Summary behaviour & environment
Chapter 12 – Work groups and work teams
work groups versus work teams
work group is a collection of two or more people who interact with one another and share some
interrelated task goals. Interaction and interrelatedness are two characteristics that distinguish a
group from a collection of people
work team is a type of work group, but a team has three specific properties
1. The action of individuals must be interdependent and coordinated
2. Each member must have a particular, specified role.
3. There must be common task goals and objectives
All teams are groups, but not all groups are teams
- A group of people work together but can do their work without one another. A team is a
group of people who cannot do their jobs, without other members of the team.
Virtual teams
- Work in teams without face-to-face contact
- Virtual teams have worse task performance, take more time to complete task, and have
lower group member satisfaction.
- The role of the leader is different in the virtual teams, and likely best focused on facilitating
communication and the flow of information.
Important group and team concept
Four important group concepts
- Roles
- Norms
- Group cohesiveness
- Process loss
Roles
- Role not everybody in a group or team has the same function or purpose
- Formal roles are specified by the organization and are part of the formal job description.
- Informal roles arise from group interaction rather than from the formal rules and
specifications of organizations.
Norms
- Norms are unwritten rules of behaviour accepted by members of a work group.
o Norms can exert powerful influences on behaviour
, o Norm violators are informed, scolded, punished, and then ostracized (verbannen).
Inform scold punish ostracize
Group cohesiveness
- Group cohesiveness is the sum of forces attracting group members and keeping the group
together
o Highly cohesive members must have strong motives to remain in the group.
o Cohesive groups strongly enforce their norms
Team conflict
- Team conflict leads to lower productivity and team member satisfaction
- Two sorts
o Cooperative
One in which individuals openly share diverging views, respect one another
opinions, and focus on finding a solution that is acceptable to team members
o Competitive conflict
One in which team members promote their own points of view, have little
regard for others opinions, and try to get their own position adopted
Process loss
- Process loss all the time and effort expended on activities not directly related to
production or task accomplishment.
o Social activities, as meals and conversations
o Norm enforcement
o Conflict resolution among members
o Etc.
Team commitment
- Team commitment is the strength of an individuals involvement in a team and consist of
the acceptance of team goals, willingness to work hard for the team, and desire to remain in
the team.
- Broader construct than cohesiveness
- Positive related to team performance and general job and team satisfaction
Team mental model
- Refers to the shared understanding among team members of the task, team, equipment, and
situation
- Mental models are complex and can be divided in two subtypes
o Taskwork
Concerns the nature of the job that needs to be done
o Teamwork
The shared conception of the team and how its members are to work
together
- Relates to performance
Group and team performance
Performance in the presence of others
, - Social facilitation effect performance is improved by other induced arousal when the task
is simple or well learned.
- Social inhibition effect performance is decreased by other induced arousal when the task
is complex or new to the individual, such as solving a complex mathematics problem
Group versus individual performance on additive tasks
- Additive task the output of the task is countable, and the total output is the sum of the
individual group member outputs.
- Nominal group noninteracting individuals
- The percentage that the interacting group output is of the expected group output declines as
the groups size increases. The output of two people should be 2 times more then the output
of one person. But this is mostly not the case. Two explanations:
o Possibility of process loss
Group members might interfere with one anothers task performance, or
they might spend time and effort on group maintenance activities rather
than on the task itself
Social loafing
People do not put forth as much effort in a group as they would if
they were working alone, and the larger the group, the less effort
each person exerts.
This effect diminished when group members believe that their
individual output is being monitored.
This effect is less in collectivist countries
Brainstorming
- Is a group technique that is supposed to result in improved performance with this type of
task
- Group members often inhibit each other
o Process loss
o Reluctant to share ideas (social anxiety)
o Members are spending more time listening to others rather than generating ideas or
options.
- Anonymity makes no difference in the brainstorm performance in groups! social anxiety is
no reason
Group problem solving
- For problem solving tasks a group performs as well or better than their best member.
Group decision making
- Group polarization
o Deviation from the group mean
o If the majority make a risky choice, the group decision is likelier to be riskier than the
mean of the individuals. If the majority make a conservative choice, the group is
likely to shift its decision in a conservative direction.
Members who hold the minority view will conform to the majority
The individuals who find that others made the same choice that they did are
likely to be convinced that theirs was the best choice.
, - Group think
o Is a phenomenon that can occur when groups make decisions that individual
members know are poor
o Likely to occur in highly cohesive groups with strong leaders, when the social
pressures to maintain conformity and harmony in the group take precedence over
sound decision making.
o Several factors that might lead to group think
Isolation of the group
Pressure for conformity
Strong leader
Group cohesiveness (seems unnecessary)
o Avoiding groupthink by
Group leaders should serve as inpartial moderator in group meetings rather
than attempting to control the decision alternatives that are recommended.
Critically seek information that might support or refute the wisdom of a
decision.
Break into smaller subgroups
Team innovation
- Innovation is introduction of new ideas, procedures, or products into a team
o Not the same as creativity
- Teams innovate out of necessity, internal and external factors
o Organization constraints, workload
o Turbulent environment high tech companies that produce products in rapidly
advancing fields
Team KSAOs
- Several team KSAOs have been identified that relate to team performance. Three are
important
o To be a good team member requires knowledge of teamwork
o An effective team member has good social skills
o Certain personality characteristics make a person particularly suited to teamwork
(collectivistic)
Group diversity
Cognitive diversity concerns peoples knowledge, skills, and values
Demographic diversity consist of more visible attributes of people, such as gender, age, and race-
ethnicity.
Interventions with work groups in organizations
Autonomous work team is an alternative to the traditional organization of a factory. Items are
assembled by small teams of employees rather than by all production employees.
