BEHAVIOUR AND
DEVELOPMENT
Session 4:
Team and Group Dynamics
Case Presentation
• Hy Dairies Inc.
What are Teams?
Groups of two or more people who interact and influence each other, are mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with organisational objectives, and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organisation. • Groups of two or more
people
• Exist to fulfill a purpose
• Interdependent -- interact
and influence each other
• Mutually accountable for
achieving common goals
• Perceive themselves as a
social entity
Informal Groups
• Groups that exist primarily for the benefit of their members
• Reasons why informal groups exist:
1. Innate drive to bond
2. Social identity -- we define ourselves by group memberships
3. Goal accomplishment
4. Emotional support
8-4
Advantages and Disadvantages of Teams
Advantages
• Make better decisions, products/services
• Better information sharing
• Higher employee motivation/engagement
- Fulfills drive to bond
- Closer scrutiny by team members
- Team members are benchmarks of comparison
Disadvantages
• Individuals better/faster on some tasks
• Process losses - cost of developing and maintaining teams
• Social loafing
8-5
How to Minimize Social Loafing
• Make individual performance more visible
• Form smaller teams
• Specialize tasks
• Measure individual performance
• Increase employee motivation
• Increase job enrichment
• Select motivated employees
8-6
Team Effectiveness Model
Team Design
Organisation and Team
Environment
•Rewards
•Communication
•Organisational structure •Organisational leadership •Physical space
•Task characteristics •Team size
•Team composition
Team Processes
•Team development
•Team norms
•Team cohesion
•Team trust
Team Effectiveness
•Accomplish tasks
•Satisfy member needs •Maintain team survival A Comparative Approach to Group Dynamics
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