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twelve to manage projects, and to make decisions and run the company. For you this has two vital implications: 1. You will be working in and perhaps managing teams. 2. The ability to work in and lead teams is valuable to your employer and important to your career. Fortunately coursework focusing on team training can enhance students’ teamwork knowledge and skills. ■
3 2

teamwork

A national s Cisco Systems has grown, the computer networking giant has stayed nimble by delegat-

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying Chapter 12, you should be able to LO1 Discuss how teams can contribute to an organization’s effectiveness. LO2 Distinguish the new team environment from that of traditional work groups. LO3 Summarize how groups become teams. LO4 Explain why groups sometimes fail. LO5 Describe how to build an effective team. LO6 List methods for managing a team’s relationships with other teams. LO7 Give examples of ways to manage conflict.

ing work to teams whose membership crosses functional, departmental, and lines.1 Sometimes—as in Cisco’s case—teams “work,” but sometimes they don’t. The goal of this chapter is to help make sure that your management and work teams succeed rather than fail. Almost all companies now use teams to produce goods and services,

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LO1
Discuss how teams can contribute to an organization’s effectiveness

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF TEAMS
Team-based approaches to work have generated excitement. Used appropriately, teams can be powerfully effective as a building block for organization structure. Organizations like Semco, Whole Foods, and Kollmorgen (a manufacturer of printed circuits and electro-optic devices) are structured entirely around teams. 3M’s breakthrough products emerge through the use of teams that are small entrepreneurial businesses within the larger corporation. Teams also can increase productivity, improve quality, and reduce costs. By adopting a team structure and culture, Battle Creek, Michigan–based Summit Pointe, a mental health organization, has saved millions of dollars while improving patient care.4 Teams at health care provider Kaiser Permanente saved over $770,000 by cutting 7.2 million kilowatt-hours of power

Teams also provide many benefits for their members.9 The team is a useful learning mechanism. Members learn about the company and themselves, and they acquire new skills and performance strategies. The team can satisfy important personal needs, such as affiliation and esteem. Team members may receive tangible organizational rewards that they could not have achieved working alone. After General Mills acquired Pillsbury, the managers of the meals division decided they needed to develop a common culture that would promote employee engagement, so they set up a Spirit Team of staff members to select activities. Realizing that just having fun together would not develop a deeper sense of purpose, the team decided to partner with a nonprofit organization, Perspectives Family Center, and support this organization with several events each year. Employees who participate feel great about what they do, and they connect the experience with a sense that their company cares about its local community.10 Team members can give one another feedback; identify opportunities for growth and development; and train, coach, and mentor.11 A marketing representative can learn about financial modeling from a colleague on a new product development team, and a financial expert can learn about consumer

No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.
—Halford E. Luccock from data center operations.5 At Nucor’s steel plant in Decatur, Alabama, general manager Rex Query credits teamwork for high productivity and improved safety.6 Teams also can enhance speed and be powerful forces for innovation and change. 3M and many other companies are using teams to create new products faster. The sales learning team at IBM recently redesigned the Global Sales School, the internal training program for the 3,000 new salespeople the firm hires annually. The team’s goals were to train new hires faster and accelerate their sales performance. Following the redesign effort, quota attainment for graduates increased by 26 percent for new salespeople with previous sales experience and 70 percent for new salespeople with no previous selling experience.7 General Mills uses a team approach to make decisions about the packaging for its products. For product divisions such as Big G cereals, Yoplait yogurt, or Green Giant vegetables, Packaging Partners teams bring together employees from brand design, engineering, production, research and development, and other relevant functions to figure out how packaging can reduce waste, cut costs, and send a clearer marketing message. In addition, Strategy Map teams convene employees from various product divisions to study packaging using a particular material and determine ways to work more efficiently with suppliers.8
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marketing. Experience working together in a team, and developing strong problem-solving capabilities, is a vital supplement to specific job skills or functional expertise. And the skills are transferable to new positions.

LO2
Distinguish the new team environment from that of traditional work teams

THE NEW TEAM ENVIRONMENT
The words group and team often are used interchangeably.12 Modern managers sometimes use the word teams to the point that it has become cliché; they talk about teams while skeptics perceive no real teamwork. So making a distinction between groups and teams can be useful:
• A group is a collection of people who interact to undertake a task but do not necessarily perform as a unit or achieve significant performance improvements.

group a collection of
• A team is formed of people (usually a small number) with complementary skills who trust one another and are committed to a common purpose, common performance goals, and a common approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.13 If you work for Google, chances are good that you will join one or more teams. Its software engineers, the ones who are responsible for developing new products and services like Google+ and Google Music, typically work in small three- or fourperson product development teams. Even a large team of 20 or 30 engineers is broken into smaller teams that work on specific parts of the overall project, such as redesigning the Gmail website or making spam filters more effective. The role of leader shifts among members depending on the project’s particular requirements. Engineers have the freedom to switch teams (without asking permission from management) and commit to work on projects to which they feel they can contribute. Shona Brown, Google’s vice president for operations, comments, “. . . we want people to commit to things rather than be assigned to things.” Google believes that this flexible and hands-off approach to team management spurs innovation and creativity at the firm. Given the freedom and autonomy that employees have at Google, the firm invests heavily in training their newly hired software engineers, known as “Nooglers,” to work productively in teams. The goal is to help new hires become fully productive as soon as possible. They undergo an orientation program and attend lectures about the firm’s culture and practices delivered by senior engineers. Mentors are assigned to the new hires so Nooglers can learn more about how teams function and answer specific questions about the technical aspects of their jobs and projects. After completing a two-week starter project, Nooglers can organize or attend “Tech Talks,” which are voluntary, self-organized events in which engineers get together to share knowledge with each other about a technical topic of interest.14 people who interact to undertake a task but do not necessarily perform as a unit or achieve significant performance improvements

Organizations have been using groups for a long time, but today’s workplaces are different.15 Teams are used in many different ways, and to far greater effect, than in the past. Exhibit 12.1 highlights just a few of the differences between the traditional work environment and the way true teams work today. Ideally people are far more involved, they are better trained, cooperation is higher, and the culture is one of learning as well as producing.

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

LISTEN & LEARN ONLINE

Young Managers

Speak Out!
(We are) stronger as a whole than you are by yourself . . . and the more that you realize it’s more of a team effort than anything, you start to realize that delegating responsibilities to people and playing to their strengths and weaknesses is just being smarter. — Brian Min, Kitchen Manager

“

”

At Google, software engineers have freedom and autonomy regarding which projects and teams to join. The firm invests heavily in training its newly hired software engineers, Nooglers, to work productively in teams.

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E X H I B I T 1 2 . 1 Comparing Traditional and New Team Environments Traditional Environment Managers determine and plan the work. Jobs are narrowly defined. Cross-training is viewed as inefficient. Most information is “management property.” Training for nonmanagers focuses on technical skills. Risk taking is discouraged and punished. People work alone. Rewards are based on individual performance. Managers determine “best methods.” New Team Environment Managers and team members jointly determine and plan the work. Jobs require broad skills and knowledge. Cross-training is the norm. Most information is freely shared at all levels. Continuous learning requires interpersonal, administrative, and technical training for all. Measured risk taking is encouraged and supported. People work together. Rewards are based on individual performance and contributions to team performance.

or provide service. They typically are well defined, a clear part of the formal organizational structure, and composed of a full-time, stable membership. Work teams are what most people think of when they think of teams in organizations.17 Project and development teams work on long-term projects, often over a period of years. They have specific assignments, such as research or new product development, and members usually must contribute expert knowledge and judgment. These teams work toward a onetime product, disbanding once their work is completed. Then new teams are formed for new projects.