Chapter 12 – Work groups and work teams
work groups versus work teams
work group is a collection of two or more people who interact with one another and share some
interrelated task goals. Interaction and interrelatedness are two characteristics that distinguish a
group from a collection of people
work team is a type of work group, but a team has three specific properties
1. The action of individuals must be interdependent and coordinated
2. Each member must have a particular, specified role.
3. There must be common task goals and objectives
All teams are groups, but not all groups are teams
- A group of people work together but can do their work without one another. A team is a
group of people who cannot do their jobs, without other members of the team.
Virtual teams
- Work in teams without face-to-face contact
- Virtual teams have worse task performance, take more time to complete task, and have
lower group member satisfaction.
- The role of the leader is different in the virtual teams, and likely best focused on facilitating
communication and the flow of information.
Important group and team concept
Four important group concepts
- Roles
- Norms
- Group cohesiveness
- Process loss
Roles
- Role not everybody in a group or team has the same function or purpose
- Formal roles are specified by the organization and are part of the formal job description.
- Informal roles arise from group interaction rather than from the formal rules and
specifications of organizations.
Norms
- Norms are unwritten rules of behaviour accepted by members of a work group.
o Norms can exert powerful influences on behaviour
, o Norm violators are informed, scolded, punished, and then ostracized (verbannen).
Inform scold punish ostracize
Group cohesiveness
- Group cohesiveness is the sum of forces attracting group members and keeping the group
together
o Highly cohesive members must have strong motives to remain in the group.
o Cohesive groups strongly enforce their norms
Team conflict
- Team conflict leads to lower productivity and team member satisfaction
- Two sorts
o Cooperative
One in which individuals openly share diverging views, respect one another
opinions, and focus on finding a solution that is acceptable to team members
o Competitive conflict
One in which team members promote their own points of view, have little
regard for others opinions, and try to get their own position adopted
Process loss
- Process loss all the time and effort expended on activities not directly related to
production or task accomplishment.
o Social activities, as meals and conversations
o Norm enforcement
o Conflict resolution among members
o Etc.
Team commitment
- Team commitment is the strength of an individuals involvement in a team and consist of
the acceptance of team goals, willingness to work hard for the team, and desire to remain in
the team.
- Broader construct than cohesiveness
- Positive related to team performance and general job and team satisfaction
Team mental model
- Refers to the shared understanding among team members of the task, team, equipment, and
situation
- Mental models are complex and can be divided in two subtypes
o Taskwork
Concerns the nature of the job that needs to be done
o Teamwork
The shared conception of the team and how its members are to work
together
- Relates to performance
Group and team performance
Performance in the presence of others
, - Social facilitation effect performance is improved by other induced arousal when the task
is simple or well learned.
- Social inhibition effect performance is decreased by other induced arousal when the task
is complex or new to the individual, such as solving a complex mathematics problem
Group versus individual performance on additive tasks
- Additive task the output of the task is countable, and the total output is the sum of the
individual group member outputs.
- Nominal group noninteracting individuals
- The percentage that the interacting group output is of the expected group output declines as
the groups size increases. The output of two people should be 2 times more then the output
of one person. But this is mostly not the case. Two explanations:
o Possibility of process loss
Group members might interfere with one anothers task performance, or
they might spend time and effort on group maintenance activities rather
than on the task itself
Social loafing
People do not put forth as much effort in a group as they would if
they were working alone, and the larger the group, the less effort
each person exerts.
This effect diminished when group members believe that their
individual output is being monitored.
This effect is less in collectivist countries
Brainstorming
- Is a group technique that is supposed to result in improved performance with this type of
task
- Group members often inhibit each other
o Process loss
o Reluctant to share ideas (social anxiety)
o Members are spending more time listening to others rather than generating ideas or
options.
- Anonymity makes no difference in the brainstorm performance in groups! social anxiety is
no reason
Group problem solving
- For problem solving tasks a group performs as well or better than their best member.
Group decision making
- Group polarization
o Deviation from the group mean
o If the majority make a risky choice, the group decision is likelier to be riskier than the
mean of the individuals. If the majority make a conservative choice, the group is
likely to shift its decision in a conservative direction.
Members who hold the minority view will conform to the majority
The individuals who find that others made the same choice that they did are
likely to be convinced that theirs was the best choice.
, - Group think
o Is a phenomenon that can occur when groups make decisions that individual
members know are poor
o Likely to occur in highly cohesive groups with strong leaders, when the social
pressures to maintain conformity and harmony in the group take precedence over
sound decision making.
o Several factors that might lead to group think
Isolation of the group
Pressure for conformity
Strong leader
Group cohesiveness (seems unnecessary)
o Avoiding groupthink by
Group leaders should serve as inpartial moderator in group meetings rather
than attempting to control the decision alternatives that are recommended.
Critically seek information that might support or refute the wisdom of a
decision.
Break into smaller subgroups
Team innovation
- Innovation is introduction of new ideas, procedures, or products into a team
o Not the same as creativity
- Teams innovate out of necessity, internal and external factors
o Organization constraints, workload
o Turbulent environment high tech companies that produce products in rapidly
advancing fields
Team KSAOs
- Several team KSAOs have been identified that relate to team performance. Three are
important
o To be a good team member requires knowledge of teamwork
o An effective team member has good social skills
o Certain personality characteristics make a person particularly suited to teamwork
(collectivistic)
Group diversity
Cognitive diversity concerns peoples knowledge, skills, and values
Demographic diversity consist of more visible attributes of people, such as gender, age, and race-
ethnicity.
Interventions with work groups in organizations
Autonomous work team is an alternative to the traditional organization of a factory. Items are
assembled by small teams of employees rather than by all production employees.
