Introduction

There are two sources of information about teamwork. First, there is a large body of research in psychology and the social sciences called group dynamics that examines how people work in small groups. This research was collected over the past century and has developed into a broad base of knowledge about the operation of groups. Second, the use of teams in the workplace has expanded rapidly during the past three decades. Management researchers and applied social scientists have studied this development to provide advice to organizations about how to make teams operate more effectively. However, these two areas of research and knowledge often operate along separate paths.

The purpose of this book is to unite these two important perspectives on how people work together. It organizes research and theories of group dynamics in order to apply this information to the ways in which teams operate in organizations. The concepts of group dynamics are presented so they are useful for people who work in teams and also to enlarge their understandings of how teams operate. It is hoped that this integration helps readers better understand the internal dynamics of teams so they can become more effective team leaders and members.

The larger goal of this book is to make teams more successful. Teams are important in our society, and learning teamwork skills is important for individual career success. This book presents many concepts related to how teams operate. In addition, the chapters contain application sections with techniques, advice for leading virtual teams, case studies (called Team Leader’s Challenge), surveys, and activities designed to develop teamwork skills. The appendix contains tools and advice to help students in project teams. Teamwork is not just something one reads about and then understands; teamwork develops through guided experience and feedback. This book provides a framework for teaching about teams and improving how teams function.

Overview

The seventeen chapters in this book cover a wide range of topics related to group dynamics and teamwork. These chapters are organized into four parts: characteristics of teams, processes of teamwork, issues teams face, and organizational context of teams. An appendix provides advice and tools to support student project teams.

Part I: Characteristics of Teams

Chapters 1 and 2 provide an introduction to group dynamics and teamwork. Chapter 1 explains the differences between groups and teams. This chapter also examines the purpose of teams in organizations and why they are increasing in use. It concludes with a brief history of both the use of teams and the study of group dynamics.

Chapter 2 explores the characteristics of successful teams. It explains the basic components necessary to create effective teams and examines the conditions and characteristics of successful work teams. It presents both traditional perspectives toward team success and a positive psychology perspective. In many ways, this chapter establishes a goal for team members, whereas the rest of the book explains how to reach that goal.

Part II: Processes of Teamwork

Chapters 3 through 6 present the underlying processes of teamwork. Chapter 3 examines the processes and stages that relate to forming teams. Team members must be socialized or incorporated into teams. Teams must establish goals and norms (operating rules) to begin work. These are the first steps in team development.

Chapter 4 presents some of the main processes and concepts from group dynamics that explain how teams operate. Working together as a team affects the motivation of participants both positively and negatively. Team members form social relationships with one another that help define their identities as teams. Teams divide tasks into different roles to coordinate the work. The behaviors and actions of team members can be viewed as either task oriented or social, both of which are necessary for teams to function smoothly. Teams are dynamic entities that adapt to changes and learn how to work together more effectively.

One of the underlying concepts that define teamwork is cooperation. Teams are a collection of people who work cooperatively together to accomplish goals.

However, teams often are disrupted by competition. Chapter 5 explains how cooperation and competition affect the dynamics of teams.

Team members interact by communicating with one another. Chapter 6 examines the communication that occurs within teams. It describes the communication process, how teams develop supportive communication climates, and the effects of emotional intelligence on communication. The chapter also presents practical advice on how to facilitate team meetings and develop skills that help improve team communication.

Part III: Issues Teams Face

The third part of the book contains seven chapters that focus on a variety of issues that teams face in learning to operate effectively. Chapter 7 examines conflict and conflict resolution in teams. Although conflict often is viewed as a negative event, certain types of conflict are both healthy and necessary for teams to succeed. The chapter explains the dynamics of conflict within teams and discusses various approaches to managing conflict in teams.

Chapter 8 describes how power and social influence operate in teams. Different types of power and influence tactics are available to teams and their members; the use of power has wide-ranging applications and effects on teams. In one important sense, the essence of teams at work is a shift in power. Teams exist because their organizations are willing to shift power and control to teams.

The central purpose of many types of teams is to make decisions. Chapter 9 examines group decision-making processes. It illustrates operative conditions when teams are better than individuals at making decisions and the problems that groups encounter in trying to make effective decisions. The chapter ends with a presentation of decision-making techniques that are useful for teams.

Chapter 10 presents leadership options for teams from authoritarian control to self- management. The various approaches to understanding leadership are reviewed, with an emphasis on leadership models that are useful for understanding team leadership. The chapter examines self-managing teams in detail to illustrate this important alternative to traditional leadership approaches.

The different methods that teams use to solve problems are examined in Chapter 11. The chapter compares how teams solve problems with how teams should solve problems. The chapter presents a variety of problem-solving techniques to help improve how teams analyze and solve problems.

Creativity, which is one aspect of teams that often is criticized, is discussed in Chapter 12. Teams can inhibit individual creativity, but some problems require teams to develop creative solutions. The chapter examines the factors that discourage creativity in teams and presents some techniques that foster team creativity.

