TeamDynamics, DecisionMaking and Conflict

1
TeamDynamics, Decision-Making and Conflict
9
C H A P T E R
N I N E
2
Teams at Roberts Express

• Roberts Express has become a team-based
  organization. Rather than dividing employees into
  operations and customers service departments, the
  critical shipment carrier organizes them into
  autonomous customer assistance teams (CATs).

Courtesy of Roberts Express
3
Team-Based Organization
Management Team
Team A
Team B
Manager
Employee
4
Virtual Teams

• Cross-functional teams that operate across space,
  time and organizational boundaries using
  electronic technology
• Increasingly possible because of technology and
  knowledge-based work
• Increasingly necessary because of globalization,
  knowledge management, and need for team work

5
Why Informal Groups Exist

• Relatedness Needs
• Fulfill need for social interaction
• Social identity
• Goal accomplishment
• Emotional support

6
Team Effectiveness Model
7
Team Design Elements

• Task characteristics
• better when tasks are clear, easy to implement
• task interdependence
• share common inputs, work processes, or outcomes
• Team size
• smaller teams are better
• but large enough to accomplish task
• Team composition
• motivation and competencies to perform task in a
  team environment
• team diversity

8
Stages of Team Development
Forming
9
Conformity to Team Norms
100
75
Units Pressed per Hour
50
25
0
Production Days
10
Changing Team Norms

• 1. Introduce norms when team formed
• 2. Select members with preferred norms
• 3. Discuss counterproductive norms
• 4. Rewards to support desired behaviors
• 5. Disband the team

11
Causes of Team Cohesiveness
Member Similarity
Team Cohesiveness
Member Interaction
External Challenges
Team Size
Team Success
Somewhat Difficult Entry
12
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
13
The Trouble With Teams

• Individuals better/faster on some tasks
• Process losses - cost of developing and
  maintaining teams
• Companies dont support best work environment for
  team dynamics
• Social loafing
• Group think
• Role disfunction

14
Organizational conditions imposed upon group

• Organizational Culture, structure and strategy
• Organizational resources
• Performance evaluation and reward system
• Physical work setting

15
Conditions for Social Loafing

• Low task interdependence
• Individual output not visible
• Routine, uninteresting tasks
• Low task significance
• Low collectivist values

16
Groupthink

• The tendency of highly cohesive groups to value
  consensus at the price of decision quality by
  avoiding conflict and withholding of dissenting
  opinions

17
Conditions for Groupthink

• Culturally defined
• Team is highly cohesive
• Team is isolated from outsiders
• Team faces external threat
• Team has recent decision failures
• Team leader tries to influence decision
• Organization does not respond well to mistakes

18
Group roles

• Task roles (initiator, information and opinion
  seeker, clarifier, co-ordinator, critic)
• Maintenance roles (encourager, harmoniser,
  tension reliever, feeling expresser, follower)
• Dysfunctional roles (Blocker, agressor, deserter,
  dominator, recognition seeker, cynic)
• Important
• Roles need to be balanced according to outcome
  rather than individual needs or preferences

19
Group Polarization Process
High Risk
Social Support Persuasion Shifting Responsibility
Low Risk
20
Decision Making Model
1. Identify problem
2. Choose decision style
6. Evaluate decision
3. Develop alternatives
5. Implement solution
4. Choose best solution
21
Problems with Problem Identification

• Perceptual Biases
• Perceptual defense
• Mental models
• Poor Diagnostic Skills
• Lack of time
• Complex situation
• Problems defined by solutions

22
Problems with Choosing Solutions

• Problems with Goals
• Ambiguous, subjective, conflicting
• Biased by personal goals
• Problems with Information Processing
• Limited info processing capacity
• Sequential evaluation with implicit favourite
• Problems with Maximizing
• Satisficing, not maximizing

23
Creative Decision Process
Preparation
24
Sources of Conflict
Goal Incompatibility
Differentiation
Task Interdependence
Lack of opportunity --reliance on
stereotypes Lack of ability -- arrogant
communication heightens conflict perception Lack
of motivation -- conflict causes lower
motivation to communicate, increases stereotyping
Scarce Resources

• Increases competition for resources to fulfill
  goals

Ambiguity

• Lack of rules guiding relations
• Encourages political tactics

Communication Problems
25
Conflict Management Styles
High
Competing
Collaborating
Assertiveness
Compromising
Avoiding
Accommodating
High
Low
Cooperativeness
26
Structural Conflict Management

• Emphasize Superordinate Goals
• Reduce Differentiation
• Improve Communication/Understanding
• Reduce Task Interdependence
• Increase Resources
• Clarify Rules and Procedures

27
3rd Party Conflict Resolution Objectives
Efficiency
Procedural Fairness
Third Party Conflict Resolution Objectives
Effectiveness
Outcome Fairness
28
Team Building with Gold of the Desert Kings

• Gold of the Desert Kings is one of the most
  popular team building games in North America.
  This exercise places participants in a fictitious
  desert where they mine for gold and try to return
  before their water supply runs out. Each day is a
  few minutes in the game.

Courtesy of Eagles Flight
29
Types of Team Building

• Role definition
• Interpersonal process
• Goal setting
• Problem solving

Courtesy of Eagles Flight
30
TeamDynamics
9
C H A P T E R
N I N E