Parallel teams operate separately from the regular work structure of the firm on a temporary basis. Members often come Source: From Leading Teams by J. Zenger and Associates. Reprinted by permission. from different units or jobs and are asked to do work that is not normally done by the standard structure. Their charge is to recommend solutions to specific problems. They seldom have authority to act, 2.1 | Organizations Have Different however. Examples include task forces and quality or safety Types of Teams teams formed to study a particular problem. Whenever BaltiYour organization may have hundreds of groups and teams, more’s Bradford Bank acquires or starts up another operation, but they can be classified into just a few primary types.16 Work it assembles a team of employees drawn from various divisions teams make or do things such as manufacture, assemble, sell, to smooth the transition for customers. For example, when
Everyone works to continuously improve methods and processes.

Teams Make Social Impact by Design

C

ompanies are increasingly differentiating themselves by marketing new products and services that are designed with a social or environmental message. For example, rather than launching a new laundry detergent that would require hot water (and more energy usage), Procter & Gamble developed a surfactant that would clean clothes well in cold water; this led to the introduction of Tide Coldwater. Regarding the new product, Adam Werbach, CEO of advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, commented, “So there’s a solution good for the climate, good for the consumer because it saved money and good for the business [Procter & Gamble] because it created a breakthrough product.”

Who helps design such innovative products? Managers often call on creative cross-functional teams from design firms like IDEO and Continuum. In addition to serving corporate clients, these design teams are increasingly working with socially oriented organizations like foundations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to help them more effectively fulfill their missions. The goal is to use design as a way to bring innovative solutions to complex problems, like providing the impoverished in developing countries with basic health services, sustainable agriculture, water, and sanitation. Team members at IDEO combined forces with Hewlett-Packard, Unilever, the Rockefeller Foundation, VisionSpring (a New York–based social enterprise), and WSUP (a nonprofit working to improve safe, affordable water and sanitation) to design

IDEO team members like the one pictured above use design as a way to bring solutions to basic problems that affect the impoverished in developing countries.

the following solutions for problems in developing world contexts: 1. In Uganda: Designed a handheld device to aid in microfinance banking transactions

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work teams teams that make or do things like manufacture, assemble, sell, or provide service project and development teams teams that work on

long-term projects but disband once the work is completed

management teams teams that coordinate and give direction to the subunits under their jurisdiction and integrate work among subunits

transnational teams work groups composed of multinational members whose activities span multiple countries

virtual teams teams that are physically dispersed and communicate electronically more than face-to-face

parallel teams teams that operate separately from the regular work structure, and exist temporarily

Bradford signed a deal to acquire deposits from American Bank, a team of employees from branch management, deposit services, and information technology studied American’s products to make sure Bradford was ready to offer similar services to its new customers.18

multiple countries.20 Such teams differ from other work teams not only by being multicultural but also by often being geographically dispersed, being psychologically distant, and working on highly complex projects having considerable impact on company objectives.

Transnational teams tend to be virtual teams, Management teams coordinate and give communicating electronically more than facedirection to the subunits under their juristo-face, although other types of teams may diction and integrate work among suboperate virtually as well. A virtual team units.19 The management team is based encounters difficult challenges: building on authority stemming from hierartrust, cohesion, and team identity, and chical rank and is responsible for the overcoming communication barriers overall performance of the business and the isolation of virtual team memunit. Managers responsible for differbers.21 Ways that managers can overcome ent subunits form a team together, and these challenges and improve the effectiveat the top of the organization resides the ness of virtual teams include ensuring that executive management team that establishes team members understand how they strategic direction and manages the One example of a project and development team is are supposed to keep in touch, setting firm’s overall performance. the pictured Omnica product development team. The aside time at the beginning of virtual Transnational teams are work 28-person team is responsible for producing medical meetings to build relationships, ensurteams composed of multinational and high-tech products for their clients faster and ing that all participants in meetings members whose activities span more efficiently than they could by any other means.

like making payments or withdrawing funds. By having the “bank come to them,” borrowers in poor rural areas no longer have to make a day’s journey to the city each week to visit a bank. 2. In India: Provided affordable, comprehensive eye care to children in rural villages by organizing “eye camps” for kids, screening and awareness programs in schools, and promotion campaigns through self-help groups. The IDEO team discovered that Indian children want to be treated like adults, so they trained children to administer some of the eye exams for their young peers. 3. In Ghana: Developed an in-home sanitation solution for many of the residents who do not have toilets. Those without toilets would either walk to the nearest public toilet or resort to “flying toilets” (plastic bags that are thrown

out of the home after use). IDEO’s idea also includes having local businesses make, supply, and service the portable toilets.

What’s the bottom line? Teams from design firms like IDEO are applying their expertise to create innovations that meet people’s needs and improve their lives.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• Why do you think companies like Procter & Gamble are launching new products and services that are designed to have a social or environmental impact? Can you think of other examples of products and services that have used design in a similar fashion? • In order to acquire a thorough understanding of the problems of the people in Uganda, India, and Ghana, the IDEO design team spends time getting to know the focal group, observing their daily behaviors, and interviewing them. How

could the team use these same research techniques to design new products and services for companies here in the United States?

SOURCES: Company website, http://www.ideo .com; company website, http://continuuminnovation.com; A. Sklar and S. Madsen, “Design for Social Impact,” Ergonomics in Design 18, no. 2 (2010), pp. 4–31; D. Woodward, “Winning By Design,” Director 63, no. 5 (January 2010), pp. 50–54; M. H. Meyer and T. J. Marion, “Innovating For Effectiveness: Lessons from Design Firms,” Research Technology Management 53, no. 5 (September/October 2010), pp. 21–29.

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traditional work groups groups that have no managerial responsibilities

quality circles voluntary groups of people drawn from various production teams who make suggestions about quality

semiautonomous work groups groups that make decisions about managing and carrying out major production activities but get outside support for quality control and maintenance

autonomous work groups groups that control decisions about and execution of a complete range of tasks

self-designing teams teams with the responsibilities of autonomous work groups, plus control over hiring, firing, and deciding what tasks members perform

and on message boards have a chance to communicate, sharing meeting minutes and progress reports, and recognizing and rewarding team members’ contributions.22

• Self-designing teams do all of that and go one step further—they also have control over the design of the team. They decide themselves whom to hire, whom to fire, and what tasks the team will perform.

2.2 | Self-Managed Teams Empower Employees
Today many different types of work teams exist, with many different labels. The terms can be confusing and sometimes are used interchangeably out of a lack of awareness of actual differences. Exhibit 12.2 shows the different types according to how much autonomy they have.23 To the left, teams are more traditional with little decision-making authority, being under the control of direct supervision. To the right, the teams have more autonomy, decision-making power, and self-direction. Let’s define each category:
• Traditional work groups have no managerial responsibilities. The first-line manager plans, organizes, staffs, directs, and controls them, and other groups provide support activities, including quality control and maintenance. • Quality circles are voluntary groups of people drawn from various production teams who make suggestions about quality but have no authority to make decisions or execute. • Semiautonomous work groups make decisions about managing and carrying out major production activities but still get outside support for quality control and maintenance. • Autonomous work groups, or self-managing teams, control decisions about and execution of a complete range of tasks—acquiring raw materials and performing operations, quality control, maintenance, and shipping. They are fully responsible for an entire product or an entire part of a production process.

