HRM 4495
CH 7 Team decision making- pitfalls and solutions
1.

Decision making is an integrated sequence of activities

-gathering, interpreting and exchanging information
-creating and identifying alternative courses of action
-choosing among alternatives by integrating differing perspectives
-opinion of team members
-implementing a choice and monitoring the consequence

2.

Individual decision making biases

-Framing bias
E.G.
A spread disease in US, two plans were suggested
Plan A: if adopted, 200 people will be saved
Plan B: if adopted, 1/3 probability that all people will be saved, but
2/3 probability that no one will be saved.
Many people chose plan A, then another 2 plan is suggested
Plan C: if adopted, 400 people will die
Plan D: if adopted, 1/3 probability that no one will die, and 2/3 probability all people will die.
When

the

identical

problem

with

the

same

differently, more people will chose the risky plan D.

options

worded

*This inconsistency is a preference reversal and reveals the framing effect. Almost any decision can be reframed as a gain or a loss relative to sth. Decision makers’ reference points for defining gain and loss are often arbitrary.

-Overconfidence
In the team, overconfidence leads people less to focus on their teammates’ strength, as opposed to their weaknesses and neglect the strength and weakness of members of competitor teams.
-Confirmation bias
It is a tendency for people to consider evidence that support their position, hypothesis or desire and disagree or discount evidence that against their belief.

3. Individual VS group decision making in demonstrable tasks
-Demonstrable task
It is a task that has an obvious, correct answer.
Group performs better than independent individuals on a wide range of demonstrable task. And group who use a structured approach for making decision perform better than those without structure. People who have experience solving demonstrable problems in a group are able to transfer their performance to individual tasks. And people who participate in group discussion are more accurate.

*However, groups are much more overconfident than individuals, regardless of their actual accuracy. And groups are also more likely to exacerbate some of the short comings displayed by individuals, namely, group are more likely than individuals to neglect case specific information and ignore base rate information.

-Group decision rules
Given the pervasiveness of group decision making, teams need a method by which to combine individuals’ decision to a yield a group decision. The objective of decision rules may differ, such as finding the alternative that the greatest number of team members prefer, the alternative the

fewest

members

object

to,

the

choice

they

maximizes team welfare. Thus, groups are well served in using majority or plurality voting in truth-seeking group decision. But they avoid majority rule when given a choice.

The most common decision rule is majority rule, use it as a decision heuristic because of its ease and familiarity. But it contains several problems: -it will ignore issue counts only as much as the vote of a person who is virtually different. It may not promote creative trade off among issues. -it may also encourage the formation if coalitions, or subgroups within a team. A coalition is a group of two or more members who

join together to affect the outcome of a decision involving at least three parties.
* Although unanimous decision making is time consuming, it encourages team members to consider creative alternatives to satisfy the interest of all members.
Teams required to reach consensus have great accuracy than those that are not.

4. 5 decision making pitfalls
-Group think 是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是 是是是是
是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是
It occurs when team members place consensus above all other priorities-including using good judgment when the consensus reflects poor judgment or improper or immoral action.
The cause of group think may come from group pressures to conform or a sincere desire to incorporate and reflect the views of all team members. Conformity pressure can lead decision makers to censor to misgivings, ignore outside information, feel too confident, and adopt an attitude of invulnerability.

-symptoms of group think
It cannot easy to observe from the outsiders, it more present private feelings or beliefs held by group members or behaviors performed in private.

Overestimation of the group: members of the group regard themselves as invulnerable and, at the same time, morally correct.
This lethal combination can lead decision makers to believe they are exempt from standards.

Close mindedness: members of the group engage in collective rationalization, often

accompanied

by

stereotyping out

group

members, teams that develop norms of open mindedness create, more knowledge.

Pressure toward uniformity: there is a strong intolerance in a groupthink situation for diversity of opinion. Dissenters are subject to enormous social pressure. This often leads group members to suppress their reservations.

