etc.)
, Informal Groups: They emerge from natural and spontaneous relationships among members.
- Interest Groups: workers join together to pursue a common cause
- Friendship Groups: develop for a wide variety of reasons
- Support Groups: members basically help one another to cope with problems
17.2 Trends in the Use of Teams
Committee: Brings employees together outside of their daily job duties to work together for a
specific purpose. Committees are led by a designated head/chairperson who is held
accountable for the committee’s performance.
Project Teams (Task Forces): Brings people together to work on common problems, but on a
temporary rather than permanent basis.
Cross-Functional Teams: Pulls together members from across different functional units to work on
common goals.
Functional Chimney Problems: A lack of communication across functions.
Self-Managing Teams: Operate with a high degree of task interdependence and there is collective
responsibility for the results. There is better performance, reduced costs and higher levels of
moral. Members are independent and have discretion in numerous different tasks.
Virtual Teams (Distributed Teams): Work together through computer mediation rather than face
to face. Though there are many advantages to virtual meetings, there’s a lack of social interaction.
Team Building: Series of planned activities used to analyze the functioning of a team and to make
constructive, systematic changes in how it operates.
17.1 Teams in Organizations
Team: Relatively small set of people with complementary skills who regularly interact with one
another, working together independently to achieve shared goals.
Teamwork: The process of team members working together to accomplish these goals.
- Team Leader: serves as the appointed head of a team/unit
- Team Member: serves as a contributing part of a project team
- Network Facilitator: serves as the peer leader & networking hub for a special task force
- Coach/Developer: serves as a team’s advisor on ways to improve team performance
Synergy: The creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its individual parts
Pros: Achieve goals that an individual cannot and exceed expectations as a group.
- Performance gains through synergy
- More resources for problem solving
- Improved creativity and innovation
- Increased need satisfaction of members
- Improved decision-making quality
Cons:
- Personality conflicts and workstyle differences
- Unclear tasks and ambiguous agendas
Social Loafing: Presence of free-riders who slack off because responsibility for various tasks is
diffused in teams and others are present to do the work.
Interdependence: Team members are put in a position where they depend on each other to
fulfill tasks and carry out work effectively.
Formal Groups: Officially recognized and supported by the organization. These groups form
interlocking networks that serve as an organization’s foundation. (Also known as departments,
units, divisions, etc.)
, Informal Groups: They emerge from natural and spontaneous relationships among members.
- Interest Groups: workers join together to pursue a common cause
- Friendship Groups: develop for a wide variety of reasons
- Support Groups: members basically help one another to cope with problems
17.2 Trends in the Use of Teams
Committee: Brings employees together outside of their daily job duties to work together for a
specific purpose. Committees are led by a designated head/chairperson who is held
accountable for the committee’s performance.
Project Teams (Task Forces): Brings people together to work on common problems, but on a
temporary rather than permanent basis.
Cross-Functional Teams: Pulls together members from across different functional units to work on
common goals.
Functional Chimney Problems: A lack of communication across functions.
Self-Managing Teams: Operate with a high degree of task interdependence and there is collective
responsibility for the results. There is better performance, reduced costs and higher levels of
moral. Members are independent and have discretion in numerous different tasks.
Virtual Teams (Distributed Teams): Work together through computer mediation rather than face
to face. Though there are many advantages to virtual meetings, there’s a lack of social interaction.
Team Building: Series of planned activities used to analyze the functioning of a team and to make
constructive, systematic changes in how it operates.
