Chapter 6 Flashcards
(48 cards)
When does a group become a team?
- share leadership
- individuals and team as a whole share accountability for the work of the team
- develop their own purpose and mission
- works on problem solving continuously
- measure of effectiveness is the team’s outcomes and goals not individuals
Why are teams popular in organizations?
- more flexible and responsive to changing events
- more motivational
- outperform individuals when tasks require multiple skillsets
What are the four types of teams?
- Problem-Solving
- Self-Managed
- Cross-Functional
- Virtual
Problem-Solving Teams
- 5-12 employees from same department
- process improvement teams with weekly meetings
- improve quality, efficiency, work environment
- do not have authority to unilaterally implement ideas
Self-Managed Teams
- 10-15 employees
- take on responsibility of their former managers
- planning, scheduling, assigning tasks
- struggle with conflict, but when confident, very effective
Cross-Functional Teams
- at same hierarchal level, but from different work areas who come together to accomplish a task
Virtual Teams
- uses computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members to achieve a common goal
- have special challenges; social rapport, less interaction, isolation
How to make virtual teams effective?
- establish trust across members
- monitor team progress closely (don’t get distracted or lose sight of goals)
- efforts and products of the virtual team are publicized throughout organization (avoid invisibility0
Multi-Team Systems
a collection of two or more interdependent teams that share a superordinate goal, a team of teams
What is a role?
a set of expected behaviours of a person in a given position in a social unit
What is role expectations?
how others believe a person should act in a given situation
Role Conflict
a situation in which individual finds that complying with one role requirement may make it more difficult to comply with another
Role Ambiguity
a person is unclear about their role
Role Overload
when too much is expected of someone based on what they can achieve realistically/do
Role Underload
too little is expected of someone and that person feels that he or she is not contributing to the group
Norms
acceptable standards of behaviour within a group that are shared by other group members
What are the most common topics/issues of norms?
- Performance
- appearance
- social arrangement
- allocation of resources
How do norms develop?
- Explicit Statements made by a group member
- Critical events in the group’s history
- Primacy
- Carry over from past situations
What makes norms important?
- Facilitate group survival
- Increase predictability of group member behaviour
- Reduces embarrassing interpersonal problems
- Allows members to express the central values of the group and clarify what is distinctive about the group identity
Conformity
adjusting one’s behaviour to align with norms of the group
The Five-Stage Model of Group Development
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
- Adjourning
Forming
- first stage in group development, characterized by much uncertainty
Storming
- second stage, characterized by intragroup conflict
Norming
- 3rd stage, characterized by close relationships and cohesiveness