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Lesson#31
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Interpersonal and Group Process Approaches-3
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Interpersonal and Group Process Approaches
4. Team Building
A team
is a group of individuals with complementary
skills who depend upon one another to accomplish
common purpose or set of performance goals for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable.
Teamwork is work done
when members subordinate their personal prominence for the good of the team.
Members of effective teams are open and honest with one another,
there is support and trust, there is a
high degree of cooperation and collaboration, decisions are
reached by consensus, communication channels
are open and well developed, and there is a strong commitment to
the team’s goals.
Many organizations are attempting to increase productivity by
implementing team-based programs. Almost
80% of all companies have some type of team-based, employee
involvement program in place. Just like the
Army believes that individuals perform better when they are part
of a stable group; they are more reliable,
and they take responsibility for the success of the overall
operation.
Developing teams is necessary because technology and market
demands are compelling manufactures to
make their products faster, cheaper, and better.
The coordination of individual effort into task accomplishment
is most important when the members of a
team are interdependent.
Interdependence
refers to situations where one person’s
performance is
contingent upon how someone else performs. In order to
understand the workings of teams we can draw
some good parallels from sports like cricket, football, and
basketball. Among the three major professional
sports – cricket, football, and basketball – basketball is more
of a team sport than the other two.
Cricket is a game of pooled interdependence where team member
contributions are somewhat independent
of one another. The players are separated on a large field, they
are not all involved actively in every play,
and they come to bat one at a time.
Football, in contrast, involves sequential interdependence. A
flow of players and first downs are required to
score. The players are closer to each other than in cricket, and
there is greater degree of interdependence.
Players are normally grouped together functionally (i.e. offence
and defense) and the two groups do not
contact one another. Unlike cricket, all the players on the
field are involved in every play.
Basketball exhibits the highest degree of interdependence.
Players are closely grouped together and the
team moves together on the court. Every player may contact any
other player, and the player’s roles or
functions are less defined than in football. All the players are
involved in offense, defense, and trying to
score.
Organizations frequently use sport teams as a model. For
example, some organizations require close
teamwork similar to basketball, whereas other organizations
require team involvement similar to cricket.
Using sports terminology, a production manager expressed his
vision of his work team by saying, “I have a
picture of an ideal basketball team in my head that I compare to
the production team. When I see people
not passing to each other or when I see somebody taking all the
shots, I know we have to work on
teamwork.”
One major OD technique, termed team building or team
development, is used for increasing the
communication, cooperation, and cohesiveness of units to make
them productive and effective. Team
building is an intervention where the members of a work group
examine such things as their goals,
structure, procedures, culture, norms, and interpersonal
relationships, to improve their ability to work
together effectively and efficiently.
The OD in Practice illustrates how Starbucks uses team methods.
OD in Practice: A Cup of Coffee at Starbucks
Howard Schultz’s vocabulary, at least in formal interviews,
makes him sound like a college professor of
management. The interviews are prepared with words like
“collaborative,” “teams,” “empowerment,”
“empathize,” and “vision.”
Schultz just happens to be one of the founders, chairperson of
the board, and chief strategist of Starbucks
Coffee Company, and he is intent on moving Starbucks to new
heights. “We are in the second inning of a
nine-inning game,” he says. Starbucks stock has gone up more
than 3,000 percent since it first went public
in 1992. The firm has over 7,500 stores in 36 countries and is
expanding so rapidly that the running joke is
that a new Starbucks will be opening in the restroom of a
current Starbucks. Over 25 million people visit
Starbucks each week. No American retailer has a higher frequency
of customer visits. Besides a good cup
of Coffee, what is the Starbucks formula for success?
Perhaps it is the firm’s vision. Says former US Senator and
current Starbucks board member Bill Bradley,
“Howard is consumed with his vision of Starbucks. That means
showing the good that a corporation can
do for his workers, shareholders, and customers.” On Starbucks
six-point mission statement, number one
is “Provide a great work environment and treat each other with
respect and dignity.”
Starbucks overriding Company philosophy is “Leave no one
behind.” This philosophy shows up in new
employees receiving 24 hours of in-store training,
higher-than-average salaries, and benefit packages. All
employees who work more than 20 hours a week receive stock
options and full health-care benefits.
