The 3 cs of effective teams include charters and strategies, composition, and conscientiousness.

8 GROUPS AND TEAMS How Can Working with Others Increase Everybody’s Performance? © 2014 Angelo Kinicki and Mel Fugate. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without permission of the authors. MAJOR TOPICS I’LL LEARN AND QUESTIONS I SHOULD BE ABLE TO ANSWER 8.1GROUP CHARACTERISTICS MAJOR QUESTION: How can knowledge of groups and their key characteristics make me more successful? 8.2THE GROUP DEVELOPMENT PROCESS MAJOR QUESTION: How can understanding the group development process make me more effective at school and work? 8.3TEAMS AND THE POWER OF COMMON PURPOSE MAJOR QUESTION: What are the characteristics of effective team players and team building, and how does this knowledge improve my performance in various types of teams? 8.4TRUST BUILDING AND REPAIR—ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR SUCCESS MAJOR QUESTION: How can I build and repair trust in ways that make me more effective at school, work, and home? 8.5KEYS TO TEAM EFFECTIVENESS MAJOR QUESTION: What are the keys to effective teams, and how can I apply this knowledge to give me an advantage? INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING OB This chapter focuses on group and team dynamics. You will learn that these group-level processes relate to important outcomes at not only the group, but also the individual and organizational levels in the Integrative Framework. As such, group and team dynamics are critically important processes in the study and practice of OB. Page 255 winning at work USING TEAM CHARTERS TO BOOST EFFECTIVENESS When working in teams, most students, and employees, often hurry into the task at hand. While this works sometimes, social scientists and OB professionals have identified a better approach. They recommend that individuals in the team should first examine member strengths, share personal expectations, set common goals, ascertain levels of commitment, agree on processes for communication and decision making, and decide how to measure and control contributions from members. SOURCE: From “Increasing Student-Learning Team Effectiveness with Team Charters,” by Phillip Hunsaker, Cynthia Pavett, and Johanna Hunsaker, Journal of Education for Business 86, 2011, 127–138. (Figure 2, p. 130). Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Taylor & Frances Ltd., http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals. Without this preparation, many teams fail to realize the synergies of the collective input of team members and get bogged down in unproductive conflict. Team charters can help avoid or overcome many of these challenges. Charters outline why a team exists, what its goals are, and how members are expected to behave to achieve said goals. Charters also establish norms that govern individual behavior, provide criteria for measuring team outcomes, and develop guidelines for assessing member behavior. Effective team charters have the following components: 1.Mission statement: The team’s purpose; why the team exists; what the team needs to accomplish. 2.Team vision: A clear and concise statement of the ideal end state the team desires to achieve in terms of all of the entities that will be affected by the team’s outcomes. 3.Team identity: Includes a team name and logo that represent member composition and goals; a team roster with each member’s name, phone number, e-mail address; and an assessment of each member’s strengths and improvement goals. 4.Boundaries: Clarifies policies, procedures, and values the team subscribes to that cannot be violated; limitations on the team’s performance; the decisions the team can make on its own versus needing permission from others; the activities that are legitimate for the team to engage in; the stakeholders affected by the team’s activities. 5.Operating guidelines: Describes the team structure and processes including how leaders will function, how decisions will be made, how work will be allocated, communication procedures, how conflict will be managed, and how member growth and development will be facilitated. 6.Performance norms and consequences: Describes norms needed to facilitate goal attainment in member satisfaction, including the standards of performance; how team and member performance will be evaluated; how members will treat each other; how dysfunctional behaviors will be managed; how team members will be disciplined for not adhering to team norms; the due process for terminating a member from the team; expectations for team meetings; expectations for team project contributions; consequences for work that is late or is of poor quality; how grades for team projects will be allocated to individual team members. 7.Charter endorsement: All team members sign the team charter agreement to verify their endorsement and commitment to uphold the team charter. Those not agreeing to all terms should leave the team for reassignment. FOR YOUWHAT’S AHEAD IN THIS CHAPTER We begin Part Two of this book with a discussion of groups and teams. Your success at work or school improves when you understand the differences between formal and informal groups, as the two have different functions, roles, norms, and dynamics. Next we describe the group and team development process for the same reason. We then differentiate groups from teams and explore important team characteristics, such as team competencies, teamwork and team building, and finally two important types of teams—self-managed and virtual. The importance of trust is covered next as it is a critical element to group and team functioning. We close by exploring facilitators for team effectiveness such as common purpose, composition, cooperation, and team size. Page 256 8.1GROUP CHARACTERISTICS MAJOR QUESTION How can knowledge of groups and their key characteristics make me more successful? THE BIGGER PICTURE Groups are often labeled formal or informal and serve multiple functions. As a member of such groups, you can play many different roles. Group roles and norms are the means by which expectations are communicated to groups and their members. Roles and norms therefore are powerful forms of social control that influence group and member behavior. They also impact a number of important outcomes across levels in the Integrative Framework. Drawing from the field of sociology, we define a group as (1) two or more freely interacting individuals who (2) share norms and (3) goals and have a (4) common identity.1 People form groups for many reasons. Most fundamental among these reasons is that groups usually accomplish more than individuals. Furthermore, research consistently shows that groups routinely outperform the average of their individual members, particularly with quantitative tasks. Examples include financial forecasts, sales estimates, and climate change predictions. It seems that simply interacting with others improves both individual and team accuracy in such tasks. Building on what you learned in Chapter 6, these performance benefits increase further still if the team receives feedback that describes which member’s approach is most effective. The rationale is that the team becomes more efficient, focuses on the best approach, and then applies the knowledge and efforts to improving on the best approach, which raises performance even more.2 It is useful to distinguish the group from a crowd or organization. Here is how organizational psychologist E. H. Schein helps make the distinctions clear: The size of a group is . . . limited by the possibilities of mutual interaction and mutual awareness. Mere aggregates of people do not fit this definition because they do not interact and do not perceive themselves to be a group even if they are aware of each other as, for instance, a crowd on a street corner watching some event. A total department, a union, or a whole organization would not be a group in spite of thinking of themselves as “we,” because they generally do not all interact and are not all aware of each