-The following behaviors are obstacles of rational decision making:
•

Incomplete survey of alternatives

•

Incomplete survey of objectives

•

Failure to reexamine alternatives

•

Failure to examine preferred choices

•

Selection bias

•

Poor information search

•

Failure to create contingency plans

-Avoid groupthink
1.Monitor team size
Larger teams are more likely to fall prey to groupthink. Teams with more than 10 members may feel less personal responsibility for team decision making.

2.Provide face-saving mechanism for teams
A small team often concerned with how their decision will be viewed by others, so they actually did not make effective decisions. Many teams are afraid of being blamed for poor decisions, even the decisions for which it would have been impossible to predict the outcome. Face-saving concerns prevent people from changing course, even when the current courses are doubtful. Teams that are given an excuse for poor performance before knowing the outcome of their decision are less likely to succumb to groupthink than teams that donot have an excuse.

3.Risk technique
It is a structured discussion situation designed to reduce group members’ fears about making decisions. Since the discussion is structured, so the team members talk about the dangers or risks involved in a decision and delay decision of potential gains. The goal is to create an atmosphere in which team members can express

doubts and raises criticisms without fear or rejection or hostility fro the team. E.G.
-the facilitator play the role of devil’s advocate for a particular decision. The mere expression of doubt about an idea or plan by one person may liberate others to raise doubts and concerns.
-to have members privately convey their concerns or doubts and then post this information in an unidentifiable manner. This will liberate members to talk about their doubts.

4.Invite different perspectives
Team members assume the perspective of other constituencies with a stake in the decision. The key point of adopting different perspectives is to create a mechanism that will instigate thinking more carefully about problems, which could prompt these groups to reconsider evidence. And the managers should not say the member
“screw up”, it is better to say “we have a problem”.

5.Appoint a devil’s advocate
The subordinate donot want to challenge the managers’ belief, so they keep silent even they know the manager made a wrong decision. In this sense, some teams institute a special “devil’s advocate” responsibility to members of the team.

Whereas a devil’s advocate procedure can be effective, it is contrived 是是是 dissent. It is better for a team to have genuine dissent 5.

Structure discussion principle

The goal is to delay solution selection and to increase the problem solving phase. It can prevent premature closure on a solution and extends problem analysis and evaluation. E.G.
Teams

may

be

given

guidelines

that

emphasize

continued

solicitations of solutions, protection of individuals from criticism, keeping the discussion problem centered and listing all solutions before evaluating them.

6.Establish procedures for protecting alternative viewpoints
Instruct members to record all alternatives suggested during each meeting. it is difficult when conformity pressure exists and when team members have publicly committed to a particular course if action. 7.Second solution it requires teams to identify a second solution or decision recommendation as an alternative to their first choice.
This enhances the problem solving and idea generation phases, as well as performance quality.

8.Beware of time pressure
It acts as a stressor on teams, and stress impairs the effectiveness of team decision making. Moral principles are more likely to guide decisions for the distant future than for the immediate future, whereas difficulty, cost. Situational pressures are more likely to be important in near future decision.

- Escalation of Commitment

Under some conditions, teams will persist with a losing course of action, even in fact of clear evidence to the contrary. E.G.
A senior marketing manager at a major pet food corporation continued to promote a specific brand, despite clear evidence that the brand was losing market share to its competitors.
This situation becomes an escalation dilemma when the persons involved in the decision would make a different decision if they had not been involved up until that point, or when other objective persons would not choose that course of action.
In escalation situations, a decision is made to commit further resources to “turn the situation around”. This process may repeat and escalate several times as additional resources are invested. The bigger the investment and the more severe the possible loss, the more prone people are to try to turn things around.

-4 key process involved in the escalation of commitment

1. Project determinants
It is an objective feature of the situation. Upon receiving negative feedback, team members ask whether the perceived setback is permanent or temporary. Teams should consider whether to increase the investment in the project or commit more time and energy. But it is hard for the team to terminate that course of action if results continue to be poor.

