Groups

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Groups Teams

• Frances Jørgensen, PhD
• frances_at_plan.aau.dk

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What is a group or team?

• Group A collection of individuals whose
  existence as a collection is rewarding to the
  individuals (Bass, 1960) Two or more person with
  some common purpose or goal, a relatively stable
  structure with hierarchy, and an established set
  of roles or patterns of interaction. Members see
  themselves and each other as members.
• A unique combination of 2 or more persons who
  interact interdependently and adaptively to
  achieve specific, shared, and valued objectives

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Why do we join groups?
Security, power, to reach goals we couldnt
attain alone, self-esteem
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All teams are groups, but are all groups teams?
(Campbell Campbell, 1988)

• Groups become teams when
• they are autonomous and have clear
  responsibilities to differentiate them from other
  teams or groups (Campbell Campbell, 1988)
• They are heterogeneous (Magjuka Baldwin, 1991)
• members have a balanced range of characteristics
  (Belbin, 1981)
• targeted group performance is greater than
  expected individual performance when they have
  between 5-10 members (Bales Borgatta, 1956).

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Types of Groups Teams
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Types of Groups Teams

• Football team, neighborhood group, project
  groups, management teams, production groups,
  cross-functional groups, virtual teams,
  improvement groups (quality circles).
• Work Teams can be described in terms of
• Cross-functional Cross-dimensional
• Self-directive/managing and autonomous
• Ad-hoc or permanent
• Parallel or Integrated with production

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History of Groups

• Earliest times
• 1890 James studies psychological processes of
  groups social identity
• 1940s Hawthorne Plant studies demonstrate that
  group processes have an effect on production
• 1950s-60s Socio-technical perspective first
  introduced
• 1990s-current 80 of companies with gt 100
  employees have gt50 in at least 1 team
  (Katzenbach, 1998)

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Group Development

• Forming testing forming dependencies defining
  of (un)acceptble bx characterized by high
  uncertainty, politeness, low commitment
• Storming indiv. fight for position role
  development characterized by intragroup conflict
  and formations of dyads and cliques
• Norming development of group cohesion
  acceptance of fellow members defining of
  purpose characterized by high levels of trust
• Performing functional job relatedness role
  differentiation task specification facilitation
  of goal attainment characterized by feeling we
  are special.
• Adjourning?
• (Tuckman, 1965)

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Where is your team

• Group exercise based on Tuckmans Team
  Development Model (in class handouts)

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Team Structure

• Size inversely related to satisfaction (Porter
  Lawler, 1965) attendance (Steers Rhodes,
  1978)
• Optimal 5-9
• Affect performance
• Norms characterize behavior viewed important to
  the group, develop gradually or when new
  situations arise, dont always apply to all
  members (Hackman, 1976) affect performance
• Norm breakers are ultimately isolated (Janis,
  1972)
• Cohesion closeness of the group which leads to
  maintenance of membership, power of group over
  members, participation and loyalty, satisfaction,
  productivity ??? (Cartwright Zander, 1968)
• Lack of cohesion leads to lowered productivity
  (Katz Kahn, 1978)

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Causes of Team Cohesiveness
Member Similarity
Team Cohesiveness
Member Interaction
External Challenges
Team Size
Team Success
Somewhat Difficult Entry
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Cohesiveness and Performance
Moderately High Task Performance
High Task Performance
Team Norms Support Firms Goals
Low Task Performance
Moderately Low Task Performance
Team Norms Oppose Firms Goals
High Team Cohesiveness
Low Team Cohesiveness
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Group Structure Performance

• British Coal Mine Studies
• (Trist Bamforth, 1951)
• Prenationalization
• Low mechanization 6 man teams, shared mining
  tasks, task rotation
• Post nationalization
• Long wall production introduced, new technology
  (high job specialization, lower job training
  costs), individual work replaced teams, increased
  tech. problems, increased absenteeism, increased
  strikes, lower productivity

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Miners solution

• Composite long wall method
• New technology, old style work groups
• Developed new shift groups (forming)
• Task differentiation between members groups
  (storming)
• Set group performance goals (norming)
• Production increased (performing)

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Why did performance fall with the long wall
method?