other. However, work teams, committees, subparts of departments, cliques, and various other informal associations among organizational members would fit this definition of a group.3 The size of a group is thus limited by the potential for mutual interaction and mutual awareness.4 Think of the various groups to which you belong. Does each group satisfy the four criteria in our definition? Have a look at Figure 8.1, which illustrates the four criteria. To increase your understanding of groups, we next address their functions, roles, norms, and dynamics. Formal and Informal Groups Individuals join or are assigned to groups for various purposes. A formal group is assigned by organizations or their managers to accomplish specific goals. Such groups often have labels: work group, team, committee, or task force. An informal group exists when the members’ overriding purpose of getting together is friendship or a common interest.5 Formal and informal groups often overlap, such as when a team of corporate auditors heads for the tennis courts after work. Friendships forged on the job can be so strong as to outlive the job itself in an era of job hopping, reorganizations, and mass layoffs. Page 257 FIGURE 8.1FOUR CRITERIA OF A GROUP Whole Foods has effectively applied the concept of formal groups to their stores. For instance, employees clearly identify with their particular store and compete against other stores. For example, membership in organized corporate “alumni” groups is increasingly popular. There are now alumni groups for hundreds of companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Ernst & Young, and Texas Instruments. Some groups are started by former employees, while others are formally sanctioned by employers as a way to stay in touch, creating a potential pool of boomerang workers that employers can draw from when hiring picks up.6 A quick Google search revealed more than 8,500 ex-employee groups, many of which are facilitated by Facebook. The desirability of overlapping formal and informal groups is debatable.7 Some managers firmly believe personal friendship fosters productive teamwork on the job, while others view such relationships as a serious threat to productivity. Both situations are common, and it is the manager’s job to strike a workable balance based on the maturity and goals of the people involved. A survey of 1,000 US adults revealed that 61 percent consider their bosses to be friends. However, approximately a third of those who are connected with their boss on a social networking site wish they weren’t!8 This is food for thought. Functions of Formal Groups Researchers point out that formal groups fulfill two basic functions: organizational and individual (see Table 8.1).9 Complex combinations of these functions can be found in formal groups at any given time. TABLE 8.1FORMAL GROUPS FULFILL ORGANIZATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL FUNCTIONS ORGANIZATIONAL FUNCTIONS INDIVIDUAL FUNCTIONS 1. Accomplish complex, interdependent tasks that are beyond the capabilities of individuals. 1. Satisfy the individual's need for affiliation. 2. Generate new or creative ideas and solutions. 2. Develop, enhance, and confirm the individual's self-esteem and sense of identity. 3. Coordinate interdepartmental efforts. 3. Give individuals an opportunity to test and share their perceptions of social reality. 4. Provide a problem-solving mechanism for complex problems requiring varied information and assessments. 4. Reduce the individual's anxieties and feelings of insecurity and powerlessness. 5. Implement complex decisions. 5. Provide a problem-solving mechanism for personal and interpersonal problems. 6. Socialize and train newcomers. SOURCE: Adapted from E. H. Schein, Organizational Psychology, 3rd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980), 149–151. Page 258 TAKE-AWAY APPLICATION—TAAP 1.Think of a formal group in which you’re a member. 2.Describe how being a member of that group fulfills at least three of the five individual functions listed in Table 8.1. Be specific and use concrete examples. 3.Now describe in detail how the team fulfills at least two of the organizational functions. Consider, for example, the law firm of Baker Donelson. The firm highly values community service and has doubled its number of pro bono hours each year since 2008. To formalize their commitment to such work, they appointed Lisa Borden as pro bono shareholder and created a pro bono committee.10 Not only does this show the alignment of cultural values and norms you’ll learn about in Chapter 14, but it also illustrates both the organizational and individual functions of formal groups. Specifically, the committee helps coordinate pro bono work across the many offices and practice areas of the firm (organizational function). And free services support Baker Donelson’s organizational values and goals of being a good citizen in their communities and increasing attorney satisfaction (organizational functions). In addition, providing pro bono work most likely fulfills individual functions, such as confirming an attorney’s sense of identity (as a kind, caring individual), building strong work relationships, and living according to one’s values. Roles and Norms—Social Building Blocks for Group and Organizational Behavior Work groups transform individuals into functioning organizational members through subtle yet powerful social forces. These social forces, in effect, turn “I” into “we” and “me” into “us.” Group influence weaves individuals into the organization’s social fabric by communicating and enforcing both role expectations and norms. Group members positively reinforce those who adhere to current roles and norms with friendship and acceptance. On the other hand, nonconformists experience criticism and even ostracism or rejection by group members. Anyone who has experienced the “silent treatment” from a group of friends knows what a potent social weapon ostracism can be. The usefulness of roles and norms is enhanced by understanding how they develop and why they are enforced. RolesA role is a set of expected behaviors for a particular position, and a group role is a set of expected behaviors for members of the group as a whole.11 Therefore each role you play is defined in part by the expectations of that role. As a student, you are expected to be motivated to learn, conscientious, participative, and attentive. Professors are expected to be knowledgeable, prepared, and genuinely interested in student learning. Sociologists view roles and their associated expectations as a fundamental basis of human interaction and experience. In the many arenas of life (e.g., work, family, and school), people often play multiple roles. At work, for example, employees frequently play roles that go beyond duties in a job description, such as helping coworkers and suggesting improvements.12 Employees often serve in multiple groups and may play one or more roles within each. Two types of roles are particularly important—task and maintenance. Effective groups ensure that both roles are fulfilled (see Table 8.2).13 But before continuing with your learning about group roles, it will be helpful to learn about your own group role preferences by completing Self-Assessment 8.1. Knowing which types of roles you prefer can help you understand why you might have been more or less satisfied with a particular group or team of which you’ve been a member. Playing roles that don’t match your preferences is likely to be less satisfying. Moreover, if you understand your own preferences, you can set yourself up to win (be happy and productive) in future groups, as you can volunteer or position yourself to play the roles you prefer. Page 259 TABLE 8.2TASK AND MAINTENANCE ROLES TASK ROLES DESCRIPTION Initiator Suggests new goals or ideas Information seeker/giver Clarifies key issues Opinion seeker/giver Clarifies pertinent values Elaborator Promotes greater understanding through examples or exploration of implications Coordinator Pulls together ideas and suggestions Orienter Keeps group headed toward its stated goal(s) Evaluator Tests group's accomplishments with various criteria such as logic and practicality Energizer Prods group to move along or to accomplish more Procedural technician Performs routine duties (e.g., handing out materials or rearranging seats) Recorder Performs a “group memory” function by documenting discussion and outcomes MAINTENANCE ROLES DESCRIPTION Encourager Fosters group solidarity by accepting and praising various points of view Harmonizer Mediates conflict through reconciliation or humor Compromiser Helps resolve conflict by meeting others “halfway" Gatekeeper Encourages all group members to participate Standard setter Evaluates the quality of group processes Commentator Records and comments on group processes/dynamics Follower Serves as a passive audience SOURCE: Adapted from discussion in K. D. Benne and P. Sheats, “Functional Roles of Group Members,” Journal of Social Issues, Spring 1948, 41–49. SELF-ASSESSMENT 8.1Group and Team Role Preference Scale Go to connect.mheducation.com and take Self-Assessment 8.1 to learn which roles you prefer to play in group and team settings. 