Chapter 8: Team Dynamics
Teams = groups of two or more people who interact with and influence each others, are mutually
accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives, and perceive
themselves as a social entity within an organization
All teams exist to fulfill some purpose
Team members are held together by their interdependence and need for collaboration to
achieve goals
Team members influence each other, though some may be more influential then others
Teams exist when its members perceive themselves to be a team
Informal groups = people who assemble together, whether or not they have any
interdependence or organizational objective
o Due to the drive to bond
o Due to social identity theory, meaning people define themselves partly by their
group affiliations
o Due to being comforted by the presence of others (emotional support)
o Due to accomplishing personal objectives that cannot be achieved alone
Coalitions = informal groups where employees congregate to support or
oppose organizational changes as this collective effort has more power than
individuals who try to bring about change alone
o May reduce employee stress, thereby improving employee well-being, which
increases organizational effectiveness
o Social networks = social structures of individuals or social units that are connected to
one another through one or more forms of interdependence
Characteristics of teams
Team permanence = how long a type of team usually exists
Skill diversity = the extent to which a team has members with different skills and knowledge
o Benefits: more perspectives, better creativity, and better problem solving
o Problems: slower team development and possible subgroup conflicts (faultlines)
Authority dispersion = the degree that decision-making responsibility is distributed
throughout the team or is vested in one or a few members of the team
Types of teams
1. Departmental teams = teams that consist of employees who have similar or complementary
skills and are located in the same unit of a functional structure: usually minimal task
interdependence as each person works with clients or employees in other departments
o High team permanence
o Low to medium skill diversity
o Low authority dispersion
2. Self-directed teams, SDTs = cross-functional work groups that are organized around work
processes that complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks and
have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks (Buurtzorg Nederland)
o High team permanence
o Medium to high skill diversity
o High authority dispersion
o Having sufficient autonomy, the work site and technology supporting coordination
and communication, and having a structure which keeps the team independent from
other teams
3. Task force (project) teams = cross-functional teams whose members are usually drawn form
several disciplines to solve a specific problem, realize an opportunity, or design a product or
service
o Low team permanence
o Medium to high skill diversity
, o Medium authority dispersion
o Must apply the five Cs, good communication technology skills, strong self-leadership
skills, better emotional intelligence, having a toolkit of communication channels,
having structure, and meeting face-to-face early in team development process
Remote teams = teams where members work in different geographic locations and
collaborate digitally
Human-AI teams = teams where humans collaborate with Ai systems to complete tasks
Benefits of teams
Providing superior customer service
More productive as members exert more effort due to drive to bond, having high
accountability, and creating a moving performance standard for others
Improving organizational performance
o Through breadth of knowledge, diversity of perspectives, increased motivation,
higher acceptance, and more synergy
Limitations of teams
Process losses = resources (including time and energy) expended toward team development
and maintenance rather than the task (e.g. resolving conflicts, coordination delays)
o When the task can be performed by one person, process losses can make a team less
effective than one working alone
o Increases with the team's diversity and size
Brooke's law = adding more people to a late software project only makes it
later
Social loafing = the problem that occurs when people exert less effort (and usually perform
at a lower level) when working in teams than when working alone
o Based on evidence of the Ringelmann effect = a phenomenon in which the total
group performance increases but the effort per person decreases, which
demonstrates social loafing in teams showing that group productivity doe snot scale
linearly with group size
o More pervasive when individual performance is hidden, when work is boring or the
task has low task significance, for members with low conscientiousness, low
agreeableness, and low collectivist values, and members aren't motivated (low social
identity)
o Solved by making contributions more visible, forming smaller teams, measuring
individual performance, specializing tasks, increasing job enrichment, increasing
mindfulness of team obligations, and selecting motivated, team-oriented employees
Team effectiveness = a team which benefits the organization and its members, and survives long
enough to accomplish its mandate
Based on achievement of organizational purpose, satisfaction of members, and maintaining
team survival
Influenced by organizational and team environment, team design, team processes, and team
mental models
Team environment
o Team-based rewards encourages cooperation
o Communication-friendly workplaces support interaction
o Supportive leadership provides guidance and resources
o Task clustering helps members work closely together
Team design - characteristics, size, and composition
o Task interdependence = the extent to which team members must share materials,
