Managing Groups and Teams

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Managing Groups and Teams

• Module 13
• LIS 580 Spring 2006
• Instructor- Michael Crandall

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Roadmap

• Groups and teams
• Characteristics of teams
• Reasons for team failure
• Leading teams
• Improving team performance

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Groups and Teams

• Group
• Two or more persons who are interacting in such a
  way that each person influences and is influenced
  by each other person.
• Team
• A group of people committed to a common purpose,
  set of performance goals, and approach for which
  the team members hold themselves mutually
  accountable.

G.Dessler, 2003
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Comparing Work Teams andWork Groups
Prentice Hall, 2002
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The Popularity of Teams

• Teams typically outperform individuals when tasks
  require multiple skills, judgment, and experience
• Teams are a better way to utilize individual
  employee talents
• The flexibility and responsiveness of teams is
  essential in a changing environment
• Empowered teams increase job satisfaction and
  morale, enhance employee involvement, and promote
  workforce diversity

Prentice Hall, 2002
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Types of Work Teams
Prentice Hall, 2002
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Virtual Team

• Virtual Team
• Groups of geographically and/or organizationally
  dispersed coworkers who interact using a
  combination of telecommunications and information
  technologies to accomplish an organizational
  task.
• Virtual teams may be temporary, existing only to
  accomplish a specific task. Or they may be
  permanent and address ongoing matters.
• Membership is often fluid, evolving according to
  changing task requirements.

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Group Dynamics

• Group Norms
• The informal rules that groups adopt to regulate
  and regularize group members behavior.
• Group Cohesiveness
• The degree of interpersonal attractiveness within
  a group, dependent on factors like proximity,
  similarities, attraction among the individual
  group members, group size, intergroup
  competition, and agreement about goals.

G.Dessler, 2003
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What It Takes to Be a Team Player

• Personality
• Individualism versus collectivism
• Interpersonal Skills
• Conflict management skills
• Collaborative problem solving skills
• Communication skills
• Management Skills
• Develop and establish goals
• Control, monitor, provide feedback
• Set work roles and assign tasks

G.Dessler, 2003
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Team Member Roles
Prentice Hall, 2002
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Challenges to Creating TeamPlayers

• Managers attempting to introduce teams into
  organization face the most difficulty
• When individual employee resistance to teams is
  strong
• Where the national culture is individualistic
  rather than collectivist
• When an established organization places

Prentice Hall, 2002
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Workforce DiversitysEffects on Teams

• Fresh and multiple perspectives on issues help
  the team identify creative or unique solutions
  and avoid weak alternatives
• The difficulty of working together may make it
  harder to unify a diverse team and reach
  agreements
• Although diversitys advantages dissipate with
  time, the added-value of diverse teams increases
  as the team becomes more cohesive

Prentice Hall, 2002
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Checklist 13.1How to Build a Productive Team

• Have clear mission/purpose.
• Set specific performance goals.
• Compose the right team size and mix.
• Have an agreed-upon structure appropriate to the
  task.
• Delegate the authority to make the decisions
  needed, given their mission.
• Provide access to or control of the resources
  needed to complete their mission.
• Offer a mix of group and individual rewards.
• Foster longevity and stability of membership.

G.Dessler, 2003
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Characteristics of High-performing Work Teams
Prentice Hall, 2002
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Why Teams Fail The Leadership, Focus, and
Capability Pyramid
Source Adapted from Steven Rayner, Team Traps
What They Are, How to Avoid Them.National
Productivity Review. Summer 1996, p. 107.
Reprinted by permission of John Wiley Sons, Inc.
FIGURE 133
G.Dessler, 2003
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Checklist 13.2Symptoms of Unproductive Teams

• Nonaccomplishment of goals.
• Cautious, guarded communication.
• Lack of disagreement.
• Malfunctioning meetings.
• Conflict within the team.

G.Dessler, 2003
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The Challenge of TeamLeadership

• Becoming an effective team leader requires
• Learning to share information
• Developing the ability to trust others
• Learning to give up authority
• Knowing when to leave their teams alone and when
  to intercede
• New roles that team leaders take on
• Managing the teams external boundary
• Facilitating the team process

Prentice Hall, 2002
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Leading Productive Teams

• Team Leader Skills
• Coaching, not bossing
• Help define, analyze, and solve problems
• Encourage participation by others
• Serve as a facilitator

• Team Leader Values
• Respecting fellow team members
• Trusting fellow team members
• Putting the team first

G.Dessler, 2003
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Team Leader Roles
Prentice Hall, 2002
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Team Leader Behaviors
Druskat, V.U. J.V. Wheeler. (2004). How to Lead
a Self-Managing Team
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Typical Leader Transition Problems

• Perceived Loss of Power or Status
• Unclear Team Leader Roles
• Job Security Concerns
• The Double Standard Problem

G.Dessler, 2003
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Stages of Team Development
Prentice Hall, 2002
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The Leaders Role in Creating a Self-Managing Team

• Forming
• The teams and their leaders begin working out
  their specific responsibilities.
• Training is the leaders main task.
• Storming
• Questions typically arise regarding who is
  leading the team and what its structure and
  purpose should be.
• The leader ensures that team members continue to
  learn and eventually exercise leadership skills.

