Chapter 8

Question 1

Difference ‘group’ and ‘team’

Answer 1

• A group is a collection of people who are interdependent, share common purpose, participate in social interaction and see themselves as a group
• A team implies common purpose of responsibility for accomplishing a particular task or set of tasks

Question 2

System theory (Burke-Litwin, 1992)

Answer 2

Organizational psychologists think of teams and organizations as open systems characterized by:
- A semi-permeable boundary
- Interdependent parts or subsystems, so that change in one produces ripples of change in others
- Inputs from the environment, internal processes and output into the environment
- Dependency upon the external environment for sustaining resources and to use output

Question 3

Group-Productivity Model (GPM) (Steiner)

Answer 3

Potential productivity - process losses = output
- Potential productivity = the best a team can do, determined by tasks and available resources
- Process losses = due to member motivation and coordination
- Output = actual productivity

Question 4

Pooled interdependence

Answer 4

Contributions of different individuals are simply combined to make the product

Question 5

Sequential interdependence

Answer 5

One person’s output becomes input for the next person

Question 6

Reciprocal interdependence

Answer 6

Individuals actually work together, with influence flowing back and forth among members of the team

Question 7

Team Mental model

Answer 7

Shared understanding about team, work and environment. Homogenous teams have this already, important for diverse teams to also have a shared mental model