information, or expertise in order to perform their jobs
Reciprocal interdependence = work output is exchanged back and forth among
individuals or work units, which produces the highest degree of interdependence
, Sequential interdependence = output of one person or work unit becomes the direct
input for another person or unit (usually on an assembly line)
Pooled interdependence = an employee or work unit shares machinery, technical
support, or other common resources
The higher the level of task interdependence, the greater the need to organize
people into teams, when members have the same task goals
Team work best when tasks are complex, divisible into specialized roles, and high in
task interdependence
o Ideal team size varies with the type of team, the tasks it is expected to perform, and the
available forms of coordination
However research shows that smaller teams of about six members often perform
better
Due to less coordination effort, faster decision-making, greater
responsibility, and stronger relationships
o Effective team member behaviors is based on cooperating, coordinating, communicating,
comforting, and conflict handling (the five Cs of effective teamwork)
o Diverse teams are more likely to identify solutions to difficult problems, have a broader pool
of technical abilities, and provide better representation of the team's constituents
o Diverse teams take longer to become a high-performing team and are susceptible to
faultlines
Team processes - development, norms, roles, cohesion, trust, and mental models
The stages of team development do not show that some teams remain in one stage longer
than others, it does not explain why teams sometimes regress back to earlier stages, and
how intricacies evolve
1. Forming = first stage of team development which focuses on orientation
Discover expectations, evaluate value of membership, defer to existing authority,
and test boundaries of behavior
2. Storming = second stage of team development which focuses on power and influence
Interpersonal conflict, compete for team roles, influence goals and means, and
establish norms
Evidence suggests that different personality types contribute differently to
team effectiveness
Norms are developed and enforced as soon as the team forms and some
norms continue to change
Norms develop when members associate behaviors with the team's
performance or well-being of members, it improves predictability and
conflict-avoidance in relations, and to routinize behavior with minimal
cognitive effort
3. Norming = third stage of team development which focuses on team unity
Establish roles, agree on team objectives, form team mental models, and develop
cohesion
Team cohesion is based on member similarity, team size (smaller is better),
member interaction, somewhat difficult entry, team success, and external
competition and challenges
Team cohesion depends on task interdependence and the alignment of the
team's norms with organizational objectives (higher task interdependence
improves team cohesion)
Team cohesion affects team performance much more than team
performance affects cohesion
, Complementary mental models = cognitive images held by specific team members but that
are compatible with the mental models held by other team members
4. Performing = fourth stage of team development which focuses on task performance
Task oriented, committed, efficient coordination, high cooperation and trust, and
conflicts resolved quickly
Calculus-based trust = based on deterrence with a fragile and limited
potential as it depends on punishment (one has more trust in the system
than in the other person) (e.g. trusting someone as breaking trust has
consequences)
Knowledge-based trust = based on the predictability of another member's
behavior which is fairly robust (e.g. you trust a colleague as you know their
work habits)
Identification-based trust = based on common mental models and values
which increases with one's social identity with the team (e.g. close-knit
teams where members strongly identify with each other)
5. Adjourning = final stage of team development
Shifting attention away from task orientation to a relationship focus
Constraints on team decision making
1. Time constraints
o Production blocking = a time constraint in team decision making due to the
procedural requirement that only one person may speak at a time
o Procedural losses
2. Evaluation apprehension = occurs when individuals are reluctant to mention ideas that seem
silly because they believe (often correctly) that others in the decision-making group are
silently evaluating them
3. Pressure to conform
4. Overconfidence
o Team efficacy = the collective belief among team members in the team's capability
to successfully complete a task
Overconfident teams are less vigilant when making decision as they have
more positive emotions and moods during these events which results in
engaging in less constructive debate
More common in highly cohesive teams as self-enhancement occurs
for things that are important
More common when teams have external threats or competition
More common when mutually reinforcing beliefs of the team
Improving team decision making
Teams should be large enough to possess the collective knowledge to resolve the problem
yet small enough to avoid consuming too much or restrict individual input
Members should be confident in their decision making but be wary about being
overconfident
Checks and balances should be in place to prevent individuals from dominating the
discussion
Having an environment where members have psychological safety
Improving creativity in teams
Brainstorming
1. Judicial judgment is ruled out: no criticism or evaluation of any ideas until the next
session
2. Wildness is welcome
3. Quantity is wanted
4. Combination and improvement are welcome