Movement from left to right on the continuum corresponds with more and more worker participation. Toward the right, the participation is not trivial and not merely advisory. It has real substance, going beyond suggestions to include action and impact. The trend today is toward self-managed teams, in which workers are trained to do all or most of the jobs in the unit, they have no immediate supervisor, and they make decisions previously made by first-line supervisors.24 Self-managed teams are most often found in manufacturing. People may resist selfmanaged work teams, in part because they don’t want so much responsibility and the change is difficult.25 In addition, many people don’t like to do performance evaluation of teammates or to fire people, and poorly managed conflict may be a particular problem in self-managed teams.26 But when companies have introduced teams that reach the point of being truly selfmanaged, results have included lower costs and greater levels of team productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction.27 Overall, semiautonomous and autonomous teams are known to improve the organization’s financial and overall performance, at least in North America.28 Such results have inspired U.S.-based multinational firms to use self-managed teams in their foreign facilities. For example, Goodyear Tire & Rubber initiated self-managed work teams in Europe, Latin America, and Asia; Sara Lee in Puerto Rico and Mexico; and Texas Instruments in Malaysia. These companies are learning—and other companies should be forewarned—of

E X H I B I T 1 2 . 2 Team autonomy continuum

Traditional work groups

Quality circles

Highperformance work teams

Semiautonomous work groups

Self-managing teams

Self-designing teams

Low team autonomy

High team autonomy

Source: R. Banker, J. Field, R. Schroeder, and K. Sinha, “Impact of Work Teams on Manufacturing Performance: A Longitudinal Field Study,” Academy of Management Journal. Copyright © 1996 by Academy of Management. Reproduced with permission of Academy of Management via Copyright Clearance Center.

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self-managed teams autonomous work the different ways different cultures might respond to selfmanaged teams, and to customize implementation according to cultural values.29 optimism: “I believe we have a are trained to do all or most great team and will work well of the jobs in a unit, have together. We all understand the no immediate supervisor, importance of the project and and make decisions intend to take it seriously.” Optipreviously made by firstmism turns into reality shock in line supervisors the storming stage: “No one has taken a leadership role. We have not made the project the priority that it deserves.” The norming stage comes at about the halfway point in the project life cycle, in which people refocus and recommit: “You must make firm commitments to a specific time schedule.” The performing stage is the dash to the finish, as teammates show the discipline needed to meet the deadline. groups in which workers

LO3
Summarize how groups become teams

HOW GROUPS BECOME REAL TEAMS
As a manager, you will want your group to become an effective team. To accomplish this, you need to understand how groups can become true teams and why groups sometimes fail to become teams. Groups become true teams through basic group activities, the passage of time, and team development activities.

3.2 | Over Time, Groups Enter Critical Periods
A key aspect of group development is the passage of time. Groups pass through critical periods, or times when they are particularly open to formative experiences.32 The first such critical period is in the forming stage, at the first meeting, when rules and roles are established that set long-lasting precedents. A second critical period is the midway point between the initial meeting and a deadline (for instance, completing a project or making a presentation). At this point, the group has enough experience to understand its work; it comes to realize that time is becoming a scarce resource and the team must “get on with it”; and enough time remains to change its approach if necessary. In the initial meeting, the group should establish desired norms, roles, and other determinants of effectiveness, which are discussed throughout this chapter. At the second critical period (the midpoint), groups should renew or open lines of communication with outside constituencies. The group can use fresh information from its external environment to revise its approach to performing its task and ensure that it meets the needs of customers and clients. Without these activities, groups may get off on the wrong foot from the beginning, and members may never revise their behavior in the appropriate direction.33

3.1 | Group Activities Shift as the Group Matures
Assume you are the leader of a newly formed group—actually a bunch of people. What will you face as you attempt to develop your group into a high-performing team? If groups are to develop successfully, they will typically progress through four broad stages as described in Exhibit 12.3.30 Groups that deteriorate move to a declining stage, and temporary groups add an adjourning or terminating stage. Groups terminate when they complete their task or when they disband due to failure or loss of interest and new groups form, as the cycle continues. Virtual teams also go through these stages of group development.31 The forming stage is characterized by unbridled
E X H I B I T 1 2 . 3 Stages of team development

Forming
Group members attempt to lay the ground rules for what types of behavior are acceptable.

Storming
Hostilities and conflict arise, and people jockey for positions of power and status.

3.3 | Some Groups Develop into Teams
As a manager or group member, you should expect the group to engage in all the activities just discussed at various times. But groups are not always successful. They do not always engage in the developmental activities that turn them into effective, highperforming teams. A useful developmental sequence is depicted in Exhibit 12.4. The figure shows the various activities as the leadership of the group moves from traditional supervision, through a more participative approach, to true team leadership.34 At the traditional supervisory leadership level, the team leader handles most (if not all) of the leadership duties, including assigning tasks, making and explaining decisions, training team members, managing
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Norming
Group members agree on their shared goals, and norms and closer relationships develop.

Performing
The group channels its energies into performing its tasks.

E X H I B I T 1 2 . 4 Stepping up to team leadership

Team leadership Participative leadership Supervisory leadership Build trust and inspire teamwork.

Involve people. Facilitate and support team decisions. Get input for decisions.

Direct people.

Explain decisions. Develop individual performance. Train individuals. Coordinate group effort. Manage one-on-one. Resolve conflict. Contain conflict. Implement change. React to change.

Expand team capabilities.

Create a team identity.

Make the most of team differences.

Foresee and influence change.

Source: From Leading Teams by J. Zenger and Associates. Reprinted by permission.

members one-on-one, and so forth. As the group evolves to a more participative leadership approach, the team leader seeks input from group members for decisions, provides assignments and experiences to develop members’ skills and abilities, coordinates group effort, and the like. At the team leadership level, the team leader’s job focuses on building trust and inspiring teamwork, facilitating and supporting team decisions, broadening team capabilities through projects and assignments, creating a team identity, and so forth.
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It is important to understand a couple of points about this model. Groups do not necessarily keep progressing from one “stage” to the next; they may remain permanently in the supervisory level or become more participative but never make it to true team leadership. As a result, progress on these dimensions must be a conscious goal of the leader and the members, and all should strive to meet these goals. Your group can meet these goals—and become a true team—by engaging in the activities in the figure.

when they have something important to contribute. The team leader can help by seeking all members’ input. Another common barrier is when the team lacks a charter, vision, or goals. Early in the development process, the team leader and members should define the team’s direction and the roles of each contributor. When teams experience a drop in morale and productivity, persistence, communication, and forward movement can help them return to previous levels of performance. A final barrier can occur if team members do not trust each other or their team leader. When trust is low, members may spend more time trying to influence team dynamics to protect their own interests than performing their actual jobs.36 In contrast, when trust is present, teams achieve higher performance.37 It is not easy to build high-performance teams. Teams is often just a word used by management to describe merely putting people into groups. “Teams” sometimes are launched with little or no training or support systems. For example, both managers and group members need new skills to make a group work. These skills include learning the art of diplomacy, tackling “people issues” head on, and walking the fine line between encouraging autonomy and rewarding team innovations without letting the team get too independent and out of control.38 Giving up some control is difficult for managers from traditional systems, but they have to realize they will gain control in the long run by creating stronger, better-performing units. Teams should be truly empowered, as we discussed earlier. The benefits of teams are reduced when they are not allowed to make important decisions—in other words, when management doesn’t trust them with important responsibilities. If teams must obtain permission for every innovative idea, they will revert to making safe, traditional decisions.39
Co-workers stand atop a post during a team building exercise at Outward Bound, an organization that teaches cooperation, problem solving, and decision making—for both in and out of the workplace—through various outdoor challenges.

LO4
Explain why groups sometimes fail

Empowerment enhances team performance even among virtual teams. Empowerment for virtual teams includes thorough training in using the technologies and strong technical support from management. Some virtual teams have periodic face-to-face interactions, which help performance; empowerment is particularly helpful for virtual teams that don’t often meet face-to-face.40 Failure lies in not knowing and doing what makes teams successful. To be successful, you must apply clear thinking and appropriate practices.41 That is what the rest of the chapter is about.