1.Does your preferred role match your perceptions? Justify your answer using examples of your behavior. 2.Given your preferred role (the one with the highest score), describe how you could be most effective in group assignments? What challenges might your preferred role cause for you? For your group? 3.Given your least preferred role (the one with the lowest score), describe how this has been problematic for you and one of your teams. Explain two ways you could improve your performance and that of your team by working on this deficiency. Page 260 Task roles enable the work group to define, clarify, and pursue a common purpose, and maintenance roles foster supportive and constructive interpersonal relationships. In short, task roles keep the group on track while maintenance roles keep the group together. A project team member is performing a task function when he or she says at an update meeting, “What is the real issue here? We don’t seem to be getting anywhere.” Another individual who says, “Let’s hear from those who oppose this plan,” is performing a maintenance function. Importantly, each of the various task and maintenance roles may be played in varying combinations and sequences by either the group’s leader or any of its members.14 TAKE-AWAY APPLICATION—TAAP 1.Think of a (formal or informal) group of which you’re a member. 2.Describe how at least three task roles are fulfilled. Explain how the roles are fulfilled using examples of specific people and behaviors. 3.Do the same for at least three maintenance roles. (Note: If necessary use more than one group, but be sure to describe at least three task and three maintenance roles.) Sallie Krawcheck, from interview on her purchase of the networking company 85 Broads. The task and maintenance roles listed in Table 8.2 can serve as a handy checklist for managers and group leaders who wish to ensure proper group effectiveness and development (discussed in the next section of this chapter). Roles that are not always performed when needed, such as those of coordinator, evaluator, and gatekeeper, can be performed in a timely manner by the formal leader or assigned to other members. Leaders can further ensure that roles are fulfilled by clarifying specifically what is expected of employees in the group. Sallie Krawcheck, one of the most powerful women on Wall Street and former executive at Citibank and Bank of America (B of A), provides an excellent example. When she took over as president of the Global Wealth and Investment Management (GWIM) group at B of A, she was quick to fulfill both task and maintenance roles. At the embattled bank she quickly tended to task roles and appointed eight executives to oversee various operations within the group, such as heads of the US brokerage force and private wealth management. New goals were set; she also worked diligently to integrate and harmonize the dual cultures (maintenance roles) of both B of A and Merrill Lynch, which it acquired at the height of the financial crisis.15 The task roles of initiator, orienter, and energizer are especially important because they are goal-directed roles. Research studies on group goal setting confirm the motivational power of challenging goals. As with individual goal setting (Chapters 5 and 6), difficult but achievable goals are associated with better group results.16 Also in line with individual goal-setting theory and research, group goals are more effective if group members clearly understand them and are both individually and collectively committed to achieving them. Initiators, orienters, and energizers can be very helpful in this regard. Moreover, international managers need to be sensitive to cultural differences regarding the relative importance of task and maintenance roles. For example, Asian cultures often value maintenance roles more than groups from the West. Many important maintenance roles are often fulfilled by people referred to as “office moms.” They may or may not have children of their own, but they are the colleagues who are most likely to remember birthdays, circulate cards, and bring cupcakes to celebrate. Office moms may play important mentoring-type roles—listening to employees and giving helpful advice regarding work and life more generally. Sometimes they even offer a shoulder to cry on. They are known to tell you what you need to hear, such as “she knows your significant other is all wrong for you—and will say so.” In short, office moms offer all kinds of support and advice, informally, for work and life matters that fall outside of more formal task roles and company infrastructure (e.g., human resources).17 Page 261 Norms“A norm is an attitude, opinion, feeling, or action—shared by two or more people—that guides behavior.”18 Norms help create order and allow groups to function more efficiently, as they prevent groups from having to progress through the development process each and every time they meet. Can you imagine having to establish guidelines over and over again? Norms are more encompassing than roles, which tend to be at the individual level in the Integrative Framework and pertain to a specific job or situation. Norms, in contrast, are shared phenomena and apply to the group, team, or organization level. Although norms are typically unwritten and seldom discussed openly, they have a powerful influence on group and organizational behavior. As you’ll learn in Chapter 14 (organizational culture), individual and group behavior are guided in part via the shared nature of expectations and norms. For example, the 3M Company has a norm wherein employees devote 15 percent of their time to think big, pursue new ideas, or further develop something spawned from their other work. The “15 percent time” program, as it is called, was started in 1948 and supports the culture of innovation 3M is known for. Google, as well as other tech companies, implements a similar program and allows employees to allocate 20 percent of their time to ideas and projects beyond their own jobs. It is alleged, but not confirmed, that projects developed during this time were Gmail and Google Earth.19 Norms serve many purposes and are thus reinforced. Some of these reasons are listed in Table 8.3. TABLE 8.3WHY NORMS ARE REINFORCED NORM REASON EXAMPLE “Make our department look good in top management's eyes.