Deck 13: Teams and Team Building

Question 1

An insight is a new and clear perception of a phenomenon, or an acquired ability to "see" clearly something you were unaware of previously. It is sometimes simply referred to as an "ah-ha! moment," in which you have a minirevelation or reach a straightforward conclusion about a topic or issue.
Insights need not necessarily be dramatic, for what is an insight to one person may be less important to another. The critical feature of insights is that they are relevant and memorable for you; they should represent new knowledge, new frameworks, or new ways of viewing things you want to retain and remember over time.
Insights, then, are different from the information you find in the "Advice for Future Managers" boxes within the text. That advice is prescriptive and action-oriented; it indicates a recommended course of action.
A useful way to think of OB insights is to assume you are the only person who has read Chapter 13. You have been given the assignment to highlight, in your own words, the major concepts (not just summarize the whole chapter) that might stand out for a naïve audience who has never heard of the topic before. What 10 insights would you share with them?
(Example) Effective team members require job skills, the desire to cooperate with others, and knowledge of the roles of team members.
1. ______________________________
2. ______________________________
3. ______________________________
4. ______________________________
5. ______________________________
6. ______________________________
7. ______________________________
8. ______________________________
9. ______________________________
10. _____________________________

Answer 1

Team and related terms:
It is not possible for an individual to do everything by himself and he requires support from other people to achieve the set objectives. When these people show a high level of cohesiveness, collaboration and trust, they form a team. An effective team is very desirable but difficult to form. There are many challenges that a manager has to face to make an effective team. He must add values that makes a team while eliminating the factors that demotivates the team members to work together. He also has to ensure that the team goes smoothly through the whole team lifecycle stages.
The team, team building etc. are very broad topics, let's understand some of the major points that are outlined in this chapter:
1. Teams and groups are differentiated based on the level of understanding, trust and communication among the members.
2. Team lifecycle is an extremely broad subject and it is not necessary that a team go through all the stages during the period of their existence.
3. Cross-functional teams include members who have expertise in a broader domain and they can be utilized in multiple projects as per the requirement.
4. Social loafing is a critical issue as it affects the combined productivity of a team and it should be dealt with in an effective manner by the manager.
5. Self-managed teams are increasing in the corporations because they are more accountable, less costly in terms of administration and are more productive.
6. Virtual teams are an important part of today's work environment as they allow managers to hire globally, reduce cost, improves flexibility and helps in better service of consumers.
7. Team building is an important aspect of making an effective team, it includes trust building, creating a positive environment, open communication channels etc.
8. The role of a manager in a traditional business environment is of a leader and a problem solver but in self-managed teams, he plays a role of guide and coach.
9. Boundary Spanners in a team acts like a person who communicates with other teams and the organization on the behalf of a team and this person acts as a source of information for the whole team.
10. Team building is a complex task that involves the collection of data from the team members, analysing it and providing feedback to the team members about their performance and other aspects of a team.

Question 2

Conflict in the Division
The engineering division of a firm consists of four departments, with the supervisor of each reporting to the division general manager (GM). The four departments range in size from 2 employees in the smallest (industrial engineering) to 14 in the largest (sales engineering). The other two departments (design engineering and process engineering) each have eight employees.
Intense interdepartmental rivalry frequently arises over the allocation of resources. This problem is compounded by the favoritism that the GM allegedly shows toward the industrial and design engineering units and his reliance on majority-rule decision making (among his four supervisors and himself) at staff meetings. This practice, complain the supervisors of the sales and process engineering departments, often results in the leaders of the industrial and design engineering departments forming a coalition with the GM to make a decision, even though they represent only 10 of the 32 employees. In response, the industrial and design engineering supervisors charge the supervisors of the sales and process engineering units with empire building, power plays, and a narrow view of the mission of the division.
You are a friend of the GM, called in from another division to help resolve the problem.
Outline the approach you would recommend that the GM take.

Answer 2

Team:
The team refers to a group of people that come together to achieve a common objective. It is possible that there may be multiple teams in an organization tasked with different objectives. There are a lot of factors that can make or break the team and its effectivity.
Person A is a friend of GM who is called in to resolve the conflict between the various team. The approach that person A should recommend GM to take is to make an effective team and to ensure that there is proper, open and honest communication among four teams only then the effectivity and efficiency of the team will increase, and they will be able to achieve their objectives. GM can do this in the following way:
• Reducing Power Play:
GM is grouping with two teams' supervisors to make a power play in the decision-making process. This should be avoided by him to ensure that there is peace and harmony maintained. He should not take sides with supervisors rather he should listen to everyone's opinion and make decisions that are beneficial for the company rather than satisfying his power thirst.
• Allocation of resources:
When there are multiple teams, they tend to compete among themselves for the resources and this can hamper the growth of the individual as well as of a team. Resources should be allocated on a priority basis and on first come first serve basis. GM's preference to a team leads in the improper distribution of resources which causes conflict among the teams. He should ensure that he listens to the requirements of every team and then allocate resources according to the necessity and urgency of the project.
• The transparent flow of information:
GM should try to make the information flow as transparent as possible and he should also ensure that this information is available to all the team members of different teams. This will be built up an open communication channel and also trust and loyalty among the teams. It will help in ensuring that the teams are working with each other rather than competing.

Question 3

Explain how matrix organization gives rise to the need for teams.

Answer 3

Matrix Organization:
Matrix organization is a type of organization that is a mix between the classic organization and the organic organization. Features of both types of organization are overlapping in the matrix organization with two different types of organisations guiding and supervising the activity of an individual employee.
Matrix organization has a strong requirement for forming teams. This can be better understood by the following mentioned points:
• Matrix organization is used in larger organisations which have a lot of temporary projects which requires many teams to be completed.
• Members of a team working on a project for a matrix organisation are skilled employees in various departments and they can be transferred into other projects as per the requirement. This allows in increasing the diversity of ideas that a team brings in to the project.
• Teams operating under matrix organization generally focus on very specific and unique projects. Companies need a specific team for a project to attain better planning and achievement of the project goals.
• As a matrix organization operates in a very dynamic business environment they need a team of people that can operate in such conditions. Team members are generally more accepting of changes and thus such an organization requires a team that are multidisciplinary and can be utilized into other projects as well.

Question 4

How do temporary groups and committees (discussed in Chapter 12) compare with teams? What are their similarities and differences?

Question 5

Review the typical stages in a team's life cycle. Think of a time when you were a member of a work team. Were all those stages represented? Did they appear in a different order? Did some of them emerge more than once? Explain.

Question 6

Assume you are to be placed in charge of a student group in this class. Outline the key action steps you will take to make sure the group develops into a real team.

Question 7

Think of a time when you observed, or exhibited, social loafing. What contributed to it? How could it have been prevented or minimized?

Question 8

Think about self-managing teams. Would you like to work in one? Why or why not?

Question 9

The authors assert that "it may take several years for [self-managing] teams to achieve their full potential." Why might this be so? How could the process be shortened?

Question 10

In what ways do you think the boundary-spanning roles of a traditional manager might differ from those of team members in self-managing teams? Explain.

Question 11

What are the key advantages to using virtual teams? Disadvantages? On balance, are they worth using?

Question 12

Discuss how to build a unified team within a whole organization.