Fundamentals of Teams

MODULE 13: LECTURE 1: Fundamentals of Teams ● “Crowds” Francis Galton West of England Fat Stock and Poultry Exhibition Regis Philbin Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ● The Wisdom of Crowds The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations - James Surowiecki ● Groups and Teams • Group – two or more freely acting individuals who share collective norms, collective goals, and have a common identity • Team – small group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable ● What We Know about Teams Popularity of Teams - Teams outperform individuals acting alone— especially when performance requires multiple skills, judgments and experiences ● What We Know about Teams* Findings Regarding Teams · A demanding performance challenge tends to create a team · Team performance opportunities exists in all parts of the organization · Most organizations prefer individual to team accountability · Teams at the top are the most difÏcult · Highperformance teams are extremely rare · The disciplined application of “team basics” is often neglected ○ The Wisdom of Teams, Katzenbach & Smith ● Various Types of Teams ○ ● Work Teams for Four Purposes • Advice teams – created to broaden the information base for managerial decisions – Committees, review panels • Production teams – responsible for performing day-to-day operations – Assembly teams, maintenance crews Project teams – work to do creative problem solving, often by applying the specialized knowledge of members of a cross-functional team – Task forces, research groups • Action teams – work to accomplish tasks that require people with specialized training and a high degree of coordination – Hospital surgery teams, airline cockpit crews, police SWAT teams ● Self Managed Teams • Self-Managed teams – groups of workers who are given administrative oversight for their task domains ● Ways to Empower Self-Managed Teams ○ LECTURE 2: Developing Teams Learning Objectives ● Five Stages of Group and Team Development ○ ● Stage I: Forming • Forming – process of getting oriented and getting acquainted • Leaders should allow time for people to become acquainted and socialize ● Stage 2: Storming • Storming – characterized by the emergence of individual personalities and roles and conflicts within the group • Leaders should encourage members to suggest ideas, voice disagreements, and work through their conflicts about tasks and goals ● Stage 3: Norming • Norming – conflicts are resolved, close relationships develop, and unity and harmony emerge – Group cohesiveness • Leaders should emphasize unity and help identify team goals and values ● Stage 4: Performing • Performing – members concentrate on solving problems and completing the assigned tasks • Leaders should allow members the empowerment they need to work on tasks ● Stage 5: Adjourning • Adjourning – members prepare for disbandment • Leaders can help ease the transition by rituals celebrating “the end” and “new beginnings” ● Building Effective Teams ○ ● Building Effective Teams • Cooperating – efforts are systematically integrated to achieve a collective objective. • Trust – reciprocal faith in others’ intentions and behaviors • Cohesiveness – tendency of a group or team to stick together ● How to Enhance Cohesiveness in Teams ○ ● Size: Small Teams or Large Teams? • Small teams: 2-9 members – better interaction – better morale • Disadvantages – Fewer resources – Possibly less innovation – Unfair work distribution ● Large Teams: 10-16 members – More resources – Division of labor • Disadvantages – Less interaction – Lower morale – Social loafing ● Roles & Norms • Roles – a socially determined expectation of how an individual should behave in a specific position – Task roles, maintenance roles • Norms – general guidelines that most group or team members follow ● Cohesiveness & Groupthink • Groupthink – a cohesive group’s blind unwillingness to consider alternatives ● Preventing Groupthink • Allow criticism • Allow other perspectives ● Building Effective Teams - Lencioni ○ ● 1. Status and Ego 2. Low Standards 3. Ambiguity 4. Artificial Harmony 5. Invulnerability ● Addressing Dysfunctions Trust one another Engage in unfiltered conflict Commit to decisions and plans of action Hold one another accountable Focus on achievement of collective results VIDEO: Building a Better Cubicle LECTURE 3: Managing Conflict ● The Nature of Conflict • Conflict – process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party ● Preventing Groupthink • Allow criticism • Allow other perspectives ● The Nature of Conflict ○ Dysfunctional conflict • conflict that hinders the organization’s performance or threatens its interests ○ Functional conflict • conflict that benefits the main purposes of the organization and serves its interests ● Relationship Between Level of Conflict and Level of Performance ● ● Three Kinds of Conflict • Personality conflict – Interpersonal opposition based on personal dislike, disagreement, or differing styles – Personality clashes, competition for scarce resources, time pressure, communication failures • Intergroup conflicts – Inconsistent goals or reward systems, ambiguous jurisdictions, status differences • Multicultural conflicts ● Devices to Stimulate Constructive Conflict 1. Spur competition among employees 2. Change the organization’s culture & procedures 3. Bring in outsiders for new perspectives 4. Use programmed conflict ● Programmed Conflict • Devil’s advocacy – process of assigning someone to play the role of critic to voice possible objections to a proposal and thereby generate critical thinking and reality testing • Dialectic method – process of having two people or groups play opposing roles in a debate in order to better understand