MGMT 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Meredith Belbin, Future Group, Conflict Resolution
Week 4 – Managing Teamwork
• Use of teams has grown because they allow greater flexibility in decision-making and
adaption to change, and provide better decisions and even better performance
outcomes than do individuals
• BUT, sometimes teamwork can have problems
What is a team and how is it different to a group?
• A team refers to two or more people psychologically contracted together to achieve
common goals, and share responsibility and accountability for outcomes
• A group is similar to a team except:
- No psychological contract is involved
- No interdependency is assumed
Psychological Contract
the assuptios, eliefs, ad epetatios held etee oe peso ad aothe o ithi
a group, organization... about the nature and function of the relationship etee the
(Clegg et al (2011:89))
Essentials of Teamwork
• Introduce yourself to team-members
• Identify the objectives of the teamwork
• Agree on shared values
• Allocate roles and functions
• Identify a team leader(s)
• Discuss/negotiate a work plan
Teamwork and Group Dynamics
• Teamwork can be extremely difficult because it is so open to interpersonal
psychological issues
• ‘euie sustatial aageet tie ad esoues he the aet desiged o
managed to great effect
• In-group bias → favoring certain individuals when making decisions. Occurs because
oes o goup ees ae peeied to possess ualities ad attiutes ot
possessed by out-group members
• Can be between groups and in groups
• Strong identification with your group can lead to problematic relations like prejudice,
distrust, hatred and anger, towards members of different out-groups
find more resources at oneclass.com
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What are Group Dynamics?
• The study and analysis of any form of interaction that occurs within group contexts
• Study of psychological properties
• Concept popularized by Knowles and Knowles (1972)
• Concerned with how groups form, their structure, attitudes, perceptions, processes
and how they function as a unit
Why do we Form Different Types of Groups?
• Safety in numbers
- This is how animals ensure survival → chances of surviving would be greater if you
travelled in large numbers than if you were on your own – especially if you were
fitter, smarter, and could run faster than the others
• Belongingness
- Being part of a group is necessary for healthy psychological development and
identity
- Participate in achievements beyond individual powers
- Provides a sense of self
- In-group and out-group
Types of groups
Informal groups
• Forms outside the formal structuring of work roles/activities e.g. union members
Formal groups
Closed groups
• Most teams will contain people skilled in specific areas of the task
• Being a member of these groups provides the individual with accreditation and a
level of prestige
• Continued membership is not guaranteed → if a peso doest behave in
aodae ith the stadads, the a e stuk off
Open groups
• E.g. YouTube
• People share favourite movies, ideas, and productions
• Content provided by people from all walks of life from all parts of the world and for
free
• Even open teams are limited in membership in terms of available and accessible
technologies, same interests, power relations, composition of the team
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Common types of teams in organisations
Advice and involvement teams
Management decision-making committees, quality control (QC) circles,
staff involvement teams
Production and service teams
Assembly teams, maintenance, construction, mining, and commercial
airline teams, consulting teams, sales and health care teams
Project and development
teams
Research teams, new product development teams, software
development teams
Action and negotiation teams
Military combat units, surgical teams, trade union negotiating teams
Functional teams
These are teams which have managerial hierarchies and specific core
functions. These can include HR team, marketing team, sales team, and
so on.
Cross-functional teams
As organizations try to reduce silos in organizational functions they tend
to create cross-functional teams. These will involve people from several
different units. These teams typically are found in advice and
production and service teams
Self-directed teams
Decisions are left up to the team
This team tends to be highly autonomous, empowered to make
decisions, often has its own budget, and does its own hiring.
Dispersed
Whee all the ees aet i the sae plae
Could be dispersed all over the world
Virtual
Online e.g. skype
Three central concepts which emerge that are building blocks for differentiating teams
(John R. Hollenbeck)
1. Skill differentiation – refers to the degree to which team members have functional or
specialized knowledge that makes each member replaceable or substitutable
2. Authority differentiation – refers to how responsibility for decision-making is
handled within the team: is it the responsibility of an individual member to decide, is
it subgroups of the team, or the collective team as a whole?
3. Temporal stability – refers to the degree to which team members have a history of
working together in the past and whether they expect to work together in the future
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
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