“ Group/organization survival After vigorously defending the vital role played by the Human Resources Management Department at a divisional meeting, a staff specialist is complimented by her boss. “Success comes to those who work hard and don't make waves.” Clarification of behavioral expectations A senior manager takes a young associate aside and cautions him to be a bit more patient with coworkers who see things differently. “Be a team player, not a star.” Avoidance of embarrassment A project team member is ridiculed by her peers for dominating the discussion during a progress report to top management. “Customer service is our top priority.” Clarification of central values/unique identity Two sales representatives are given a surprise Friday afternoon party for having received prestigious best-in-the-industry customer service awards from an industry association.Page 262 Norms emerge either on their own, over time, or as a more conscious effort. For instance, think of the group of friends you hung out with on Friday night. What are some of the common behaviors and unspoken norms of behavior? Were these norms the result of discussion or did they just kind of happen? In contrast, norms can also be purposefully created, which is what we advocate. (Why leave things to chance at work when you can directly influence them for the better?) The World Health Organization (WHO) provides an excellent example. The mission of the organization is to improve health for people around the world. The WHO took on the challenge of improving surgical outcomes. To do this, its member group World Alliance for Public Safety created the Safe Surgery Checklist that identifies three stages of surgery and the important tasks associated with each. They recommend that a surgery coordinator (a specific task role) be assigned to assure that each task is complete before moving to the next stage. Stage 1—(Sign In) Before Administering Anesthesia: Confirm patient identity, site, procedure, and consent; mark the site of the surgery; anesthesia safety check; pulse oximeter on. Stage 2—(Time Out) Before Incision: Confirm all team members have introduced themselves by name and role; surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurse confirm patient, procedure, and site; surgeon reviews critical steps and potential challenges; anesthesiologist checks for potential problems; nursing team reviews that all equipment and personnel are in place; confirm appropriate medications have been administered. Stage 3—(Sign Out) Before Patient Leaves Operating Room: Nurse verbally confirms with the team—name of procedure recorded; instrument, sponge, and needle counts are correct; specimen is labeled and includes patient’s name; surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurse review post-op concerns, medications, and pain management. “By following a few critical steps,” the World Alliance for Public Safety notes, “health care professionals can minimize the most common and avoidable risks endangering the lives and well-being of surgical patients.”20 solving application No Cash Bonuses at Wooga?! But Everybody Else Gets Them! Wooga, a German social gaming company, doesn’t pay performance bonuses. This is hard to believe given the common practice among its competitors to provide generous bonuses. SOURCE: Adapted from P. Glader, “Wooga, A Case Study in No-Cash Bonus Culture,” Fast Company, February 21, 2012, http://www.fastcompany.com/1816541/wooga-case-study-no-cash-bonus-culture, accessed April 28, 2013. For instance, rival Zynga pays top performers with lavish gifts, which can include $100,000 in stock. Its hard-driving culture promotes competition within, tracks individual performance, and demotes or fires those who don’t keep pace. These practices seem to work. Zynga has produced such online hits as Mafia Wars, Farmville, and Zynga Poker. Page 263 Wooga’s games are almost as well known, including Diamond Dash, Bubble Island, Pearl’s Peril, Monster World, and Jelly Splash. So Why Doesn’t Wooga Pay Bonuses? If bonuses work for Zynga, why not for Wooga? Jens Begemann, founder and CEO, says: “I don’t believe in them. . . . If people are not motivated, you may need bonuses to make sure they work. But I don’t think that’s the right incentive.” Bonuses work against Wooga’s culture of openness and collaboration. The company creates games for social platforms (e.g., Facebook) with teams of developers. Sharing all knowledge is essential—within and between teams as well as between management and employees. Begemann doesn’t want teams comparing and competing with each other for ideas, talent, or users (a critical performance measurement in gaming). He reasons that if a team competes for users, it may be unlikely to allow a user to be directed to a Wooga game from a competing team. Performance bonuses could get in the way of Wooga’s overall success. Besides, Begemann notes, in Germany cash bonuses are taxed at nearly 50 percent. “Sometimes, people don’t even realize they received a bonus.” Part of this nobonus practice can be attributed to the European approach to start-ups. In contrast to the winner-take-all approach in US companies, European companies tend not to single out individuals and differentiate their compensation so dramatically. Note, however, that Wooga does use a financial incentive—ownership. Wooga provides employees with initial shares in the company to give workers a stake in the company’s overall success. It Seems to Work and Venture Capital Agrees In 2011 alone, users grew by 185 percent to 40 million monthly users, up from 14 million a year earlier. The practice also has attracted private investors (the company is not yet public). One investor raved, “I fell in love with this philosophy. [Begemann] basically does not believe that running competitive teams is the best way to build the company.” In contrast to just having people work harder, the investor said, “It’s very important people work smarter.” Market Share Update Ranking changes fast in this market. Based on daily active users, Wooga—which by the end of 2012 was Zynga’s closest rival—had slipped to third place as King, the makers of Candy Crush Saga and Pet Rescue Saga, soared to number one. In the first half of 2013 Zynga claimed 52 million users and King 66 million.21 YOUR CALL Stop 1:What potential problems do you see with Wooga’s no-bonus policy? Stop 2:How can your knowledge of group norms help you explain why Wooga’s no-bonus practices foster effective groups? Stop 3:Describe what you would recommend, above and beyond what they already do, to help overcome the challenges associated with Wooga’s no-bonus policy. Another way to think about roles and norms is peer pressure. Peer pressure is about expectations, and we all know what peer pressure is and how effective or problematic it can be. But at its root, peer pressure is simply the influence of the group on the individual, and the expectations of associated roles and norms are the means of this influence. (You’ll learn much more about influencing others in Chapter 12.) Now that you’ve learned what groups are and the importance of roles and norms, let’s move on and explore how to develop effective groups. Combining this knowledge enables you to influence key outcomes at the individual, group, and organizational levels in the Integrative Framework. Page 264 8.2THE GROUP DEVELOPMENT PROCESS MAJOR QUESTION How can understanding the group development process make me more effective at school and work? THE BIGGER PICTURE You’ll find working in groups and teams much easier when you recognize and understand they often follow a five-stage development process. We put each stage in context to help you understand the problems and benefits common to groups and teams as they evolve. Your understanding and application of this knowledge will enable you to more effectively manage individual- and group-level outcomes in the Integrative Framework and perform more successfully in work and school groups. At work and school, groups and teams go through a maturation process. Their development is much like the life-cycle processes found in many disciplines—products in marketing and human development in biology. All of these processes are described in terms of stages that differ in terms of number, sequence, length, and nature.22 Bruce Tuckman formulated perhaps the most popular group development process. His process originally had four stages but was later expanded to five—forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (see Figure 8.2).23 A word of caution: Similar