Teams = groups of two or more people who interact with and influence each others, are mutually
accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives, and perceive
themselves as a social entity within an organization
All teams exist to fulfill some purpose
Team members are held together by their interdependence and need for collaboration to
achieve goals
Team members influence each other, though some may be more influential then others
Teams exist when its members perceive themselves to be a team
Informal groups = people who assemble together, whether or not they have any
interdependence or organizational objective
o Due to the drive to bond
o Due to social identity theory, meaning people define themselves partly by their
group affiliations
o Due to being comforted by the presence of others (emotional support)
o Due to accomplishing personal objectives that cannot be achieved alone
Coalitions = informal groups where employees congregate to support or
oppose organizational changes as this collective effort has more power than
individuals who try to bring about change alone
o May reduce employee stress, thereby improving employee well-being, which
increases organizational effectiveness
o Social networks = social structures of individuals or social units that are connected to
one another through one or more forms of interdependence
Characteristics of teams
Team permanence = how long a type of team usually exists
Skill diversity = the extent to which a team has members with different skills and knowledge
o Benefits: more perspectives, better creativity, and better problem solving
o Problems: slower team development and possible subgroup conflicts (faultlines)
Authority dispersion = the degree that decision-making responsibility is distributed
throughout the team or is vested in one or a few members of the team
Types of teams
1. Departmental teams = teams that consist of employees who have similar or complementary
skills and are located in the same unit of a functional structure: usually minimal task
interdependence as each person works with clients or employees in other departments
o High team permanence
o Low to medium skill diversity
o Low authority dispersion
2. Self-directed teams, SDTs = cross-functional work groups that are organized around work
processes that complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks and
have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks (Buurtzorg Nederland)
o High team permanence
o Medium to high skill diversity
o High authority dispersion
o Having sufficient autonomy, the work site and technology supporting coordination
and communication, and having a structure which keeps the team independent from
other teams
3. Task force (project) teams = cross-functional teams whose members are usually drawn form
several disciplines to solve a specific problem, realize an opportunity, or design a product or
service
o Low team permanence
o Medium to high skill diversity
, o Medium authority dispersion
o Must apply the five Cs, good communication technology skills, strong self-leadership
skills, better emotional intelligence, having a toolkit of communication channels,
having structure, and meeting face-to-face early in team development process
Remote teams = teams where members work in different geographic locations and
collaborate digitally
Human-AI teams = teams where humans collaborate with Ai systems to complete tasks
Benefits of teams
Providing superior customer service
More productive as members exert more effort due to drive to bond, having high
accountability, and creating a moving performance standard for others
Improving organizational performance
o Through breadth of knowledge, diversity of perspectives, increased motivation,
higher acceptance, and more synergy
Limitations of teams
Process losses = resources (including time and energy) expended toward team development
and maintenance rather than the task (e.g. resolving conflicts, coordination delays)
o When the task can be performed by one person, process losses can make a team less
effective than one working alone
o Increases with the team's diversity and size
Brooke's law = adding more people to a late software project only makes it
later
Social loafing = the problem that occurs when people exert less effort (and usually perform
at a lower level) when working in teams than when working alone
o Based on evidence of the Ringelmann effect = a phenomenon in which the total
group performance increases but the effort per person decreases, which
demonstrates social loafing in teams showing that group productivity doe snot scale
linearly with group size
o More pervasive when individual performance is hidden, when work is boring or the
task has low task significance, for members with low conscientiousness, low
agreeableness, and low collectivist values, and members aren't motivated (low social
identity)
o Solved by making contributions more visible, forming smaller teams, measuring
individual performance, specializing tasks, increasing job enrichment, increasing
mindfulness of team obligations, and selecting motivated, team-oriented employees
Team effectiveness = a team which benefits the organization and its members, and survives long
enough to accomplish its mandate
Based on achievement of organizational purpose, satisfaction of members, and maintaining
team survival
Influenced by organizational and team environment, team design, team processes, and team
mental models
Team environment
o Team-based rewards encourages cooperation
o Communication-friendly workplaces support interaction
o Supportive leadership provides guidance and resources
o Task clustering helps members work closely together
Team design - characteristics, size, and composition
o Task interdependence = the extent to which team members must share materials,