• First consider the coal miners job!
• Increased job specialization and replacement of
  small groups led to lower cohesion
• Elimination of formal groups led to more informal
  groups, which lacked performance norms and
  fostered hostility towards organization

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Considerations BEFORE organizing teams

• Autonomy (hiring/firing, decisions, budget)
• Task interdependence congruence
• Size (small enough large enough)
• Flexibility (work, pay)
• History traditions
• Accessible space, equipment, information
• Management monitoring should promote team
  autonomy and responsibility
• Reward system congruent with teamwork
• Maintenance development
• Technological changes
• Management Organizational support

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To do or not to do?

• When tasks to not require coordination, an
  individual strategy is often best
• When coordination is a must and individual
  contribution is difficult to measure, a team
  approach is often appropriate.

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Meredith Belbins Team Roles
Idea Generator
Mover Shaker
Networker
Teamworker
Finisher
Evaluator
Implementer
Specialist
Coordinator
Which are you? What are the consequences of
different team configurations?
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Problems with groups teams

• Abilene Paradox members act in contradiction to
  what they really want each person defers to
  another, even though they disagree.
• Group Think members support consensus and
  discourage disagreement to the point where only
  those in agreement remain in the group. A habit
  of agreement develops and attitudes of we are
  right they are wrong prevent new ideas and
  counter arguments.

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Team Building

• Emphasize shared goals values
• Use ceremonies rituals symbolize team
  identity
• Strengthen social relationships
• Inform about activities and results
• Analyze group processes regularly
• Strive for (real) consensus in meetings
• Tolerate and encourage differences
• Reward cooperation
• (Yukl, p. 371)
• Provide relevant development (Goals, Roles,
  Process communication, problem-solving, conflict
  resolution)
• Ropes, etc.

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Team Learning

• Team learning Team Skill (Senge, 1990)
• Cross-functional teams
• Job rotation
• Workouts (G.E., 1989) customers, managers,
  suppliers, and teams have 2-3 day intensive
  problem-solving sessions
• Action learning (Lewin, 1940s)
• Succession planning

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Harley Davidson SMWTs

• 1983 HD on fast ride to disaster loss of
  creditors, sales continuing to drop and employee
  moral in the pits.
• Who wouldnt want to be a part of HD leadership?
  HD instills sense of ownership with a shared
  leadership model

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Managements Guidelines for Change

• 1) There is no quick fix.
• 2) Leadership is not a person, but a process to
  which every employee must contribute.
• 3) People are a corporations only sustainable
  competitive advantage.

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Why SWTWs at HD?

• Company benefits
• Cross trained employees (flexibility)
• Increased communications
• Streamlining, flattens organizations, and gets
  rid of unnecessary processes
• 20-40 gains in productivity after 18 months for
  most companies

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And for the teams?

• More job variety opportunity to learn more/other
  skills
• More input into the job, job responsibility and
  sense of ownership from completing a full HD (see
  job enrichment model!)

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Transformation to Self Managed Teams

• Training in three specific areas should be
  addressed
• 1) Technical- Cross training of all members of
  the team in various technical skill sets.
• 2) Administrative- Employees must learn skills
  such as monitoring, reporting procedures and
  hiring/firing.
• 3) Interpersonal Skills- Communication among all
  members must occur more effectively in order to
  make the team as efficient as possible.

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The Stages of Transition to Self-Managed Teams
(the HD model)

• Stage 1 Start-up
• Honeymoon Phase, intensive training for all
  involved.
• Stage 2 State of Confusion
• Employees are having problems adapting at this
  stage
• Many secretly hope transition effort will
  collapse.

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Transition Continued

• Stage 3 Leader-Centered Teams
• Confidence grows as new skills are learned
• One team member steps forward as internal leader,
  production increases dramatically.
• Stage 4 Tightly Formed Teams
• Teams working at high level of efficiency, but
  may withhold info and assistance from other teams
  to make themselves look better.
• Stage 5 Self-Directed Teams
• Mature teams develop a powerful commitment to
  achieving corporate and team goals.

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2001 Forbes Company of the Year

• 2001 sales grew 15 to 3.3 billion
• Company earnings grew 26 to 435 million
• Stock up 40 in 2001
• Since 1986, Harley has averaged annual earnings
  growth of 37