The purpose of this chapter is to present information and self-assessment and
skill-development exercises that will assist the reader to develop teamwork skills. Being an effective team player is one of the most important sets of behaviors in the modern workplace.
CHAPTER OUTLINE AND LECTURE NOTES
A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
I. TYPES OF TEAMS
All workplace teams have the common element of people working together cooperatively and members possessing a mix of skills.
A. Self-Managing Work Teams
The best known work team is a group of workers who take over much of the responsibility for managing their own work. A self-managing work team is a small group of employees responsible for managing and performing technical tasks to deliver a product or service to an external or internal customer. The vast majority of large- and medium-size firms make some use of self-managing work teams. Such teams perform a wide variety of manufacturing and service activities.
B. Cross-Functional Teams
A cross-functional team is a work group composed of workers from different specialties, at about the same organizational level, who come together to accomplish a task. The people from different specialties are supposed to blend their talents. Cross-functional teams are widely used in product development.
C. Virtual Teams
Some teams conduct most of their work by sending electronic messages to each other rather than conducting face-to-face meetings. A virtual team is a small group of people who conduct almost all of their collaborative work by electronic communication rather than face-to-face meetings. Establishing trust is a major challenge in a virtual team because the team members have to rely on people they never see to carry out their fair share of the workload, and to exchange reliable information.
D. Crews
A crew is a group of specialists each of whom have specific roles, perform brief events that are closely synchronized with each other, and repeat these events under different environmental conditions. Among the criteria for a group to qualifying as a crew, are (a) clear roles and responsibilities, (b) work flow well established before anyone joins the team, and (c) different people can join the group without interfering with its operation or mission. Team members should be technically excellent and also have good personal chemistry with each other.
II. THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Teams, as well as groups in general, should not be regarded uncritically; they have both advantages and disadvantages.
A. Advantages of Group Work and Team Work
A group of knowledgeable people can bring about synergy, whereby the group's total output exceeds the sum of each individual's contribution. Groups help gain
acceptance and commitment. Team members often critically evaluate each other's thinking, thus avoiding major errors. Working in teams and other groups also enhances job
satisfaction and need satisfaction, such as the need for affiliation. Under the right circumstances, teams can enhance productivity and profitability.
B. Disadvantages of Group Work and Teamwork
Groups and teams often talk too much and act too little. A major problem in groups is pressure toward conformity to group standards of performance and conduct which could hurt the organization. Social loafing is the shirking of individual responsibility in a group setting. At their worst, groups foster conflict, with people bickering about matters such as doing a fair share of work. Groups can become xenophobic, thus entering into conflict with other groups.
A key potential problem is groupthink, a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment in the interest of group solidarity. Groupthink is extreme consensus. Related to groupthink is the idea that groups often breed conformity in thinking and behavior.
Two conditions are important for overcoming the potential disadvantages of teams and groups. First, the members must strive to act like a team. Second, the task given to the group should require collective effort instead of being a task that could be better performed by individuals.
III. TEAM MEMBER ROLES
A major challenge in becoming an effective team member is to choose the right roles to occupy. A role is a tendency to behave, contribute, and relate to others in a particular way.
According to the role theory developed by Meredith Belbin, there are nine frequent roles.
1. Creative problem solver (creative, imaginative, and unorthodox, but may ignore fine details).
2. Resource Investigator (extroverted, enthusiastic, and communicates freely but can be overly optimistic).
3. Coordinator (mature, confident, and a natural team leader but might be seen as manipulative and controlling).
4. Shape (challenging, dynamic, and thrives under pressure but can be easily provoked and may ignore the feelings of others).
5. Monitor-Evaluator (even tempered, engages in strategic [big picture and long
term] thinking, and makes accurate judgments but might lack drive and the ability to inspire others).
6. Team Worker (cooperative, focuses on relationships, and is sensitive and diplomatic, but can be indecisive in a crunch situation or crisis).
7. Implementer (disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient, but can be inflexible and slow to see new opportunities).
8. Completer-Finisher (conscientious and anxious to get the job done, but can be a worrier and reluctant to delegate).
9. Specialist (single-minded self-starter, dedicated and provides knowledge and skill in rare supply, but can be stuck in a niche with little interest in other knowledge and may dwell on technicalities).
The weaknesses in the first nine roles point to problems the team leader or manager can expect to emerge, and therefore an allowance should be made. Also, team members will sometimes engage in self-oriented roles—focusing on their needs instead of the needs of the group.
Students should not be concerned about overlap in the above roles. Instead, they should pick and choose those roles most appropriate for the situation.
IV. GUIDELINES FOR THE INTERPERSONAL ASPECTS OF TEAM PLAY
Effectiveness as a team player can be enhanced by understanding the skills, actions, and attitudes required to be an effective team player. A convenient method for classifying team activities in pursuit of goals is people-related versus task-related.
A. Trusting Team Members
The cornerstone attitude of an outstanding team player is to trust team members including the leader. Working on a team is akin to a small business partnership. Trusting team members also includes believing that their ideas are technically sound and rational until proven otherwise.
B. Displaying a High Level of Cooperation and Collaboration
Cooperation and collaboration are synonymous with teamwork. Collaboration at a team level refers to working jointly with others to solve mutual problems. Achieving a cooperative team spirit is often a question of making the first move.
