mgmt340-ch10

Formal task groups that complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks and have substantial autonomy over the execution of these tasks (including controlling most work inputs, flow, and outputs) with little or no supervision.

• Cross-cultural issues
• - Difficult in some cultures

• Management resistance
• - Concerned about losing power, status, job security.
• - Shift from command/control to mentor/facilitator.

• Employee and labor union resistance
• - Employees uncomfortable with new roles, skills.
• - Union concerns - more stress, lost work rules.

Teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks.

• Increasingly possible due to:
• - Information technologies
• - Knowledge-based work

• Increasingly necessary due to:
• - Knowledge management
• - Globalization

A team that outperforms others within a given company or industry, and achieves top performance levels. Similar to a hot team.

A psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intent or behavior of another person.

• - Some are inherently more willing to trust others
• - Influenced by personality, values, and socialization
• - Trust varies with emotions at the moment

A time constraint in team decision making due to the procedural requirement that only one person may speak at a time.

When individuals are reluctant to mention ideas that seem silly because they believe (often correctly) that other team members are silently evaluating them.

Tendency in highly cohesive teams to value consensus and minimize disagreement, often at the price of decision quality and openness.

• More common when the:
• - Team is highly cohesive
• - Team is isolated from outsiders
• - Team leader is opinionated
• - Team faces external threats
• - Team has recent failures
• - Team lacks clear guidance

• Symptoms
• - No dissenting opinion, lack of individuality, group acts like flock of sheep.

Tendency for teams to make more extreme decisions than individuals working alone.

- Occurs when team members debate their different perceptions about an issue in a way that keeps the conflict focused on the task rather than people, and leads to better decisions being made.

- Constructive disagreements can easily slide into personal attacks.

• 1. Speak freely
• 2. Don't criticize
• 3. Provide as many ideas a possible
• 4. Build on others' ideas

• Strengths
• - Produces more innovative ideas
• - Strengthens decision acceptance and team cohesiveness
• - Sharing positive emotions encourages creativity
• - Higher customer satisfaction if clients participate

• Weaknesses
• - Production blocking still exists
• - Evaluation apprehension exists in many groups
• - Fewer ideas generated than when people work alone

• - Any formal intervention directed toward improving the development and functioning of a work team.
• - Accelerates team development
• - Applied to existing teams that have regressed in team development.

• - Role definition
• - Goal setting
• - Problem solving
• - Interpersonal process