13. MODEL OF TEAM EFFECTIVENESS
13
Source: Cohen, S. G., & Bailey, D. E. 1997. What makes teams work: Group effectiveness research from the shop floor to the
executive suite. Journal of Management, 23, 239–290.
21. TEAM MENTAL MODELS
•
Source: Mohammed, S., Ferzandi, L., & Hamilton, K. (2010). Metaphor no more: A 15-year review of the team mental model construct. Journal of Management,
36(4), 876–910. p. 892.
39. OPEN-ACCESS
STUDENT
RESOURCES
• Checklist action plan
• Learning objective summaries
• Mobile-friendly quizzes
• Mobile-friendly eFlashcards
• Video and multimedia resources
• SAGE journal articles
edge.sagepub.com/scandura
Editor's Notes
Basic 4 + Recognition (from the book, The Orange Revolution)
Basic 4: Setting goals, having good communication, developing trust, and being accountable
+ Recognition – the “plus” factor, having a leader who appreciates the strengths of others
Groups and teams are not the same thing. A group is primarily there to share information and make decisions, no real joint effort is required. A team works in a more coordinated effort to achieve a goal.
Over the last decade we have seen the use of teams grow exponentially in organizations. There are a number of reasons why this is true. Teams can enhance the use of employee talents and tend to be more flexible and responsive to change. Teams can help to keep employees engaged in their work and increase their participation in decision making, thus increasing their motivation. However, teams are not always effective, and so it is important to take a look at how to deploy teams effectively.
Shared purpose – everyone agrees on the goal or goals
Specific goal – team goals, like individual goals, should be SMART
Feedback process – feedback increases resources and performance
Team charter – discussed later in this chapter and Toolkit exercise – effective in clarifying team purpose and setting ground rules for team development
Tuckman and Jenson’s classic five-stage model of team development is shown in the figure. Leaders need to management the process over these phases:
1. Forming – Team leader should clarify purpose and ground rules
2. Storming – Team leader should openly address conflict and maintain focus on purpose and ground rules established in the team charter.
3. Norming – Team leader should remind followers of ground rules and address deviations
4. Performing -- Team leader celebrate successes along the way to reaching the goal.
5. Adjourning – Team leader should arrange a celebration such as a party or a dinner to recognize the team’s accomplishment and reward members.
Initial meeting where group goals are discussed.
Regardless of how much time is given for the task, not much is accomplished until half of the time has gone by. Then there is a flurry of activity where the goals are revisited and work is assigned to get the group moving toward completing the task. Following the midpoint there is a burst of activity as the group scrambles to meet the goal.
Example: Not starting a team project until after the midterm in a class and pulling an “all nighter” to finish it.
Figure 9.1 on page 228.
Leaders must measure output to determine effectiveness.
Output can be defined differently – processes and outcomes
Can be measured by internal process such as conflict and communication and group psychosocial traits such as norms, shared mental models (defined later in chapter)
Can also be measured by team performance (quality, productivity, attitudes (job satisfaction, trust) and behavioral outcomes (turnover, absenteeism)
Figure 9.3 on page 230.
Additional Effectiveness Measures
Team learning – Part of a learning organization (The Fifth Discipline), team members acquire, combine and apply knowledge
Team creativity – a collective process that encompasses what team members do behaviorally, cognitively and emotionally as they define problems, generate ideas and attempt new ways of doing their work.
Diversity may increase team creativity. Diversity in a team can increase flexibility, creativity, and problem solving. A meta-analysis of team diversity and performance found that having members with diverse skills and backgrounds enhances team creativity and innovation.
Boxed insert: Sports psychology study or the relationship of effective coaching and team cohesion in Division I college football teams.
Defined as informal and interpersonal rules that team members are expected to follow
May be explicit or implicit. Explict norms are spoken or written down. Implicit norms are unspoken and assumed.
Team charter – Important tool for getting teams to set goals and ground rules – make norms explicit. Research showed that teams that had quality charters outperformed teams with poor quality charters. Team charters get the team off to a good start. There is an activity for developing a team charter in the Toolkit at the end of the chapter.
A meta-analysis of 65 studies of TMMs and performance found that teams with shared mental models interacted more frequently, were more motivated, had higher job satisfaction, and were rated as more productive teams.
Group decision making can be beneficial, but it also has its disadvantages. Groups do tend to generate more complete information and knowledge as well as offer a greater diversity of views and increased creativity, but since more people are involved in the decision there is a risk of conformity, and no clear responsibility for outcomes. Moreover, discussions can be dominated by a few members.
All of the following options involve team member participation in decisions
Note – detailed steps provided in the textbook.
Option to use instead of majority vote
Stepladder – complex process where one group member is “stepped in” at a time to discuss the problem.
Group think can be minimized by limiting the group size, having a leader who actively seeks input from all members and by appointing a devil’s advocate, or someone who is always trying to look at things from a different perspective.