WHY DO GROUPS SOMETIMES FAIL?
Team building does not necessarily progress smoothly through such a sequence, culminating in a well-oiled team and superb performance.35 Some groups never do work out. Such groups can be frustrating for managers and members, who may feel that teams are a waste of time and that the difficulties outweigh the benefits. There are several potential barriers that can impede team success. Ineffective communication can occur between team members, or between the leader and members of the team. Some people overcommunicate while others rarely speak up, even

LO5
Describe how to build an effective team

BUILDING EFFECTIVE TEAMS
All the considerations just described form the building blocks of an effective work team. But what does it really mean for a team to be effective? What, precisely, can a manager do to
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design a truly effective team? Team effectiveness is defined by three criteria:42
1. The productive output of the team meets or exceeds the standards of quantity and quality; the team’s output is acceptable to the customers, inside or outside the organization, who receive the team’s goods or services. At Lockheed Martin, Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson’s group designed, built, and flew the first U.S. tactical jet fighter, XP80, in 143 days.43 2. Team members realize satisfaction of their personal needs. Johnson gave his Lockheed teams the freedom to innovate and stretch their skills. Team members were enthusiastic and realized great pride and satisfaction in their work. 3. Team members remain committed to working together again; that is, the group doesn’t burn out and disintegrate after a grueling project. Looking back, the members are glad they were involved. In other words, effective teams remain viable and have good prospects for repeated success in the future.44

teams, which should periodically add new members, Hackman has found that a more frequent problem is the opposite: team members haven’t been together long enough to learn to work well together. Airplane cockpit crews, for example, perform much better when they have flown together previously.47

5.1 | Effective Teams Focus on Performance
The key element of effective teamwork is commitment to a common purpose.48 The best teams are those that have been given an important performance challenge by management and then have reached a common understanding and appreciation of their purpose. Without such understanding and commitment, a group will be just a bunch of individuals. The best teams also work hard at developing a common understanding of how they will work together to achieve their purpose.49 They discuss and agree on such details as how tasks and roles will be allocated and how team members will make decisions. The team should develop norms for examining its performance strategies and be amenable to changing them when appropriate. For example, work teams usually standardize at least some processes, but they should be willing to try creative new ideas if the situation calls for them.50 With a clear, strong, motivating purpose and effective performance strategies, people will pull together into a powerful force that has a chance to achieve extraordinary things. The team’s general purpose should be translated into specific, measurable performance goals.51 You already learned about how goals motivate individual performance. Performance can be defined by collective end products, instead of an accumulation of individual products.52 Team-based performance goals help define and distinguish the team’s product, encourage communication within the team, energize and motivate team members, provide feedback on progress, signal team victories (and defeats), and ensure that the team focuses clearly on results. Teams with both difficult goals and specific incentives to attain them achieve the highest performance levels.53 The best team-based measurement systems inform top management of the team’s level of performance and help the team understand its own processes and gauge its own progress. Ideally the team plays the lead role in designing its own measurement system. This responsibility is a great indicator of whether the team is truly empowered.54 Teams, like individuals, need feedback on their performance. Feedback from customers is especially crucial. Some customers for the team’s products are inside the organization. Teams should be responsible for satisfying them and should be given or should seek performance feedback. Better yet, wherever possible, teams should interact directly with external customers who make the ultimate buying decisions about their goods and services. External customers typically provide the most honest, and most crucial and useful, performance feedback.55 When managers at Intuit, the software development company,

For help in developing these qualities, teams may use teambuilding activities or work with an outside coach. Team building usually involves activities focused on relationships among team members. Whether these activities are as simple as a group discussion or as elaborate as a weekend retreat with physical challenges, the team-building event should be followed by an opportunity for participants to evaluate what they learned and how they will apply those lessons at work.45 Coaching a team should be different from coaching individual team members because it focuses on how the group as a whole operates and how it can improve interactions so that it will accomplish its goals.46 The process doesn’t have the confidentiality of one-on-one coaching, and the coach has to pace the process so that everyone is included. Team coaching addresses issues such as what the team is focused on, how it sets goals, and how it can improve communication and decision making. Ideally the coaching helps a team develop enough that it can begin to coach itself.
Based on years of studying team performance, Harvard professor Richard Hackman has identified principles of team effectiveness, including this simple rule: teams need to properly define their membership. However, many don’t, perhaps because people hate to exclude someone. When a team problem came to light at a financial services company, the chief executive determined that the chief financial officer was unable to collaborate effectively with others on the executive team. So the CEO asked the financial executive to skip the “boring” team meetings, keeping their communications one-on-one. Without the CFO, the executive team began to function much better. Another barrier: People tend to focus too much on harmony, assuming that when team members feel good about their participation, the team is effective. Actually, effectiveness comes first: team members feel satisfied when their team works effectively. In a study of symphony orchestras, satisfaction came from how the musicians felt after a performance. A third mistake Hackman encounters is the assumption that team members can be together too long, to the point that the team runs out of ideas. But aside from research and development
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social loafing Under ideal circumstances, everyone works hard, contributes in concrete ways to the team’s work, social facilitation and is accountable to other team effect working harder when in a group than when members. Accountability to one working alone another, rather than just to “the boss,” is an essential aspect of good teamwork. Accountability inspires mutual commitment and trust.59 Trust in your teammates—and their trust in you—may be the ultimate key to effectiveness. Team effort is also generated by designing the team’s task to be motivating. Techniques for creating motivating tasks appear in the guidelines for job enrichment discussed in Chapter 11. Tasks are motivating when they use a variety of member skills and provide high task variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and performance feedback. working less hard and being less productive when in a group

To ensure the safety of themselves and each other, Boots & Coots firefighters need to maintain trust and communicate under some of the toughest circumstances.

noticed that customers were not posting positive recommendations on the web about the firm’s new products, they took action. They assembled a team of nine coaches (“innovation catalysts”) from across the company to help internal work groups create new prototypes and learn from customers. The goal of the new “Design for Delight” program is to create products that excite customers.56

st ud y tip 12
Dealing with slackers on your student teams
You have probably been on a team where one or two students missed meetings and did little (if any) work, but received the same grade as everyone else on the team. This is a very frustrating situation. You may not be able to control all of the following factors, but try to use the ones you can to prevent students from slacking off during the team project: • Keep the group size as small as possible (about three to four students). • Build cohesion among team members by socializing early in the project. • Assign each student a task that fits with his or her skills and abilities. • Set a few specific, clear objectives with due dates before the project is due. • Hold each member accountable for his or her work. • Meet right before or after class (if possible) to increase attendance. • As soon as a team member starts to slack off, provide her or him with immediate feedback on how to correct the behavior (use a constructive approach). Many students ask their instructors to intervene when a team member is underperforming. Some instructors will help, but others will let the team figure out how to deal with the situation. The latter approach parallels more closely what is expected in the working world.

5.2 | Managers Motivate Effective Teamwork
Sometimes individuals work less hard and are less productive when they are members of a group. Such social loafing occurs when individuals believe that their contributions are not important, others will do the work for them, their lack of effort will go undetected, or they will be the lone sucker if they work hard but others don’t. Perhaps you have seen social loafing in some of your student teams.57 Conversely, sometimes individuals work harder when they are members of a group than when they are working alone. This social facilitation effect occurs because individuals usually are more motivated in the presence of others, are concerned with what others think of them, and want to maintain a positive self-image. A social facilitation effect is maintained—and a social loafing effect can be avoided—under the following conditions:58
• Group members know each other. • They can observe and communicate with one another. • Clear performance goals exist. • The task is meaningful to the people working on it. • Group members believe that their efforts matter and that others will not take advantage of them. • The culture supports teamwork.