2.Psychological determinants
It refers to the cognitive and motivational factors that propel people to continue with a chosen course of action. Managers should consider two questions when they learned that the outcome of the project may be negative.
-what are the personal rewards for me in this project?
People with high self esteem are more likely to become victim of the psychological forces. They have more invested in ther ego and its maintenance than those with low self esteem
-Are my ego and the team’s reputation on the line?
Ego protection becomes a higher priority than the success of the project. When managers feel personally responsible for a decision, monetary allocations to the project increase at a much higher rate than when managers do not feel responsible for the initial decision.

3.Social determinants
Most people want others to approve of them, accept them and respect them. So they engage in actions and behaviors that they think will please most of the people most of the time, perhaps at the expense of doing the right thing, which may not be popular. E.G.
The need for approval and liking may be especially heightened among groups composed of friends. Friends are more likely to continue investing the losing course of action.
The greater the group’s sense of social identity, the mire likely the group is to escalation commitment to an unreasonable course of action. 4.Structural determinants
A project can itself become institutionalized, removing it from critical evaluation. It becomes impossible for teams to consider removal or extinction of the project.
Political support can also keep a project alive that should be terminated. -Avoiding escalation of commitment to a losing course of action
1.Set limits
Determine the criteria and performance standards justify continued investment in the project or program in question.
2.Avoid the bystander effect
In the ambiguous situation, people are not sure how to behave and do nothing, because they donot want to appear foolish. If members

have well defined, predetermined limits, they need not try to interpret others’ behavior, they can refer own judgement and act upon it.
3.Avoid tunnel vision
Get several perspectives on the problem. Ask people not involved in the situation.
But not to biases their evaluation with your own.
4.Recognize sunk costs
Sunk cost are resources, such as money and time, previously invested that cannot be recovered.
5.Avoid bad mood
People may choose high risk option when they are upset.
6.External review
Sometimes, it is necessary to remove or replace original decision makers from deliberations precisely because they are biased.
External review is suggested.

- Abilene Paradox
It will result from group members’ desire to avoid conflict and reach consensus at all cost. The Abilene Paradox is a form of pluralistic ignorance, group members adopt a position because they feel other members desire it, team members donot challenge one another because that want to avoid conflict or achieve consensus.

-Key Causes of Self-Limiting Behavior in Teams(factors lead to Abilene paradox, individual members feel their point is not worthwhile, so they give up defend it)
•

Presence of someone with expertise

•

Presentation of a compelling argument

•

Lack of confidence in one’s ability to contribute

•

Unimportant or meaningless decision

•

Pressure from others to conform to team’s decision

•

Dysfunctional decision-making climate

- Avoiding the Abilene Paradox

•

Confront the issue in a team setting(involve key members in the problem and solution)

•

Conduct a private vote

•

Minimize status member) •

Frame task as a decision to be made

•

Provide formal forum for controversial views(segmenting the

differences(high

status

and

low

status

discussion into pros and cons, members are encouraged to get involved.) •

Take responsibility for failure (create a climate in which teams can make mistake.)

- Group Polarization
是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是
是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是

•

Risky shift(是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是是,)

•

Cautious shift(是是是是是是是是是是是是,是是是是是是是是是是是是
是是是是是是是是是是是)

-Two psychological explanations
•

The need to be right

•

The need to be liked

•

Conformity pressures 是是是是

- Unethical Decision Making
Situational triggers
•

Rational Expectations model (people are fundamentally motivated to maximize their own utility, which has become equivalent to maximizing self interest.)

•

Pluralistic ignorance (it is a belief that everyone else knows or

believes

sth

that we

donot

know.

