MGMT10002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Team Building, Social Loafing, Reward System
19 Jun 2018
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PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT WEEK 7
Teamwork in Organisations
Team: two or more people interacting and coordinating their work to achieve a determined goal. 4 requirements are:
1. Two or more people; 2. Regular interaction; 3. Shared performance goal; 4. Sense of collective responsibility for
outcomes. Could be in the form of virtual, international, self-managed, cross-functional, project teams/task forces. Can
be used to enhance performance and organisational agility in complex and competitive environments.
Challenges of teamwork reform: some tasks can be better performed by individuals (simplex, non-interdependent),
artificial if no meaningful common purpose, ineffective if inconsistent with the organisational culture, strategy and
reward system, can be time consuming and prone to conflict; Teams may be no better than individuals (groupthink,
social loafing etc.)
5 common dysfunctions in teams: Effective Team Characteristics:
Lack of trust- people don’t feel safe to reveal mistakes,
share concerns or express ideas
Trust- Members trust one another on a deep emotional
level, feel comfortable being vulnerable with one
another.
Fear of conflict- people go along with others for the
sake of harmony; don’t express conflicting opinions.
Healthy conflict- members feel comfortable disagreeing
and challenging one another in the interest of finding the
best solution.
Lack of commitment- if people are afraid to express
their true opinions, it’s difficult to gain their true
commitment to decisions.
Commitment- because all ideas are put on the table,
people can achieve genuine buy-in around important
goals and decisions.
Avoidance of accountability- people don’t accept
responsibility for outcomes; engage in finger-pointing
when things go wrong.
Accountability- Members hold one another accountable
rather than relying on managers as the source of
accountability.
Inattention to results- Members put personal ambition or
the needs of their individual departments ahead of the
collective results.
Results oriented- individual team members set aside
personal agenda; focus on what’s best for the team.
Collective results define success.
Model of Team Effectiveness:
Forming Teams- Composition Issues
1. Selection of members: Who is qualified, technically speaking?; Who will be able to work together
effectively?; Who has the requisite social skills to deal with potential conflicts?
2. Management of team size: Large enough to incorporate the knowledge and skills needed but small enough to
be manageable; Less active members become increasingly less active as team members increase.
3. Diversity: diverse teams are generally more effective – but relational conflict may be more likely.. The
performance implications of diversity is still a vexed area of research.
Role Allocation:
Member roles: People or task oriented.
i. Task specialist role: focus on structures, roles and tasks in order to support the attainment of team goals
e.g. initiating ideas, giving opinions, seeking information, summarising, energising.
ii. Socio-emotional role: Provides support for team members’ emotional needs and social unity e.g.
encouraging, harmonising, reducing tension, following, compromising.
Effective teams have members in both roles.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Team: two or more people interacting and coordinating their work to achieve a determined goal. 4 requirements are: two or more people; 2. Could be in the form of virtual, international, self-managed, cross-functional, project teams/task forces. Can be used to enhance performance and organisational agility in complex and competitive environments. Lack of trust- people don"t feel safe to reveal mistakes, share concerns or express ideas. Fear of conflict- people go along with others for the sake of harmony; don"t express conflicting opinions. Lack of commitment- if people are afraid to express their true opinions, it"s difficult to gain their true commitment to decisions. Avoidance of accountability- people don"t accept responsibility for outcomes; engage in finger-pointing when things go wrong. Inattention to results- members put personal ambition or the needs of their individual departments ahead of the collective results. Trust- members trust one another on a deep emotional level, feel comfortable being vulnerable with one another.