to Maslow’s theory of needs discussed in Chapter 5, Tuckman’s theory has not withstood rigorous empirical testing. However, many researchers and practitioners like Tuckman’s five-stage model of group development because it is easy to remember and has commonsense appeal. Let’s learn a little bit about this process and its individual stages. Notice in Figure 8.2 how individuals give up a measure of their independence when they join and participate in a group. Also, the various stages are not necessarily of the same duration or intensity. For instance, the storming stage may be practically nonexistent or painfully long, depending on the goal clarity and the commitment and maturity of the members. You can make this process come to life by relating the various stages to your own experiences with work groups, committees, athletic teams, fraternities/sororities, religious groups, or class project teams. Some group experiences that surprised you when they occurred may now make sense or strike you as inevitable when seen as part of a natural development process. Stage 1: Forming During this “ice-breaking” stage, group members tend to be uncertain and anxious about such things as their roles, the people in charge, and the group’s goals. Mutual trust is low, and there is a good deal of holding back to see who takes charge and how. Interestingly, research has shown that this is just the time in a group’s development where some conflict among group members is beneficial. A study of 71 technology project teams revealed that conflict in the early stages of the group development process increased creativity.24 However, the results can be quite different in other situations. For example, in life-and-death situations sometimes faced by surgical teams and airline cockpit crews, the uncertainty inherent in the early stages of development (e.g., forming and storming) can be dangerous. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, “73% of commercial airline pilots’ serious mistakes happen on crews’ first day together.”25 If the formal leader (e.g., a supervisor) does not assert his or her authority, an emergent leader will often step in to fulfill the group’s need for leadership and direction (the details of leadership are discussed in Chapter 13). Page 265 FIGURE 8.2TUCKMAN’S FIVE-STAGE MODEL OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT Stage 2: Storming This is a time of testing. Individuals test the leader’s policies and assumptions as they try to determine how they fit into the power structure. Subgroups take shape, and subtle forms of rebellion, such as procrastination, occur. In fact, some management experts say the reason many new CEOs don’t survive is because they never get beyond the storming stage. Ron Johnson at JCPenney, for example, never really got employees and other top managers on board with his radical rebranding of the retailer. He fired thousands of employees, and much of the old guard, but many of those who remained resisted his plan. The situation was made worse still by a lack of support from the Board of Directors.26 Many groups stall in Stage 2 because of how power and politics (topics we’ll cover in Chapter 12) can erupt into open rebellion. Stage 3: Norming Groups that make it through Stage 2 generally do so because a respected member, other than the leader, challenges the group to resolve its power struggles so something can be accomplished. Page 266 Professional race car drivers, including Danica Patrick, shown here, rely on their teams to develop strategies and implement them effectively to win races. To do this, it is essential that such teams to both reach and maintain the performing stage of group development. Describe how you think the stages of group development unfold in race car teams? Questions about authority and power are best resolved through unemotional, matter-of-fact group discussion. A feeling of team spirit is sometimes experienced during this stage because members believe they have found their proper roles. Group cohesiveness, defined as the “we feeling” that binds members of a group together, is the principal by-product of Stage 3.27 Google CEO Larry Page reshuffled the company’s top management team in early 2013, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, to “weed out perceived inefficiencies and a lack of cohesion among some of the Internet company’s core product groups.” He restructured jobs and responsibilities and reassigned people.28 Current research supports these actions and shows that increasing team member interactions and the interdependence of their work tasks can help overcome the conflicts and boost team cohesion and performance.29 Stage 4: Performing Activity during this vital stage is focused on solving task problems, as contributors get their work done without hampering others. This stage is often characterized by a climate of open communication, strong cooperation, and lots of helping behavior. Conflicts and job boundary disputes are handled constructively and efficiently. Cohesiveness and personal commitment to group goals help the group achieve more than could any one individual acting alone. Stage 5: Adjourning The work is done; it is time to move on to other things. The return to independence can be eased by rituals celebrating “the end” and “new beginnings.” Parties, award ceremonies, and graduations can punctuate the end. Leaders need to emphasize valuable lessons learned during the adjourning stage. Page 267 8.3TEAMS AND THE POWER OF COMMON PURPOSE MAJOR QUESTION What are the characteristics of effective team players and team building, and how does this knowledge improve my performance in various types of teams? THE BIGGER PICTURE When you better understand the difference between groups and teams, you’ll be well equipped to perform better in both. You’ll find practical tips in our discussion of critical competencies of effective team players along with guidance on teamwork and team building. This section concludes with a discussion of two particularly important and contemporary types of teams—self-managed and virtual. A team is “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” Besides being a central component of the Integrative Framework, teams are a cornerstone of work life. General Electric’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt offers this blunt overview: “You lead today by building teams and placing others first. It’s not about you.”30 This means practically all employees need to develop their skills related to being good team players and building effective teams. While Immelt’s position is accepted by many CEOs across industries, some also are quick to emphasize the important roles of individual team members. For instance, JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon stated, “While teamwork is important and often code for getting along, equally important is an individual’s ability to have the courage to stand alone and do the right thing.”31 Dimon’s view was put to the test during the Great Recession and financial scandals in the recent past (e.g., the London Whale). Research supports these views. Executives from 300 companies indicated that teamwork was the single most desirable soft skill (64 percent of executives). Interpersonal, social, and managerial skills were also noted.32 In today’s team-focused work environment, organizations need leaders who are adept at teamwork themselves and can cultivate the level of trust necessary to foster constructive teamwork. Employees reported that the three traits of their most admired bosses were trust in employees, honesty/authenticity, and great team-building skills.33 To help you be more effective in the team context, let’s begin by differentiating groups and teams. A Team Is More Than Just a Group Management consultants at McKinsey & Company say it is a mistake to use the terms group and team interchangeably. After studying many different kinds of teams—from athletic to corporate to military—they concluded that successful teams tend to take on a life of their own. A group becomes a team when the following criteria are met: Page 268 1.Leadership becomes a shared activity. 