Using Teams
in
Organization
Team vs. Group
Team Group
A team is a small number of people with A group is an assemblage of
complementary skills who are individuals with common traits or
committed to a common purpose, situation.
common performance goals, and an
approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable.
Three types of skills usually required in a team:
Firs the team needs to have members with the technical or
functional skills to do the jobs. Some types of engineering,
t scientific, technological, legal, or business skills may be
necessary.
Secon some team members need to have problem-solving and decision-
making skills to help the team identify problems, determine priorities,
d evaluate alternatives, analyse trade-offs, and make decisions about
the direction of the team.
Thir members need interpersonal skills to manage communication flow, resolve
conflict, direct questions and discussion, provide support, and recognize
d the interests of all members of the team.
BENEFITS AND COSTS OF TEAMS IN
ORGANIZATIONS
Enhanced Employee Reduced Organizational
TYPES OF BENEFITS Performance Benefits Costs Enhancements
Increased
productivity Quality of work Lower turnover Increased
life Motivation
Improved quality Absenteeism
SPECIFIC BENEFIT
Improved Lower stress Fewer injuries Flexibility
customer service
Types of Teams
Problem-Solving
Quality Circles Work Teams
Teams
are small groups of employees are temporary teams established to
include all the people working in an
from the same work area who attack specific problems in the
area, are relatively permanent, and do
regularly meet to discuss and workplace.
the daily work, making decisions
recommend solutions to workplace
regarding how the work of the team is
problems.
done.
Types of Teams
Product Development
Management Teams Virtual Teams
Teams
work together by computer and other
consist of managers from various are combinations of work teams and
electronic communication utilities;
areas; they coordinate work teams. problem-solving teams that create
members move in and out of
new designs for products or services
meetings and of the team itself as the
that will satisfy customer needs.
situation dictates.
IMPLEMENTING TEAMS IN
ORGANIZATIONS
The planning actually takes place in two Making the Preparing for
phases, the first leading to the decision Decision Implementation
about whether to move to a team-based Preparation consists of the
Prior to making the decision,
approach and the second while preparing for top management needs to
following five steps:
implementation establish the leadership for the clarifying the mission,
change, develop a steering selecting the site for the first
committee, conduct a work teams, preparing the
feasibility study, and then design team, planning the
make the go/no-go decision. transfer of authority, and
drafting the preliminary plan
Phases of
Implementation
Implementation of teams in organizations is a long and arduous
process. After the decision is made to initiate teams, the steering
committee develops the plans for the design team, which plans the
entire process. The goal is for teams to become self-managing. The
time it takes for each stage varies with the organization.
Phases of Implementation
Phase 2: Phase 3: Phase 4:
Phase 1: Phase 5:
Reality and Leader- Tightly
Start-Up Self-Managing
Unrest Centered Formed
Teams
Teams Teams
In phase 1, team After perhaps six As the discomfort and In the fourth phase of
to nine months, frustrations of the team implementation, Phase 5 is the end
members are
team members and previous phase peak, teams become tightly result of the months
selected and formed to the point
managers report teams usually long or years of planning
prepared to work in that their internal
frustration and for a system that and implementation.
teams so that the focus can become
teams have the best confusion about resembles the old detrimental to other
possible chance of the ambiguities of manager-centered teams and to the
success. the new situation. organizational organization as a
structure. whole.
PROMOTING TEAM SUCCESS
Top-Management Changing Organizatonal
Support Reward
Understanding
Timeframes
Top-Management Top management has three important roles to
Support play:
First, top Second, top Third, top
Top management support is essential for management must management is management
decide to go to a instrumental in has to support
successful implementation of work teams. team-based communicating the change
Among other things, top managers need to organization for the reasons for effort during the
stress that there are sound business reasons for sound business the change to the difficult periods
performance– rest of the
the use of teams and be prepared for some related reasons. organization.
setbacks during the transition to teams.
Understanding Time
Frames
The team performance curve shows that
performance initially drops as reality sets
in, and team members experience
frustration and unrest. However,
performance soon increases and rises to
record levels as the teams mature and
become self-managing.
Changing Organizational Reward
How employees are rewarded is vital
Three types of reward systems are to the long-term success of an
common in a team environment: organization.
Skill-based pay systems require
team members to acquire a set of
the core skills needed for their Skill-
particular team plus additional
special skills, depending on career
Based Pay
tracks or team needs.
Gain- Gain-sharing systems usually
reward all team members from all
Sharing teams based on the performance of
Team bonus plans are similar to Systems the organization, division, or plant.
gain-sharing plans except that Team
the unit of performance and pay Bonus
is the team rather than a plant, a
division, or the entire Plans
organization