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Ultimately teamwork is motivated by tying rewards to team performance.60 If team performance can be measured validly, teambased rewards can be given accordingly. It is not easy to move from a system of rewards based on individual performance to one based on team performance and cooperation. It also may not be appropriate unless people are truly interdependent and must collaborate to attain true team goals.61 Team-based rewards are often combined with regular salaries and rewards based on individual performance. At Nucor, where production employees work in teams of 12 to 20, team members earn bonuses based on the tons of steel shipped each week. To ensure high quality, the amount of any bad product is subtracted from total shipments— and if defective products reach the customer, the amount subtracted is multiplied by 3. On average, the amount of the team bonuses equals 170 to 180 percent of the team members’ base salary. This type of motivation works because Nucor teams are empowered to make decisions aimed at improving their productivity, and the company actively shares performance data with its employees.62 If team performance is difficult to measure validly, then desired behaviors, activities, and processes that indicate good teamwork can be rewarded. Individuals within teams can be given differential rewards based on teamwork indicated

by active participation, cooperation, leadership, and other contributions to the team. If team members are to be rewarded differentially, such decisions are better not left only to the boss.63 They should be made by the team itself, through peer ratings or multirater evaluation systems. Why? Team members are in a better position to observe, know, and make valid reward allocations. Finally, the more teams the organization has, and the more a full team orientation exists, the more valid and effective it will be to distribute rewards via gainsharing and other organizationwide incentives.

5.3 | Effective Teams Have Skilled Members
Team members should be selected and trained so that they become effective contributors to the team. The teams themselves often hire their new members.64 MillerCoors Brewing Company and Eastman Chemical teams select members based on the results of tests designed to predict how well they will contribute to team success in an empowered environment. At Whole Foods, senior leaders, human resources, and team members decide whom to hire, but the selection process does not stop there. At the end of a 30- to 90-day orientation period, team members vote on whether to add the new hire to their team.65

DID YOU KNOW?
Along with knowledge about their subject area, teams need members to contribute interpersonal skills, especially listening and building trust.66

Percentage of survey respondents selecting element as critical for team performance

Listening skills

96%

Trust

92%

Ability to establish actionable items

87%

Group facilitation skills

78%

0

50 Percent

100

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Generally the skills required by teams include technical or functional expertise, problem-solving and decision-making skills, and interpersonal skills. Some managers and teams mistakenly overemphasize some skills, particularly technical or functional ones, and underemphasize the others. In fact, social skills can be critical to team functioning; one worker with a persistently negative attitude—for example, someone who bullies or constantly complains—can and often does put an entire team into a downward spiral.67 It is vitally important that all three types of skills be represented, and developed, among team members.

Two important sets of roles must be performed:72
1. Task specialist roles are filled by individuals who have particular job-related skills and abilities. These employees keep the team moving toward accomplishment of the objectives. 2. Team maintenance specialists develop and maintain harmony within the team. They boost morale, give support, provide humor, soothe hurt feelings, and generally exhibit a concern with members’ well-being.

norms shared beliefs about how people should think and behave roles different sets of expectations for how different individuals should behave task specialist an individual who has more advanced job-related skills and abilities than other group members possess

5.4 | Norms Shape Team Behavior
Norms are shared beliefs about how people should think and behave. For example, some people like to keep information and knowledge to themselves, but teams should try to establish a norm of knowledge sharing because it can improve team performance.68 From the organization’s standpoint, norms can be positive or negative. In some teams, everyone works hard; in other groups, employees are opposed to management and do as little work as possible. Some groups develop norms of taking risks, others of being conservative.69 A norm could dictate that employees speak of the company either favorably or critically. Team members may show concern about poor safety practices, drug and alcohol abuse, and employee theft, or they may not care about these issues (or may even condone such practices). Health consciousness is the norm among executives at some companies, but smoking is the norm at tobacco companies. Some groups have norms of distrust and of being closed toward one another, but as you might guess, norms of trust and open discussion about conflict can improve group performance.70 A professor described his consulting experiences at two companies that exhibited different norms in their management teams.71 At Federal Express Corporation, a young manager interrupted the professor’s talk by proclaiming that a recent decision by top management ran counter to the professor’s point about corporate planning. He was challenging top management to defend its decision. A hot debate ensued, and after an hour everyone went to lunch without a trace of hard feelings. But at another corporation, the professor opened a meeting by asking a group of top managers to describe the company’s culture. There was silence. He asked again. More silence. Then someone passed him an unsigned note that read, “Dummy, can’t you see that we can’t speak our minds? Ask for the input anonymously, in writing.” As you can see, norms are important, and can vary greatly from one group to another.

team maintenance specialist individual who develops and maintains team harmony

Note the similarity between these roles and the important task performance and group maintenance leadership behaviors you learned about in Chapter 10. As suggested there, some of these roles will be more important than others at different times and under different circumstances. But these behaviors need not be carried out only by one or two leaders; any member of the team can assume them at any time. Both types of roles can be performed by different individuals to maintain an effectively functioning work team. What roles should leaders perform? Superior team leaders are better at several things:73
• Relating—exhibiting social and political awareness, caring for team members, and building trust.

5.5 | Team Members Must Fill Important Roles
Roles are different sets of expectations for how different individuals should behave. Although norms apply generally to all team members, different roles exist for different members within the norm structure.

A branch of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, CO, the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) is tasked with capturing images of Saturn (above). Though members of the Cassini Imaging team are widely dispersed, the scientists are united by a shared sense of purpose and a high value placed on scientific knowledge and technical excellence.

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• Scouting—seeking information from managers, peers, and specialists, and investigating problems systematically. • Persuading—influencing team members, as well as obtaining external support for teams. • Empowering—delegating authority, being flexible regarding team decisions, and coaching.

TRADITIONAL THINKING
Team leaders are directive, assign tasks, and monitor performance.

Leaders also should roll up their sleeves and do real work to accomplish team goals, not just supervise.74 Finally, recall from Chapter 10 the importance of shared leadership, in which group members rotate or share leadership roles.75 Self-managed teams report to a management representative who sometimes is called the coach. In true self-managed teams, the coach is not an actual member of the team.76 The reason is that the group is supposed to make its own decisions, and also the perceived power of the management representative could have a dampening effect on the team’s openness and autonomy. The role of the coach, then, is to help the team understand its role in the organization and to serve as a resource for the team. The coach can provide information, resources, and insight that team members do not or cannot acquire on their own. And the coach should be an advocate for the team in the rest of the organization.