2.Accountability shifts from strictly individual to both individual and collective. 3.The group develops its own purpose or mission. 4.Problem solving becomes a way of life, not a part-time activity. 5.Effectiveness is measured by the group’s collective outcomes and products.34 Bob Lane, the former CEO of Deere & Company, emphasizes the purpose and effectiveness of teams when he talks about his company being a team, not a family. A reporter summarized his words this way: “While family members who don’t pull their weight may not be welcome at the Thanksgiving dinner table, they remain members of the family. But if you’re not pulling your weight here, I’m sorry, you’re not part of the team.”35 Mr. Lane clearly has strong views on the difference. Let’s make this more personal for you. As you know, well-functioning groups or teams can be incredibly effective in achieving goals and quite fulfilling for members. However, you also know that they can be a tremendous waste of time. It therefore would be beneficial for you to be able to differentiate the former from the latter. Some experts describe this difference in terms of “maturity.” Mature groups are more effective. Completing Self-Assessment 8.2 will help you better understand the maturity level of a current or past team of which you’re a member. The individual items provide excellent insights into the causes of the team’s success, or lack thereof, and can guide improvements. SELF-ASSESSMENT 8.2Is This a Mature Work Group or a Team? Go to connect.mheducation.com and take Self-Assessment 8.2 to determine the maturity (effectiveness characteristics) of one of your current or past groups/teams. 1.Does your evaluation help explain why the group or team was successful or not? Explain. 2.Was (or is) there anything you could have done (or can do) to increase the maturity of this group? Explain. 3.How will this evaluation instrument help you be a more effective group member or leader in the future? Teams in Terms of Group Development StageCompared to our discussion of groups and group development in the previous sections, teams are task groups that have matured to the performing stage. Because of conflicts due to power, authority, and unstable interpersonal relations, many work groups never qualify as a real team. The distinction was clarified this way: “The essence of a team is common commitment. Without it, groups perform as individuals. With it, they become a powerful unit of collective performance.”36 This underscores two other important distinctions between teams and groups: Teams assemble to accomplish a common task and require collaboration.37 The following Example box describes how important building an effective team is to Kevin Ryan, the former president of DoubleClick (one of the original Internet banner ad companies eventually purchased by Google) and founder and current CEO of Gilt Groupe (a specialty apparel, accessories, and home décor club). He clearly acknowledges that teams take time to develop. But he also is clear that he expects managers to control the process. We then discuss teamwork competencies and being a team player. Page 269 EXAMPLETeam Building Is an Important Part of Talent Management38 Kevin Ryan knows a bit about building successful teams. He’s done it at a number of companies (e.g., DoubleClick and Gilt Groupe) and is regarded as one of the country’s leading Internet entrepreneurs. His leadership style emphasizes talent management (Chapter 1), which he sees as the number one responsibility of CEOs, and rigorous performance management (Chapter 6). Both of these converge in his expectations for managers’ ability to build effective teams. These views are illustrated in his description of a conversation with a new manager. CLEAR EXPECTATIONS“Five months from now, you need to have a great team. Earlier would be better, but five months is the goal. To do that, you’ll need to spend the next month evaluating the people you have right now. I hope they’re good. But if they’re not, we’ll make changes to replace them. If you need to promote people internally, we’ll do that. If you need to go outside, we’ll do that. You also need to make sure you retain your best people. I’m going to be really disturbed if I see that people we wanted to keep have started leaving your area.” CONSEQUENCESSadly, the manager didn’t build a strong team. At four months two key positions were still open and two key individuals had left. Mr. Ryan then asked: “Tell us what we can do to help. . . . If you need us to double your recruiting resources, we’ll do that.” At six months the situation had not improved. Mr. Ryan then said, “We’re done.” YOUR THOUGHTS? 1.What are the benefits to Kevin Ryan’s approach to team building? 2.What are the potential shortcomings? 3.Explain why you would or would not want to be a manager for Kevin Ryan. Developing Your Teamwork Competencies and Being a Team Player Instead of a “Free-Rider” Forming teams and urging employees to be team players are good starting points on the road to creating effective teams. But they are not enough. Teamwork competencies need to be role modeled and taught. These include group problem solving, mentoring, conflict management skills (Chapter 10), and emotional intelligence (Chapter 3). Put another way, many of the inputs and processes across various levels in the Integrative Framework also are important elements of effective teams and team building. Research suggests that teams collaborate most effectively when companies develop and encourage teamwork competencies. This means that teamwork competencies should be measured and rewarded, too (recall our discussion of performance management in Chapter 6). If teamwork is important, then how can you measure it? Thankfully, this is well researched but not necessarily commonly practiced. Researchers have distilled five common teamwork competencies. These are outlined in Table 8.4. Page 270 TABLE 8.4COMMON TEAMWORK COMPETENCIES COMPETENCY EXAMPLES OF MEMBER BEHAVIORS 1. Contributes to the Team's Work •Completed work in a timely manner •Came to meetings prepared •Did complete and accurate work 2. Constructively Interacts with Team Members •Communicated effectively •Listened to teammates •Accepted feedback 3. Keeps Team on Track •Helped team plan and organize work •Stayed aware of team members' progress •Provided constructive feedback 4. Expects Quality Work •Expected team to succeed •Cared that the team produced quality work 5. Possesses Relevant Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) for Team's Responsibilities •Possessed necessary KSAs to contribute meaningfully to the team •Applied knowledge and skill to fill in as needed for other members' roles Notice that all of these competencies are action oriented. This means that being a team player is more than a state of mind: it is about action! Evaluating Teamwork CompetenciesThere are at least two ways to use Table 8.4 and knowledge of teamwork competencies. The first is as a tool to enhance your selfawareness. The second is to use these competencies as a way to measure your performance and the performance of other members of your team. Self-Assessment 8.3 located at connect.mheducation.com can be useful for both. Many of your business courses require team assignments and some require peer evaluations. Complete this Self-Assessment to learn about your own teamwork competencies and/or to evaluate the performance of the members of one of your teams at school (e.g., for a class, sport, club, or fraternity/sorority). For example, knowledge of your teamwork competencies can help you determine which competencies are your strongest and those that are opportunities for improvement. You can then choose to play to your strengths and/or develop your deficiencies. SELF-ASSESSMENT 8.3Evaluate Team Member Effectiveness After completing the Self-Assessment, do the following: 1.Which competencies are your strongest (i.e., have the highest average scores)? 