Understanding Work
Teams
Why Have Teams Become So Popular?
 Teams typically outperform individuals.
 Teams use employee talents better.
 Teams are more flexible and responsive to
changes in the environment.
 Teams facilitate employee involvement.
 Teams are an effective way to democratize an
organization and increase motivation.
Team Versus Group: What’s the Difference?
Work Group
A group that interacts primarily
to share information and to
make decisions to help each
group member perform within
his or her area of responsibility.
Work Team
A group whose individual efforts
result in a performance that is
greater than the sum of the
individual inputs.
Comparing Work Groups and Work
Teams
A team is a group which shares, and says it
shares, a common purpose and recognises that it
needs the efforts of every one of its members to
achieve this.
A team is a team when it sees itself as a team, is
going in the team direction, and has worked out
its own team ways.
Why Teams?
“Given an impossible task team members
will reinforce each other’s confidence as they
seek to turn the impossibility into reality.
The collective ability to innovate is stronger
than that of the individual because the
combined brainpower of a team, however
small in number, exceeds that of any one
person.
Why Teams?
None of us is as smart as all of us
Why Teams?
Research shows that 70% of air
disasters are caused by failures in
team working rather than by
individual or mechanical
breakdown.
Why Teams?
Teams are an effective way of:  identifying and solving work-related problems
 increasing product quality
 speeding up innovations
 improving performance
 achieving better industrial relations
 increasing employee participation.
Teams - two functions
Task function
achievement of goals, specific tasks,
“production” activities, problem solving,
exchange of ideas or information, innovation
Maintenance function
support, assistance, protection, building of
relationships, encouragement, stimulus,
reinforcement of beliefs, views etc.
2 Dimensions of Team
Effectiveness
Task accomplishment
Satisfaction of team members
 outputs
 personal success
 efficiency
 personal satisfaction
 targets met
 sense of belonging
Critical Aspects of Team Management
Achieve the
Task
Maintain the
Team
Develop the
Individual
Alignment of
values, mission
and process
TASK
GROUP
INDIVIDUAL
Types of Teams
Problem-Solving Teams
Groups of 5 to 12 employees from the
same department who meet for a few
hours each week to discuss ways of
improving quality, efficiency, and the
work environment.
Self-Managed Work Teams
Groups of 10 to 15 people who take
on the responsibilities of the work.
Cross-Functional Teams
Employees from about the same hierarchical level,
but from different work areas, who come together to
accomplish a task.
• Task forces
• Committees
Virtual Teams
Teams that use computer
technology to tie together
physically dispersed
members in order to
achieve a common goal.
Characteristics of Virtual Teams
1. The absence of paraverbal and nonverbal cues
2. A limited social context
3. The ability to overcome time and space constraints
A TeamEffectiveness
Model
Key Roles
of Teams
Turning Individuals Into Team Players
 The Challenges
 Overcoming individual resistance to team membership.
 Countering the influence of individualistic cultures.
 Introducing teams in an organization that has historically
valued individual achievement.
 Shaping Team Players
 Selecting employees who can fulfill their team roles.
 Training employees to become team players.
 Reworking the reward system to encourage cooperative
efforts while continuing to recognize individual
contributions.