5.6 | Cohesiveness Affects Team Performance
One of the most important properties of a team is cohesiveness.77 Cohesiveness refers to how attractive the team is to its members, how motivated members are to remain in the team, and the degree to which team members influence one another. In general, it refers to how tightly knit the team is.
For 16 consecutive years, the profitable morning-show market was dominated by NBC’s Today. While sipping their morning coffee, millions of Americans have watched

current and previous co-anchors like Matt Lauer, Ann Currie, Meredith Viera, and Katie Couric deliver the morning news. Today ’s streak of 852 weeks at number one ended in April 2012 when the show’s closest competitor, ABC’s Good Morning America, took first place in the morning-show ratings. Since then, the two shows have traded positions for the top spot. There’s a lot at stake. It is estimated that Today earns between $250–300 million annually for NBC, making it one of the most profitable shows in the industry. What factors may have contributed to Today ’s recent decline in the ratings? According to critics, one important factor may have been the lack of onscreen cohesiveness between co-anchors Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. A news reader for the show since 1997, Curry became co-anchor in 2011 and received a three-year contract worth $10 million. Though always cordial and professional, Curry and Lauer were not able to connect onscreen in a way that previous co-anchors had done. The co-anchor team simply seemed to lack chemistry. On June 28, 2012, Curry announced that she would be leaving the co-anchor position, but would stay on as an “anchor at large” and report on major stories. NBC is hopeful that the new co-anchor, Savannah Guthrie, will help Lauer restore Today ’s dominance in the ratings.78

The Importance of Cohesiveness important for two primary reasons:

Cohesiveness is

1. It contributes to member satisfaction. In a cohesive team, members communicate and get along well with one another. They feel good about being part of the team. Even if their jobs are unfulfilling or the organization is oppressive, people gain some satisfaction from enjoying their coworkers. 2. It has a major impact on performance.79 A recent study of manufacturing teams led to a conclusion that performance improvements in both quality and productivity occurred in the most cohesive unit, whereas conflict within another team prevented any quality or productivity improvements.80 Sports fans read about this all the time. When teams are winning, players talk about the team being close, getting along well, and knowing one another’s games. In contrast, losing is attributed to infighting and divisiveness.

But this interpretation is simplistic; exceptions to this intuitive relationship occur. Tightly knit work groups can also be disruptive to the organization, such as when they sabotage the assembly line, get their boss fired, or enforce low performance norms. When does high cohesiveness lead to good performance, and when does it result in poor performance? The ultimate outcome depends on two things:
Cohesiveness between co-anchors is an important factor in the success of morning shows. Today’s Al Roker (left), Ann Curry, and Matt Lauer are pictured above. 292 PART 4 | Leading

1. The task. 2. Performance norms.

cohesiveness

THE BEST MANAGERS TODAY
Support team members, obtain external support, and delegate authority to the team.

The effect of cohesiveness on performance, in contrast, can be positive, particularly if the task is to produce some tangible output. In day-to-day work groups for which decision making is not the primary task, cohesiveness can enhance performance. But that depends on the group’s performance norms.83

the degree to which a group is attractive to its members, members are motivated to remain in the group, and members influence one another

The Task

If the task is to make a decision or solve a problem, cohesiveness can lead to poor performance. Groupthink occurs when a tightly knit group is so cooperative that agreeing with one another’s opinions and refraining from criticizing others’ ideas become norms. For a cohesive group to make good decisions, it should establish a norm of constructive disagreement. This type of debating is important for groups up to the level of boards of directors.81 In top management teams it has been shown to improve the financial performance of companies.82

Performance Norms

Some groups are better than others at ensuring that their members behave the way the group prefers. Cohesive groups are more effective than noncohesive groups at norm enforcement. But the next question is, Do they have norms of high or low performance? As Exhibit 12.5 shows, the highest performance occurs when a cohesive team has high-performance norms. But if a highly cohesive group has low-performance norms, that group will have the worst performance. In the group’s eyes, it will have

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR CAREER //
Playing devil’s advocate can help your team make better decisions and discuss additional perspectives regarding the problem at hand, which can ultimately produce more and better alternative decisions. Following the waves of recalls that included 16 million vehicles since the fall of 2009, Toyota is implementing a devil’s advocacy approach to be used during the new vehicle design stage. The company hopes to identify and eliminate quality and safety issues before new vehicles are sold to the public. Project managers of teams at firms like Agile software development (owned by Oracle) are advised to play devil’s advocate to help improve the quality of the team’s decision-making process. How can you learn how to play devil’s advocate? Use observation and practice. Observe how others perform this role, and note how the other people in the meeting or room react to the advocate’s feedback. Try out your new role with a non-work-related group—perhaps an organization for which you volunteer or with a group of friends. Once you can deliver critical feedback in a constructive and evenhanded manner, you can begin playing devil’s advocate to help your work teams make better decisions. Your team leader or other managers

A

t some point in your career, you have probably witnessed how members of highly cohesive teams fall prey to groupthink when they always agree with one another and stop questioning each other’s ideas. This phenomenon often leads groups to make suboptimal decisions. As a team member, you can help your team decrease the influence of groupthink, and thereby help it make better decisions by playing devil’s advocate. In this role, your job is to point out the flaws in other’s ideas. Obviously this task requires good interpersonal skills and the ability to present your feedback as constructive in nature, not condescending or personally insulting. For example, you may want to preface your feedback with “Let me play devil’s advocate for a moment” or “Let’s consider some of the potential issues that may come up later.” If successful, you can help your team explore

Assuming the role of devil’s advocate can help your team make better, more informed decisions.

in your organization are likely to appreciate your taking on this role.
SOURCES: H. Greimel and M. Rechtin, “Toyota Adopts ‘Devil’s Advocate’ in Quest to Restore Quality, Confidence,” Advertising Age 82, no. 4 (January 24, 2011), p. 3; J. McAvoy and T. Butler, “The Role of Project Management in Ineffective Decision Making within Agile Software Development Projects,” European Journal of Information Systems, no. 18 (2009), pp. 372–83; R. Gandossy and J. Sonnenfeld, “‘I See Nothing, I Hear Nothing’: Culture, Corruption and Apathy,” International Journal of Disclosure and Governance 2, no. 3 (September 2005), pp. 228–44.

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E X H I B I T 1 2 . 5 Cohesiveness, performance norms, and group performance Performance norms Low High goal attainment (group’s perspective) and lowest task performance (management’s perspective) High g

diversity and national diversity provide more benefits than limitations to groups’ use and application of information.85 • Maintain high entrance and socialization standards. Teams and organizations that are difficult to get into have more prestige. Individuals who survive a difficult interview, selection, or training process will be proud of their accomplishment and feel more attachment to the team. • Keep the team small (but large enough to get the job done). The larger the group, the less important members may feel. Small teams make individuals feel like large contributors.

Cohesiveness

High

High goal attainment and task performance

Low

Poor goal attainment and task performance

Moderate goal attainment and task performance

succeeded in achieving its goal of poor performance. Noncohesive groups with high-performance norms can be effective from the company’s standpoint. However, they won’t be as productive as they would be if they were more cohesive. Noncohesive groups with low-performance norms perform poorly, but they will not ruin things for management as effectively as cohesive groups with low-performance norms.

• Help the team succeed, and publicize its successes. You read about empowerment in the preceding chapter; you can empower teams as well as individuals.86 Be a path–goal leader who facilitates success; the experience of winning brings teams closer together. Then, if you inform superiors of your team’s successes, members will believe they are part of an important, prestigious unit. Teams that get into a good performance track continue to perform well as time goes on, but groups that don’t often enter a downward spiral in which problems compound over time.87 • Be a participative leader. Participation in decisions gets team members more involved with one another and striving toward goal accomplishment. Too much autocratic decision making from above can alienate the group from management. • Present a challenge from outside the team. Competition with other groups makes team members band together to defeat the enemy (witness what happens to school spirit before the big game against an archrival). Some of the greatest teams

5.7 | Managers can Build Cohesiveness and HighPerformance Norms
Managers should build teams that are cohesive and have high-performance norms. The following actions (listed in Exhibit 12.6) can help create such teams:84
• Recruit members with similar attitudes, values, and backgrounds. Similar individuals are more likely to get along with one another. Don’t do this, though, if the team’s task requires heterogeneous skills and inputs—a homogeneous committee or board might make poor decisions because it will lack different information and viewpoints and may succumb to groupthink. Recent research has shown that educational

E X H I B I T 1 2 . 6 Ways Managers Can Build Cohesive Teams with High-Performance Norms 1. Recruit members with similar attitudes, values, and backgrounds. 2. Maintain high entrance and socialization standards. 3. Keep the team as small as possible. 4. Help the team succeed, and publicize its successes. 5. Be a participative leader. 6. Present a challenge from outside the team. 7. Tie rewards to team performance.
Self-managed teams can have a positive impact on productivity. But people often resist self-managed teams, in part because they don’t want to accept so much responsibility and it is difficult for them to adjust to the change in the decision-making process.