C. Recognizing the Interests and Achievements of Others
A fundamental tactic for establishing oneself as a solid team player is to actively recognize the interests and achievements of others. Let others know that you care about their interests. Be prepared to compliment any tangible achievement.
D. Giving and Receiving Helpful Criticism
The outstanding team player offers constructive criticism when needed, but does so diplomatically. A high-performance team demands sincere and tactful criticism among
members. Use the time-tested principle: Attempt to criticize the person’s work, not the person. Criticism works both ways, so the effective team player is willing to accept helpful criticism.
D. Sharing the Glory
An effective team player shares praise and other rewards for accomplishment even if he or she were the most deserving. Shared praise is usually merited to some extent
because teammates have probably made at least some contribution to the achievement that received praise.
E. Taking Care Not to Rain On Another Person's Parade
We all have achievements and accomplishments that are sources of pride. Belittling the achievements of others for no legitimate reasons brings about tension and anger.
Suppress your feelings of petty jealousy.
V. GUIDELINES FOR THE TASK ASPECTS OF TEAM PLAY
The task aspects of team play also make a key contribution to becoming an effective team player. A task aspect usually has interpersonal consequences.
A. Providing Technical Expertise (Or Knowledge of the Task)
Technical refers to the intimate details of any task, not just tasks in engineering, physical science, and information technology. To be used to advantage, the
expertise must be shared. The technical expert must be able to communicate with team members in other disciplines who lack the same technical background.
B. Assuming Responsibility for Problems
The outstanding team player assumes responsibility for problems. If a problem is not yet assigned, he or she says, "I'll do it."
C. Seeing the Big Picture
Effective team players need to think conceptually, or see the big picture. The team leader who can help the group focus on the broader purpose plays a vital role.
D. Believing in Consensus
A major task-related attitude for outstanding team play is to believe that consensus has merit. Consensus is the general acceptance by the group of a decision, including a
willingness to support the decision.
E. Focusing on Deadlines
People vary in their attitudes towards the importance of deadlines. Keeping the group focused on deadlines is valuable because meeting deadlines is vital to team success.
F.Helping Team Members Do their Jobs Better
A person's stature as a team player will increase if he or she takes the initiative to help coworkers make needed work improvements. Identify a problem a coworker is having, and then suggest alternatives he or she might be interested in exploring.
G. Be a Good Organizational Citizen
A comprehensive way of carrying out the task aspects of team play (as well as relationship aspects) is to help beyond the requirements of your job description—
organizational citizenship behavior. Two studies showed that organizational citizenship behavior is even more important when people depend on each other to accomplish a task.
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REVIEW 1. Part of being a good team player is helping other members. How can members of a
workplace team help each other?
Helping teammates can take several forms including giving assistance in solving problems, offering advice, and giving emotional support. Workload sharing when teammate is
overloaded is another important vehicle for help.
2. How do team members know when they have achieved synergy?
Team members would know they have achieved synergy when it is apparent to them that something substantial has been accomplished that they could not have achieved working independently. Each member might think, "I could never have produced this myself."
3. What should the other team members do when they uncover a social loafer?
A starting point would be for several, or all, the other members to discuss their perceptions of his or her social loafing with the loafer. If confrontation and
problem-solving does not work, the manager to whom the team reports might be asked to intervene.
4. What is the potential downside of heavily emphasizing the specialist role?
A team member who heavily emphasizes the specialist role can potentially annoy others by being a "know it all." If the group comes to depend on one person as a knowledge
contributor, other members of the group may neglect to think for themselves.
5. How can the monitor/evaluator role backfire for a person?
The monitor/evaluator would have to be intelligent to critically review the work of others.
As stated in the text, this type of person might lack the drive and ability to inspire others.
Furthermore, this type of person might be viewed as having an auditor’s mentality of checking up on the work of others.
6. Assume that you are a team member. What percent of your pay would you be willing to be based on a group reward? Explain your reasoning.
A student who was highly committed to teamwork might be willing to go with a high percent of pay being based on team performance. Companies that use a combination of individual and group incentives are likely to allocate about 10 to 20 percent of incentive pay on group performance, and the rest individual performance.
7. Many retail companies, banks, and medical offices require customer-contact employees to wear the same uniform. In ways might these uniforms enhance teamwork?
The uniforms become a symbol of working on the team, and symbols can shape attitudes.
Uniforms also enhance identification with the team because all team members share something important about appearance. The possibility also exists that the uniforms could enhance pride, leading to more feelings of teamwork.
8. A number of companies have sent employees to a team building exercise in which they prepare a gourmet meal. Why would preparing a gourmet meal help build teamwork?
Preparing a gourmet meal provides a shared experience of significance for team members.
As a result they have something in common to relate, and are more likely to bond with each other. Equally important preparing the mean requires considerable cooperation, particularly because the participants usually need to share skills. Asking each other questions about how to carry out certain activities also enhances cooperation.
9. The "little picture" in studying this chapter is learning details about teamwork skills. What is the "big picture"?
The big picture is acquiring knowledge and skills that will help one make a contribution to the modern, team-based organization. Right up to the executive suite, some degree of teamwork is essential.
10. How can a person achieve individual recognition yet still be a team player?
A strategy for achieving individual recognition in the context of being a team player is to be an outstanding contributor to the team. One approach would be to contribute outstanding alternatives during group problem solving. It also helps to tactfully inform key people outside the group of your accomplishments.
ANSWERS TO CASE QUESTIONS