Teams
Read Chapter 17 in ‘Boddy’ &
Chapter 10 in ‘Combe’ texts
Learning outcomes
• Understand: Why study teams?
• Identify the Types of team
• Discuss Team composition (Belbin)
• Evaluate the Stages of team development
• Understand Team processes
• Evaluate Outcomes of Team work – for
members and the organisation
• Discuss Teams in their context
Why study teams?
• Teams a way of working to add value
• Used widely, in diverse organisational settings
– Research groups, product development and
manufacturing etc.
• Combine diverse skills, and sometimes work as
‘virtual’ teams
• Using teams well depends on understanding
– how they develop and work
– how to be an effective team member
– how to evaluate their effectiveness
Types of team
Issues to manage depend on
• Type of work (see slide 6)
• Degree of formality
– Formal teams deliberately created (see slide7)
– Informal teams form spontaneously
• Permanence (the state or quality of lasting or remaining
unchanged indefinitely) could this be difference of a team vs. a Group?
• Physical separation – virtual teams through
computer technology to link members
– Increasingly common
Hackman (1990)
Classification of Teams
Type Risks Opportunities
Top management teams – set Underbounded: absence of Self designing; influence over
organisational direction organisational context key organisational conditions
Task forces – Team and work both new Clear purpose and deadline
a single unique project
Professional support groups Dependency on others for Using and honing professional
- expert assistance work expertise
Performing groups – playing Skimpy organisational Play that is fuelled by
to audience supports competition and/or audiences
Human service teams – taking Emotional drain; struggle for Inherent significance of helping
care of people control people
Customer service teams – Loss of involvement with Bridging between parent
selling products/services parent organisation organisation and customers
Production teams – turning Retreat into technology: Continuity of work; able to hone
out the product insulation from end users team design and product
Formal teams
Dependent work groups: groups of workers in a demarcated unit or
department with a line manager on a longer term basis.
Interdependent work teams: has a high level of co-dependence between
workers. Collaboration is essential to complete the tasks or jobs in shorter term
basis i.e. projects.
Teams defined
Distinguishes a team from a group, and helps evaluate a team’s
likely effectiveness
• Small number: 2-10, commonly 4-8
• Complementary skills: decision making, problem solving
• Common purpose: helps communication amongst members
• Common approach: deciding who does what, how they make decisions, how
to deal with conflict. Promote mutual trust & respect
• Mutual accountability: not one until ALL members hold themselves
collectively accountable for results
• Time : shorter in nature; then return to more formalised group (department;
role)
Team composition
• Bell (2007) suggest diversity of members
implies that people take on diverse team roles
• Task roles
– Initiator and information seeker etc.
• Maintenance roles
– Encourager, peacekeeper and clarifier etc.
• Meredith Belbin’s (1981) research on team
roles
Belbin (1981) Team Roles
Review of ‘Team Roles’ model
• Empirically-based research
• Balance of roles influenced effectiveness – does
not require ALL nine roles; composition should
reflect task
• Teams need individuals who balance well with
each other (NOT nine members)
• Model widely used in training to see what role
you are; rarely in shaping team selection (who
ever is available)
Tuckman & Jenson’s model:
Forming Storming Norming Performing
TIME
Tuckman and Jenson (1977)
Stages of team development
Stages of team development cont..
Team processes
Effective teams develop deliberate processes
• Common approach
– Use ‘norming’ stage to agree how they will work together (see
next slide)
• Communication categories
– Are conscious of which types of contribution
help or hinder the team (reflect on last weeks topic)
• Observing the team
– Develop the skill of observing how team processes are working
and suggesting improvements (reflect on use of influencing
tactics)
• What did people do/say that helped/hindered performance?
• What went well during that task, which we should repeat?
5 tips for effective meetings
Meetings likely to SUCCEED if: Meetings likely to FAIL if:
Scheduled well in advance Fixed at a short notice (absentees)
Have an agenda, with relevant papers Have NO agenda or papers (no prep, lack of
distributed in ADVANCE focus, discussion longer)
Have a starting & finishing time; follow Are of indefinite length (talk drifts), time is
prearranged time limits on each item lost and important items are not dealt with
(delay, and require a further meeting)
Decisions and responsibilities for action are Decisions lack clarity (misunderstanding what
recorded and circulated within 24hrs was agreed, delay, reopening issues)
Keep subgroups or members of related teams Team not aware of work going on in other
informed of progress teams that is relevant to its work
Outcomes of teams – for members
• Motivation
– Satisfy social need to be accepted and valued
by others (Hawthorne studies in Chapter 2, Follett on
the benefits of cooperative action) reflect on ugb164
Noon and Blyton’s theory
– Likert (1961) showed that teams develop a sense of
loyalty, respect and mutual achievement
• See also Barker (1993)
– Evidence of ‘concertive control’, when self-managing
teams exert tight control on members; implicitly
agreed rules
Outcomes – for the organisation
Integrate professionally fragmented knowledge – multidisciplinary
A forum for raising issues otherwise ignored
Encourages learning by reflection and spreading ideas more widely
Note also:
– Dangers of ‘groupthink’
– Mixed evidence of benefit to the organisation
• Discussion to generate new perspectives takes longer than for
individual
• Stray to unrelated issues or repeat debates – loses time
• Opponents can prolong/block progress
• One member dominant – formal leader power/technical expert -
not challenged
Teams in their context
• Benefits of teams depends on
context i.e.
– Simple technical puzzles
Better to have people work individually Any
relationship to
– Familiar tasks with some uncertainty programmed
Some sharing, but mainly coordination vs. non-
programmed
skills decision
– Unfamiliar tasks with high uncertainty making
theory??
Only this requires high level of team skills
Internationalisation
• Teams working internationally may lack the
nuances of face-to-face communication
• Cultural differences of individuals within the
make up of the team members
• Affect (-)? of above on psychological contracts
Summary
• Teams are widely used, yet performance is
often inadequate
• Models outlined enable you to analyse
systematically a team’s composition, stage of
development and working processes
• Doing this analysis will help you to improve the
performance of teams in which you work
• Teams have disadvantages and are not always
worth the investment they need to work well