G.Dessler, 2003
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The Leaders Role in Creating a Self-Managing
Team (contd)

• Norming
• Team members agree on purpose, structure, and
  leadership and are prepared to start performing.
• The leaders job is to emphasize the need for the
  team to temper cooperation with the
  responsibility to supervise its own members.
• Performing
• A period of productivity, achievement, and pride
  as the team members work together to get the job
  done.
• Adjourning

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How to Improve Team Performance

• Select members for skill and teamwork.
• Establish challenging performance standards.
• Emphasize the tasks importance.
• Assign whole tasks.
• Send the right signals.
• Encourage social support.
• Make sure there are unambiguous team rules.

• Challenge the group regularly with fresh facts
  and information.
• Train and cross-train.
• Provide the necessary tools and material support.
• Encourage emotionally intelligent team
  behavior.

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Providing an Organizational ContextThat Supports
Teams
Team WorkApproach
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Designing Organizations to Manage Teams
FIGURE 135
Source Adapted from James H. Shonk, Team-Based
Organizations (Homewood, IL Irwin, 1997), p. 36.
G.Dessler, 2003
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Pros and Cons of Group Decision Making

• Pros
• More points of view
• More ways to define the problem
• More possible solutions/alternatives
• More creative decisions
• Stronger commitment to decisions

• Cons
• More disagreement and less problem solving
• Desire for consensus (groupthink)
• Domination by a single individual
• Less of commitment to the group decision

G.Dessler, 2003
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Signs That Groupthink May Be a Problem
Source Adapted from information provided in
Irving James, Group Think Psychological Studies
of Policy Decisions and Fiascos, 2nd ed. (Boston
Houghton Mifflin, 1982).
FIGURE 137
G.Dessler, 2003
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Improving Group Decision Making

• Devils-Advocate Approach
• The group appoints a person to prepare a detailed
  counterargument that lists what is wrong with the
  groups favored solution and why the group should
  not adopt it.
• The aim is to ensure
• a full and objective
• consideration of the
• solution proposal.

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Improving Group Decision Making (contd)

• Brainstorming
• A creativity-stimulating technique in which prior
  judgments and criticisms are specifically
  forbidden from being expressed and thus
  inhibiting the free flow of ideas, which are
  encouraged.
• Brainstorming rules
• Avoid criticizing others ideas until all
  suggestions are out on the table.
• Share even wild suggestions.
• Offer many suggestions and comments as possible.
• Build on others suggestions to create your own.

G.Dessler, 2003
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Improving Group Decision Making (contd)

• The Delphi Technique
• A multistage group decision-making process aimed
  at eliminating inhibitions or groupthink through
  obtaining the written opinions of experts working
  independently.
• Process steps
• Identify the problem.
• Solicit the experts individual opinions on the
  problem.
• Analyze, distill, and then resubmit these
  opinions to other experts.
• Continue this process for several more rounds
  until the experts reach a consensus.

G.Dessler, 2003
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Improving Group Decision Making (contd)

• The Nominal Group Technique
• Each group member writes down his or her ideas
  for solving the problem at hand.
• Each member then presents his or her ideas
  orally, and the person writes the ideas on a
  board for other participants to see.
• After all ideas are presented, the entire group
  discusses all ideas simultaneously.
• Group members individually and secretly vote on
  each proposed solution.
• The solution with the most individual votes wins.

G.Dessler, 2003
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Improving Group Decision Making (contd)

• The Stepladder Technique
• Individuals A and B are given a problem to solve,
  and each produces an independent solution.
• A and B develop a joint decision, and meet with
  C, who has analyzed the problem and arrived at a
  decision.
• A, B, and C discuss the problem and arrive at a
  consensus decision, and are joined by D, who has
  analyzed the problem and arrived at a decision.
• A, B, C, and D jointly develop a final group
  decision.

G.Dessler, 2003
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Improving Group Decision Making (contd)

• How to Lead a Group Decision-Making Discussion
• See that all group members participate and
  contribute.
• Distinguish between idea getting and idea
  evaluation.
• Do not respond to each participant or dominate
  the discussion.
• Direct the groups effort toward overcoming
  surmountable obstacles.
• Dont sit down.

G.Dessler, 2003
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Next Time

• Guest Lecturer
• Martha Choe, Director of Global Libraries
  Program, Bill Melinda Gates Foundation
• Read the articles, and come prepared to discuss
  library leadership issues