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YOUR
CHALLENGE
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
• Turn a group of individuals into a collaborative team that achieves high performance through a
shared mission and collective responsibility.
• Identify challenges associated with teamwork, and explain why people sometimes have negative
feelings about working in a team.
• Lead a team to high performance by providing a compelling purpose and clear objectives, clarifying
roles and responsibilities, designing the team in terms of size and diversity, giving team members
decision authority, and providing support and coaching.
• Understand and handle the stages of team development, and know how to promote cohesiveness
and shape productive team norms.
• Understand the challenges and benefits of virtual teams and the team leader behaviors that
contribute to virtual team effectiveness.
• Handle conflicts that inevitably arise among members of a team.
CHAPTER
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302
300
304
306
309
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316
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305
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317
319
C
hris Rufer, the founder of Morning Star, a tomato processor with three
factories that produce products for companies such as Heinz and Campbell
Soup Company, believes if people can manage the complexities of their own
lives without a boss, there is no reason they can’t manage themselves in the
workplace. Rufer founded Morning Star based on self-directed teamwork, but as
the company grew from the original 24 colleagues (as employees are called) to
around 400, problems occurred. Some people had trouble working in an
environment with no bosses and no hierarchy. Handling the inevitable conflicts that
arise in any workplace was a particular challenge. Thus, Rufer created the Morning
Star Self-Management Institute to provide training for people in the principles and
systems of self-management. Every colleague now goes through training, in small
groups of 10 to 15 people, to learn how to work effectively as part of a team; how
to handle the responsibilities of “planning, organizing, leading, and controlling” that
are typically carried out by managers; how to balance freedom and accountability;
how to understand and effectively communicate with others; and how to manage
291
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292
conflicts. Response to and results of the program have been positive, but Rufer
knows it will take ongoing effort and training to keep the wheels of self-directed
teamwork rolling smoothly.1
Teams are becoming the basic building block of organizations, but teams present
greater leadership challenges than does the traditional hierarchical organization. This
chapter explores teams and team leadership. We define various types of teams, look
at the dilemma of teamwork, and investigate what makes a high-performing team.
The chapter then examines how teams develop, explores topics such as cohesiveness
and team norms, and considers the various roles that team members must carry out
for the team to function well. The new challenge of leading virtual teams is also
discussed. The final part of the chapter looks at how to manage team conflict,
including using negotiation.
Teams are not right for every situation, but much work in organizations is interdependent, which means that individuals and departments rely on other individuals and
departments for information or resources in order to accomplish their work. When
tasks are highly interdependent, a team can be the best approach for ensuring the
level of coordination, information sharing, and exchange of materials necessary for
successful task accomplishment. When they are effective, teams can provide benefits
for both organizations and employees through higher productivity, quality improvements, greater flexibility and speed, a flatter management structure, increased
employee involvement and satisfaction, and lower turnover.2
Team
a unit of two or more people
who interact and coordinate
their work to accomplish a
shared goal or purpose
A team is a unit of two or more people who interact and coordinate their work to
accomplish a shared goal or purpose for which they are committed and hold themselves mutually accountable.3 Several key features distinguish a team. For example, a
team made up of linguists, psychologists, statisticians, and software engineers at
Facebook had a clear purpose (shared goal) of redesigning Facebook’s ineffective
search engine so it could better understand human (not just computer) language.
Team members had to coordinate their efforts and work interdependently to investigate, design, test, and develop a new search engine. The development team was a
distinct unit with membership separate from other teams. Members of the team
worked together for a period of more than a year to complete the early coding and
testing of a new search tool and are continuing their work to perfect the new search
engine, which Facebook hopes can be competitive with search leader Google.4
A team is a group of people, but the two are not one and the same. People who
do not interact regularly, such as those waiting in line at the company cafeteria or
riding together in the elevator, do not compose a team. Even a group of employees
whose work is related is not a team unless the members share a common purpose
that requires them to depend on each other. In addition, the concept of teamwork
implies that people sublimate their individual needs, desires, and egos and synthesize their knowledge, skills, and efforts toward accomplishing a common goal.
A professor, coach, or employer can put together a group of people and never
build a team. Consider the Miami Heat basketball team. In the spring of 2010,
LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh were the top scorers on their respective basketball teams. The next year, they were all playing for the Miami Heat.
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293
With that kind of talent, the team should have been tough for anyone to beat, but
the Heat’s dream team opened with a humiliating loss and stumbled through the
early weeks of the season. Star players who were used to being in charge at crunch
time found themselves working at cross-purposes. Discussing the Heat’s loss to the
New York Knicks, former Chicago Bulls player Steve Kerr said, “It was a total
meltdown. It was, ‘I’m so talented, I’ll take over.’ They looked awful.”5
Individual stars don’t necessarily make a great team, in sports or in business.
The Miami Heat struggled with issues that teams in all organizations face: How to
get star performers to sublimate their egos and sacrifice their individual goals? How
to bring together the right set of specialties and skills? How to define roles? How to
promote cohesiveness and norms of collaboration? and How to create a team that
is united in a common mission?6 This chapter’s Consider This illustrates the spirit
and power of teamwork.
Consider
Fact 1: As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an “uplift” for the birds that follow. By flying in a
“V” formation, the whole flock adds 71 percent greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.
Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they
are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.
Fact 2: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying
alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird
immediately in front of it.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose, we stay in formation with those headed where
we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.
Fact 3: When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies
to the point position.
Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. Like geese, people
are interdependent on each other’s skills, capabilities, and unique arrangement of gifts,
talents, or resources.
Fact 4: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one’s heart or
core values and encourage the heart and core values of others) is the quality of honking we seek.
Fact 5: When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of the formation
and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay until it dies or is able to fly again. Then
they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stand by each other in difficult times
as well as when we are strong.
Source: 1991 Organizational Development Network. Original author unknown.
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294
Teams are found at every level of today’s organizations. At Cirque du Soleil, the
CEO, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and vice president of creation
function as a top management team to develop, coordinate, and oversee acrobatic
troupes that travel to approximately 100 cities on four continents a year. Google
assembles teams of three or four employees to assess new ideas and recommend
whether they should be implemented. IBM uses teams formed of people specializing
in hardware, software, research, and sales to solve specific problems for clients such
as Walmart, Charles Schwab, and the Mayo Clinic.7 And at Tasty Catering, a family
owned business in Chicago, teams of front-line employees from across the company—
chefs and accountants, clerical workers and drivers, supervisors and servers—make all
strategic decisions.8
Organizations use various types of teams to meet internal needs or external challenges. Exhibit 10.1 illustrates three types of teams used in organizations: functional,
cross-departmental, and self-directed.
Functional team
a team made up of a supervisor and subordinates in
the formal chain of
command
Cross-departmental
team
team made up of members
from different functional
departments within an
organization
A functional team is part of the traditional vertical hierarchy. This
type of team is made up of a supervisor and his or her subordinates in the formal
chain of command. Sometimes called a vertical team or a command team, the functional team can include three or four levels of hierarchy within a department. Typically, a functional team makes up a single department in the organization. For
example, the quality control department at Blue Bell Creameries in Brenham,
Texas, is a functional team that tests all incoming ingredients to make sure only
the best products go into the company’s ice cream. A financial analysis department,
a human resources department, and a sales department are all functional or vertical
teams. Each is created by the organization within the vertical hierarchy to attain
specific goals through members’ joint activities.
A cross-departmental term is made up of members
from different departments within the organization. These teams are often called
cross-functional teams. Cross-departmental teams are typically used for projects
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295
that affect several departments and therefore require that many views be considered. Cross-departmental teams facilitate information sharing across functional
boundaries, generate suggestions for coordinating the departments represented,
develop new ideas and solutions for existing organizational problems, and assist in
developing new practices or policies.
One type of cross-departmental team is the special-purpose team, sometimes
called a project team. Special-purpose teams focus on a specific purpose and disband
once the project is completed. They are created outside the formal organization structure to undertake a project of special importance or complexity or to develop a new
product or service. The team working on a new search engine at Facebook, described
earlier, is a special-purpose team. Leaders at Ford Motor Company created a specialpurpose team to solve a problem related to the supply chain.
