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CHAPTER 10
UNDERSTANDING WORK TEAMS

Dr Thuli Ngonyama-Ndou

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

2 Learning outcomes/objectives
 Upon completion of this chapter students will be able to;
 Analyse the growing popularity of using teams in
organisations.
 Contrast groups and teams.
 Compare and contrast four types of team arrangements.
 Identify the characteristics of effective teams.
 Show how organisations can create team players.
 Decide when to use individuals instead of teams.

TUT- Understanding Work

Teams
3 Assessment criteria
 Analyse the growing popularity of using teams in organisations.
 Contrast groups and teams.
 Compare and contrast four types of team arrangements.
 Identify the characteristics of effective teams.
 Show how organisations can create team players.
 Decide when to use individuals instead of teams.

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

4 Introduction
 A committed team can outperform individuals
 Teams can sometimes achieve lot more that individuals could never
achieve
 Teams are flexible and responsive to changing events than
traditional departments than other forms of permanent grouping
 They can quickly assemble, deploy, refocus and disband
 They are an effective means to democratize organizations and
increase employee involvement.
 They introduce a collaborative mindset.

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

5 Our intelligence suggests that
“we all have a say”

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

6 Group vs Team
 Group is a made up of two or more individuals interacting
interdependent who work together to achieve particular objectives.
 Workgroup is 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.
 Workgroups do not necessarily need to engage on collective work
with joint effort
 Group performance is a sum of individual’s contribution
 No synergy, individuals do their own work with interaction and
dependency

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

7 Cont…
 Work team is a group whose individual efforts result in performance
that is greater than the sum of individual inputs.
 There is positive synergy through coordination
 Both workgroup and workteam have some behavioural expectations
for members, collective normalisation efforts, active group dynamics
and some level of decision making
 They both generate ideas, pool resources or coordinate logistics
such as work schedule although this information is limited to
information sharing and decision making outside the group.
 However, these terms may be used interchangeable in different
contexts
TUT- Understanding Work Teams
8 Cont…
 Why is work structured in teams?
 Positive synergy that create increased performance
 Creation of potential for organisation to generate greater
output without employing extra people
 However, an effective team should possesses certain
characteristics which a group cannot posses

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

9 Contrast groups and teams.

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

10 Types of teams
 Problem-solving teams – group of 5 to 12 employees from same department who
meet for few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency
and the work environment (recommend)
 Self-managed teams – group of 10 to 15 people who take on responsibilities of
their former supervisor (take decisions)
 Cross-functional teams – employees from about the same hierarchical level but
from different work areas who come together to accomplish a task (leadership
ambiguity, diversity, complexity, trust & teamwork, diverse skills)
 Virtual teams – teams that use computer technology to tie together physically
dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal (trust, monitor progress,
publish effort & products)
 Multiteam system – (team of teams) a collective of two or more interdependent
teams that share a superordinate goals, a team of teams (example of car
accident)

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

11 Types of teams

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

12 Characteristics of Effective Teams
 Three categories;
 Contextual influences that make team effective
 Team’s composition
 Team process that influence effectiveness

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

13 Characteristics of Effective Teams

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

14 Contextual factors
 Four contextual factors that relate to team performance;
 Adequate resources (support: timely information, proper
equipment, adequate staffing, encouragement, admin
assistance)
 Leadership and structure (delegate responsibility, be
facilitator, ensure team cohesion)
 Climate of trust (trust for the leader & other members,
commitment, no personal ownership of ideas)
 Performance evaluation and rewards system (group based
appraisals, profit sharing, small group incentives to reinforce
team effort and commitment)

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

15 Team Composition
 This indicate how team is staffed such as’
 Abilities of the team members (knowledge, skills & abilities)
 Personalities of the team members (personality influence team
performance, Big Five Personality (conscientiousness,
openness to experience, agreeableness, extravesion)
 Allocation of roles – nine roles to be played – choose people
based on their preferences and skills
 Diversity – other forms have no relation to team performance
(conflict & turnover) but education, expertise & proper
leadership have positive relationship
 Cultural differences – good for tasks that require various
perspectives
 Size of the team – small teams are more effective, about 5-9
members
 Members preferences of team work – consider preferences
together with abilities, skills and personalities TUT- Understanding Work Teams
16 Team Composition
 This indicate how team is staffed such as’
 Abilities of the team members (knowledge, skills & abilities)
 Personalities of the team members (personality influence team
performance, Big Five Personality (conscientiousness,
openness to experience, agreeableness, extravesion)
 Allocation of roles – nine roles to be played – choose people
based on their preferences and skills
 Diversity – other forms have no relation to team performance
(conflict & turnover) but education, expertise & proper
leadership have positive relationship
 Cultural differences – good for tasks that require various
perspectives
 Size of the team – small teams are more effective, about 5-9
members
 Members preferences of team work – consider preferences
together with abilities, skills and personalities TUT- Understanding Work Teams
17 Roles of Teams

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

18 Team Process
 Influenced by;
 Common plan & purpose (good adjustable plan)
 Specific goals (translate into good measurable and
realistic performance goals (SMART)
 Team efficacy (confidence, capability)
 Team identity (connection with the team - positive)
 Team cohesion (attachment, closeness)
 Mental model (beliefs about what and how work get
done)
 Conflict level (incompatibility/dysfunctional & task conflict
functional
 Social loafing (effort cannot de identified – members
should be individually & jointly accountable) TUT- Understanding Work
Teams
19 Turning individual into team players
 Not everyone is a team player, e.g individualistic societies
 How to turn individuals into team players?
 Selection: hiring team players (traits, interpersonal skills)
 Training: creating team players (workshops to improve
an array of skills such as problem solving,
communication negotiation)
 Rewarding: providing incentives to be good team players
(reward system to encourage cooperative effort rather
than competitive one – promotions, pay raises and other
forms of recognition should be given to individuals who
work effectively as team members through training new
colleagues, sharing information, helping resolve team
conflict etc.)
TUT- Understanding Work Teams
20 When to use individuals instead of teams
 Use of teams is costly
 Benefits of using teams has to exceed the costs
 Three tests ;
 Can the work be done better by more than one person
(complexity & need for different perspectives)
 Does the work create common purpose or set of goals for
the people in the group that is more than aggregate of
individual goals? (customer needs / customer service)
 Work / task interdependency (success depends on
combination of expertise)

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

21 Summary
 The chapter addressed the following;
 Growing popularity of using teams in organisations
 Groups and teams
 Four types of team arrangements
 Characteristics of effective teams
 Creating team players
 Using individuals instead of teams

TUT- Understanding Work Teams

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End!!!!!!

THANK YOU

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TUT- Understanding Work Teams