information, or expertise in order to perform their jobs
Reciprocal interdependence = work output is exchanged back and forth among
individuals or work units, which produces the highest degree of interdependence
, Sequential interdependence = output of one person or work unit becomes the direct
input for another person or unit (usually on an assembly line)
Pooled interdependence = an employee or work unit shares machinery, technical
support, or other common resources
The higher the level of task interdependence, the greater the need to organize
people into teams, when members have the same task goals
Team work best when tasks are complex, divisible into specialized roles, and high in
task interdependence
o Ideal team size varies with the type of team, the tasks it is expected to perform, and the
available forms of coordination
However research shows that smaller teams of about six members often perform
better
Due to less coordination effort, faster decision-making, greater
responsibility, and stronger relationships
o Effective team member behaviors is based on cooperating, coordinating, communicating,
comforting, and conflict handling (the five Cs of effective teamwork)
o Diverse teams are more likely to identify solutions to difficult problems, have a broader pool
of technical abilities, and provide better representation of the team's constituents
o Diverse teams take longer to become a high-performing team and are susceptible to
faultlines
Team processes - development, norms, roles, cohesion, trust, and mental models
The stages of team development do not show that some teams remain in one stage longer
than others, it does not explain why teams sometimes regress back to earlier stages, and
how intricacies evolve
1. Forming = first stage of team development which focuses on orientation
Discover expectations, evaluate value of membership, defer to existing authority,
and test boundaries of behavior
2. Storming = second stage of team development which focuses on power and influence
Interpersonal conflict, compete for team roles, influence goals and means, and
establish norms
Evidence suggests that different personality types contribute differently to
team effectiveness
Norms are developed and enforced as soon as the team forms and some
norms continue to change
Norms develop when members associate behaviors with the team's
performance or well-being of members, it improves predictability and
conflict-avoidance in relations, and to routinize behavior with minimal
cognitive effort
3. Norming = third stage of team development which focuses on team unity
Establish roles, agree on team objectives, form team mental models, and develop
cohesion
Team cohesion is based on member similarity, team size (smaller is better),
member interaction, somewhat difficult entry, team success, and external
competition and challenges
Team cohesion depends on task interdependence and the alignment of the
team's norms with organizational objectives (higher task interdependence
improves team cohesion)
Team cohesion affects team performance much more than team
performance affects cohesion
, Complementary mental models = cognitive images held by specific team members but that
are compatible with the mental models held by other team members
4. Performing = fourth stage of team development which focuses on task performance
Task oriented, committed, efficient coordination, high cooperation and trust, and
conflicts resolved quickly
Calculus-based trust = based on deterrence with a fragile and limited
potential as it depends on punishment (one has more trust in the system
than in the other person) (e.g. trusting someone as breaking trust has
consequences)
Knowledge-based trust = based on the predictability of another member's
behavior which is fairly robust (e.g. you trust a colleague as you know their
work habits)
Identification-based trust = based on common mental models and values
which increases with one's social identity with the team (e.g. close-knit
teams where members strongly identify with each other)
5. Adjourning = final stage of team development
Shifting attention away from task orientation to a relationship focus
Constraints on team decision making
1. Time constraints
o Production blocking = a time constraint in team decision making due to the
procedural requirement that only one person may speak at a time
o Procedural losses
2. Evaluation apprehension = occurs when individuals are reluctant to mention ideas that seem
silly because they believe (often correctly) that others in the decision-making group are
silently evaluating them
3. Pressure to conform
4. Overconfidence
o Team efficacy = the collective belief among team members in the team's capability
to successfully complete a task
Overconfident teams are less vigilant when making decision as they have
more positive emotions and moods during these events which results in
engaging in less constructive debate
More common in highly cohesive teams as self-enhancement occurs
for things that are important
More common when teams have external threats or competition
More common when mutually reinforcing beliefs of the team
Improving team decision making
Teams should be large enough to possess the collective knowledge to resolve the problem
yet small enough to avoid consuming too much or restrict individual input
Members should be confident in their decision making but be wary about being
overconfident
Checks and balances should be in place to prevent individuals from dominating the
discussion
Having an environment where members have psychological safety
Improving creativity in teams
Brainstorming
1. Judicial judgment is ruled out: no criticism or evaluation of any ideas until the next
session
2. Wildness is welcome
3. Quantity is wanted
4. Combination and improvement are welcome