2.Do these scores match your own impressions of your teamwork competencies? 3.Which is your lowest? Describe two things you can do to further develop and display this competency. 4.Which competency do you feel is most often the one lacking by low performers in the teams on which you’re a member? 5.Describe the pros and cons of using this tool to do peer evaluations for team assignments in school. Adapted from M. W. Ohland, M. L. Loughry, D. J. Woehr, L. G. Bullard, R. M. Felder, C. J. Finelli, R. A. Layton, H. R. Pomeranz, and D. G. Schmucker, “The Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness: Development of a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale for Self- and Peer Evaluation,” Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2012, 609–30. Reprinted with permission of Academy of Management. Page 271 Being a Team PlayerSo, what does it mean to be a team player? Understanding and exhibiting the competencies noted above is an excellent start. And while everybody has her or his own ideas of what is most important, it is likely that most people’s views include the 3 Cs of team players: Committed Collaborative Competent39 Put another way, the 3 Cs are the “cover charge” or the bare minimum to be considered a team player. Think of a team on which you either are or were a member. It would be difficult to consider any individual member a team player if he or she didn’t possess and exhibit all three. Effective team players therefore don’t just feel the 3 Cs—they display them. To make the point, think of somebody on one of your teams who clearly displays the 3 Cs and somebody who does not. How do the differences affect you? The team? While there are many potential reasons that people are not team players, a particularly common and problematic one is social loafing (i.e., “anti-team player”). Social LoafingSocial loafing is the tendency for individual effort to decline as group size increases. To illustrate the point, consider a group or team of which you’re a member and ask yourself: “Is group performance less than, equal to, or greater than the sum of its parts?” Can three people working together, for example, accomplish less than, the same as, or more than they would working separately? An interesting study conducted more than a half-century ago found the answer to be “less than.” In a rope-pulling exercise (“tug-of-war”), three people pulling together achieved only two-and-a-half times the average individual rate. Eight pullers achieved less than four times the individual rate.40 Social loafing is problematic because it typically involves more than simply “slacking off.” Free riders (i.e., “loafers”) produce not only low-quality work, which causes others to work harder to compensate, but they often also distract or disrupt the work of other team members. Research involving business students revealed two common reasons why individuals loaf—apathy and social disconnectedness. Apathy means they are uninterested in the task, don’t care about their grade, and/or are unconcerned about the effect of their poor work on others. A loafer’s social disconnection may be due to simply not liking or getting along with one or more members of the team, or they may feel like outsiders or not part of the clique.41 You undoubtedly have many of your own examples. Let’s briefly analyze this threat to group effectiveness with an eye toward avoiding it. Guarding Against LoafingConsistent with the definition above, social loafing generally increases as group size increases and work is more widely dispersed. What makes this worse is that loafers “expect others to pick up the slack even as they receive the same rewards.”42 To combat such problems: 1.Limit group size. 2.Assure equity of effort to mitigate the possibility that a member can say, “Everyone else is goofing off, so why shouldn’t I?” Your knowledge of equity and justice from Chapter 5 can offer you some ideas on how to avoid or fix this. 3.Hold people accountable—don’t allow members to feel that they are lost in the crowd and think “who cares?” Motivation (Chapter 5) and performance management (Chapter 6) practices also can be helpful. Recent research with four-member teams showed that hybrid rewards—those that include team and individual components—reduced social loafing and improved information sharing. Hybrid rewards hold members accountable both as individuals and as a team.43 A particularly interesting finding was that self-reliant “individualists” were more prone to social loafing than were group-oriented “collectivists.” Why do you think this is? Page 272 TAKE-AWAY APPLICATION—TAAP 1.Think of a group or team situation in which one of the members was “loafing.” 2.Given what you just learned, what do you think was the cause of her/him to free-ride or loaf? 3.Describe, in detail, two things you could have done to prevent this from happening. 4.Describe what you can do in a future group assignment in school to avoid or reduce social loafing. Be specific. Now let’s discuss how to build teams. Team building is another key element to your near- and long-term career success and a critical means for influencing many of the outcomes at different levels in the Integrative Framework (e.g., your individual job performance, team cohesiveness, and organizational profitability). Team Building Team building is a catchall term for a host of techniques aimed at improving the internal functioning of work groups. Whether conducted by company trainers, hired consultants, or you, team-building workshops strive for greater cooperation, better communication, and less dysfunctional conflict (different forms of conflict and how to manage them are discussed in Chapter 10). Rote memorization and lectures are discouraged by team builders who prefer active versus passive learning. Greater emphasis is placed on how work groups get the job done than on the task itself. Experiential learning techniques such as interpersonal trust exercises, conflict role-play sessions, and competitive games are common if not expected. While there are many alternatives, we need to ask: Does team building work? Is it worth the investment of time, people, and money? Does Team Building Work?It’s hard to say. While many businesspeople are confident that development efforts yield results (e.g., Kip Tindell, CEO of the Container Store), cost-conscious executives increasingly insist on determining the return on investment (ROI) for team building and other talent-development investments. One estimate is that fewer than 20 percent of companies that invest in development actually calculate the ROI.44 Part of the problem is that many if not most organizations do not set clear objectives for team building (or training more generally). Three fundamental elements are recommended for those interested in establishing the ROI for team building: Page 273 Full-time employees of the Container Store receive 263 hours of training their first year. Communication and transparency also are highly valued. CEO Kip Tindell believes that all information and data (except salaries) should be shared with employees. Such practices foster trust, teamwork, and organizational effectiveness at the company. Besides trust, what are the benefits of transparency and investments in training? •Clear objectives. This is the starting point for ROI estimates. Many outcomes are possible, but it is important to identify which are most relevant for a particular team, such as increased sales, increased customer satisfaction, timeliness, or quality. To illustrate, if the objective is simply to get team members to know each other and have fun, then an engaging exercise or a happy hour is enough. If instead the objective is to translate the training into action, such as on-the-job collaboration, then it is recommended to follow up, use reminders, and somehow measure that it is happening.45 •Validation. Not to be confused with the objectives, validation involves confirming that team-building efforts actually link to