NEW LEADER
As a leader, you can create a
cross-departmental team to
handle a project that requires
coordination across functional
boundaries. Use a specialpurpose team for a project of
special importance, such as
developing a new product or
service.
Tony Brown and Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company
The Big Three U.S. automakers (General Motors (GM), Chrysler, and Ford) weren’t the only organizations in the auto industry on the brink of bankruptcy by the fall of 2008. Most of their suppliers
were also struggling to stay alive, and some had already gone out of business. Leaders at Ford
knew that without parts, nothing else they did to save the company would matter.
Tony Brown, Ford’s vice president of global purchasing, suggested creating a specialpurpose team to monitor parts manufacturers, prevent supply chain disruptions, and speed up
Ford’s plan to narrow its base of suppliers. CEO Alan Mulally quickly agreed, and Project Quark
(named after the family dog in the movie “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”) came into being. The
team included people from all of Ford’s divisions and functional departments—manufacturing,
human resources, engineering, finance, information technology, legal, and others.
Time was of the essence, so the team started out in high gear—meeting every day,
sometimes gathering before 7:00 A.M. and working late into the night, and providing regular
reports to the CEO every Thursday. The team’s meeting room walls were covered with printouts listing each supplier, the specific parts it provided, its financial condition, the plants it
supported, and its other customers. A risk profile was created for each supplier, and the
team narrowed the list down to 850 critical suppliers that Ford wanted to keep. Making
sure these companies survived was Project Quark’s top priority.
The team and Ford executives knew Ford couldn’t save the global supply base on its
own, so they began reaching out to other automakers. GM wasn’t interested, perhaps
because its managers had even bigger problems to worry about, but Toyota and Honda
quickly jumped on board, realizing that the web of interconnected suppliers was in danger
of collapsing. In some cases, the three companies agreed to share the costs of keeping a
particular supplier in business.9
This special-purpose team played a critical role in helping Ford prevent a supply breakdown—and ultimately in helping leaders revive the company.
Cross-departmental teams may gradually evolve
into self-directed teams. Self-directed teams, such as those at Morning Star, described
in the chapter opening example, are made up of employees who work with minimum
supervision and rotate jobs to produce an entire product or service, or at least one
complete aspect or portion of a product or service.10
Special-purpose team
team that focuses on a
specific purpose of high
importance and disbands
once the project is completed; sometimes called a
project team
Self-directed teams
teams made up of members
who work with minimum
supervision and rotate jobs
to produce a complete
product or service
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
296
NEW LEADER
As a leader, you can use a selfdirected team when members
are capable of working together
without active supervision. Give
the team access to the money,
equipment, supplies, and information needed to perform its
project or task, and empower
the team with decision-making
authority.
Exhibit 10.1 illustrates the evolution of teams and team leadership. The functional
team groups individuals by common skill and activity within the traditional structure.
Leadership is based on the vertical hierarchy. In cross-departmental teams, members
have more freedom from the hierarchy, but the team typically is still leader-centered
and leader-directed. The leader is most often assigned by the organization and is usually a supervisor or manager from one of the departments represented on the team.
In the next stage of evolution, team members work together without the ongoing direction of managers, supervisors, or assigned team leaders. Empirical studies
have shown that self-directed teams are associated with higher job satisfaction.11
Job satisfaction increases partly because working in self-directed teams enables people to feel challenged, find their work meaningful, feel more control over their work
lives, and develop a stronger sense of identity with the organization.12
Self-directed teams have access to information and resources needed to perform a complete task and are empowered with decision-making authority to take
over duties such as selecting new members, scheduling work or vacations, and
evaluating performance. Self-directed teams are typically not completely autonomous, in that organizational leaders set overall direction and monitor the team’s
work on a regular basis. However, these teams are effectively trained to work
with minimum supervision, and members are jointly responsible for making
decisions and solving problems. At Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control
division’s Pike County Operations in Troy, Alabama, all employees work in selfdirected teams that set performance goals and make decisions related to assembling
and testing advanced missile systems. Self-directed teams at Pike County Operations have contributed to 100 percent on-time delivery with zero customer rejects
for the division.13
Self-directed teams typically elect one of their own to serve as team leader, and the
leader may change each year. Some teams function without a designated leader, so anyone may play a leadership role depending on the situation. For example, the emergency
trauma team at Massachusetts General Hospital performs so smoothly that the team
switches leaders seamlessly, depending on the crisis at hand. With each new emergency,
direction may come from a doctor, intern, nurse, or technician—whoever is particularly
experienced with the problem at hand.14
NEW LEADER
Do you enjoy working as part of
a team, or do you prefer to do
your work individually? Complete Leader’s Self-Insight 10.1
to get an idea of your feelings
toward teamwork and whether
team leadership might present a
problem for you.
Free rider
a team member who attains
benefits from team membership but does not actively
participate in and contribute
to the team’s work
When leaders at ICU Medical Products announced that the company was shifting
to a structure based entirely on teams, the CFO quit.15 Some people love the idea
of teamwork, others hate it, and many people have both positive and negative emotions about working as part of a team. Leaders can be more effective when they
understand three primary reasons teams present a dilemma for people:
We Have to Give Up Our Independence. When people become part of a team,
their success depends on the team’s success; therefore, they are dependent on
how well other people perform, not just on their own individual initiative and
actions. In addition, whereas most people are comfortable with the idea of
making sacrifices in order to achieve their own individual success, teamwork
demands that they make sacrifices for group success.16 The idea is that each
person should put the team first, even if at times it hurts the individual.
We Have to Put Up with Free Riders. Teams are sometimes made up of people
who have different work ethics. The term free rider refers to a team member
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
C
Complete
this
aassignment online with
CCengageNOW.
Instructions: Respond to the statements below with your
preferences for working on your job or school assignments.
Please answer whether each item below is Mostly False or
Mostly True for you.
Mostly
False
1. I prefer to work on a team rather
than do tasks individually.
2. Given a choice, I try to work by
myself rather than face the
hassles of group work.
3. I enjoy the personal interaction
when working with others.
4. I prefer to do my own work and
let others do theirs.
5. I get more satisfaction from a
group victory than an individual
victory.
6. Teamwork is not worthwhile
when people do not do their
share.
7. I feel good when I work with
others even when we disagree.
8. I prefer to rely on myself rather than
others to do a job or assignment.
Mostly
True
9. I find that working as a member
of a team increases my ability to
perform well.
10. It annoys me to do work as a
member of a team.
Scoring and Interpretation
For odd-numbered items give yourself 1 point for each
Mostly True answer and for even-numbered items give yourself 1 point for each Mostly False answer.
Total Score
.
Your score indicates your preference for working as part of a
team versus working as an individual. A score of 8–10 suggests a clear preference for working with others on a team.
Teams can accomplish tasks far beyond what an individual
can do, and working with others can be a major source of
satisfaction. A score of 0–3 suggests a clear preference for
working alone rather than on a team. On a team you will
lose some autonomy and have to rely on others who may
be less committed than you. On a team you have to work
through other people and you lose some control over work
procedures and outcomes. A score of 4–7 suggests you are
satisfied either working on a team or alone. How do you
think your preference will affect your career choices and
your potential role as a leader?
who attains benefits from team membership but does not actively participate in
and contribute to the team’s work. You might have experienced this frustration
in a student project team, where one member put little effort into the project
but benefited from the hard work of others when grades were handed out.
Free riding is sometimes called social loafing because some members do not
exert equal effort.17 The potential for free riding might be one reason a survey
found that 40 to 60 percent of people (depending on gender and age) like
working in teams to learn from others, but no more than 36 percent report
they like working in teams to complete tasks.18
Teams Are Sometimes Dysfunctional. Some companies have had great success
with teams, but there are also numerous examples of how teams in organizations fail spectacularly.19 A civilian worker at a large U.S. Air Force base tells
of an experience in which the team “streamlined” the process of handling mail
by changing it from 8 steps to a ridiculous 19, meaning official mail was
handled by more people and getting to its intended recipient even later than
before.20 Exhibit 10.2 lists five dysfunctions that are common in teams.21
Over the past few decades, a great deal of research and team experience
has produced significant insights into what causes teams to succeed or fail. The
evidence shows that how teams are managed plays the most critical role.22
297
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298
Lack of trust
People don’t feel safe to reveal mistakes, share concerns, or express
ideas
Fear of conflict
People go along with others for the sake of harmony; don’t express
conflicting opinions
Lack of commitment
People can’t truly commit to decisions because they haven’t contributed
their true opinions and ideas
Avoidance of
accountability
People don’t accept responsibility for outcomes; engage in fingerpointing when things go wrong
Inattention to results
Members put personal ambition or the needs of their individual
departments ahead of collective results
Source: Based on Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002).