Chapter 13 examines how diversity affects teams: the problems, causes, and effects. In one sense, if everyone were alike then there would be no need for teamwork. Teams benefit from the multiple perspectives inherent in diversity; however, group processes need to be managed effectively in order to realize these benefits.

Part IV: Organizational Context of Teams

The final section of the book presents a set of issues that relate to the use of teams in organizations. Chapter 14 examines the relationship between teams and culture. Culture defines the underlying values and practices of a team or organization. Teams develop cultures that regulate how they operate. Work teams are more likely to be successful if their organization’s culture supports them. International culture has many impacts on teamwork. Transnational teams need to develop a hybrid culture that mediates the cultural differences among its members.

Although teams often are thought of as people interacting directly with one another, Chapter 15 examines the impacts of teams that interact through technology. Virtual teams comprise members who may be dispersed around the world and use a variety of technologies to communicate and coordinate their efforts. The selection and use of these technologies changes some of the dynamics of the teams operations.

Chapter 16 examines approaches to evaluating and rewarding teams. One of the keys to developing effective teams is creating a mechanism to provide quality feedback to teams so they can improve their own performance. Performance evaluation systems help provide feedback, while reward programs motivate team members to act on this information.

Team building and the various approaches for improving how teams operate is the focus of Chapter 17, the final chapter. Organizations use team-building techniques to help teams get started, overcome obstacles, and improve performance. Teamwork training helps develop people skills so that everyone can work together more effectively.

Appendix: Guide to Student Team Projects

One of the reasons students want to learn about group dynamics is to improve the effectiveness of their teams at work and school. As a teacher of group dynamics and teamwork, I require students to work on a large project throughout the course. Working on their team project provides the students with an opportunity to try out the ideas they are learning in the course.

The Guide to Student Team Projects contains some of the tools and advice that students need to successfully complete a team project. The appendix covers topics, such as how to start a team, plan a team project, monitor the progress of the team and project, write as a team, and end the team. This is practical advice on techniques and activities to help improve the team’s performance.

The student project teams in my classes range from five to seven members who are randomly appointed to the team. They are given a large and poorly structured assignment, requiring them to clarify and negotiate the specifics. The teams must conduct periodic group process evaluations so that they regularly discuss and try to improve the teamwork process. Although I grade the quality of the team’s final product, the students grade the performance of the individual team members. (This is a very important step, and we spend class time discussing how to do this.)

Although this is a guide for student projects, the tools in the appendix are useful for many types of project teams.

Learning Approaches

Learning how to work in teams is not a matter of simply reading about group dynamics. Fundamentally, teamwork is a set of skills that must be developed through practice and feedback. In addition to presenting information about how teams operate, this book contains four other types of material that are helpful for developing teamwork skills: application sections, case studies, surveys, and activities.

Many chapters in the book incorporate application sections. The purpose of these sections is to provide practical advice on applying the concepts in the chapters. These sections focus on presenting techniques rather than theories and concepts. These techniques can be applied to the existing teams or can be used with a team in a class to practice the skills. In addition, most of the chapters contain an application section called Leading Virtual Teams, which provides practical advice for dealing with the group dynamics problems created by working in a virtual team setting.

All chapters end with case studies and teamwork activities. The case studies, called

Team Leader’s Challenge, present a difficult team problem and contain discussion questions for providing advice to the team’s leader. The cases use a variety of student and work teams. By using the concepts in the chapter, the cases can be analyzed and options for the team leaders developed.

Eight of the chapters contain brief psychological surveys that examine a personal orientation toward a teamwork issue presented in the chapter. Survey topics range from attitudes toward teamwork, to cooperativeness, to preferred conflict styles, to opinions about team rewards. Discussion questions after the surveys help students and other team members understand the impact of individual differences on teamwork.

The teamwork activities examine a topic in the chapter and then include a set of discussion questions designed to apply what has been learned to actual teams. Some of the activities are structured discussions or small-group exercises. However, most of the activities are structured observations of how teams operate. One of the most important ways to improve both one’s teamwork skills and the operation of teams is to learn how to be a good observer of group processes. These observation activities are constructed to develop these skills.

There are several options that can be used for the observation activities. If the observers belong to functioning teams, then they can observe their own teams. For example, a teamwork class might have students working on project teams. Use the observation activities to study and provide feedback to the project teams, or create groups in class settings and give group assignments. There are many books on small-group activities to use to create assignments for the groups. Small-group discussions of the Team Leader’s Challenges provide an alternative activity to observe how groups interact. A class can use several groups with an observer assigned to each group or a single group that performs while being surrounded by many group process observers. Finally, ask students to find a team that they can observe as part of an ongoing class project.

Each of the activities includes objective, activity, analysis, and discussion sections. The structure of the activities makes them suitable for homework assignments or for entries in group dynamics journals. The basic structure of the written assignments includes answering the following questions: What did you observe? How did you analyze this information? How would you apply this knowledge?

By working through the applications, cases, surveys, and activities presented here, team members gain practical skills and knowledge that can be directly applied to improve the operations of their teams and the ultimate success of teamwork.