And

“everyone else is doing it”)
•

Desensitization (when people first crosses the line a appropriate behavior, they are sensitized. After the line is

crossed, that person is desensitized and the normal system of internal checks and balances is turned off.)
- How to Remedy or Prevent Unethical Decision Making

•

Accountability for behavior

Accountability is the implicit expectation that one may be called on to justify one’s beliefs, feelings and actions to others. It implies that people who do not provide a satisfactory justification for their action will suffer negative consequences.
•

Reward model

•

Appropriate role models

•

Eliminate conflicts of interest

•

Create cultures of integrity

Ch8 Conflict in teams
1.3 types of conflict
-Relationship conflict (emotional conflict, A-type conflict, affective conflict) Involves disagreements based on personal and social issues that are not related to work

-Task conflict (cognitive conflict, C-type conflict)

It involves disagreements about the work that is being done in group, including argument about the merits of ideas, plans and projects. In some cases, it can be effective in stimulating creativity because it forces people to rethink problems and arrive at outcomes that everyone can live with.

-Process conflict
It centers on task strategy and delegation of duties and resources.
And disagreements that team members have about how to approach a

task

and

who

should

do

what.

Also

involves

disagreement among team members as to how to achieve a goal.

2. Best practice for management conflict in team
The most effective team shares several common practices when it come to conflict and conflict management. They realize that conflict is an inevitable aspect of high performance teamwork. And they deal with conflict proactively; develop procedures and practices to deal with it before it emerges.
And they focus on behaviors rather than traits. Groups that improve or maintain top performance over time share 3 conflict resolution best practice:
-they focus on the content of their interactions, rather than the deliver style (tone)
-they explicitly discuss resources behind work assignment decision
-they assign work to members who have the task expertise rather than by other means, such as volunteerism or convenience.

3.Real conflict VS symbolic conflict
-Real conflict
Economic issues, such as pay and remuneration, the size of office space and staff.
-Symbolic conflict
Differing

beliefs,

quality

VS

quantity,

meritocracy

VS

equal

opportunity

-Egocentric bias and Scare resource competition
Teams experience economic conflicts are competing over scarce resource, most people feel entitled to more resources than others believe they merit. Their own fairness is egocentrically biased.

4.Conflict management approaches
-According to Blake and Mouton, people can take at least five course of action when they find themselves involved in conflict. The five choices differ depending upon the extent to which people are concerned for themselves and the other party.

-A contingency theory of task conflict and performance in teams
It views team performance as a function of the type of task conflict, the conflict management style, and the nature of the task performed by the group.

-the amount of conflict is direct determinant of team performance and individual wellbeing (individual satisfaction). Individual well being exerts a powerful effect on how people deal with conflict.

-another determinant of team performance is the approach that team members

use

to

manage

conflict.

Member

may

use

collaborate (interest-based) style of conflict management, such as “constructive

controversy”

are

more

beneficial

for

team

management. Or contending with each other by using the following, Rights based argument: focus on applying some standard of fairness, precedent, contract or law.
Power-based argument: is characterized by the use of force, intimidation, rank or power.
Avoidance is yet another option for team members.
Interest-based approach: it focus on satisfying both parties’ core interests, when people set aside questions of right and wrong, they can sometimes crafts terms that meet their most important interests, but usually not all of them.

*in the model, the types of conflict may be either the content of the task or the process of the task.
Task content conflict: it is the disagreement among team members’ ideas and opinions about the task being performed.
Task process conflict: it is conflict about logistical and delegation issues, such as how to proceed and allocate work.

5.Wageman and Donnenfelds’ conflict intervention model
-4 interventions that team leaders and managers can use to improve the quality of conflict resolution process
1.team design
Deliberate changes in the structure (environment or task) in which teams do their work. Interventions may include increasing the amount of task interdependence that a team has in accomplishing a given work product. It may including how the goal is defined, who is on the team, the nature and amount of resources allocated to the team and norm of conduct.
One important aspect of team design is the stated goal of the team.
Teams that agree on a common goal or shared vision are more successful than those that donot or cannot. Common goal donot imply homogeneous thinking, but they do require everyone to share a vision.

