19–1

Principles of Management

Managing Work groups & Teams

Lecture 8Lecture 8

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Groups and Teams in Organizations Group

– Two or more people who interact regularly to accomplish a common purpose or goal.

Types of Groups and Teams– Functional groups– Informal or interest groups– Task groups

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Figure 19.1: Types of Groups in Organizations

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Groups and Teams in Organizations (cont’d) Team

– A group of workers who function as a unit, often with little or no supervision, to carry out work-related tasks, functions, and activities.

– Sometimes called self-managed teams, cross-functional teams, or high performance teams.

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Groups and Teams in Organizations (cont’d) Self managed Team :- Groups that are essentially independent and inaddition to their own tasks, take on traditionalresponsibilities, such as hiring, planning andscheduling, and performance evaluations

Cross Functional Team :-Groups that bring together the knowledge andskills of individuals from various work areas orgroups whose members have been trained to doeach others’ jobs

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Groups and Teams in Organizations (cont’d)

Team (cont’d)– Benefits of teams

• Give more responsibility for task performance to the workers who do the tasks.

• Empower workers by giving them greater authority and decision-making freedom.

• Allow organizations to capitalize on the knowledge and motivation of their workers.

• Enable the organization to shed its bureaucracy and to promote flexibility and responsiveness.

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Table 19.1: Types of Teams

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Figure 19.2: Stages of Group Development

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Stages of Group Development Forming

– Members join and begin the process of defining the group’s purpose, structure, and leadership.

Storming– Intragroup conflict occurs

as individuals resist control by the group and disagree over leadership.

Norming– Close relationships develop

as the group becomes cohesive and establishes its norms for acceptable behaviour.

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• Performing– A fully functional

group structure allows the group to focus on performing the task at hand.

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Characteristics of Groups and Teams Role

– The part an individual plays in helping the group reach its goals.

Role Structures– The set of defined roles and interrelationships among

those roles that the group or team members define and accept.

• Emerge as a result of role episodes in which the expected role is translated and defined into the enacted role.

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Figure 19.3: The Development of a Role

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Characteristics of Groups and Teams (cont’d)

Role Structures (cont’d)– Role ambiguity occurs when the sent role is unclear.

– Role conflict occurs when the messages and cues comprising the sent role are clear but contradictory or mutually exclusive.

• Interrole conflict : Conflict between roles (different roles)

• Intrarole conflict : Conflicting demands from different sources within the context of same role.

• Intrasender conflict : Single source send clear but contradictory messages.

• Person-role conflict : Between roles and personal values, attitudes and deeds.

– Role overload occurs when role expectations exceed an individual’s capacities.

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Characteristics of Groups and Teams (cont’d) Behavioral Norms

– Norms• Are standards of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors that a

group sets for its members.

– Norm generalization (external)– Norm variation (internal)

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Characteristics of Groups and Teams (cont’d)

Cohesiveness– The extent to which members are loyal and

committed to the group; the degree of mutual attractiveness within the group.

Higher Cohesiveness : Members work welltogether, support and trust each other – effective achieving goals.

Lower Cohesiveness : Members not well coordinated, not support each other – difficult to reach goals.

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Table 19.2: Factors That Influence Group Cohesiveness

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Figure 19.4: The Interaction Between Cohesiveness and Performance Norms

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Interpersonal and Intergroup Conflict The Nature of Conflict

– Conflict• A disagreement between two or more individuals, groups, or

organizations.

– There is an optimal level of conflict in an organization:• Too little conflict and the organization becomes complacent

and apathetic, and lacking in innovation and underperforms.• Too much conflict creates a dysfunctional organization where

hostility and non-cooperation predominate, and suffers from low performance.

• A moderate level of conflict in an organization fosters motivation, creativity, innovation, and initiative and can raise performance.

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19–18

Figure 19.5: The Nature of Organizational Conflict

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Interpersonal and Intergroup Conflict (cont’d)

Interpersonal Conflict– Personality clash– Differing beliefs or

perceptions– Competitiveness

Intergroup Conflict– Interdependence– Different goals– Competition for scarce

resources

Conflict Between Organization and the Environment– Conflict with competition

– Conflict with consumer groups

– Conflict with employees

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Causes of Conflict

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Table 19.3: Methods for Managing Conflict

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