1.
GROUPS and TEAMS
 Roger Dhesi
 Niels Bauer
 Yan Huang
 Derek Sullivan
 Vick Mann

2.
Objectives
Define and discuss group dynamics:
 Why are groups & teams important?
 Groups
– Types of groups
– How do groups form
– Why people join groups
– Influence of Groups on Individuals
 Teams
– Groups vs. Teams
– Turning Individuals into Team Players
– Virtual Teams

3.
Why Important?

4.
Groups
 Group – two or
more individuals,
interacting and
interdependent, who
have come together
to achieve particular
objectives.

5.
Groups - Types
 Formal Groups
– Command
– Task
 Informal Groups
– Interest
– Friendship

6.
Groups - Formation
 Stages of Group
Development
– Forming
– Storming
– Norming
– Performing
– Adjourning

7.
Groups – Why Join?
 Why People Join Groups
– Security
– Status
– Self-esteem
– Affiliation
– Power
– Goal Achievement

8.
Influence of Groups
 The presence of others strongly
influences individual behavior.
 Conversely, the behavior of individuals
is affected by being part of a group.
 Business requires groups, therefore
how groups work influences how
individuals behave and work.

9.
Influence of Groups
 Patterns of
Behavior in Groups
– Social Striving
– Social Loafing
– Social Facilitation
– De-individuation

10.
Influence of Groups
 Social Striving
– People work harder
when they are in
groups, then when
they are alone.

11.
Influence of Groups
 Social Loafing
– People tend to expend
less effort on group tasks
then when performing the
same task alone.

12.
Influence of Groups
 Social Facilitation
– The presence of
others can enhance
an individual’s
performance for
simple or well
rehearsed tasks.

13.
Influence of Groups
 De-individuation
– This pattern happens when
you have the increased
desire to please
management with the
diffusion of responsibility
from social loafing.

14.
Groups vs. Teams
 Group – interacts to share information
and make decisions to help each group
member perform his or her area of
responsibility.
 Team – a group whose individual
efforts result in a performance that is
greater than the sum of the individual
inputs

15.
Groups vs. Teams
 Groups
– Strong leader
– Individual accountability
– Organizational purpose
– Individual work products
– Efficient meetings
– Delegates work
– Random and varied
skills
 Teams
– Shared leadership
– Individual and mutual
accountability
– Specific team purpose
– Collective work products
– Open-ended meetings
– Does real work together
– Complementary skills

16.
Groups vs. Teams
 Swim “Team” - Is this a group or a team?

17.
Team Players
 Turning individuals into team players
 Example:
– Sacramento City
College Baseball
– Derek Sullivan,
Assistant Coach

18.
Team Players
 Recruiting
– Involves selling players on what
the program can do for them
(scholarships, professional
contracts, etc).
– Is an individual focus on personal
development (telling players to
be selfish).
– Tends to de-emphasize “TEAM”
and their obligations to the
program (sacrifice, patience, and
winning)

19.
Team Players
 The “Challenge”
– Convincing players that
their individual sacrifices
are good for the program
and WILL pay off
individually at the end
(for everyone).

20.
Virtual Teams
Virtual Teams:
What are their
Characteristics and
Impact on Team Performance?
Sze-Sze Wang and Richard Burton
Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory 6;
339-360, 2000.

21.
Virtual Teams
 Virtual team characterized by members:
– Physically dispersed
– Culturally differentiated
– Organizationally differentiated
 Communication must transcend:
– Space
– Time
– Culture

22.
Virtual Teams
 Characteristics of virtual teams
– Context = little history, novel tasks,
physically distributed
– Composition = heterogeneous culture
and organizational backgrounds
– Structure = relationships are lateral but
weak

23.
Virtual Teams - Findings
 For teams physically distributed and
engaged in novel tasks, ease of
communication and “routine-ness” of
tasks leas to higher performance.
 For teams culturally and organization-
ally diverse, clarification of roles and a
common team culture lead to higher
performance.

24.
Virtual Teams - Findings
 For teams physically distributed and
performing novel tasks, lateral
communication between weakly tied
team members improves performance.
 For teams culturally and
organizationally diverse, lateral
communication between weakly tied
members improves performance.

25.
Questions?