Team Dynamics Flashcards
(26 cards)
What are teams?
Groups of two or more people that exist to fulfill a purpose.
- interdependent
- mutually accountable for achieving common goals
What are informal groups?
Groups that exist primarily for the benefit of their members.
Why do informal groups exist?
- Innate drive to bond
- Social identity – we define ourselves by group memberships
- Goal accomplishment – goals that can be better met in groups (coalitions)
- Emotional support
What are advantages of teams?
- better decisions, better products/services
- better information sharing and task coordination
- increased employee motivation/engagement
What are disadvantages of teams?
- individuals better/faster on some tasks
- process losses – time and energy expended toward team development and maintenance rather than the task itself
- social loafing
What is social loafing?
- when people exert less effort when working teams than when working alone
Team Effectiveness Model (in order)
- Organizational and Team Environment
- Team Design
- Team States & Team Processes
- Team Effectiveness
What does the organization/team environment consist of?
Reward systems
- teams work better when they are rewarded for team performance
Organizational structure
- organization around work processes
Organizational leadership
- supportive to team efforts
Physical space
- may or may not facilitate team work
Teams are better for tasks that are:
- sufficiently complex (require teamwork)
- can be divide into more specialized roles requiring frequent coordination
- well-structured (easier to coordinate
Levels of Task Interdependence (3)
[Reciprocal] - High interdependence, individuals rely on each other
[Sequential] - Medium interdependence, individuals rely on the person before them
[Pooled] - Low interdependence, individuals rely on a shared resource
Smaller teams are better because:
Less process losses – need less time to coordinate roles and resolve differences
More member involvement, thus higher commitment
… but teams must be large enough to accomplish the task
Team Member Competencies (5 C’s)
Cooperating
- share resources
- accommodate others
Coordinating
- align work with others
- keep team on track
Communicating
- share information freely, efficiently, respectfully
- listen actively
Comforting
- show empathy
- provide psychological comfort
- build confidence
Conflict resolving
- diagnose conflict sources
- use best conflict handling
What are advantages and disadvantages of diversity?
Team members have diverse knowledge, skills, perspectives, values, etc.
Advantages
- view problems/alternatives form different perspectives
- broader knowledge base
- better representation of internal and/or external clients
Disadvantages
- take longer to become a high-performing team
- more susceptible to “fault-lines’
- increased risk of dysfunctional conflict
What are team norms and how do they develop?
Generally agreed-upon informal rules that guide behaviour of group members.
Norms develop through:
- Precedent set over time: Group members usually draw from their previous experiences to guide their behaviours in new situation.
- Critical events in the team’s history.
What is cohesion? What influences it?
The degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members.
Influences on Team Cohesion
- Member similarity
- Team size
- Member interaction
- Somewhat difficult entry
- Team success
- External challenges
What is team efficacy?
The collective belief among team members of the team’s capability to successfully complete a task.
Teams with high levels of efficacy outperform teams with lower levels.
What is trust?
Composed of the positive expectations one person has towards another in situations involving risk.
What is identification-based trust?
- based on common mental models and values
- increases with person’s social identity with team
What is knowledge-based trust?
- based on predictability and competence
- fairly robust
What is calculus-based trust?
- based on deterrence
- fragile and limited potential because dependent on punishment
What are 4 team decision making constraints?
Time constraints
- time organize/coordinate
- production blocking
Evaluation apprehension
- reluctance to mention ideas that seem silly because of belief of evaluation by other team members
Peer pressure to conform
- suppressing opinions that oppose team norms
Overconfidence (inflated team efficacy)
- outcomes: false sense of invulnerability, less vigilant, decisions
- caused by: collective self-enhancement, high cohesion
What is brainstorming?
- team structure in which participants try to generate as many ideas as possible
- four specific rules to follow
speak freely
don’t criticize
provide as many ideas as possible
build on others’ ideas
What is the Nominal Group Technique?
- Describe problem
- Write down possible solutions (individually)
- Possible solutions described to others (as a team)
- Vote on solutions (individually)
What is the Equilibrium Model? (5 Stage Model)
- Forming
- discover expectations
- test boundaries of behaviour - Storming
- interpersonal conflict
- influence goals and means - Norming
- form team mental models
- develop cohesion - Performing
- task oriented, committed
- efficient coordination - Adjourning