Smoothly functioning teams don’t just happen. They are created and shaped by leaders.
Harvard Business School professors studying surgery teams, for example, found that
the attitude and actions of the team leader, and the quality of the leader’s interactions
with team members, are crucial to team effectiveness and the success of the surgery.23
Teamwork is becoming common in health care, but poor coordination and communication among team members has been a real problem, leading to errors and even
patient deaths. The U.S. Department of Defense and the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality developed a team training program to teach cognitive and interpersonal skills that contribute to better health care teamwork, with significant focus on
team leadership. Boston Children’s Hospital reduced medical errors by 40 percent after
teams began applying the tools learned from the program.24
To lead any team to high performance, whether in health care, manufacturing,
Internet services, or NASCAR racing, leaders incorporate the following elements:25
John Foley,
founder and president
of John Foley, Inc.;
former Marine Corps jet
fighter instructor pilot
and lead solo pilot
of the Blue Angels
jet acrobatics team
1. A Compelling Purpose, Clear Objectives, and Explicit Metrics. To succeed,
team members have to know what is expected of them and commit to accomplishing it. High-performing teams have a specific, clearly-defined purpose and
a well-defined set of goals, enabling people to come together in a shared undertaking. A team cannot succeed if people are floundering around wondering why
the team exists, or if people are going in different directions rather than pulling
together for a common purpose. Team members also need clear metrics so they
know how well they are progressing toward meeting goals.
2. A Diversity of Skills and Unambiguous Roles. Effective teams contain the
diverse mix of skills, knowledge, and experience needed to perform all the components of the team’s project.26 In addition, diversity in terms of race, gender,
ethnic or cultural background, and other dimensions can contribute to greater
innovation and better decision making because the team can draw from wider
perspectives.27 Within this diverse mix, however, individual roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. Clear roles and expectations for members lead to
enhanced cooperation because people aren’t butting up against one another in
confusion over their duties and responsibilities.28
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299
3. Streamlined Team Size. Although most researchers agree there is no optimal
team size, teams function best when they contain just enough members to perform the job, and most experts recommend that teams should err on the side of
having too few members rather than too many.29 Much research has shown
that small teams (six or fewer members) perform better than large ones.30
Members on small teams typically ask more questions, exchange more opinions, and exhibit more cooperative behavior. In addition, people in small
teams report higher motivation, more job satisfaction, and a greater sense of
belonging and cohesiveness. A Gallup poll in the United States found that
82 percent of employees agree that small teams are more productive.31
4. Decision Authority Over How to Achieve Goals. Although teams need clearly
defined goals spelled out by leaders, the team itself should have the authority to
decide how it will reach those goals. Good leaders share power, information,
and responsibility and work to build consensus rather than issuing orders.32
Members of high-performing teams determine together how they will work
cooperatively to accomplish objectives and achieve the team’s purpose.
5. Support and Coaching. Although team leaders have to keep people focused on
accomplishing tasks, research shows that the soft leadership skills concerned
with building positive relationships are especially important for creating a
high-performance team.33 Team effectiveness, productivity, and learning are
strengthened when team leaders provide support to team members, reinforce
team identity and meaning, work to maintain trusting interpersonal relationships and group cohesiveness, and offer coaching to enhance members’ selfleadership skills. Periodic training that teaches skills such as communication,
building relationships, developing productive norms, and resolving conflicts
can have a significant impact on team collaboration and performance.
These five elements are among the most important guidelines for team leaders.
The Leader’s Bookshelf further discusses characteristics of teams that lead to high
performance.
Assess your team
leadership skills
by logging in to
CengageNOW
to complete the
interactive
questionnaire.
NEW LEADER
Team processes refer to the dynamics that change over time and can be influenced by
leaders. In this section we discuss stages of development, cohesiveness, and norms.
The fourth type of team process, conflict, will be covered later in the chapter.
It is important for leaders to understand that teams develop over time.34 Research suggests that teams develop over several stages. Exhibit 10.3 shows one model of the
stages of team development.35 These stages typically occur in sequence, although
there can be overlap.
The forming stage of development is a period of orientation and getting
acquainted. Team members find out what behavior is acceptable to others, explore
friendship possibilities, and determine task orientation. Uncertainty is high because no
one knows what the ground rules are or what is expected of them. Members will usually accept whatever power or authority is offered by either formal or informal leaders.
The leader’s challenge at this stage of development is to facilitate communication and
As a leader, you can articulate a
clear and compelling vision for
the team to help members see
their work as meaningful and
important. You can define
objectives and clarify roles but
give people decision-making
authority over how to achieve
goals. Make room for everyone
to contribute and provide people with the training, support,
and coaching they need to
excel.
Forming
stage of team development
that includes orientation and
getting acquainted
Copyright 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Great Business Teams: Cracking the Code for Standout Performance
by Howard M. Guttman
Management consultant and author
Howard Guttman believes highperformance organizations begin with
great teams. In his book,
, Guttman draws on research into
the inner workings of several dozen
high-performance teams at companies
such as Johnson & Johnson, L’Oreal,
Novartis, and Mars Drinks.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GREAT TEAMS
Whether it is a top leadership team, a
cross-departmental project team, or a
self-directed product development
team, Guttman says great teams share
five key characteristics:
•
. Leaders of great teams put
power and authority in the hands of
the team. They see their job as making
sure all members are clear about and
committed to the business strategy
and operational goals, understand
NEW LEADER
As a leader, you can guide your
team through its stages of development. Early on you can
help members know one another, and then encourage
participation and common
purpose, followed by clarifying
goals and expectations. Finally,
you can concentrate on helping
the team achieve high
performance.
Storming
stage of team development
in which individual personalities and conflicts emerge
Norming
stage of team development
in which conflicts have been
resolved and team unity
emerges
their roles and responsibilities, and
adhere to specific ground rules for
decision making and interpersonal
behavior.
•
•
•
. On a highperformance team, self-monitoring,
self-evaluation, and continually raising
the performance bar are the norm.
•
Members of great teams act
as leaders by embracing responsibility,
exerting influence to accomplish tasks,
and holding one another accountable
for results. Everyone’s performance—
even the leader’s—is subject to scrutiny and feedback.
. Ambiguity kills effective teamwork, says
Guttman. To achieve high performance, everyone on the team needs
to be clear about what the team as a
whole is going to accomplish, what
each individual will contribute, how
the team will carry out its tasks, and
how members are expected to interact with one another.
. To
get great teamwork, the organization’s
performance
management
and
reward systems have to support the
expected team behaviors.
WHY TEAMS?
Guttman believes today’s organizations
and the challenges they face are too
complex for formal leaders to make all
the decisions. He argues that companies
can best succeed with distributed leadership, in which key decisions are made by
layers of self-directed teams that are
jointly accountable for performance.
Source:
, by Howard Guttman, is published by John Wiley & Sons.
interaction among team members to help them get acquainted and establish guidelines
for how the team will work together. It is important at this stage for the leader to make
everyone feel comfortable and like a part of the team. Leaders can draw out shy or
quiet team members to help them establish relationships with others.
During the storming stage, individual personalities emerge more clearly.
People become more assertive in clarifying their roles. This stage is marked by conflict
and disagreement. Team members may disagree over their perceptions of the team’s
mission or goals. The team is characterized by a general lack of unity and cohesiveness. It is essential that teams move beyond this stage or they will never achieve high
performance. A recent experiment with student teams confirms the idea that teams
that get stuck in the storming stage perform significantly less well than teams that
progress to future stages of development.36 The leader’s role during the storming
stage is to encourage participation by each team member and help people find their
common vision and values. Members need to debate ideas, surface conflicts, disagree
with one another, and work through the uncertainties and conflicting perceptions
about team tasks and goals. The expression of emotions, even negative ones, helps
to build camaraderie and a shared understanding of goals and tasks. 37
At the norming stage, conflict has been resolved and team unity and harmony emerge. Consensus develops as to who the natural team leaders are, and
members’ roles are clear. Team members come to understand and accept one
another. Differences are resolved, and members develop a sense of cohesiveness.
