Teams
WEEK 7 - TEAMS IN ORGANIZATIONS
• One of the key attributes of the people employers want to hire is the ability to be a “good team player”
• To learn how to be a good player, it involves:
(1) Both direct experience in teams and
(2) In understanding of team processes based on decades of research on teams
• We must make a distinction between a working group and a real team
• Teams differ from working groups because they require both individual and mutual accountability
• A discipline that real teams share include a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable
A Real Team has four features:
1. A team task
2. Clear boundaries
3. Clearly specified authority to manage their own work processes
4. Membership stability over some reasonable period of time
• A virtual team is essentially a team where members are scattered across different physical locations, and teams that cross-organizational boundaries to include people form suppliers, customers or contractors
• Teams vary in: how effective they are in developing effective internal processes and accomplishing their tasks
• Organizational contexts have a significant influence on team processes influences the way they are set up and the tasks they are given. Interactions affect the internal team processes and often have a determining effect on how well team performs
The internal processes of a team:
1. How it allocates tasks to team members
2. How team members coordinate their activities with each other
3. How the team makes decisions,
4. How team members relate to each other and develop trust,
5. How they develop a shared team identity
THREE PERSPECTIVES ON TEAMS STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES
Strategic Design:
• Often, when wanting to improve the teams internal processes we must develop a strategic design approach by developing a realistic work
• One of the key attributes of the people employers want to hire is the ability to be a “good team player”
• To learn how to be a good player, it involves:
(1) Both direct experience in teams and
(2) In understanding of team processes based on decades of research on teams
• We must make a distinction between a working group and a real team
• Teams differ from working groups because they require both individual and mutual accountability
• A discipline that real teams share include a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable
A Real Team has four features:
1. A team task
2. Clear boundaries
3. Clearly specified authority to manage their own work processes
4. Membership stability over some reasonable period of time
• A virtual team is essentially a team where members are scattered across different physical locations, and teams that cross-organizational boundaries to include people form suppliers, customers or contractors
• Teams vary in: how effective they are in developing effective internal processes and accomplishing their tasks
• Organizational contexts have a significant influence on team processes influences the way they are set up and the tasks they are given. Interactions affect the internal team processes and often have a determining effect on how well team performs
The internal processes of a team:
1. How it allocates tasks to team members
2. How team members coordinate their activities with each other
3. How the team makes decisions,
4. How team members relate to each other and develop trust,
5. How they develop a shared team identity
THREE PERSPECTIVES ON TEAMS STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES
Strategic Design:
• Often, when wanting to improve the teams internal processes we must develop a strategic design approach by developing a realistic work