a proposal ● Five Conflict-Handling Styles ○ MODULE 14: LECTURE 1: Power and Influence ● The Nature of Leadership • Leadership – the ability to influence employees to voluntarily pursue organizational goals ● Leader – Manager Distinctions ○ ● Managers manage things; leaders lead people • Managers do things right; leaders do the right things • Managers keep things the same; leaders change things ● Leader – Manager Distinctions John Kotter Managers cope with complexity; Leaders cope with change (complementary activities and organizations need both) Managers cope with complexity (promote stability) through: -planning and budgeting -organizing and stafÏng -controlling and problem solving Leaders cope with change by: -setting a direction -aligning people (communications) -motivating and inspiring (give people a sense of control) ● How do Managers/Leaders Get Power Power: – the extent to which a person has the ability to influence others so they respond to orders ● Five Sources of Power • Legitimate power – results from managers’ formal positions within the organization • Reward power – results from managers’ authority to reward their subordinates • Coercive power – results from managers’ authority to punish their subordinates Expert power – results from one’s specialized information or expertise • Referent power – derived from one’s personal attraction ● Types of Power Five Types of Power Grouped Under Two Categories • Organizational (power that derives from a person ’s position in the organization) – Legitimate – Reward – Coercive • Personal (additional capabilities to influence others) – Expert – Referent ● Stanley Milgram ○ The Milgram Experiment ○ Milgram Results ■ ■ Source of Power? ■ Legitimate X Reward X Coercive X Expert X Referent X ● How do Managers/Leaders Get Power Power: – the extent to which a person has the ability to influence others so they respond to orders ● Influence • Being able to get others to do what you want them to do • The ability to get others to follow your wishes ● Tactics for Influencing Others ○ VIDEO: Robert Cialdini on the Importance of Reciprocity LECTURE 2: Leadership: Trait, Behavioral, and Contingency Approaches ● How Do Leaders Use Their Power and Influence in an Effective Way? • Five Approaches to Leadership – Trait – Behavioral – Contingency – Full-Range – Four Additional ● Do Leaders Have Distinctive Personality Characteristics? • Trait approaches to leadership – attempt to identify distinctive characteristics that account for the effectiveness of leaders • Failed early research – [(Tall, white, wealthy, male)NO, not anymore], intelligent ● Kouzes & Posner • Follower Preferences: – Honest – Forward Looking – Inspiring – Competent ● Company-Specific “Leader Competencies” • Results Oriented • Integrity • Managerial Courage • Accountable • Customer Focused ● Do Women Have Traits that Make Them Better Leaders? • Studies show that women executives score higher than their male counterparts on a variety of measures - from producing high quality work to goal-setting to mentoring employees ● Trait: Judge’s Research • Judge’s Research: Traits are more predictive of leader emergence (i.e., who becomes a leader in the first place) than leader effectiveness ● Behavioral Approaches • Behavioral leadership – approaches attempt to determine the distinctive styles used by effective leaders ● Behavioral Approaches • The Ohio State Leadership Model (research more supportive of the Ohio State Model than the Michigan Model) – What do leaders do on a day-to-day basis? – 1,800 behaviors narrowed down to 2 dimensions that are independent (can be high or low on both) • Initiating Structure (task) • Consideration (relationship) ○ The Michigan model implies that similar concepts, job-centered and employee-centered, are at two ends of a continuum. ● Behavioral: Ohio State Model • Initiating Structure (task): leadership behavior that organizes and defines what group members should be doing in pursuit of goal attainment • Consideration (relationship): leadership behavior that expresses concern for employees by establishing a warm, friendly, supportive climate ● Drucker’s Tips for Improving Leadership Effectiveness ○ ● Contingency Approaches • Contingency leadership model – determines if a leader’s style is task oriented or relationship-oriented and if that style is effective for the situation at hand ○ Fielder’ s Contingency Leadership Model • Path-Goal Leadership Model (House) • The Situational Leadership Theory (Hersey & Blanchard) ● Fiedler’s Contingency Leadership Model • Two Leadership Orientations: – Task-Oriented – Relationship-Oriented • Three Dimensions of Situational Control – Leader-Member Relations – Task Structure – Position Power ○ Two Leadership Orientations: – Task-Oriented – Relationship-Oriented • Determined with the Least-Preferred CoWorker (LPC) Scale ● Least-Preferred Co-worker Scale ○ ○ ○ ● Fiedler’s Contingency Leadership Model: Three Dimensions of Situational Control • Three Dimensions of Situational Control – Leader-Member Relations: Do my subordinates accept me as a leader? (Good Relations to Poor Relations) – Task Structure: Do my subordinates perform unambiguous, easily understood tasks? (High Structure to Low Structure) – Position Power: Do I have power to reward and punish? (Strong Power to Weak Power) ● Optimal Leadership Model ○ ● Contingency: Situational Leadership Theory • The Situational Leadership Theory argues that the optimal combination depends upon employees’ readiness (the degree to which employees have the ability and willingness to accomplish their specific tasks) ● Situational Leadership ○ ○ Situational Leadership This approach has been incorporated into leadership programs in about 400 out of the 500 Fortune 500 firms