300
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301
Sources: Based on the stages of small group development in Bruce W. Tuckman, “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups,”
Psychological Bulletin 63 (1965), pp. 384–399; and B.W. Tuckman and M.A. Jensen, “Stages of Small Group Development Revisited,”
Group and Organizational Studies 2 (1977), pp. 419–427.
This stage typically is of short duration and moves quickly into the next stage. The
team leader should emphasize openness within the team and continue to facilitate
communication and clarify team roles, values, and expectations.
During the performing stage, the major emphasis is on accomplishing
the team’s goals. Members are committed to the team’s mission. They interact frequently, coordinate their actions, and handle disagreements in a mature, productive
manner. Team members confront and resolve problems in the interest of task
accomplishment. At this stage, the team leader should concentrate on facilitating
high task performance and helping the team self-manage to reach its goals.
Performing
stage of team development
in which the major emphasis
is on accomplishing the
team’s goals
The adjourning stage occurs in committees and teams that have a limited task to perform and are disbanded afterward. During this stage, the emphasis
is on wrapping up and gearing down. Task performance is no longer a top priority,
and leaders frequently focus on team members’ social and emotional needs. People
may feel heightened emotionality, strong cohesiveness, and depression or regret
over the team’s disbandment. At this point, the leader may wish to signify the
Adjourning
stage of team development
that occurs in committees
and teams that have a limited task to perform; the
emphasis is on wrapping up,
gearing down, and signifying
closure
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302
team’s disbanding with a ritual or ceremony, perhaps giving out certificates or
awards to signify closure and completeness.
When teams are under time pressure, these stages might occur quite rapidly and
even overlap. Stages may also be accelerated for virtual teams. For example, at a
large consumer goods company with a virtual team of engineers working in the
United States and India, leaders started the project with a couple of days of team
building to help the team move rapidly through the forming and storming stages.
Spring Company
When top leaders at Spring Company decided to move some aspects of supply chain
process development to one of the company’s Indian facilities, one of their key concerns
was making sure the engineers in the United States and the ones in India came together
quickly around a shared mission and a focus on key performance goals, putting the success
of the team ahead of individual interests.
To take the team to the performing stage as quickly as possible, leaders and consultants held a series of team-building activities during which team members together created
a shared vision, developed specific team norms and agreements, built virtual relationships,
and clarified roles and responsibilities. Cultural education and exercises on virtual communication were also part of the process. By the end of the team-building activities, members
were laughing together and eager to get on with their work. A follow-up by webinar and
phone found that the team was on track toward meeting its goals; moreover, everyone
was still having a good time working together.38
The team building process at Spring Company not only helped people reach the
performing stage quickly, it also contributed to building cohesiveness, which is generally considered an attractive feature of teams.
NEW LEADER
As a leader, you can facilitate
team cohesiveness by providing
members with opportunities to
interact and know one another.
You can use friendly competition with other teams to increase cohesiveness, and work
with top leaders to develop
high-performance norms for
the team.
team cohesiveness
the extent to which members are attracted to the
team and motivated to
remain in it
Team cohesiveness is defined as the extent to which members are attracted to the
team and motivated to remain in it.39 Members of highly cohesive teams are committed to team activities, attend meetings, and are happy when the team succeeds.
Members of less cohesive teams are less concerned about the team’s welfare. Leaders typically want to encourage high cohesiveness in teams.
Leaders can use several characteristics of team structure and context to influence cohesiveness. First is team interaction. When team
members have frequent contact, they get to know one another, consider themselves
a unit, and become more committed to the team.40 Second is the concept of shared
goals. When team members agree on purpose and direction, they will be more cohesive. The most cohesive teams are those that feel they are involved in something
immensely relevant and important. An aerospace executive, recalling his participation in an advanced design team, put it this way, “We even walked differently than
anybody else. We felt we were way out there, ahead of the whole world.”41 Third is
personal attraction to the team, meaning that members have similar attitudes and
values and enjoy being together.
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303
Two factors in the team’s context also influence group cohesiveness. The first is
the presence of competition. When a team is in moderate competition with other
teams, its cohesiveness increases as it strives to win. Finally, team success and the
favorable evaluation of the team by outsiders add to cohesiveness. When a team
succeeds in its task and others in the organization recognize the success, members
feel good, and their commitment to the team will be high.
The outcome of team cohesiveness can fall into two
categories—morale and performance. As a general rule, morale is higher in cohesive
teams because of increased communication among members, a friendly team climate, maintenance of membership because of commitment to the team, loyalty,
and member participation in team decisions and activities. High cohesiveness has
almost uniformly good effects on the satisfaction and morale of team members.42
With respect to performance, studies suggest that teams in which members
share strong feelings of connectedness and generally positive interactions tend to
perform better.43 Thus, a friendly, positive team environment contributes to productivity as well as member satisfaction. Cohesive teams can sometimes unleash
enormous amounts of employee energy and creativity. One explanation for this is
the research finding that correlates in-person interactions among employees with
higher productivity. Among call center teams at Bank of America, for example, productivity rose 10 percent when leaders scheduled more face-to-face interaction time.
Simply interacting with others has an energizing effect.44
However, cohesiveness can also decrease performance in some cases. One matter of particular concern is groupthink, which refers to the tendency of people in
cohesive groups to suppress contrary opinions. The hesitation of team members to
express safety concerns that went against the group consensus has been cited as a
contributing factor to the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. People slip into
groupthink when the desire for harmony outweighs concerns over decision quality.45 Other research suggests that performance in cohesive teams may depend on
the relationship between leaders and the work team. One study surveyed more
than 200 work teams and correlated job performance with their cohesiveness.46
Highly cohesive teams were more productive when team members felt top leader
support and less productive when they sensed leader hostility and negativism.
A team norm is an informal standard of conduct that is shared by team members
and guides their behavior.47 Norms are valuable because they provide a frame of
reference for what is expected and acceptable.
Exhibit 10.4 illustrates two common ways in which norms develop.48 Norms begin
to develop in the first interactions among members of a new team, so first behaviors
often set a precedent for how the team will interact. At one company, a team leader
began his first meeting by raising an issue and then “leading”team members until he
got the solution he wanted. The pattern became ingrained so quickly into an unproductive team norm that members dubbed meetings the “Guess What I Think”game.49
Team leaders should use care to shape norms that will help the team be effective. For example, research shows that when leaders have high expectations for collaborative problem-solving, teams develop strong collaborative norms.50 One
powerful way in which leaders influence norms is by making explicit statements
about the desired team behaviors. When he was CEO of Ameritech, Bill Weiss
established a norm of cooperation and mutual support among his top leadership
Groupthink
the tendency of people in
cohesive groups to suppress
contrary opinions
Team norm
an informal standard of
conduct that is shared by
team members and guides
their behavior
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304
team by telling them bluntly that if he caught anyone trying to undermine the
others, the guilty party would be fired.51
Now lets turn our attention to understanding the qualities and competencies of
team members that contribute to high performance. To understand the need for a
variety of skills and competencies, consider the 33 miners who were trapped for
months underground after a copper mine collapsed in San José, Chile, in August
2010. The miners organized into several teams in charge of critical activities such
as communication with rescue workers, the transport of supplies from above
ground, rationing and distribution of food, managing health concerns, and securing
the mine to prevent further rock falls. Some team members were clearly focused on
helping the trapped miners meet their needs for physical survival, some focused on
helping people coordinate their activities, and still others focused on the group’s
psychological and social needs, helping people maintain hope and a sense of solidarity as the ordeal stretched to a harrowing 69 days. Experts agree that teamwork
and leadership were key to the miners’ survival.52
NEW LEADER
What contributions do you make
to a team? Complete the questionnaire in Leader’s Self-Insight
10.2 to see which competencies
you typically contribute to the
success of a team.
