Chapter 9: Teams: Face-to-Face and Virtual
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Introduction
Teams and committees are commonplace in organizations
Making teams productive and satisfying is a challenge for leaders and workers
Member expectations influence team processes and outcomes
Challenge for team leaders is manager from the point of verbal creation to the end point of dissolution
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Case Study: The MacIntosh Pirates
Steve Jobs felt stifled in his attempts to help the Lisa team at Apple, Inc. and formed his own “Macintosh” team
Jobs hoisted a “pirate” flag with an Apple logo on it to set the tone for his team of creative recruits
Jobs inspired and empowered his team and took risks with his behaviors
Macintosh became famous, and Jobs credited his team for its success
What is your opinion of how Jobs created and managed his team?
Teams – What Are They?
A team represents a group of people with different abilities and responsibilities, brought together to accomplish a task or variety of needs
Teams require players to work together
Functional perspective of teams includes assumptions:
Members are motivated to make the best choices
Choice to be made is nonobvious
Members have access to information/resources necessary to complete the task
Members collectively possess cognitive and communication skills to deal with decision-making/problem-solving
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Types of Teams
Primary Work Groups
Employees formally assigned within an organization
Committees
Team of people charged with implementing an organizational plan
Task Forces
Teams put together for a short time, usually to accomplish a specific task
Focus Groups
Groups or teams put together in order to discuss specific issues within the organization
Technology, Social Skills, and Face-to-Face Teams
Digital Natives
Those born since the 1980s, have never known a world without computers, cell phones, 24-hour-a-day television or the Internet
Digital Immigrants
People who were born before the advent of digital technology who are entering the digital communication arena
People are more connected now than ever before but on a more superficial level
Both Natives and Immigrants often need to fine-tune their interpersonal social skills
The Virtual Team
Members engage each other locally, regionally, and globally without being face to face
Members primarily function in cyberspace, creating both advantages and disadvantages
Technologies such as Skype have created low-cost ways of connecting
Allows for both verbal and nonverbal interaction
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Team/Group Characteristics
Case Study: Southwest Airlines’ Success
Southwest decided to make flying fun and less expensive, so they built their team by hiring for attitude and then trained for skills
Put employees first and customers second
Open to learning from their mistakes and adapted as necessary
Less structure, but hard work still expected
What do you think of the idea that employees come first?
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Team Job Design
Job Design Theory (Hackman and Oldham, 1975)
Teams are most effective when they possess these 5 factors:
Skill variety
Task identity
Autonomy
Significance
Feedback
Cohesion and Loyalty
Cohesiveness
A sense of unity can develop as team members gain understanding and insight about one another and begin successfully completing tasks
Loyalty
A loyal team member is committed and faithful, devoted, and feels a sense of obligation to the team
Framing and “Fantasy”: Important for Group Cohesion
Interaction that gives group work meaning is often related to fantasy
Members can draw upon past experiences to make work more fun and imaginative
Leaders can use fantasies or frames to help members feel a sense of involvement or identification
Trust
Necessary element for effective teams
Refers to reliability and predictability of group members
Nonverbal communication helps us to determine whether to trust
Since nonverbals can be absent in virtual teams, it can be difficult to interpret a message
Nonverbal communication awareness is important for relational success
Efficiency in Teams
Accomplishing tasks with the least amount of resources in the least amount of time possible under given circumstances
Lack of efficiency is one reason people hate working in teams
Teams can be more creative, bring more skills to solve problems, create employee engagement
Motivation
Represents what drives us to accomplish tasks
Shared sense of purpose creates more motivation in teams
Leaders are challenged to determine how to motivate individuals differently in teams
Synergy
Motivated employees who work together create something greater than what individuals working alone could have accomplished
Can happen both negatively and positively
Teams must push to focus on shared outcomes
Fairness: Finding a Reasonable Solution
Sense of fairness felt by employees impacts their efficiency
Treating everyone equally does not always put everyone on equal footing
