Groups and Teamwork Flashcards
(12 cards)
What are the three key categories of team tasks?
1) Additive: Performance depends on the sum of all group members. E.g. building a house.
2) Disjunctive: Performance depends on the performance of the best group member. E.g. research and data analytics
3) Conjunctive: Performance is limited by the performance of the poorest group member. E.g. assembly line
How do larger teams function differently to smaller teams?
Disadvantages
1)Larger teams or groups are less satisfied with the group, because they are less able to nurture friendships.
2) Larger teams or groups have more conflict, because incorporating more members with different viewpoints into the group can lead to dissention. Also as the group gets larger, the amount each person can speak is reduced. And many people inhibit themselves when participating in large groups.
3) Larger team members also report less commitment to the group.
-In larger groups, people identify less with the successes of the group.
-With additive tasks we can predict potential performance by adding the performances of individual group members together. Building a house is an additive task where we want more group members.
-With disjunctive tasks we can predict the group’s potential performance based on the performance of it’s best member. As we add more people, it becomes less likely that the star performer will be able to work their magic.
-Generally speaking, as the number of members increases, the potential productivity increases marginally, but the process loss increases exponentially. And the total actual productivity rises early on, but quickly diminishes.
What are the stages of group development according to Tuckman’s model?
1) Forming: Group members try to orient themselves by “testing the waters.” They ask questions like what are we doing here? What are the others like? What is our purpose? The situation is often ambiguous, and members are aware of their dependency on each other.
2) Storming: At this stage, conflict emerges. Confrontation and criticism occur as members determine whether they will go along with the way the group is developing. People often struggle to sort out roles and responsibilities here. Problems are more likely to occur earlier rather than later in group development.
3) Norming: At this stage, members resolve the issues that provoked the storming, and they develop social consensus. Compromise is often necessary. Interdependence is recognized, norms are agreed to, and the group becomes more cohesive.
4) Performing: With the social structure sorted out, the group devotes its energies towards task accomplishment. Achievement, creativity, and mutual assistance are prominent themes of this stage.
5) Adjourning: Some groups like task forces and design project teams have a definite lifespan and disperse after achieving their goals. Also some groups disperse when corporate layoffs and downsizing occur. At the adjourning stage, rites and rituals that affirm the group’s previous successful development are common. Members often exhibit emotional support for one another.
What does the punctuated equilibrium model suggest?
1) Phase 1: Begins with the first meeting and continues until the midpoint in the group’s existence. The first meeting is critical in setting the agenda for what will happen in the remainder of the phase. Assumptions, approaches, and precedents that members develop in the first meeting end up dominating the first half of the group’s life.
2) Midpoint Transition: The midpoint transition occurs at approximately the midpoint of the deadline. Lots of key decisions will be made here.
3) Phase 2: Decisions adopted at the midpoint get played out in Phase 2. It concludes with a final meeting that reveals a burst of activity and a concern for how outsiders will evaluate the project.
What advice does the punctuated equilibrium model offer for managing teams?
1) Prepare carefully for the first meeitng. What is decided here will strongly determine what happens in the rest of Phase 1.
2) As long as people are working, do not look for radical progress during Phase 1.
3) Manage the midpoint transition carefully. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the ideas that people generated in Phase 1. Essential issues do not “work themselves out” during Phase 2.
4) Be sure that adequate resources are available to actually execute the Phase 2 plan.
5) Resist deadline changes. These could damage the midpoint transition.
What is role ambiguity?
Role ambiguity exists when the goals of one’s job or the methods of performing it are unclear.
What is role conflict? What are the four key types of role conflict?
-Role conflict exists when an individual is faced with incompatible role expectations. Role conflict is different from role ambiguity in that role expectations may be clear, but they may be incompatible in that they are mutually exclusive, cannot be fulfilled simultaneously, or do not suit the role occupant.
1) Intrasender Role Conflict: Occurs when a single role sender provides incompatible role expectations to the role occupant. E.g. a manager tells an employee to take it easy and not work so hard, while delivering another urgent task to them.
2) Intersender role conflict: Occurs when two or more role senders differ in their expectations for a role occupant. Employees who straddle the boundary between the organization and its clients or customers are especially likely to encounter this form of conflict.
3) Interrole conflict: Occurs when organizational members play several roles at a time, and the expectations are incompatible.
4) Person-role conflict: Role demand are clear and congruent, but they are incompatible with the personality or skills of the role occupant.
What are the five key factors influencing group cohesiveness?
1) Threat and Competition: This is only assuming they have a chance to overcome the threat or win the competition.
2) Success: If a team wins, group cohesiveness is increased. If a team loses, group cohesiveness is decreased.
3) Member Diversity: Diverse groups have more challenges in being cohesive.
4) Group size: Bigger groups find it more challenging to be cohesive.
5) Toughness of Initiation: Groups that are more challenging to get into have greater cohesiveness.
What are the key consequences of cohesiveness?
1) More Participation in Group Activities
2) More Conformity
3) More Success
How does diversity affect temp composition?
-Diversity leads to more creativity and more innovative solutions.
-Diversity creates a healthy level of conflict that leads to decision making.
-In the short term diversity may result in the team facing difficulty working together. However, leadership helps to fade these problems over time.
Is it better to have work-groups composed of individuals with similar or dissimilar personalities?
-Research in organizational behaviour suggests that the answer depends on the specific personality trait.
-Similarity is beneficial for conscientiousness and agreeableness.
-Individuals high in conscientiousness are dependable, organized, and goal oriented. Similar levels of conscientiousness leads to shared commitment to tasks, reliability, and mutual accountability. Teams with uniformly high conscientiousness tend to be more productive and focused on quality.
-Similar levels of agreeableness makes interpersonal tension less likely.
-Dissimilarity is beneficial for extraversion. Extroverts may take the lead in communication and drive team energy, while introverts may contribute depth, careful analysis, and thoughtful perspectives.
What are shared mental models?
-Shared mental models