Research has identified a number of key competencies needed to make up an effective team.53 To function well as a team, members of the team should together display each of the following five competencies:
1. Goal Setting and Performance Management. First and foremost, team members
must have the ability to establish and execute specific, challenging team objectives,
as well as ways to monitor and evaluate performance toward meeting objectives.
2. Planning and Coordination. The ability to plan and coordinate is an important
determinant of team effectiveness.54 Members must tightly cooordinate and synchronize activities, information, and resources in order to accomplish goals.
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C
Complete
this
aassignment online with
CCengageNOW.
Instructions: Think about how you have typically behaved
and contributed as a member of student or work teams.
Respond to the statements below based on how you typically behaved on those teams.
Mostly
False
Mostly
True
1. I proposed a clear vision of team
purpose.
2. I initiated up-front discussions of
team goals and objectives.
3. I suggested corrective actions to
improve performance.
4. I helped coordinate team
members.
5. I came to meetings well prepared.
6. I followed through on promises
and commitments.
7. I was a focused, active listener.
8. I proactively engaged others in
problem solving.
9. I gave team members appreciation and support.
10. I praised people for a job well
done.
Scoring and Interpretation
These questions pertain to your contributions as a team
member as described in the chapter. These items concern
various important ways for a team member to contribute
to the success of a team. By comparing your scores on the
following scales, you may be able to identify the ways you
most contribute to a team. To calculate your scores, give
yourself 1 point for each Mostly True answer for the items
indicated.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Goal Setting: Items 1, 2:
Performance Management: Items 3, 4:
Preparation: Items 5, 6:
Communication for Problem Solving: Items 7, 8:
Social Support: Items 9, 10:
An effective team must have members who contribute
individually. A team must have someone performing each
part, but no member is expected to perform all parts.
Indeed, if you scored Mostly True on all the questions, you
would be playing a leader role on the team. Part A pertains
to goal and direction setting, which is often a team leader
role. Part B concerns performance management, which is
often part of a team leader’s role, but team members also
contribute in this way. Part C is about your ability to be
interdependent with other team members. Part D pertains
to communication and problem solving skills. Part F is
about meeting the relationship needs of team members,
which is also a team leader role. How do you feel about
your contribution to teams? In what ways do you take the
initiative to be an effective member? What might you do to
be more effective?
3. Collaborative Problem Solving. Team members need to be able to recognize
when a problem requires group participation and then appropriately involve
team members in searching for alternatives and devising solutions.
4. Communication. Employees working on individual jobs can sometimes get by
with poor communication skills, but the wheels of teamwork keep rolling only
with good communication. Members speak their minds, ask questions, seek
and provide feedback, and make skillful presentations.
5. Conflict Resolution. Last, but by no means least, teams need to know how to
effectively manage and resolve disagreements. Even in the most cohesive of
teams, conflicts will inevitably arise.
The five team competencies reflect that a team needs members who meet the important needs of the team for both accomplishing its tasks and fostering member unity,
satisfaction, and well-being. Recall from Chapter 3 the discussion of situational
leadership and the meta-categories of task-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviors described in that chapter (Exhibit 3.2). Task-oriented behavior places primary
305
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306
NEW LEADER
As a leader, you can make sure
that both the task and socioemotional needs of team
members are met so that people
experience both friendly support
and goal accomplishment.
concern on tasks and production and is generally associated with higher productivity, whereas relationship-oriented behavior emphasizes concern for followers and
relationships and is associated with higher employee satisfaction.
For a team to be successful over the long term, both task-oriented behavior and
relationship-oriented behavior are required within the team. The task-specialist role
is associated with behaviors that help the team accomplish its goal. People who play
a task-specialist role often display the following behaviors:
Initiate Ideas. Propose new solutions to team problems.
Give Opinions. Offer opinions on task solutions; give candid feedback on
others’ suggestions.
Seek Information. Ask for task-relevant facts.
Summarize. Relate various ideas to the problem at hand; pull ideas together
into a summary perspective.
Energize. Stimulate the team into action when interest drops.55
The socioemotional role includes behaviors that maintain people’s emotional
well-being and strengthen the social identity. People who adopt a socioemotional
role display the following behaviors:
Encourage. Are warm and receptive to others’ ideas; praise and encourage
others to draw forth their contributions.
Harmonize. Reconcile group conflicts; help disagreeing parties reach agreement.
Reduce Tension. Tell jokes or in other ways draw off emotions when group
atmosphere is tense.
Follow. Go along with the team; agree to other team members’ ideas.
Compromise. Will shift own opinions to maintain team harmony.56
Task-specialist role
team role associated with
initiating new ideas, evaluating the team’s effectiveness, seeking to clarify tasks
and responsibilities, summarizing facts and ideas for
others, and stimulating
others to action
Socioemotional role
team role associated with
facilitating others’ participation, smoothing conflicts,
showing concern for team
members’ needs and feelings, serving as a role model,
and reminding others of
standards for team
interaction
Virtual team
team made up of geographically or organizationally dispersed members who
share a common purpose
and are linked primarily
through advanced information technologies
Teams with mostly socioemotional roles can be satisfying, but they also can be
unproductive. At the other extreme, a team made up primarily of task specialists
will tend to have a singular concern for task accomplishment. This team will be effective for a short period of time but will not be satisfying for members over the long
run. Effective teams have people in both task-specialist and socioemotional roles.
A well-balanced team will do best over the long term because it will be personally
satisfying for team members as well as permit the accomplishment of team tasks.
People tend to take on different roles based on their personalities and interests.
Some people naturally lean more toward behaviors that aid in accomplishing tasks,
whereas others tend toward behaviors that maintain group harmony and satisfaction.
People who can excel at both types of roles often emerge as team leaders. At Marriott,
strengthening both task-oriented and relationship-oriented skills is a primary goal for
team leader training because teams headed by leaders with both types of skills are typically more productive and innovative.57 In any case, it is the leader’s responsibility to
make sure both task and socioemotional needs are met, whether through the leader’s
own behaviors or through the actions and behaviors of other team members.
Being a team leader can be particularly challenging when people are scattered in
different geographical locations and may be separated by language and cultural differences as well. Virtual teams are a reality for today’s leaders. A virtual team is
made up of geographically or organizationally dispersed members who share a
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307
Conventional
Colocated
Face-to-face
Same
High
Virtual
Scattered
Mediated
Same
Higher
Global
Widely scattered
Mediated
Different
Very high
common purpose and are linked primarily through advanced information and telecommunications technologies.58 Virtual teams are sometimes also global teams. A
global team is a cross-border work team made up of members of different nationalities whose activities span multiple countries.59
Exhibit 10.5 illustrates the primary differences between conventional types of
teams and today’s virtual teams. Conventional types of teams discussed earlier in
this chapter meet and conduct their interactions face-to-face in the same physical
space. Team members typically share similar cultural backgrounds and characteristics. The key characteristics of virtual teams, on the other hand, are (1) spatial distance limits face-to-face interaction and (2) the use of technological communication
is the primary means of connecting team members.60 Members of virtual teams are
often scattered in different locations, whether it be different offices and business
locations around the country or around the world. Team members use e-mail, telephone, text messaging, videoconferencing, Skype, other Internet technologies, and
various forms of collaboration software to perform their work rather than meeting
face-to-face. Although some virtual teams are made up of only organizational members, virtual teams often include contingent workers, members of partner organizations, customers, suppliers, consultants, or other outsiders. Consider the virtual
teams at Smart Balance, the “heart-healthy” food company.
Global team
team made up of culturally
diverse members who live
and work in different countries and coordinate some
part of their activities on a
global basis
Smart Balance
Smart Balance has about 67 employees, but nearly 400 people work for the company. Smart
Balance started by making a buttery spread and now has a line of spreads; all-natural peanut butter; nutrient-enhanced milk, cheese, sour cream, and popcorn; and other products.
Leaders decided to use virtual teams, including employees and outside contractors, to
enable Smart Balance to innovate and expand rapidly.
