Week 3 â Teams and Team Leadership ⢠A group/team is two or more ...
Week 3 – Teams and Team Leadership A group/team is two or more people acting interdependently to achieve a common objective. Groups satisfy important needs (social affiliation, common purpose, recognition, etc.) Teams are dynamic social settings – they form and disband, their membership changes; etc. Tuckman’s Five Stage Model of Team Development: o Stage 1: Forming Members get to know each other and seek to establish ground rules o Stage 2: Storming Members come to resist control by group leaders and show hostility o Stage 3: Norming Members work together developing close relationships and feelings of camaraderie o Stage 4: Performing Group members work toward getting their jobs done o Stage 5: Adjourning Group disband, either after meeting their goals or because members leave.
Effective teams require two different types of activity: o Maintenance (sometimes called process): Where the team focuses its efforts on the common purpose and establishing cohesiveness. o Task: where the team focuses its efforts on getting the job done. Team structure: o Diversity: is important for team development and problem solving
o Roles: ensure everyone’s roles within the team are not ambiguous. o Norms: make behaviour more regular and predictable Risks of teamwork: o The potential rise of Groupthink: a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action. Usually occurs when the team is cut off from the rest of the organisation o Feeling of invulnerability: increases risk taking o Discounting warnings: that might challenge assumptions o Stereotyped views of outsiders (enemies) o Pressure to conform o Shutting down of ideas that deviate from the apparent team consensus. Social loafing: o Performance of team seems to flatten out as it gets larger o Productivity gains do not increase proportionally with team size. Social loafing is happening sub-consciously because we feel like other people are picking up the slack, whereas free riding is taking advantage of your teammates to reduce your effort without paying a financial penalty. 4 types of leadership that must be exercised for a team to be successful o Envisioning: creating a strong vision of the purpose of the team that be translated into a set of values. o Organising: providing structure through a focus on details, deadlines and structures. o Spanning: networking, gathering information, championing the team in the rest of the organisation, dealing with outsiders, preventing the team from becoming isolated. o Social: Negotiation, conflict resolution, surfacing problems, confronting anti-social behaviour
Effective teams require two different types of activity: o Maintenance (sometimes called process): Where the team focuses its efforts on the common purpose and establishing cohesiveness. o Task: where the team focuses its efforts on getting the job done. Team structure: o Diversity: is important for team development and problem solving
o Roles: ensure everyone’s roles within the team are not ambiguous. o Norms: make behaviour more regular and predictable Risks of teamwork: o The potential rise of Groupthink: a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action. Usually occurs when the team is cut off from the rest of the organisation o Feeling of invulnerability: increases risk taking o Discounting warnings: that might challenge assumptions o Stereotyped views of outsiders (enemies) o Pressure to conform o Shutting down of ideas that deviate from the apparent team consensus. Social loafing: o Performance of team seems to flatten out as it gets larger o Productivity gains do not increase proportionally with team size. Social loafing is happening sub-consciously because we feel like other people are picking up the slack, whereas free riding is taking advantage of your teammates to reduce your effort without paying a financial penalty. 4 types of leadership that must be exercised for a team to be successful o Envisioning: creating a strong vision of the purpose of the team that be translated into a set of values. o Organising: providing structure through a focus on details, deadlines and structures. o Spanning: networking, gathering information, championing the team in the rest of the organisation, dealing with outsiders, preventing the team from becoming isolated. o Social: Negotiation, conflict resolution, surfacing problems, confronting anti-social behaviour
