1. {
Organizational Teams
(Chapter 11)
Dr. Lora Helvie-Mason, COMS 404

2. Before you read…
• Consider what you know about
teams, team work, organizational
teams, and the ways people interact on
the job.
• Reflect on your personal experiences as
a team member.

3.  Face it, teams are a part of organizational life.
 Teams are small groups (3-9 people) who are
INTERDEPENDENT, committed to one
another, and are mutually accountable
 We study teams because they are so essential
in the functioning of organizations
 They impact individuals, too!
 Learning to effectively understand, and work
within, teams will help your career
Why study teams?

4. Characteristics of teams
Decision
Making
Norms
Relational
Communication
DiversityCohesiveness
Stress
Satisfaction
Stuckness

5. { {Relationships can help!
 Relationships are formed
that help employees feel
more connected to the team
 Individuals receive support
from others to face difficult
challenges
 The team provides
opportunities for members to
demonstrate leadership
abilities
 Teams allow us to test ideas
before making them public
Teams can be hurt by
relationships!
 Poor relationships exist.
 Primary provoker
 Secondary provoker
 Avoiding or
accommodating those
instigating the conflict
 Dysfunctional
relationships have many
implications (page 212)
Relational
Communication
Think about it…
Explore the information
about “dysfunction” on
page 212.

6. Decision Making
 The process the team goes
through to make decisions is
critical to its success.
 The way in which team
members talk about issues
affects the way they think about
these issues, which, in turn,
determines the quality of the
choices they make as a team.
 Negative actions have a greater
ability to disrupt the team’s
performance than do positive
actions to make the team
successful.
cromwellhaus.com
Actual productivity = potential productivity – Losses due to faulty processes

7. { {Norms
 Norms are the informal
rules that teams
establish to govern their
activities and behaviors.
 The norms that become
a part of the team’s
culture are made up of
shared
values, beliefs, rituals, a
nd stories about the
team.
Cohesiveness
 Cohesiveness is the
degree to which
members feel connected
to the team.
 The more these linkages
are identified and
reinforced, the greater
the team cohesiveness.
 Cohesiveness = positive
outcomes
Norms &
Cohesiveness
Think about it…
Consider your
organization this
semester. What
are some norms
and how were
they developed?

8. {
• Surface diversity
(demographics)
• Direct task
related/informational
diversity (differences
in
education, technical, fu
nctional, applied
backgrounds)
• Homogenous teams
have advantages and
disadvantages—be
aware of these
• Cross-cultural teams
have the potential to be
the most
successful, given the
diversity of ideas and
contributions they can
generate.
Diversity

9.  Satisfaction means the team feels it has
accomplished its task and members have been
recognized individually for their contributions.
 Rewards
 Social needs
 Impact of teams on our behaviors and attitudes
 Higher loyalty
 Higher productivity
 Team conflict and dysfunction
Satisfaction
Think about it…
Consider your last team.
Identify satisfaction and
potential impacts.

10. Working with others requires
coordination and compromise
resulting in conflict and consequently
results in stress created by the desire
to perform and the strain of
negotiating with others.
Stress
www.pptbackgrounds.net
• Stress can be created by violating team norms
• Teams or individuals can experience stress
• Several types of team stressors exist:
• Team training load
• Team workload
• Team size
• Team cohesion
• Goal structure

11.  Stuckness occurs when the team is unable to
break a pattern of behavior that keeps it from
moving forward, it continues to make the same
mistakes.
 Sometimes the team tends to repeat old patterns
of interaction and behavior instead of
confronting the opposing forces or beliefs within
the team and finding connections between them.
 This is a situation where changing old norms
might be helpful rather than harmful.
Stuckness
Think about
it…
This can be a
tricky
concept.
Examine
when
stuckness has
been harmful
and when it
has been
helpful in
your own
experiences.

12. Such organizations experience a culture shift:
Team based organizations
From hierarchical to flat
From fragmentation to cohesion
From independence to
interdependence
From competition to cooperation
From tried-and-true to risk taking

13. There are 4 major types of organizational teams (Cohen & Bailey, 1997)
Types of teams
Work teams are
“continuing work
units responsible
for producing
goods or
providing
services” (p. 242).
Parallel teams
“pull together
people from
different work
units or jobs to
perform
functions that the
regular
organization is
not equipped to
perform well” (p.
242).
Project teams
produce one-
time outputs
and are time-
limited.
Management
teams
“coordinate and
provide direction
to sub-units
under their
jurisdiction, later
ally integrating
interdependent
sub-units across
key business
processes” (p.
243).

14. One important element of the survival and
effectiveness of teams is their connection
with the relevant environment, according to
Gladstein Acona (1990), who set forth three
basic leadership strategies for connecting
the team to the environment.
 Know these three basic leadership
strategies for connecting the team to the
larger environment…
Teams & the environment
Informing strategy

15.  SMWTs are gaining popularity
 They are sometimes called “self-directed”
 Teams have responsibility for their own work
 Set own tasks
 Monitor own behavior
 Can increase employee
commitment, competence, productivity, proble
m-solving, and satisfaction
Self-managed work teams
(SMWT)
Think about it…
SMWTs are prime organizational contexts for double-loop (generative) learning
(chapter 6)

16.  Envisioning involved the creation of new and
compelling visions, which involves generating ideas
and defining goals.
 Organizing includes the coordination of the many
elements that are connected to the team’s tasks, which
involves attention to deadlines, efficiency, and
structure.
 Spanning deals with the connection of the team’s
activities with the important constituents in the
relevant environment, which includes
networking, securing resources, and being politically
aware.
 Social behaviors include concern for the social and
psychological needs of the team members, which
includes interpreting and paraphrasing, using
humor, and mediating conflicts.
SMWT – types of
leadership roles

17. Virtual teams
A virtual team is a group that “works across
space, time, and organizational boundaries with
links strengthened by webs of communication
technologies” (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997, p. 7).

18. { {Superb teams
 They have a clear and engaging
direction.
 The basic work is designed to be
done by a team
 Team rewards (not individual or
mixed rewards) are strongly
associated with team effort.
 Physical resources are readily
available.
 The team, not the leader, has the
authority to make decisions over
basic work strategies.
 The team can articulate clear goals
 The team establishes norms that
promote strategic thinking.
Ineffective teams
 Fail to meet
customer needs
 Deteriorate over
time
 Alienated, dissatisfie
d members
Effective teams

19.  Misunderstandings arise from
 Team size
 As size increases, so does diversity of
thought, values, backgrounds, personality that can
lead to misunderstandings
 Team interdependence
 Lack of commitment to interdependence can lead
to lack of understanding about team benefits
 Common goals
 Some team members are more interested in
individual, not group, goals
 Misunderstandings also come about when team
members accept what they perceive to be common
goals and processes in an effort to avoid conflict—
this is known as GROUPTHINK
Dysfunction &
Misunderstandings

20.  Consider the positive and negative elements of
team conflict.
 How can you maximize the positive and
minimize the negative?
Conflict: Positives and
Negatives

21. Organizational Teams
What do you like and dislike about teams?
Use the concepts in this chapter to examine the
organization you are following. Can you locate information
about teams and collaboration for that organization? What
does this information tell you?
Consider the benefits and limitations of teamwork within
organizations.