Teams

Hi, and welcome to Organisational Behaviour. I’m Dr Jennifer Spoor. In this video we will discuss teams and groups in organisations.

Purpose of Groups and Teams

Groups and teams have two key purposes in organisations:
First, groups and teams can help to meet organisational needs. Group members can share job skills and knowledge can be shared, which can help to solve difficult and unique problems. This can be especially helpful for newcomers who require advice and assistance in their jobs.
Groups and teams can also satisfy the needs of their individual members. Indeed, most people say that they enjoy working in groups and teams. Both formal and informal groups provide social interaction and interpersonal fulfilment. This might include providing direct work assistance and technical advice, or emotional support in times of special crisis or pressure. Effective managers will attempt to use groups in ways that benefit both the group members and the organisations – groups can be used in many creative and productive ways.

Types of Groups and Teams

Groups and teams appear in various forms in organisations – and they all have purposes.

Formal groups are ‘official’ groups that are designated by formal authority to serve a specific purpose, and employees are assigned positions, such as supervisor or leading hand.

Formal groups may develop into specific teams. Some examples include advisory teams, such as committees, work councils and review panels that principally provide recommendations to decision makers. Task forces and project teams usually have members with diverse skills, and the team exists to solve a specific problem, or develop a specific product or service. Skunkworks are unique teams that are sometimes used to launch entrepreneurial ventures within the organisation. Skunkworks teams are usually quite separate and independent from the rest of the organisation and any existing bureaucracy.

Self-directed or autonomous work teams are similar to project groups, but self-directed teams are more likely to produce the entire project with relatively little dependence on other teams and organisation members and with little direct and formal supervision.

Informal groups are groups that emerge unofficially and are not formally designated as parts of the organisation. These can include friendship groups, which are groups of people with natural affinities or liking for one another and they may do things together inside or outside the workplace. Interest groups consist of people who share common interests, and those interests can be work or non-work related. These interests may develop into communities of practice, which are groups based on common expertise or passion about a domain who interact to share and create knowledge. Communities of practice are often informal groups, but organisations increasingly use Communities of Pratice strategically as part of their knowledge management strategy.

Any of these groups and teams could meet face-to-face, but communication among groups and teams is increasingly mediated by technology, and teams increasingly work all or part of their time as virtual teams. Virtual teams interact across time, space and geographical boundaries, and their communication is facilitated by technology.

Are ‘Teams’ the Answer?

As noted before, effective managers will use groups and teams in ways that benefit both the group members and the organisations – groups can be creative, innovative, and efficient.
There are many potential advantages but there are also many disadvantages of using groups, some of these are summarised on the slide.
We won’t go into these details here, but in short, groups and teams have many potential advantages and benefits, but suffice to say, they often fail to live up to their potential.

Defining Teams and Team Effectiveness

So far, we have talked about groups, teams, and effectiveness without actually defining these terms. While the terms ‘group’ and ‘team’ are used commonly in everyday language, there are many different definitions of ‘teams’ in organisational behaviour and there is some debate of the essential features of groups versus teams. In general, groups and teams generally consist of two or more people who are

Interdependent. This means that members’ outcomes and performance depend upon each other to some extent.

Teams also exist for a purpose or specific task, which may have a short or long timeframe.

Team members are mutually accountable to each other to achieve that purpose or task. This is related to the interdependence feature, but is also implies that team members interact with each on some level and hold each other accountable so that the interdependencies function effectively.

Groups and teams also perceive themselves as a social entity. So the team members think of themselves as a team.

Note that we will use groups and teams interchangeably, though many academics and practitioners argue that there are fundamental differences between these. For our purposes, the principal distinction between groups and teams is that ‘teams’ tend to have more of the above characteristics compared to ‘groups’.

In Organisational Behaviour, team effectiveness is defined holistically and refers to the extent to which a team achieves its objectives, achieves the needs and objectives of its members and sustains itself over time. Achieving its objectives essentially refers to the task function, as well as group-level goals. Achieving the needs and objectives of members refers to the social or interpersonal needs of members, thus effective teams pay attention to both task and interpersonal aspects of the team. Finally, effective teams sustain themselves over time, meaning that members are interested in maintaining membership, and the group can obtain appropriate resources and knowledge. Note that this holistic definition recognises that both task and interpersonal concerns must be addressed within effective teams.

Model of Team Effectiveness

A very simple model of team effectiveness is a variation of the open systems perspective, but focussed at the group or team level. In Organisational Behaviour and related research, this model is also commonly referred to as the functional model or the input-process-output model.

The team effectiveness model assumes that teams transform inputs into outputs, via internal group processes. Like the open systems perspective, the team effectiveness model also notes that teams are embedded within the larger environment or context.

 

Team Effectiveness

In short, research on groups and teams indicate that effective teams typically have the following characteristics:

Clear structure and roles

Accountability (both within and outside the team)

Small size (but large enough to complete task)

Members with appropriate skills (including both technical and interpersonal)

Supportive reward structures

Accepting and supportive leadership

Clear communication processes

Cohesiveness and trust

Positive team norms

Teams

This is the end of the video. I’m Dr Jennifer Spoor, and thanks for listening.

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