Mc GrawHillIrwin 8 1 Copyright 2012 by The

Chapter 10 Groups, Teams, and Their Leadership “We are born for cooperation, as are the feet, the hands, the eyelids, and the upper and lower jaws. ” ~Marcus Aurelius 8 -2

Introduction • Groups and teams are different than solely the skills, abilities, values, and motives of those who comprise them. • Groups are essential if leaders are to impact anything beyond their own behavior. • Group perspective looks at how different group characteristics can affect relationships both with the leader and among the followers. 8 -3

Individuals Versus Groups Versus Teams • Team members usually have a stronger sense of identification among themselves than group members do. • Teams have common goals or tasks. • Task independence typically is greater with teams than with groups. • Team members often have more differentiated and specialized roles than group members. • Teams can be considered as highly specialized groups. 8 -4

The Nature of Groups • Group: Two or more persons interacting with one another in a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other person. – This definition incorporates the concept of reciprocal influence between leaders and followers. – Group members interact and influence each other. – The definition does not constrain individuals to only one group. 8 -5

Group Size • Leader emergence is partly a function of group size. • As groups become larger, cliques are more likely to develop. • Group size can affect a leader’s behavioral style. • Span of control • Group size affects group effectiveness. 8 -6

Group Size (continued) • Additive task: A task where the group’s output simply involves the combination of individual outputs. • Process losses: Inefficiencies created by more and more people working together. • Social loafing: Phenomenon of reduced effort by people when they are not individually accountable for their work. • Social facilitation: People increasing their level of work due to the presence of others. 8 -7

Developmental Stages of Groups • Stages of groups development: – – Forming Storming Norming Performing • These stages are important because: – People are in many more leaderless groups than they may realize. – The potential relationships between leadership behaviors and group cohesiveness and productivity. • Punctuated equilibrium: Related to project teams. 8 -8

Group Roles • Group roles: Sets of expected behaviors associated with particular jobs or positions. – Task role – Relationship role • Types of role problems: – – – – Dysfunctional roles Role conflict Intrasender role conflict Interrole conflict Person-role conflict Role ambiguity 8 -9

Group Norms • Norms: Informal rules groups adopt to regulate and regularize group members’ behavior. • Norms are more likely to be seen as important and apt to be enforced if they: – Facilitate group survival. – Simplify, or make more predictable, what behavior is expected of group members. – Help the group to avoid embarrassing interpersonal problems. – Express the central values of the group and clarify what is distinctive about the group’s identity. 8 -10

Group Cohesion • Group cohesion: The glue that keeps a group together. • Highly cohesive groups interact with and influence each other more than do less cohesive groups. – Greater cohesiveness does not always lead to higher performance. – Highly cohesive groups may have lower absenteeism and lower turnover. – Highly cohesive groups may sometimes develop goals contrary to the larger organization’s goals. 8 -11

Group Cohesion (continued) • Overbounding: Tendency of highly cohesive groups to erect what amount to fences or boundaries between themselves and others. • Groupthink: People in highly cohesive groups often become more concerned with striving for unanimity than in objectively appraising different courses of action. • Ollieism: When illegal actions are taken by overly zealous and loyal subordinates who believe that what they are doing will please their leaders. 8 -12

Effective Team Characteristics and Team Building • Key characteristics for effective team performance: – Effective teams have a clear mission and high performance standards. – Leaders of effective teams spend a considerable amount of time assessing the technical skills of the team members. – Good leaders work to secure resources and equipment necessary for team effectiveness. – Effective leaders spend considerable time planning and organizing in order to make optimal use of available resources. – High levels of communication helped minimize interpersonal conflicts. 8 -13

Effective Team Characteristics and Team Building (continued) • Four variables that need to be in place for a team to work effectively: – – Task structure Group boundaries Norms Authority 8 -14

Organizational Shells 8 -15

Ginnett’s Team Effectiveness Leadership Model • Stages of the Team Effectiveness Leadership Model (TLM): – Input – Process • Process measures • Group dynamics – Output • This model is a mechanism to: – Identify what a team needs to be effective, – Point the leader either toward roadblocks or toward ways to make the team even more effective than it already is. 8 -16

Systems Theory Applied to Teams FIGURE 10. 2 An Iceberg Metaphor for Systems Theory Applied to Teams. 8 -17

Basic TLM Outputs: Outcomes of High Performance Teams FIGURE 10. 3 Basic TLM outputs: outcomes of High Performance Teams. 8 -18

TLM Process Variables: Diagnose the Team Using the Process Variables FIGURE 10. 4 TLM process variables: diagnose the team using the process variables. 8 -19

Leadership Prescriptions of the Model • A team should be built like a house or automobile: – – Start with a concept Create a design Engineer it to do what you want it to do Manufacture it to meet those specifications • The three critical functions for team leadership: – Dream – Design – Development 8 -20

Three Functions of Leadership FIGURE 10. 5 Three functions of TLM leadership. 8 -21

Diagnosis and Leverage Points • Process block of the TLM: – Individual factors – Organizational level – Team design • Concluding thoughts about Ginnett’s Team Effectiveness Leadership model: – Leaders can influence team effectiveness by: • Ensuring the team has a clear sense of purpose and performance expectations. • Designing or redesigning input stage variables at the individual, organizational, and team design levels. • Improving team performance through ongoing coaching. 8 -22

Team Leadership Model, Robert C. Ginnett, Ph. D. : The Four Faces of the “Engine” of the Team Leadership Model FIGURE 10. 56 Team Leadership Model 8 -23

Factors from the Normative Model of Group Effectiveness and the Interactional Framework 8 -24

Virtual Teams (Geographically Dispersed Teams – GDTs) • Five major areas that need to change for global teams to work: – Senior management leadership – Innovative use of communication technology – Adoption of an organization design that enhances global operations – The ability to capture the strengths of diverse cultures, languages, and people. 8 -25

Virtual Teams (Geographically Dispersed Teams – GDTs) • Conclusions that leaders of virtual teams need to bear in mind: – Distance between members is multidimensional. – Impact of such distances on performance is not directly proportional to objective measures of distance. – Differences in the effects that distance seems to have is due at least partially to two intervening variables: • Integrating practices within a virtual team, • Integrating practices between a virtual team and its larger host organization. 8 -26

Summary • Group perspective: Showed that followers’ behaviors can be the result of factors somewhat independent of their individual characteristics. • Leaders should use a team perspective for understanding follower behavior and group performance. • Team Leadership Model: Team effectiveness can be best understood in terms of inputs, processes, and outcomes. – By identifying certain process problems in teams, leaders can use the model to diagnose appropriate leverage points for action. 8 -27