the desired changes in behavior and attitudes. For example, a positive attitude toward customers likely affects the quality of work produced by the team. You can validate (verify) this link using your knowledge of goal setting and performance management from the previous two chapters. •Performance information. What data are needed to track the previous two elements and how will they be obtained?46 Attitudes toward customers can be measured with employee surveys, quality can be gauged by the number of reworked products, and customer satisfaction can be determined with surveys or interviews. How to Build Effective Teams—QuicklyLike goal setting, creating and communicating performance expectations for teams is extremely important. However, the reality is that today teams are often put together in a hurry; they are assemblies of people who do not routinely work together but must get results—quickly. It therefore is necessary for effective teams to be built and start performing in real time. Knowing how to do this can give you a real advantage when looking for a job, and then (quickly) distinguishing yourself as a top performer after you get a job. Today’s dynamic workplace often requires different people to come together across boundaries (e.g., departments, experience levels, knowledge, age, and even employers if you partner with vendors and suppliers). Businesses sometimes need to build effective teams fast. Here are some practical tips to do just that. These six actions can help accelerate the development of your team and get it performing sooner rather than later. 1.Break the ice. Have each member share relevant details about his or her experience. Doing so helps everybody learn what types of skills and abilities the team possesses, and it also facilitates cooperation because team members can use each other’s experiences as a shared history, which substitutes for the history that they don’t actually have together. Sample questions: “Please tell us about the types of teams in which you’ve participated.” “What are some of the biggest challenges and how were they dealt with?” 2.Don’t reinvent the wheel. Ask team members what has worked in the past. This can help signal respect for their competence and judgment and lead to greater engagement and commitment (recall our discussions from Chapter 2). 3.Communicate a purpose and a plan. Clearly explain the team’s purpose and how they will work together. Do more than simply hand out assignments, but instead explain why the team was created, the problem to be solved, and the benefits of success. Describe milestones, or key dates, and the main deliverables. 4.Play to strengths. Set individuals and the larger team up to win. This means match individual members’ skills to responsibilities and goals of the team. Fit is likely to lead to higher performance and show that you were listening to individuals and care about their success. Page 274 5.Clarify decision making. Think about and explain how you approach decision making in dealing with conflicts (you’ll learn more about this in Chapter 11). Decisions that will affect the team’s final product, for example, are often handled by the team leader (or boss). Beware, however, not to interfere in decisions that should be made within the team. 6.Information is essential—make it flow. Establish clear processes and expectations for sharing information within the team—e-mails, face-to-face meetings, voicemail, Dropbox, SharePoint, Skype, etc. Explicitly include your expectations for giving and receiving feedback.47 All sorts of interesting approaches to teams and teamwork can be found in the workplace today. Technology and global competitiveness motivate organizations to be more flexible and responsive. The next section profiles two different approaches to teams—self-managed and virtual. We selected these particular types of teams because of their pervasive use, supporting research evidence, and their varying degrees of empowerment (discussed more in Chapter 12). Self-Managed Teams Self-managed teams are defined as groups of workers who are given administrative oversight for their task domains. Administrative oversight involves delegated activities such as planning, scheduling, monitoring, and staffing. These are “chores” normally performed by managers. In short, employees in these unique work groups act as their own supervisor. Leadership responsibilities often are shared and shift as the demands on the team change and members step up.48 This contrasts with hierarchical or centralized types of management typically found in teams. Accountability is maintained indirectly by outside managers and leaders. More than 75 percent of the top 1,000 US companies currently use some form of self-managed team.49 For example, Google X is the now famous although low-profile special research lab for the company. Google is synonymous with research and innovation, and such activities occur throughout the company. But Google X includes teams with especially broad latitude and whose members flow in and out of projects over time. Members of these fluid and largely self-directed teams are charged with “moonshot” projects—those that can change the world and be commercially viable—such as driverless cars, Google Glass, and broadband transmitters on high-altitude balloons.50 Typically, self-managed teams schedule work and assign duties, with managers present to serve as trainers and facilitators. Self-managed teams—variously referred to as semiautonomous work groups, autonomous work groups, and superteams—come in every conceivable format today, some more autonomous than others. It is important to know, however, that self-managed does not mean simply turning workers loose to do their own thing. Indeed, an organization embracing self-managed teams should be prepared to undergo revolutionary changes in management philosophy, structure, staffing and training practices, and reward systems. The traditional notions of managerial authority (discussed in detail in Chapter 12) and control are turned on their heads. Not surprisingly, many managers strongly resist giving up the reins of power to people they view as subordinates. They see self-managed teams as a threat to their job security. Nevertheless, members of (self-managed) teams are increasingly from different functional areas of the organization (e.g., finance, operations, marketing, and R&D). Cross-FunctionalismCross-functionalism occurs when specialists from different areas are put on the same team. New product development is a popular area in which organizations utilize cross-functional teams. An example was provided by Brian Walker, the CEO of furniture maker Herman Miller. Mr. Walker described how the company uses self-management and cross-functional teams to leverage the talents of employees in product development and boost company performance: Page 275 We strive to realize the potential of all our employees and allow them to enjoy what they do. This often involves moving people beyond their current jobs and areas of expertise. If I can have 5,000 or 6,000 people who are passionate about what they do, using every bit of their capabilities in solving problems and finding solutions to our customers’ problems, I’m going to be much better off than if I leave that to 10 percent of that population who tell the other people what to do. . . . [To do this] we’re big believers in putting teams together . . . we’re very willing to move folks around between departments. In our design process, for example, we deliberately create tension by putting together a cross-functional team that includes people from manufacturing, finance, research, ergonomics, marketing and sales. The manufacturing guys want something they know they can make easily and fits their processes. The salespeople want what their customers have been asking for. The tension comes from finding the right balance, being willing to follow those creative leaps to the new place, and convincing the organization it’s worth the risk.51 Are Self-Managed Teams Effective?