Treating everyone fairly can put everyone on equal footing
Feedback and Listening
Employees and organizations alike should be learning and growing with training and experience
Team learning
Transforming knowledge and information in a way that promotes skill development and new understandings
Feedback
Positive or negative responses to our behavior
Norms
Expectations of behaviors in the organizational environment
High performance norms are critical to the success of teams
Virtual work groups rely heavily on communicative norms
Groupthink
Faulty decision-making of a group, where groups do not consider all of the possibilities because they sacrifice quality decisions to promote unanimity
Happens when:
Groups have become very cohesive and don’t want to risk harming sense of unity
Group is under time constraints that cause them to rush the process
Devil’s advocate
Someone assigned to argue against the cause for the sake of the group
Diversity
Teams, especially those that are virtual, can include coworkers from across the globe
Individuals bring unique characteristics to the relationship
Team members may lack understanding of different cultural values and expectations
Netiquette
What is considered ethical behavior when using the computer, especially when on the Internet
Satisfaction
Social networks show us it is possible to have satisfying relationships without being in physical proximity to one another
Too much virtual interaction may decrease satisfaction with the work environment
Opportunities to interact face-to-face may be important for some
The Impact of Technology on Teams
Technology creates expectations in everyday life and in the workplace
Technology has changed the way people communicate
Technology can be incorrectly used and abused
Technology can not only facilitate understanding and efficiency but also create misunderstanding and unrealistic expectations
Voice Mail
Useful when the recipient listens to the messages
No guarantee that messages are heard
Standard landlines and, thus, voice mail is still a useful communication tool for connecting to all areas of the world
Teleconferencing and Videoconferencing
Rise in telecommuting means connecting through telephone or video is increasingly important
Videoconferencing allows for interviewing options
Both are vital tools for interacting and developing relationships with coworkers
Computer-Mediated Technology
Case Study: Instant Gratification Expectations
Sam works late one evening and emails Janika
The next morning, he still has not received an email response and thinks she is punishing him because she is unhappy with him
Sam sends a message to their boss, criticizing Janika
A few minutes later, he receives a reply from Janika indicating that her child had been sick and that she is grateful for his work
Email can be damaging and destructive if not used thoughtfully
Has anything like this ever happened to you?
It is often assumed that email messages will receive a quick response because people are expected to be “connected” 24/7
Thoughtful use of email is important; it is easy to send an email too quickly
To avoid an email that is a flame, print it out before you send it and give it to someone else to read
People are bombarded with these easy types of messages
Employees can fall victim to continuous partial attention
Case Study: Oops, I hit reply all!
Wayne has been a top three sales rep who often took the initiative to do extra tasks that he was not paid for
Rajan, the CEO, did not like Wayne and sent an email to a regional sales manager with a negative message about Wayne
Rajan accidentally hit ”reply all” and Wayne received the message
The relationships of all involved changed as a result of the email
What would you do if you were Wayne? What would you do if you were the regional manager who received the email?
Faxing
Faxing has become less inviting and less necessary to use
Documents can be emailed in PDF form, which is faster and more secure than sending a fax
Social Networks
A real part of both personal and organizational life
Many organizations are utilizing social networks to connect with customers and each other
Many social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, VoIPs, and more provide many tools for organizations
Organizations are creating positions to manage social network accounts
Timing and Culture
How one understands the use of time is related to cultural expectations
Monochronic time structures involve focusing on one activity at a time
Cultures that are monochronic include northern Europe, North America, Germany
Polychronic time structures involve juggling a variety of tasks at one time
Cultures that are polychronic include Latin America, the Middle East, Japan, France
Context Matters
For-Profit Organizations
Very small amount of these types of organizations represent American society
Small Businesses
Entrepreneurial businesses typically have smaller teams
Nonprofit Organizations
Teams may consist of both paid employees and volunteers
Government Sector
Federal government is the nation’s largest employer
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