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gatekeeper a team member who keeps abreast of current developments and provides the team with relevant information

informing a team strategy that entails making decisions with the team and then informing outsiders of its intentions

parading a team strategy that entails simultaneously emphasizing internal team building and achieving external visibility

probing a team strategy that requires team members to interact frequently with outsiders, diagnose their needs, and experiment with solutions

in business and in science have been completely focused on winning a competition.88 But don’t you become the outside threat. If team members dislike you as a boss, they will become more cohesive—but their performance norms will be against you, not with you. • Tie rewards to team performance. To a large degree, teams are motivated just as individuals are: they do the activities that are rewarded. Make sure that high-performing teams get the rewards they deserve and that poorly performing groups get fewer rewards. You read about this earlier. Bear in mind that not just monetary rewards but also recognition for good work are powerful motivators. Recognize and celebrate team accomplishments. The team will become more cohesive and perform better to reap more rewards. Performance goals will be high, the organization will benefit from higher team motivation and productivity, and team members’ individual needs will be better satisfied. Ideally, membership on a highperforming team that is recognized as such throughout the organization will become a badge of honor.89

to the group can also include resources, trends, and political support throughout the corporation or the industry.92 The team’s strategy dictates the team’s mix of internally versus externally focused roles and the ways the mix changes over time. There are several general team strategies:93
• The informing strategy entails making decisions with the team and then telling outsiders of the team’s intentions. • Parading means the team’s strategy is to simultaneously emphasize internal team building and achieve external visibility. • Probing involves a focus on external relations. This strategy requires team members to interact frequently with outsiders; diagnose the needs of customers, clients, and higher-ups; and experiment with solutions before taking action.

But keep in mind that strong cohesiveness encouraging “agreeableness” can be dysfunctional. For problem solving and decision making, the team should establish norms promoting an open, constructive atmosphere including honest disagreement over issues without personal conflict and animosity.90

The balance between an internal and external strategic focus and between internal and external roles depends on how much the team needs information, support, and resources from outside. When teams have a high degree of dependence on outsiders, probing is the best strategy. Parading teams perform at an intermediate level, and informing teams are likely to fail. They are too isolated from the outside groups on which they depend. Informing or parading strategies may be more effective for teams that are less dependent on outside groups—for example, established teams working on routine tasks in stable external environments. But for most important work teams—task forces, new product teams, and strategic decision-making teams tackling unstructured problems in a rapidly changing external environment—effective performance in roles that involve interfacing with the outside will be vital.

LO6
List methods for managing a team’s relationships with other teams

MANAGING LATERAL RELATIONSHIPS
Teams do not function in a vacuum; they are interdependent with other teams. For example, at Texas Instruments, teams are responsible for interfacing with other teams to eliminate production bottlenecks and implement new processes and also for working with suppliers on quality issues.91 Thus some activities crucial to the team are those that entail dealing with people outside the group.

6.2 | Some Relationships Help Teams Coordinate with Others in the Organization
Managing relationships with other groups and teams means engaging in a dynamic give-and-take that ensures proper coordination throughout the management system. To many managers, this process often seems like a free-for-all. To help understand the process and make it more productive, we can identify and examine the different types of lateral role relationships and take a strategic approach to building constructive relationships. Different teams, like different individuals, have roles to perform. As teams carry out their roles, several distinct patterns of working relationships develop:94
• Work flow relationships emerge as materials are passed from one group to another. A group commonly receives work from

6.1 | Some Team Members should Manage Outward
Several vital roles link teams to their external environments— that is, to other individuals and groups inside and outside the organization. A specific type of role that spans team boundaries is the gatekeeper, a team member who stays abreast of current information in scientific and other fields and tells the group about important developments. Information useful

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conflict a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party avoidance a reaction to conflict that involves ignoring the problem by doing nothing at all, or deemphasizing the disagreement

one unit, processes it, and sends it to the next unit in the process. Your group, then, will come before some groups and after others in the process.

• Service relationships exist when top management centralizes an activity to which a large number of other units must gain access. Common examples are technology services, libraries, and clerical staff. Such units must assist other people to help them accomplish their goals.

one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.96 It can occur between individuals on the same team or among different teams. Many people’s view of conflict is that it should be avoided at all costs. However, early management science contributor Mary Parker Follett was the first of many to note its potential advantages.97 Typically conflict can foster creativity when it is about ideas rather than personalities. In contrast, at a nonprofit organization, team members were committed to maintaining harmony during meetings, but their unresolved differences spilled over into nasty remarks outside of the office.98 Many factors cause great potential for destructive conflict: the sheer number and variety of contacts, ambiguities in jurisdiction and responsibility, differences in goals, intergroup competition for scarce resources, different perspectives held by members of different units, varying time horizons in which some units attend to long-term considerations and others focus on short-term needs, and others. Tensions and anxieties are likely to arise in teams that are demographically diverse, include members from different parts of the organization, or are composed of contrasting personalities. Both demographic and cross-functional heterogeneity initially lead to problems such as stress, lower cooperation, and lower cohesiveness.99 Over time and with communication, diverse groups actually tend to become more cooperative and perform better than do homogeneous groups. Norms of cooperation can improve performance, as does the fact that cross-functional teams engage in more external communication with more areas of the organization.100

• Advisory relationships are created when teams with problems call on centralized sources of expert knowledge. For example, staff members in the human resources or legal department advise work teams. • Audit relationships develop when people not directly in the chain of command evaluate the methods and performances of other teams. Financial auditors check the books, and technical auditors assess the methods and technical quality of the work. • Stabilization relationships involve auditing before the fact. In other words, teams sometimes must obtain clearance from others—for example, for large purchases—before they act. • Liaison relationships involve intermediaries between teams. Managers often are called on to mediate conflict between two organizational units. Public relations people, sales managers, purchasing agents, and others who work across organizational boundaries serve in liaison roles as they maintain communications between the organization and the outside world.

Teams should assess each working relationship with another unit by asking basic questions: “From whom do we receive work, and to whom do we send work? What permissions do we control, and to whom must we go for authorizations?” In this way, teams can better understand whom to contact and when, where, why, and how to do so. Coordination throughout the working system improves, problems are avoided or short-circuited before they get too serious, and performance improves.95

7.2 | Conflict Management Techniques
Teams inevitably face conflicts and must decide how to manage them. The aim should be to make the conflict productive—that is, to make those involved believe they have benefited rather than lost from the conflict.101 People believe they have benefited from a conflict when they see the following outcomes:
• A new solution is implemented, the problem is solved, and it is unlikely to emerge again. • Work relationships have been strengthened, and people believe they can work together productively in the future.

LO7
Give examples of ways to manage conflict

CONFLICT HAPPENS
Conflict is a normal part of life in organizations. Keep in mind there are many different ways to manage and resolve it.