Smart Balance keeps product development and marketing in-house but uses contractors to
do just about everything else, including manufacturing, distribution, sales, information technology services, and research and testing. Each morning, virtual team members exchange a flurry
of e-mails, text messages, and phone calls to update each other on what took place the day
before and what needs to happen today. Leaders spend much of their time building and managing team relationships. Twice a year they hold all-company meetings that include full-time
Smart Balance employees and employees of contractors participating in virtual teams. Information is exchanged widely, and leaders make a point of recognizing the contributions of virtual
members to the company’s success, which helps create a sense of unity and commitment.61
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308
NEW LEADER
As a leader, you can help a
virtual team perform even with
limited control and supervision.
You can select members who
thrive in a virtual environment,
arrange opportunities for periodic face-to-face meetings, and
ensure that members understand goals, responsibilities,
and performance standards.
According to recent surveys, nearly half of all organizations surveyed use virtual
teams, and about 80 percent of employees at multinational corporations have been
part of a virtual team at some time.62 Virtual teams may be temporary crossdepartmental teams that work on specific projects, or they may be long-term, selfdirected teams. One of the primary advantages of virtual teams is the ability to rapidly assemble the most talented group of people to complete a complex project,
solve a particular problem, or exploit a specific strategic opportunity. The diverse
mix of people can fuel creativity and innovation. On a practical level, organizations
can save employees time and cut travel expenses when people meet in virtual rather
than physical space. IBM reported that it saved more than $50 million in travelrelated expenses in one recent year by using virtual teams.63
Despite their potential benefits, there is growing evidence that virtual teams are
often less effective than teams whose members meet face-to-face.64 Studies indicate
that, as virtual distance grows, innovative behavior can decline by a whopping
93 percent. Trust drops 83 percent, clarity of roles and objectives falls 62 percent,
and project results such as on-time delivery and customer satisfaction decline by
about 50 percent.65 The team leader can make a tremendous difference in how well
a virtual team performs, but virtual teams bring significant leadership challenges.66
Building team relationships and trust is the biggest challenge faced by virtual
team leaders. “Being authentic, connecting with others … and all of the interpersonal skills leaders use to build relationships and trust are always important,” one
team leader said, but in a virtual environment, “the actions associated with these
skills must be deliberate and intentional.”67 Virtual team leaders have to trust people to do their jobs without constant supervision, and they learn to focus more on
results than on the process of accomplishing them. Too much control can kill a virtual team, so leaders have to give up most of their control and yet at the same time
provide guidance, encouragement, support, and development. To be successful, virtual team leaders can master the following skills:68
Select the Right Team Members. Effective virtual team leaders put a lot of thought
into getting the right mix of people on the team. Team members need the right mix
of technical, interpersonal, and communication skills to work effectively in a virtual
environment. In addition, leaders make clear to the team why each member was
chosen to participate, thus giving people a basis for trust in others’ abilities and commitment. Choosing people who have open, honest, and trusting personalities is also
a plus. As with other types of teams, small virtual teams tend to be more cohesive
and work together more effectively. However, diversity of views and experiences is
also important to the success of a virtual team. Diversity is usually built into virtual
teams because when leaders can pick the right people for the job, no matter where
they are located, members usually reflect diverse backgrounds and viewpoints.69
Start Off Right. Leaders make sure people have opportunities to know one
another and establish trusting relationships. Studies of virtual teams suggest that
an initial face-to-face meeting is one of the best ways to get people to come
together as a team and rapidly go through the forming and storming stages of
development, as discussed earlier in this chapter.70 At Mobil Corporation, leaders
bring virtual team members together in one location at the beginning of a project
so they can begin to build personal relationships and gain an understanding of
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309
•
•
their goals and responsibilities. LivePerson Inc., a leading cloud-based platform
company, builds in ways for people from around the world to come together
face-to-face whenever there seems to be a need for it. “We understand there is a
cost to this, but we see real results, so it is a price we willingly pay,”says senior
vice president Steve Schloss.71
Use Technology to Build Relationships. Leaders also apply technology to build
relationships.72 Leaders hold team meetings using Skype, for example, to enable
people to get to know one another and clarify roles and project tasks. They also
encourage non-task-related communication, such as the use of online social networking where people can share photos, thoughts, and personal biographies.
“Managers often assume that people are mainly interested in what their fellow
team members can do, not who they are,”Keith Ferrazi wrote in a Harvard Business Review blog. “Wrong!”Ferrazi and other virtual team experts emphasize the
value of non-work-related interactions.73 Researchers have also found that roundthe-clock virtual work spaces, where team members can access the latest versions
of files, keep track of deadlines and timelines, monitor one another’s progress, and
carry on discussions between formal meetings enhance virtual team success.74
Agree on Ground Rules. Leaders make everyone’s roles, responsibilities, and
authority clear from the beginning. All team members need to explicitly understand both team and individual goals, deadlines, and expectations for participation and performance. When roles and expectations are clear, trust can develop
more easily. It is also important that leaders define a clear context so that people
can make decisions, monitor their own performance, and regulate their behavior
to accomplish goals. For each virtual team decision, Kevan Hall, CEO of Global
Integration, asks team members to summarize the decision, whether they agree
with it, and the specific actions they will take as a result of the decision.75
Another important point is shaping norms of respectful interaction. Team members need to agree on communications etiquette, rules for “verbalizing”online
when members are shifting mental gears or need more feedback, whether there
are time limits on responding to voice mail or e-mail, and so forth.
As the use of virtual teams grows, there is growing understanding of what
makes them successful. Some experts suggest that leaders solicit volunteers as
much as possible for virtual teams, and interviews with virtual team members and
leaders support the idea that members who truly want to work as a virtual team are
more effective.76
As one would expect, there is an increased potential for conflict among members of
virtual teams because of the greater chances for miscommunication and misunderstandings. Studies of virtual teams indicate that how they handle internal conflicts is
critical to their success, yet conflict within virtual teams tends to occur more frequently and take longer to resolve. Moreover, people in virtual teams who communicate by e-mail tend to engage in more inconsiderate behaviors such as name-calling
or insults than do people who work face-to-face.77 Some people aren’t cut out for
virtual teamwork and show a greater propensity for shirking their duties or giving
less than their full effort when working in a virtual environment, which can lead to
team conflicts.78 Cultural value differences, little face-to-face interaction, and lack of
on-site monitoring make it harder to build team identity and commitment.
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310
Whenever people work together in teams, some conflict is inevitable. Whether
leading a virtual team or a team whose members work side-by-side, bringing conflicts
into the open and effectively resolving them is one of the team leader’s most important
jobs. Conflict refers to antagonistic interaction in which one party attempts to block the
intentions or goals of another.79 Effective conflict management has a positive impact
on team cohesiveness and performance.80 High-performing teams typically have lower
levels of conflict, and the conflict is more often associated with tasks than with interpersonal relationships. In addition, teams that reflect healthy patterns of conflict are
usually characterized by high levels of trust and mutual respect.81
Two basic types of conflict that occur in teams are task conflict and relationship
conflict.82 Task conflict refers to disagreements among people about the goals to be
achieved or the content of the tasks to be performed. Two shop foremen might disagree over whether to replace a machine’s valve or let it run despite the unusual
noise it is making. Or two members of a top management team might disagree
about whether to acquire a company or enter into a joint venture as a way to
expand globally. Relationship conflict refers to personal incompatibility that creates
tension and feelings of personal animosity among people. For example, a recurring
problem for many hospitals that have implemented teams is conflict between doctors and nurses or other team members. Many physicians are accustomed to being
in charge and calling all the shots, and the shift to teamwork has been difficult. A
survey of hospital administrators performed for the American College of Physician
Executives found that 71 percent reported that disruptive behavior, such as doctors
berating nurses for “interrupting”them with questions, surgeons flinging scalpels,
or physicians demeaning coworkers they consider incompetent, occurs at least
monthly at their hospital.83
In general, research suggests that task conflict can be beneficial because it leads to
better decision making and problem solving. On the other hand, relationship conflict is
typically associated with negative consequences for team effectiveness.84 One study of
top management teams, for example, found that task conflict was associated with
higher decision quality, greater commitment, and more decision acceptance, while the
presence of relationship conflict significantly reduced those same outcomes.85
Conflict
antagonistic interaction in
which one party attempts
to thwart the intentions or
goals of another
Task conflict
disagreement among people about the goals to be
achieved or the content of
the tasks to be performed
Relationship conflict
personal incompatibility that
creates tension and feelings
of personal animosity among
people
There is evidence that mild conflict can be beneficial to teams.86 A healthy level of
conflict helps to prevent groupthink, as described earlier, in which people are so
committed to a cohesive team that they are reluctant to express contrary opinions.
