Chapter-18: Team
18.1
18.2
18.3
18.4
18.5
18.6
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Building
Define an effective team
Recruiting team members
Building Team
Managing for Results:
Training and development
The HR function
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18.1
Define an effective team
 A department within a company
 individuals within a department
team goals ↔ personal goals
 supporting team members does not mean doing their
share of the work for the mutual good of the whole team
 No two members of the team are alike; they complement
each other and work as one entity in the joint task which
they are performing
 Team: ‘a small number of people with complementary
skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of
performance goals, and approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable’.
 A team is not just a group of people working together
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working group ↔ team
 a working group is driven by individual goals and
measures, whereas a team focuses on team
goals and mutual accountability
 Different professors having research in Optics
 Teams must have measurable goals, whereas
this is not essential for working groups
 The methods of arriving at solutions so vary
between a team and a working group
 conflict may frequently occur in a team which is
striving to arrive at the most optimum solution.
However, once this agreed solution has been
obtained conflict is removed and the team
commits to the result
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18.1.1 Stages of Development
three distinct stages
 Drifting stage
 individuals come together and get to know each other
 official role which each individual plays within the team is defined
 The interests of individual team members are placed before
those of the team as a whole
 Gelling stage
 Like minded individuals form into small groups
 Each group starts to develop its own identity under an unofficial
leader
 unofficial leader may be dangerous, if self-interest comes first
 Unison stage
 whole team is behaving as a single, highly organized body,
under a single leader
 interests of the team match those of the individuals and there is
no goal conflict
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18.1.2 Team Characteristics
An effective team has several key characteristics:
 Highly efficient and results oriented
 High level of energy and enthusiasm within the team
 All team members committed to the tasks being
performed
 Interdependency between individual members in
achieving common goals
 Sense of purpose; the team knows what it has to
achieve
 There is an excellent working atmosphere of trust and
mutual support
 Conflicts are resolved and lead to better solutions
 The team has a strong leader who uses a participative
leadership style to gain commitment and share
responsibility
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18.1.3 Team Membership
Different members play different role
1. Process managers: usually managers or leaders of the team who
have to keep things moving along.
2. Conceptual Thinkers: team’s source of new and original ideas
3. Radicals: who propose new approaches to problem solving
4. Technicians: usually the specialists on the subject
5. Harmonizers: whose main aim is to ensure that there is good feeling
and a sense of harmony between team members
6. Planners or Implementers: who drive for completion of team goals
7. Facilitators: ready to provide help and support wherever needed
8. Critical observers: stand back and observe the team: their activity is
essential in keeping the team’s feet firmly on the ground, and
stopping it from pursuing misguided objectives
9. Politicians or power seekers: who believe to be always right and aim
to influence others: usually responsible for shaping the team’s views
and moving them towards their common goal
10.Salespeople or diplomats:
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18.2
Recruiting team members
 people are a company’s greatest asset
 get the best people to fill the positions in the
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team
It is wrong to assume that the best team consists
of like minded individuals
Every team needs a mix of personality types and
experiences, and this include a mix of ages
Teams should be built from volunteers
The team leader should ensure that the team is
composed of suitable members, and not people
who have been moved from their present jobs
because they were misfit or could be spared by
their current functions
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18.2.1 Defining the Job
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2.
Some managers do not have a clear idea of the job
requirements and tend to mould them around
promising candidates
define each job to achieve the task, not to expect the
job to change to meet the candidate
correctly structure the team so that the job meets two
important criteria:
All jobs should be defined so that they can be
performed by the average, well motivated, person with
the right qualifications and skills. It is often mistaken
belief that an over-qualified person will do the job more
effectively. Such a person will also be more expensive
to recruit, leading to mismatches in salary within the
team
the job should be enriched, allowing scope for
creatively, and not just the made more difficult
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18.2.2 Attracting Candidates
 Candidates may be recruited internally, from
within the company, or externally
 an ideal team would consist of a mix of existing staff
and new recruits
 Several factors need to be considered when
recruiting from outside the organizations
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The compositions of the job advertisement
The method for advertising the job
The use of recruitment agents and head-hunters
carry out campus recruitment
Lectures and professors should be invited to visit the
company’s plant
 lectures of industry experts to undergraduates
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18.2.3 Selection Criteria
Six factors to have a set of defined selection criteria against
which to measure candidates
1. Generally health and physical fitness
2. Impact on others
3. Acquired knowledge and sills
4. Innate abilities (e.g. quickness in adapting to new
tasks)
5. Motivation (self-starters)
6. Emotional adjustment (ability of candidates to stand up
to stress at work)
 Manager to decide, which factor is more important
 Maximize strengths within a team rather than
minimizing weakness
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Technically expert but non social worker may be encouraged
to become the thinker of the group
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18.2.4 The selection process
 hit and miss affair, with no guarantee that the
most suitable person will be chosen
 Several techniques are available to help the
manger in the selection process,
 The application form: information, but no judgment of
expertise etc
 Psychological testing: provide an indication of the
candidate’s personality types and the roles which they
are most likely to adopt within a team
 Assessment groups: the candidates have to go
through group and individual exercises
 Selection Interview: ????????