7.1 | Conflicts Arise Both within and among Teams
The complex maze of interdependencies throughout organizations provides many opportunities for conflict to arise among groups and teams. Conflict is defined as a process in which

People handle conflict in different ways. You have your own style; others’ styles may be similar or may differ. Their styles depend in part on their country’s cultural norms. For example, the Chinese are more concerned with collective than with individual interests, and they are more likely than managers in the United States to turn to higher authorities to make decisions rather than resolve conflicts themselves.102 But culture aside, any team or individual has several options regarding how they deal with conflicts.103 These personal styles of dealing with conflict, shown in Exhibit 12.7, are distinguished

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accommodation a style of dealing with conflict involving cooperation on behalf of the other party but not being assertive about one’s own interests

compromise a style of dealing with conflict involving moderate attention to both parties’ concerns

competing a style of dealing with conflict involving strong focus on one’s own goals and little or no concern for the other person’s goals

collaboration a style of dealing with conflict emphasizing both cooperation and assertiveness to maximize both parties’ satisfaction

superordinate goals higher-level goals taking priority over specific individual or group goals

E X H I B I T 1 2 . 7 Conflict management strategies Cooperation Uncooperative Assertive Competing Cooperative Collaborating

Compromising

Imagine that you and a friend want to go to a movie together, and you Source: K. Thomas, “Conflict and Conflict Management.” In Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, have different movies in mind. If ed. M. D. Dunnette. Copyright © 1976. Reprinted by permission of the editor. he insists that you go to his movie, he is showing the competing style. If you agree, even though you prefer another movie, you are accommodating. If one of you mentions a third movie that based on how much people strive to satisfy their own conneither of you is excited about but both of you are willing to cerns (the assertiveness dimension) and how much they focus live with, you are compromising. If you realize you don’t know on satisfying the other party’s concerns (the cooperation all the options, do some research, and find another movie that dimension). you’re both enthusiastic about, you are collaborating. For example, a common reaction to conflict is avoidance. In Different approaches are necessary at different times.106 For this situation, people do nothing to satisfy themselves or othexample, competing can be necessary when cutting costs or ers. They either ignore the problem by doing nothing at all or dealing with other scarce resources. Compromise may be useaddress it by merely smoothing over or deemphasizing the disful when people are under time pressure, when they need to agreement. This, of course, fails to solve the problem or clear achieve a temporary solution, or when collaboration fails. the air. When Paul Forti was a middle manager in a managePeople should accommodate when they learn they are wrong ment consulting firm, he was passed over for a promotion, and or to minimize loss when they are outmatched. Even avoiding the organization brought in an outsider who was at first too may be appropriate if the issue is trivial or resolving the conflict busy to discuss his disappointment and future role in the firm. should be someone else’s responsibility. He handled the situation with avoidance, and as a result, their working relationship suffered for weeks.104 But when the conflict concerns important issues, when both sets of concerns are valid and important, when a creative soluAccommodation means cooperating on behalf of the other tion is needed, and when commitment to the solution is vital to party but not being assertive about one’s own interests. Comimplementation, collaboration is the ideal approach. Collabopromise involves moderate attention to both parties’ conration can be achieved by airing feelings and opinions, addresscerns, being neither highly cooperative nor highly assertive. ing all concerns, and avoiding goal displacement by not letting This style results in satisficing but not optimizing solutions. personal attacks interfere with problem solving. An important Competing is a strong response in which people focus strictly technique is to invoke superordinate goals—higher-level on their own wishes and are unwilling to recognize the other organizational goals toward which everyone should be strivperson’s concerns. Finally, collaboration emphasizes both ing and that ultimately need to take precedence over personal cooperation and assertiveness. The goal is to maximize sator unit preferences.107 Collaboration offers the best chance of isfaction for both parties. Collaboration changed Paul Forti’s reaching mutually satisfactory solutions based on the ideas relationship with his boss at the consulting firm. The new

Unassertive

Avoiding

Accommodating

approach literally started by accident, when the senior manager slipped on some ice, Forti came to her aid, and she commented that she would like to get to know him better. Over lunch, she expressed her respect for Forti, and they developed a better working relationship in which she gave him interesting assignments and made sure clients knew about his expertise. Thus, although Forti hadn’t gotten the promotion, he did get many opportunities to develop his career.105

Assertiveness

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mediator a third party who intervenes to help others manage their conflict

and interests of all parties, and of maintaining and strengthening work relationships.

7.3 | Mediating Can Help Resolve a Conflict
Managers spend a lot of time trying to resolve conflict between other people. You already may have served as a mediator, a “third party” intervening to help settle a conflict between other people. Third-party intervention, done well, can improve working relationships and help the parties improve their own conflict management, communication, and problem-solving skills.108 Some insight comes from a study of human resource (HR) managers and the conflicts with which they deal.109 HR managers encounter every type of conflict imaginable: interpersonal difficulties from minor irritations to jealousy to fights; operations issues, including union issues, work assignments, overtime, and sick leave; discipline over infractions ranging from drug use and theft to sleeping on the job; sexual harassment and racial bias; pay and promotion issues; and feuds or strategic conflicts among divisions or individuals at the highest organizational levels. In the study, the HR managers successfully settled most of the disputes. These managers typically follow a four-stage strategy:
1. They investigate by interviewing the disputants and others and gathering more information. While talking with the disputants, they seek both parties’ perspectives, remaining as neutral as possible. The discussion should stay issue-oriented, not personal. 2. They decide how to resolve the dispute, often in conjunction with the disputants’ bosses. In preparing to decide what to do, blame should not be assigned prematurely; at this point they should be exploring solutions. 3. They take action by explaining their decisions and the reasoning, and advise or train the disputants to avoid future incidents. 4. They follow up by making sure everyone understands the solution, documenting the conflict and the resolution, and monitoring the results by checking back with the disputants and their bosses.

Conflicts can arise for any team—the trick is to make them productive. This ad promotes the American Arbitration Association’s mission to train professionals on how to effectively minimize and manage conflict—“before the mud starts flying.”

to resolve it, and if the first efforts don’t work, try others. Even if disputants are not happy with your decisions, there are benefits to providing fair treatment, making a good-faith effort, and giving them a voice in the proceedings. Remember, too, that you may be able to ask HR specialists to help with difficult conflicts.

7.4 | Conflict Isn’t Always Face-To-Face
When teams are geographically dispersed, as is often the case for virtual teams, team members tend to experience more conflict and less trust.112 Conflict management affects the success of virtual teams.113 In a recent study, avoidance hurt performance. Accommodation—conceding to others just to maintain harmony rather than assertively attempting to negotiate integrative solutions—had no effect on performance. Collaboration had a positive effect on performance. The researchers also uncovered two surprises: compromise hurt performance, and competition helped performance. Compromises hurt because they often are watered-down, middle-of-the-road, suboptimal solutions. Competitive behavior was useful because the virtual teams were temporary and under time pressure, so having some individuals behave dominantly and impose decisions to achieve efficiency was useful rather than detrimental.

DID YOU KNOW?
A recent survey asked 1,400 chief financial officers to identify which coworker behaviors annoy them the most. The number one complaint was turning in sloppy work, followed by engaging in office politics and missing deadlines.110

Throughout, the objectives of the HR people are to be fully informed so that they understand the conflict; to be active and assertive in trying to resolve it; to be as objective, neutral, and impartial as humanly possible; and to be flexible by modifying their approaches according to the situation. Here are some other recommendations for more effective conflict management.111 Don’t allow dysfunctional conflict to build, or hope or assume that it will go away. Address it before it escalates. Try
298 PART 4 | Leading

Conflict between team members and coworkers is inevitable. There are several strategies that can help you get past the conflict and stay productive.

When people have problems in business-to-business e-commerce (e.g., costly delays), they tend to behave competitively and defensively rather than collaboratively.114 Technical problems and recurring problems test people’s patience. The conflict will escalate unless people use more cooperative, collaborative styles. Try to prevent conflicts before they arise; for example,

make sure your information system is running smoothly before linking with others. Monitor and reduce or eliminate problems as soon as possible. When problems arise, express your willingness to cooperate, and then actually be cooperative. Even technical problems require the social skills of good management. ■

CHAPTER 12

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Teamwork

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