Schultz says, “The most important thing I ever did was give our
employees stock options. That’s what sets
us apart and gives a higher quality employee that cares more.”
In employee surveys Starbucks ranks ahead of other companies.
Starbucks employees show an 82% jobsatisfaction
rate compared to a 50% rate for all employees. Starbucks has the
lowest employee turnover rate
of any restaurant or fast-food company. Another survey found
that the two principal reasons people work
for Starbucks are “the opportunity to work with an enthusiastic
team” and “to work in a place where one
has value.” A Starbucks spokesperson says, “We look for people
who are adaptable, self-motivated,
passionate, creative team players.” Maintaining this spirit is
not easy in a company with around 11,000 fulltime
and almost 70,000 part-time employees. “Getting big and staying
small,” is the Starbucks objective,
says Schultz.
Starbucks has lower profit margins than other companies in the
fast-food industry, partly because it has
higher salaries and benefit costs. All of the stores are owned
by Starbucks, which enables the company to
control store operations. “I look at franchising as a way of
accessing capital, and I will never make the
tradeoff between cheap money and losing control over our
stores,” says Schultz.
There are several reasons for using team building to improve
organizational effectiveness. First, the work
group is basic unit of the organization and thus provides a
supportive change factor. Second, the operating
problems of work groups (or the basic units) are often sources
of inefficiency.
Teams or work groups often have difficulty in operating
effectively. The problems that inhibit effective
operation include lack of clear objectives, interpersonal
differences or conflicts, ineffective communication,
difficulty in reaching group decisions, and inappropriate power
and authority levels in the group.
Need for Team Building:
Work teams may be of two basic types:
1.
Natural work
team
– people come together because
they do related jobs or because of the
structure of the organizations design.
2.
Temporary task
team
– groups meet for limited periods
to work on a specific project or problem
and disband after they solve it.
Need for team building varies with situation.
Team Building :
Team building refers to broad range of planned activities that
help group improve the way they accomplish
tasks and help group members enhance interpersonal and
problem-solving skills. Effective approach to
team building involves:
• Team-Building Activities
• Team Building Process
• The Manager’s Role in
Team Building
• When is Team Building
Appropriate?
• Results of Team Building
Team-Building Activities:
A team is a group of interdependent people who share a common
purpose, have common work methods,
and hold each other accountable. The nature of that
interdependence varies, creating the following types of
team: groups reporting to the same supervisor, manager, or
executive, groups involving people with
common organizational goals; temporary groups formed to do a
specific, one-time task; groups consisting
of people whose work roles are interdependent; and groups whose
members have no formal links in the
organization but whose collective purpose is to achieve tasks
they cannot accomplish alone. In addition,
there are a number of factors that affect the outcomes of any
specific team-building activity: the length of
time allocated to the activity, the team’s willingness to look
at the way in which it operates, the length of
time the team has been working together, and the team’s
permanence. Consequently, the results of team—
building activities can range from comparatively modest changes
in the team’s operating mechanisms (for
example, meeting more frequently or gathering agenda items from
more sources) to much deeper changes
(for example, modifying team members’ behavior patterns or the
nature and style of the group’s
management, or developing greater openness and trust).
In general, team-building activities can be classified as
follows: (1) activities relevant to one or more
individuals; (2) activities specific to the group’s operation
and behavior; and (3) activities affecting the
group’s relationship with the rest of the organization. Usually,
a specific team-building activity will overlap
these three categories. On occasion, a change in one area will
have negative results in other areas. A very
cohesive team may increase its isolation from other groups,
leading to intergroup conflict or other
dysfunctional results, which in turn can have a negative impact
on the total organization unless the team
develops sufficient diagnostic skills to recognize and deal with
such results.
Activities Relevant to One or More individuals:
People come into groups and organizations with varying needs and
wants for achievement, inclusion,
influence, and belonging. These needs and wants can be supported
and nurtured by the team’s structure
and process or they can be discouraged. Almost all team-building
efforts result in one or more of the
members gaining a better understanding of the way authority,
inclusion, emotions, control, and power
affect problem solving and other group processes. Such
activities provide information so that people have a
clearer sense of how their needs and wants can or will be
supported. This information then gives group
members a choice about their level of involvement, commitment,
and investment in the team’s functioning.