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18.3 Building Team
 the real team building work begins, with the definition of team goals
 Select team members to meet the task requirements (each person
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should bring some special skill or strength to the team)
Ensure that during the formation stage every opportunity is taken to
get people to work together and to mix socially
adopt a participative leadership style in goal setting & decision
making
Build trust first and work with the team in formulating detailed goals
and tasks
Ensure that all team members have the same interests and aims
Jobs may overlap but responsibilities must be defined
work load in the team must be evenly distributed
Identify group norms: (which is what the group accepts as normal
behavior)
Ensure: there are measures of success associated with each task
Show the importance of the work being done by the team, to the
organization, senior managers and publicize
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18.3.1 Creativity
 Creativity is normally considered to be the ability
to produce new and useful results
 Creative people normally have the following
characteristics:
 are usually non-conformist (unconventional);
sometimes considered to be difficult to mange
 want to be original and deliberately look for different
solutions to problems
 able to think laterally around problems
 approach all problems with curiosity
 have lots of ideas, many of which may not be
practical
 have a high level of confidence in their ability and
prefer to work on their own with minimum supervision
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Creativity
 To encourage creativity in the team, a creative
environment is essential, as follows
 A flat organization should be used to ensure that the
level of supervision is reduced
 Creative members should be given the opportunity to
spend less time on activities such as administration.
 The team should be encouraged to accept those
 There should be good facilities for study and research
 Individual creativity should be encouraged,
recognized and rewarded: as the ideas always start
with an individual and are then developed by the team
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18.4
Managing for Results
 To obtain the highest level of performance from the
team, each team member must have the following
information:
 Clear targets, so that they know what is expected of them. In
setting targets any constraints must be taken into account and
the levels of responsibility clearly defined.
 Clear standards of performance, along with the methods used to
measure the targets.
 A system of feedback, so that team members know the progress
which is being made.
 Managing by Objectives (MBO) is a targets setting and
measurement technique to mange teams. Here the
superior and subordinate jointly identify the subordinate’s
major areas of responsibility in terms of results expected,
and use these for operating the unit and for assessing
the contribution made by each of its members
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18.4.1 Target setting
 Any target setting operation has the objective of moving
the corporate strategy to the individual level
 There may be year on year improvement in targets and
goals by changes in technology, training and perception
 Targets or objectives within the MBO must have the
following characteristics:
 They should be significant and not trivial (unimportant)
 They must be results oriented
 They should be very clearly specified and understood by both
the manger and subordinate
 Targets should be documented and singed by the manger and
the subordinate
 Subordinates should have been involved in developing their
targets.
 The targets should be attainable within the time frame specified
and with the resources available
 The targets should be measurable, so that subordinates know
whether they have succeeded and how well they have done
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18.4.2 Reviews
 Reviews may deal with tasks or activities: and
may also be concerned with individual and team
performance
 The day-to-day informal review
 Management by Walk About (MWA)
 Meeting at lunch etc
 Formal reviews, held regularly at frequent
intervals
 such as a weekly progress report/presentation, in a
formal or informal meeting
 personal issues may also be discussed
 Formal annual review
 usually a personal appraisal (assessment), discussed
next
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Personal Appraisal
 stress for both the subordinate and the manager
 probably the most important task which a manager can do
 will build a strong bond between the manager and the
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subordinate
May be a formal form which needs to be completed at the
appraisal interview (uniform process)
provides a record for future promotions and protect the
company against a charge of unfairness or discrimination
can be given to subordinates as their personal targets for
the next period
accumulation of the performance against individual targets
will have to be weighted
appraisal method based on targets may indicate how well
subordinates have done their present job, but don’t not
show whether they have the qualities for promotion to
another job
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Personal Appraisal
 main activities at the appraisal meeting
 personal targets ↔ team goals or corporate
objectives
 Following performance assessment the
opportunities open for the subordinate are
discussed. These include:
 training, coaching and assignment to widen the
subordinate’s experience
 Rewards, such as promotion or salary increases
 Actual salary increments, however, usually depend on
the overall rating of other staff, and the total pot of
money available for the next period
 Agree the subordinate’s targets for the next
period
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Counseling
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manager provides the subordinate with
feedback on performance and discusses
strengths and weaknesses
 Three methods may be used in counseling:
1. The tell and sell method:
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managers views on the subordinates performances
and future plans are thrown to …..