2.task process coaching
Coaching can help the team perform better via changes in effort, strategy and talent. It is aimed exclusively at improving motivation, strategy and talent nut not conflict per se. it includes member’s skills, improving the communication system and so on.
After the team is well designed, the team leader should use the strategy of coaching the team. It can work well only the team is well desgined. 3.conflict process coaching
Direct intervention in a team to improve the quality of conflict the team is having. It may include trust building exercise, structured debate and appointing a devil’s advocate.
It may engender resistance relative to discussions about motivation strategy, or leveraging talent in the team. It also important to focus on the content rather than style, focus on the substance rather than delivery 4.changing the individual
Individual level training with the goal of making specific team members more tolerant, thoughtful and capable when they disagree with others. This may involve behavioral training in negotiation.
But it will have greatest impact only after the team design and team processes are addressed. People have better chance of changing when the team design is optimal and the core team process are positive, thereby serving to reinforce individual behavior.

5.Norms of fairness
Many conflicts in teams emerge because people feel misunderstood or ignored, people want to be understood and heard.
•

Equity

method

(or

contribution-based

distribution):

prescribes that benefits and costs should be proportional to team members’ contributions.

•

Equality method (or blind justice): prescribes that all team members should suffer or benefits equally, regardless of input.

•

Need method (or welfare-based justice): prescribes that benefits and costs should be proportional to members’ needs

Egocentric judgment influence which norm of fairness is preferred:
Members who contribute less prefer to divide resources equally, whereas who contribute more prefer the equity rule.

6.Minority(subgroup in the team) and Majority conflict in groups
-influence (2 ways)
1.direct influence
When they entice other team members to adopt their position.

2.indirect influence
People in majority privately agree with the minority

*when people change their attitude and behavior as a result of direct influence or pressure, this is referred to as compliance 顺顺
When people change their attitudes and behavior as a result of their own thinking about a subject, this is known as conversion. It may occur at a latent level and have a delayed impact, such as when change occurs later, known as sleeper effect.

Conversion is more stable form of attitude change because a person changes inwardly, not just outwardly, to please others.
Minority induce conversion, Majorities induce compliance.
-benefits of minority influence
It stimulates greater thought about issues. When minorities in a group express a differing opinion, the general level of cognitive activity in the group increases and groups members engage in more message scrutiny.
They stimulate much broader thinking about the issue in general and open the doors to considering multiple perspectives and divergent thinking.
Courage hypothesis: people who persist in the face of hardship and ridicule are viewed as particularly sincere, confident and courageous, given that they are willing to risk social censure.
7.Cross functional teams and conflict
Cross functional teams are deliberately constructed to be diverse at the deeper level. It composed people from multiple disciplines, functions and divisions who have relevant but different expertise
It focuses on the role of representational gaps. A team has large representational gaps has inconsistent views about the definition of the team’s problem or task. In this sense, members have different mental models about the task.

CH 9 Creativity
1.Creative realism
-creativity or ideation
Is the production of novel and useful ideas, the ability to form new concepts using existing knowledge. A creative act is original and valuable. -innovation
Is the realization of novel and useful ideas in the form of products and services. -Structural connectedness
Ideas that work with existing products and services are high in structural connectedness,
Ideas that cannot work with existing products and services are low in structural connectedness.
It distinguishes ideas that are realistic (connected to current and knowledge) from ideas that are realistic (disconnected from current knowledge). The most desirable ideas are creative realism. It represents ideas that are

highly

traditional

and

highly

connected

to

current

knowledge and practices. This creates little ambiguity and little uncertainty. *The key is to encourage team members to generate ideas in all the quadrants. 2.Measuring creativity

-3 indices of evaluating the creativity of team’s ideas.
1.fluency
It is a simple measure of how many ideas a person or team generates. Brainstorming, quantity breed quality.
2.flexibility
It is a measure of how many types of ideas a person or team generate.The higher the number of categories of idea that are generated the more likely that you will come up with a creative, original realistic idea. There is a strong relationship between the quantity, of ideas and with the ability to generate creative and realistic ideas.
3.originality
It is the ability to generate unusual solutions and unique answers to problems. -Thinking patterns
1.Convergent thinking 顺顺顺顺
Thinking that proceeds towards a single answer. Groups excel compared with individuals and good at judging ideas.
This suggest that an effective team design for promoting creativity involves separating the generation of

ideas, leaving this to

individual team members and then evaluating and discussing the idea as a team.