For example, in one team, the typical decision-making process
included the leader having several agenda
items for discussion. Each of the items, however, had a
predetermined set of actions that she wanted the
group to take. Most members were frustrated by their inability
to influence decision making. During the
team-building process, group members asked whether the boss
really wanted ideas and contributions from
group members. They gave specific examples of the leader’s
not-so-subtle manipulation to arrive at
preconceived decisions and described how they felt about it. At
the end of the discussion, the boss
indicated her willingness to be challenged about such
preconceived decisions, and the other team members
expressed their increased willingness to engage in
problem—solving discussions, their trust in the leader,
and their ability to make the challenge without fear of
reprisal.
Sometimes, the team-building process generates pressures on
individual members, such as requests for
higher levels of task performance. Such requests could have
negative results unless accompanied by
agreement for further one-to-one negotiations among team
members. If these demands are made of the
boss, for example, he or she may feel a loss of power and
authority unless the team can agree on ways in
which the boss can be kept informed about what is happening.
Methods to meet these needs for control
and influence without causing feelings of isolation can be
explored.
Activities Oriented to the Group’s Operation and Behavior:
The most common focus of team building activities is behavior
related to task performance and group
process. In an effective team, task behavior and group process
must be integrated with each other as well as
with the needs and wants of the people making up the group.
Team-building activities often begin by
clarifying the team’s purpose, priorities, goals, and
objectives. This establishes a framework within which
further work can be done. In most team-building activities,
groups spend some time finding ways to
improve the mechanisms that structure their approach to work. A
group may discuss how a meeting agenda
is created, the efficiency of key work processes, or strategies
for lowering costs. In addition, groups often
examine their communications patterns and determine ways in
which they can be improved. Frequently,
this leads to dropping some communications patterns and
establishing new ones that are more open and
conducive to problem solving in nature.
Another group operation issue is the effective use of time. To
improve in this area, the group may examine
its present planning mechanisms, introduce better ones, and
identify ways for using its skills and knowledge
more effectively. The group also may make decisions about
recognizing and redistributing the workload. As
the group develops over time, it tends to become more aware of
the need for action plans about problems
or tasks as well as for better self-diagnosis about the
effectiveness of its task-accomplishment processes.
Frequently, groups examine and diagnose the nature of their
problem-solving techniques. Specific items
usually are diagnosed in the earlier stage of team building, and
as teams mature they broaden the scope of
these diagnostic efforts to include areas that are more directly
related to interpersonal styles and their
impact on other group members. Throughout this process, group
norms become clearer, and the group can
provide more opportunity for members to satisfy individual needs
within the group. As a result, the team is
much more willing to take risks within both the team and the
organization. Team members become more
capable of facing difficulties and problems, not only within
their own group but also within the larger
organization. A spirit of openness, trust, and risk taking
develops.
Activities Affecting the Group’s Relationship with the Rest of
the Organization:
As the team gains a better understanding of itself and becomes
better able to diagnose and solve its own
problems; it focuses on its role within the organization. A
group’s relationship to the larger organizational
context is an important aspect of group effectiveness. As a
result, the team may perceive a need to clarify
its organizational role and to consider how this role can be
improved or modified. Sometimes, the team
may recognize a need for more collaboration with other parts of
the organization and so try to establish
working parties or project teams that cross the boundaries of
existing teams.
As the team becomes more cohesive, it usually exerts a stronger
influence on the other subsystems of the
organization. Because that is one area in which team building
can have negative effects, the process
consultant must help the group understand its role within the
organization, develop its own diagnostic
skills, and examine alternative action plans so that inter-group
tensions and conflicts do not expand.
Team Building Process:
Managing a team involves more than supervising people. In
today’s world, managers must bring a divergent
group of people together to work on a common project. Since no
one person can possess all the knowledge
necessary to analyze and solve today’s complex problems, teams
are used to bring together the required
expertise. The nature of work groups makes team development
interventions probably the single most
important and widely used OD activity.
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