subordinates have no opportunity for commenting
the assessment
leaves the subordinate with a sense of frustration
and injustice
He may consider the appraisal meeting as a vehicle
for fault finding
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Counseling
2. The tell and listen method:
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Managers give their views and then ask the
subordinates to comment
the subordinate is expected to agree with ………..
puts the subordinate on the defensive
3. The ask and discussion method:
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managers adopt the role of helpers
manager is sharing ideas with the subordinate and
is not just giving advice
Helps to identify the subordinates strengths and
how these can be better utilized
builds a strong bond between them and provides a
very effective counseling technique
Manager must avoid the danger of ….
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Managing Conflict
 caused by an incompatibility of goals, interests
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and ideas
can occur between individuals or between
groups
can occurs in appraisal or counseling situations
between the manager and subordinate
must be accepted as a fact of life within an
organization: can often be very useful
lose-lose situation: if conflict resolved using
authority or ignoring it. neither one is happy
Win-lose situation: if manger takes sides
Resolving the conflict is dependent on the
characteristics of the people involved
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Managing Conflict
in the following ways
 Avoidance: if the two parties recognize and pull away
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from the brink
Negotiation: both parties look for compromise, (if both
parties)
Confrontation: two parties head on, if the two are equally
matched,
If one is clearly much stronger, the other will withdraw
gracefully
for equally matched parties confrontation helps to define
the problem and the differences sharply (can either
adopt an avoidance mode of a negotiation mode)
if they both share the same goals, they will collaborate to
come up with a joint solution. This is the best resolution
of conflict, leading to a true win-win situation
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18.5 Training and development
Various reasons for training
 To improve performance in the present job
 To ensure that subordinate is ready for some
future position. (educational)
 To ensure that all team members share a
common vocabulary
 To ensure that team member have the same
basic knowledge
 Because the advertising leaflet on the course
looks good (person who can be spared)
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The aim of all training and development
programs are:
1. To provide the student with knowledge:
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A specialist knows more and more about less and
less and A generalist knows less and less about
more and more
2. To develop specific skills in the student
3. To affect the students attitudes and values
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difficult to do, since attitudes have been build up
over many years
Courses which aim to change attitude are best held
away from the normal work environment
likely to take a relatively long time
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18.5.2 Self Development
 People cannot be taught: they must learn
 A person must be motivated to train or develop:
Several activities need to be carried out
 Planning, to determine the areas which need
improvement
 Selection of the triaging or development methods
 Making time for self development
 Seeking feedback
 Creating opportunities for self development
 Interest not directly related to one’s work are also
useful for self development. Examples are joining the
local committee of one’s professional institute:
presenting papers at conferences; and acting as a
visiting lecturer in a local college
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18.5.3 Learning theories
 studies dealt with conditioned behavior showed
that a dog could be conditioned to perform
certain actions at the expectation of food
 John Watson postulated that human behavior
can be defined in terms of two items:
 a stimulus (any change in environment )
 a response (behavioral reaction to the stimulus)
 Operant conditioning learning theory, in which
behaviour is obtained, eliminated or maintained
depending on the outcome of the behaviour
carried out. For example, if every time engineers
make suggestions, they receive a negative
response from their managers, then they will
learn not to make suggestions
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18.5.4 Learning and development methods
 Education teaches the student to be confident in
an uncertain environment
 It must be learned and cannot be taught
 Training is usually applied to a much more
specific aim and environment,
 and it can be taught
 Common techniques for management training:
Classroom lectures Programmed learning
Case Studies
Role planning
Business games
Sensitivity training or T-Groups
Job rotation
Job shadowing
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18.6 The HR function
HR is usually responsible for:
 Being aware of legislation and making sure that the
company works within these in all its actions
 All industrial relations matters, such as negotiations with
…….
 Setting policies on terms and conditions of employment
 All health and safety matters
 Talking the lead in organization matters and ensuring
that the company exhibits organizational effectiveness.
 Administrating the company’s grievance and disciplinary
procedures
 Internal communications within the organization
 Assisting the line manager on personnel matters
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Assignments
 Device a form for the personal appraisal of
your staff. Elaborate each point
 What are the possible reasons of conflict
between individuals
 What are the possible reasons of conflict
between groups
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