When people in work teams go along simply for the sake of harmony, problems
typically result. Thus, a degree of conflict leads to better decision making because
multiple viewpoints are expressed.
However, conflict that is too strong, that is focused on personal rather than
work issues, or that is not managed appropriately can damage productivity, tear relationships apart, and interfere with the healthy exchange of ideas and information.87
Team leaders have to find the right balance between conflict and cooperation, as
illustrated in Exhibit 10.6. Too little conflict can decrease team performance because
the team doesn’t benefit from a mix of opinions and ideas—even disagreements—that
might lead to better solutions or prevent the team from making mistakes. At the
other end of the spectrum, too much conflict outweighs the team’s cooperative efforts
and leads to a decrease in employee satisfaction and commitment, hurting team
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311
Source: From Daft, Management, 11E. © 2014 Cengage Learning.
performance. A moderate amount of conflict that is managed appropriately typically
results in the highest levels of team performance.
Several factors can lead to conflict.88 One of the primary causes of conflict is competition over resources, such as money, information, or supplies. In similar fashion,
conflict often occurs simply because people are using those resources to pursue differing goals. Goal differences are natural in organizations. For example, the sales
department’s goals for fast delivery on new orders might conflict with the
manufacturing department’s goals for high quality and efficiency.
The lack of clear roles and responsibilities can also lead to conflict. Consider
the 2012 multibillion-dollar loss at JPMorgan Chase. Many people wondered how
implementation of the company’s careful low-risk trading strategy faltered so badly.
Ina Drew, the senior banker who has been partly blamed for the problems, had
won the complete trust of CEO Jamie Dimon after she steered the company
through the 2008 financial crisis. However, Drew was out of the office a great
deal of time due to illness beginning in 2010, and long-simmering conflicts and divisions over roles and responsibilities emerged. Drew’s deputy in New York, Althea
Duersten, disagreed with the risky, outsized bets being made by Achilles Macris, the
deputy in London, but the London deputy used his stronger personality to shout
down Duersten’s objections. One trader underscored the lack of clear roles when
he said he “didn’t know who to listen to.”89
Teams as well as individuals develop specific styles for dealing with conflict, based
on the desire to satisfy their own concern versus the other party’s concern. A model
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312
Sources: Based on Kenneth Thomas, “Conflict and Conflict Management,“ in Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Behavior,
ed. M.D. Dunnette (New York: John Wiley, 1976), p 900; and Nan Peck, “Conflict 101: Styles of Fighting,” North Virginia Community
College Website, September 20, 2005, www.nvcc.edu/home/npeck/conflicthome/conflict/Conflict101/conflictstyles.htm
(accessed April 13, 2011)
that describes five styles of handling conflict is in Exhibit 10.7. The two major
dimensions are the extent to which an individual is assertive versus unassertive
and cooperative versus uncooperative in his or her approach to conflict.90
1. The dominating style (my way) reflects assertiveness to get one’s own way and
should be used when quick, decisive action is vital on important issues or
unpopular actions, such as during emergencies or urgent cost cutting.
2. The avoiding style (no way) reflects neither assertiveness nor cooperativeness. It is
appropriate when an issue is trivial, when there is no chance of winning, when a
delay to gather more information is needed, or when a disruption would be costly.
NEW LEADER
Which conflict-handling style
do you tend to use most frequently? Answer the questions
in Leader’s Self-Insight 10.3 to
find out. Try to think of conflict
situations you’ve been involved
in where each of the styles
might be appropriate.
3. The compromising style (half way) reflects a moderate amount of both assertiveness and cooperativeness. It is appropriate when the goals on both sides
are equally important, when opponents have equal power and both sides want
to split the difference, or when people need to arrive at temporary or expedient
solutions under time pressure.
4. The accommodating style (your way) reflects a high degree of cooperativeness, which works best when people realize that they are wrong, when an
issue is more important to others than to oneself, when building social credits for use in later discussions, and when maintaining harmony is especially
important.
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Instructions: Think about how you typically handle a dispute or disagreement with a team member, friend, or
coworker, and then respond to the statements below
based on whether they are Mostly False or Mostly True
for you. There are no right or wrong answers, so answer
honestly.
Mostly
False
1. I try hard to win my position.
2. I strongly assert my opinion in a
disagreement.
3. I raise my voice to get other
people to accept my position.
4. I feel that differences are not
worth arguing about.
5. I would usually avoid a person
who wants to discuss a
disagreement.
6. I would rather keep my views to
myself than argue.
7. I give in a little if other people do
the same.
8. I will split the difference to reach
an agreement.
9. I typically give up some points in
exchange for others.
10. I don’t want to hurt other people’s
feelings.
11. I am quick to agree when someone I am arguing with makes a
good point.
12. I try to smooth over
disagreements.
Mostly
True
13. I suggest a solution that includes
the other person’s point of view.
14. I consider the merits of other
viewpoints as equal to my own.
15. I try to include the other person’s
ideas to create an acceptable
solution.
Scoring and Interpretation
Five categories of conflict-handling strategies are measured
in this instrument: dominating, avoiding, compromising,
accommodating, and collaborating. By comparing your
scores on the following five scales, you can identify your
preferred or natural conflict-handling strategy by the highest score.
To calculate your five scores, give yourself 1 point for
each Mostly True answer for the three items indicated.
Dominating: Items 1, 2, 3:
Avoiding: Items 4, 5, 6:
Compromising: Items 7, 8, 9:
Accommodating: Items 10, 11, 12:
Collaborating: Items 13, 14, 15:
Briefly review the text material (pages 312–313) about
these five strategies for handling conflict. Do you agree that
your highest score represents the style you use the most?
Which strategy do you find the most difficult to use? How
would your conflict strategy differ if the other person was a
family member rather than a team member? Can you think
of a situation where a conflict strategy in which you are weak
might be more effective? Explain your scores to another student and listen to the explanation for his or her scores.
Source: Adapted from “How Do You Handle Conflict?” in Robert E. Quinn
et al.,
(New York: Wiley, 1990), pp. 221–223.
5. The collaborating style (our way) reflects both a high degree of assertiveness and
cooperativeness. The collaborating style enables both parties to win, although it
may require substantial bargaining and negotiation. The collaborating style is
important when both sets of concerns are too important to be compromised,
when insights from different people need to be merged into an overall solution,
and when the commitment of both sides is needed for a consensus.
An example of the collaborating style comes from the 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games. When building the Beijing National Aquatics Center (typically called the Water
Cube), two architectural firms—one Chinese and the other Australian—developed
designs that were totally different. Although this created some tension, instead of
fighting for their own ideas, the two sides came up with a totally new concept that
excited everyone. The resulting award-winning building is spectacular.91
NEW LEADER
As a leader, you can adopt the
best approach for handling a
team conflict. Choose among
the dominating, avoiding,
compromising, accommodating,
or collaborating styles based on
the degree of assertiveness and
cooperativeness needed to
manage the situation.
313
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314
Each of the five styles is appropriate in certain cases, and effective team members and leaders vary their style to fit the specific situation and the people
involved.
One distinctive type of conflict management is negotiation, whereby people engage
in give-and-take discussions and consider various alternatives to reach a joint decision that is acceptable to both parties. Negotiation is typically used when a conflict
is formalized, such as between a union and management.
Conflicting parties may embark on negotiation from different
perspectives and with different intentions, reflecting either an integrative approach
or a distributive approach.