PART I Characteristics of Teams

1 Understanding Teams

A team is a special type of group in which people work interdependently to accomplish a goal. Organizations use many different types of teams to serve a variety of purposes. The use of teams to perform work has a long history, but during the past few decades organizational teamwork has changed: It has expanded rapidly because of changes in the nature of jobs and the structure of organizations. The scientific study of group dynamics provides useful insights about how teams operate and how they can be improved.

Learning Objectives

What are the characteristics of a group? 2. How is a team different from a group? 3. How are teams used by organizations? 4. How are work groups different from teams and self-managing teams? 5. Why is the use of teams by organizations increasing? 6. What are the main historical trends in the use of teams? 7. How has the study of group dynamics changed over time?

Dylan Wang

Dylan Wang

Dylan Wang

Dylan Wang

Dylan Wang

Dylan Wang

Dylan Wang

Defining Groups and Teams

A group is more than just a collection of people. There is a difference between the people who are in a park, the work group that is assembling a product, and the team playing football. To define the differences between collections of people, groups, and teams, researchers use several approaches that vary depending on which features are considered important.

One approach is to describe the social characteristics of a group (see Table 1.1). A group exists for a reason or purpose and has a goal shared by the group members. The people in a group have some type of relationship or are connected to one another. They recognize this connection, and it binds them together so they collectively share what happens to fellow group members. From a teamwork perspective, this interdependence is probably the most important characteristic of a group. Group members interact and communicate with one another. Often, communication is viewed as a central process of a group. The people in a group recognize and acknowledge their membership in a collective. Formal and informal rules, roles, and norms of the group control the interactions of group members. The people in a group influence one another, and the desire to remain in the group increases the potential for mutual influence. Finally, a group satisfies members’ physical and psychological needs such that individuals are motivated to continue their participation in the group.

SOURCE: Johnson, D., & Johnson, F. (1997). Joining together: Group theory and group skills (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

From a psychological perspective, two processes define a group: social identification and social representation (Hayes, 1997). Social identification refers to the recognition that a group exists separately from others. It is the creation of a belief in “us versus them.” Identification is both a cognitive process (classifying the

world into categories) and an emotional process (viewing one’s group as better than other groups). Social representation is the shared values, ideas, and beliefs that people have about the world. Over time, belonging to a group changes the ways its members view the world. The group develops a shared worldview through member interactions.

Most definitions of teamwork classify a team as a special type of group. To some theorists, the distinction between groups and teams is fuzzy. They consider teams to be simply groups in work settings (Parks & Sanna, 1999). Other theorists focus on how the behavior of teams differs from that of typical groups. Teams have been defined as structured groups of people working on defined common goals that require coordinated interactions to accomplish certain tasks (Forsyth, 1999). This definition emphasizes one key feature of a team: that members work together on a common project for which they all are accountable. However, other qualifiers can be used to distinguish groups from teams.

One common distinction relates to application. Teams typically are engaged in sports or work activities. They have applied functions, and the roles of team members are related to their functions. For example, members of sports teams have specific assigned roles, such as a pitcher or shortstop on a baseball team. Teams usually exist within larger organizations. Their members have specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities related to their tasks. This is why researchers typically do not talk about a family as a team; in a family, roles are inherited and not directly related to tasks. This distinction appears in research on groups and teams. Research on groups typically is conducted in laboratory settings, whereas research on teams typically is done in field studies that focus on the use of teams in the workplace (Kerr & Tindale, 2004).

Group is a more inclusive term than team. Groups range in size from two to thousands, whereas teams have a narrower range of sizes. A dating couple may be considered a group, but not a team. Political parties and social organizations are groups, but not teams. A team typically is composed of 3 to 12 people who interact with one another directly (although this interaction may occur through communication technology). A team is not simply people who belong to the same group or who are jointly functioning in the same place. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) focus on performance in their definition of teamwork. In addition to team members having a common purpose, performance goals are connected to this purpose, for which everyone in the team is held mutually accountable. They also believe the concept of a team should be limited to a fairly small number of people with complementary skills who interact directly. This helps distinguish teams from work groups, whose members jointly do the same tasks, but do not require

integration and coordination to perform the tasks.

Hayes (1997) focuses on power in her definition of teams. She believes a team must actively cooperate to achieve its goals. For this to occur, a team must have independence, responsibility, and the power to operate. A team is not a group of people who perform a task under the rigid control of an authority figure. For a group to become a team, it must be empowered and must have some authority to act on its own. In addition, team members are more likely to work together cooperatively and provide assistance to one another than are members of other types of work groups.

Because there is no firm dividing line between a group and a team, the use of these terms in this book is somewhat arbitrary. When referring to research on group dynamics, especially laboratory research, the term group is used. When talking about applications in work environments where people are interdependent, the term team is used. For the in-between cases, group and team are used interchangeably.

Purposes and Types of Teams

Organizations use teams in a variety of ways. Because of this variety, there are many ways to classify teams and these classifications help explain the psychological and organizational differences among different types of teams. One important distinction is the relationship of the team to the organization. Teams vary depending on how much power and authority they are given by their umbrella organizations.