Integrative negotiation is based on a win–win assumption, in that all parties want
to come up with a creative solution that can benefit both sides. Rather than viewing
the conflict as a win–lose situation, people look at the issues from multiple angles,
consider trade-offs, and try to “expand the pie”rather than divide it. With integrative
negotiation, conflicts are managed through cooperation and compromise, which fosters trust and positive long-term relationships. Distributive negotiation, on the other
hand, assumes the “size of the pie”is fixed, and each party attempts to get as
much of it as they can. One side wants to win, which means the other side must
lose. With this win–lose approach, distributive negotiation is competitive and
adversarial rather than collaborative, and it does not typically lead to positive
long-term relationships.92
Most experts emphasize the value of integrative negotiation for today’s collaborative business environment. That is, the key to effectiveness is to see negotiation not
as a zero-sum game but as a process for reaching a creative solution that benefits
everyone.93
Achieving a win–win solution through
integrative negotiation is based on four key strategies:94
•
•
Integrative negotiation
a cooperative approach to
negotiation in which conflicting parties attempt to
reach a win–win solution
Distributive
negotiation
adversarial negotiation in
which conflicting parties
compete to win the most
resources and give up as
little as possible
•
Separate the People from the Problem. For successful integrative negotiation,
people stay focused on the problem and the source of conflict rather than
attacking or attempting to discredit each other.
Focus on Underlying Interests, not Current Demands. Demands are what each
person wants from the negotiation, whereas underlying interests represent the
“why”behind the demands. Consider two sisters arguing over the last orange
in the fruit bowl. Each insisted she should get the orange and refused to give up
(demands). If one sister had asked the other why she wanted the orange (interests), the sisters would have discovered that one wanted to eat it and the other
wanted the peel to use for a project. By focusing on interests, the sisters would
be able to arrive at a solution that gave each what she wanted.95 Demands create yes-or-no obstacles to effective negotiation, whereas underlying interests
present problems that can be solved creatively.
Listen and Ask Questions. A good strategy for most negotiations is to listen and
ask questions. Leaders can learn more about their opponent’s position, their constraints, and their needs by being quiet or asking questions. Smart negotiators
want to learn the other side’s constraints so they can help overcome them. Effective negotiators don’t dismiss the opposing party’s limitation as unreasonable or
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315
think “that’s their problem.” Rather, they try to come up with a solution for the
opponent so both parties can get closer to an agreement.
Insist that Results be Based on Objective Standards. Each party in a negotiation
has its own interests and would naturally like to maximize its outcomes. Successful
negotiation requires focusing on objective criteria and maintaining standards of
fairness rather than using subjective judgments about the best solution.
Now that you’ve read the chapter, check out how today’s leaders are applying these concepts.
Log in to CengageNOW to follow the leaders on Twitter.
Many leaders are called upon to facilitate teams rather than manage direct-report
subordinates. Teams can be effective in providing the coordination and information sharing needed to accomplish interdependent tasks. Functional teams typically
are part of the traditional organization structure. Cross-departmental teams
include people from different functional areas and are often formed for projects
of special importance. Self-directed teams are member-centered rather than leadercentered and -directed.
Teams present a dilemma for many people. Individuals have to give up their
independence and sometimes make sacrifices for the good of the team. Other
potential problems are free riders and dysfunctional teams.
The team leader plays a big part in whether a team achieves high performance.
Five things leaders provide that contribute to high performance are: compelling
purpose and clear objectives, clear roles and diversity of skills, streamlined team
size, decision authority over how to achieve goals, and support and coaching.
Teams go through stages of development and change over time. Guiding a team
through these stages is an important part of team leadership. In addition, leaders encourage team cohesiveness, help establish productive norms, and make
sure people contribute their skills and competencies needed for the team to be
effective. Every team must possess the following competencies: goal setting and
performance management, planning and coordination, collaborative problem
solving, communication, and conflict resolution. Team members take on various
roles that meet both task needs and socioemotional needs.
These principles apply to virtual and global teams as well. However, being a
team leader is even more challenging when people are scattered in different geographic locations and may be separated by language and cultural differences.
To create effective, smoothly functioning virtual teams, leaders select team
members who have the skills and temperaments to work virtually, use technology to build trusting relationships, and agree on ground rules for the team.
All teams experience some conflict because of scarce resources, goal conflicts,
or power and status differences. Leaders try to balance conflict and cooperation
and use varied styles to handle conflict, including the dominating style, avoiding style, compromising style, accommodating style, and collaborating style.
Each style can be effective in certain circumstances.
One type of conflict management is negotiation. Good leaders try to use integrative negotiation, which is based on a win–win assumption, rather than distributive
negotiation, in which each party strives to get as much as it can at the expense of
the other party.
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316
1. What is the difference between a “team” and a “group”? Describe your personal experience with each.
2. Discuss the differences between a cross-departmental team and a self-directed team.
Do you believe self-directed teams could be effectively used in certain types of organizations? Explain.
3. Which of the five elements of high-performance teams do you think would be most difficult
for a leader to implement in a virtual team? Explain.
4. Describe the stages of team development. How would you facilitate a team’s development
through each stage?
5. How might an individual’s dilemma about teamwork be intensified or reduced in a
virtual team? As a virtual team leader, what would you do to manage these dilemmas?
6. The chapter suggests that very small teams (say, three to six members) perform
better, and most people prefer to work in small teams. However, many companies
use teams of 100 or more people to perform complex tasks, such as creating and
developing a new product. Do you think a unit of that size can truly function as a
team? Discuss.
7. Discuss the relationship between team cohesiveness and performance. As a leader, can you
think of specific ways you would encourage norms of cohesiveness and collaboration?
8. Think about a team you have participated in to do a class project or a sports team
on which you participated. Can you identify members who played a task-specialist
role and those who played a socioemotional role? What behaviors were associated
with each?
9. What style of handling conflict do you typically use? Can you think of instances where
a different style might have been more productive?
10. If you were the leader of a team developing a new computer game, how might you
apply negotiation to resolve a conflict between two strong-willed members related to
which features to include in the game?
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Team Feedback
Think back to your most recent experience working in a team, either at work or school.
Write down your answers to the following questions about your role in the team.
What did the team members appreciate about you?
What did the team members learn from you?
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317
What could the team members count on you for?
How could you have improved your contribution to the team?
Evaluate your answers. What is the overall meaning of your answers? What are the
implications for your role as a team member? As a team leader?
“Team Feedback” is an excellent exercise to use for student feedback to one
another after a specific team class project or other activities done together during the class.
If there were no assigned team activities but students have gotten to know each other in
class, they can be divided into groups and provide the information with respect to their participation in the class instead of in the student team.
The instructor can ask the student groups to sit in a circle facing one another. Then one
person will volunteer to be the focal person, and each of the other team members will tell
that team member the following:
What I appreciate about you
What I learned from you
What I could count on you for
My one suggestion for improvement as a team leader/member
When the team members have given feedback to the focal person, another team member
volunteers to hear feedback, and the process continues until each person has heard the four
elements of feedback from every other team member.
The key questions for student learning are: Are you developing the skills and behaviors
to be a team leader? If not, what does that mean for you? If you are now providing team
leadership, how can you continue to grow and improve as a team leader?
Source: Thanks to William Miller for suggesting the questions for this exercise.
Decision Time
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Ben Dooley and Casey Stringer had agreed to stop for coffee in the atrium Starbucks before
heading up to the 35th floor for a board meeting.
“You seem deep in thought,” Ben said, placing the two cups of hot coffee on the table.
“Watching Johnna and Robert in previous board meetings helps me to understand why the
folks in Congress can’t get anything done,” Casey mused. “Both sides have stated their positions
and nothing, nothing will budge them. I dread this meeting. I’d rather have a root canal.”
“Well, while the two giants battle it out, the rest of us will have to work out some sort
of compromise. We outsourced manufacturing operations to China several years ago to cut
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318
costs and now things are changing rapidly and we have a major decision. Does Bishop’s
Engineered Plastics make the best of the situation in China …?”
“… Or do we re-shore?”Casey added.
“Someone will have to be the voice of reason today,”Ben said. “Robert Ma has overseen the outsourcing to China and, initially, it was a great move.”
“I agree the cost savings were pretty amazing. The retooling and creation of a stateof-the-art factory in Wenzhou by the Chinese really propelled us to a new level within the
industry.”
“Well, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, and the dragon is having a problem,”Ben
replied.
“Yes, Robert is going to have to face the fact that if we stay in China, we have to
move from Wenzhou,” Casey pointed out. “The worker shortage is bad and...
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