2.Divergent thinking 顺顺顺顺
Thinking that moves outward from a central point. It is conditions for success, best done by individual alone. Teams less proficient due to group think.

-exploration 是是
It refers to activities such as search, variation, risk taking, experimentation, play,

flexibility, discovery

and innovation.

-

exploitation 是是
It refers to refinement, choice, production, efficiency, selection, implementation and execution of an idea.

3.Brainstorming
-rules for brainstorming
•

Expressiveness: group members should express any idea that comes to mind, no matter how strange. They are encouraged not to be constrained or timid, they should freewheel whenever possible.

•

Non-evaluation: do not criticize ideas. Group members should not evaluate any of the ideas in any way during the generation phase; all ideas should be considered valuable.

•

Quantity: generate as many ideas as possible, focus on quantity of ideas. It will increase the probability of finding excellent solutions.

•

Building: all the ideas belong to the group, members should try to modifying and extend the ideas suggested by other members whenever possible.

*-Cognitive stimulation
Ideas generate by one person in a team could stimulate ideas in other people in a synergistic fashion. -Priming effect
Members would make mutual associations upon hearing the ideas presented by others.

*However,

the

research

brainstorming

(same

independently)

are

showed

number

more

of

productive

that

the

people and solitary working efficient

in

laboratory and orgnal settings, compare to face to face brainstorming group.

-Threats to Team Creativity
•

Social loafing: it is a tendency for people to slack off, not work as hard in a group as they would alone.

•

Conformity: it occurs when people concerned that others in the group will

be critical

of

their suggestions, despite

instructions designed to minimize such concerns.

•

Production blocking: it occurs when group members cannot express their ideas because others are presenting their ideas.
It is a coordination problem, a person who working alone can enjoy an uninterrupted flow of thought.
People may forget their ideas or decide not to present them during the waiting period.

•

Performance matching: the performance of people working within a group tends to converge over time. Social comparison process may

lead

team

members

to

converge

their

performance level into one another. It most likely to occur when there are no strong internal or external incentives for high performance in teams.

-those 4 problems above conspire cause people in most brainstorming group:
1.fail to follow or abide by, the rules oof brainstorming
2.experience inhibitions, anxiety and self-presentational concerns
3.slack off production
4.participate in nonproductive social rituals, such as telling stories, repeating ideas and giving positive feedback
5.set their performance benchmarks too low
6.conform in terms of ideas
7.confrom in terms of rate idea generation

4.Enhancing Team Creativity
1. Cognitive-Goal instructions
•

Set high goals (set relevant goals or benchmark; set high benchmark is through internal competition)

•

Explicit set of rules(a 2-minute rule for seeking advice; learn as you go, group spends half day assessing its work; fast has to be fun, going on team outings once a week and having debate)

•

Paulus’ new rules (effects of 4 new brainstorming rules.
Stay focused on the task, donot tell stories or explain ideas, when no one is suggesting ideas restate the problem and encourage each other to generate ideas, encourage those who are not talking to make a contribution.)

•

Positive mood (increase creativity)

•

Increase individual accountability (team members feel individually accountable for their idea are more productive than teams in which it is not possible to discern who contributed what)

•

Analogical reasoning (it is the act of applying one concept or idea from a particular domain to another domain.
Inter

knowledge

problem:

people’s

ability

to

take

advantage of their prior experience is highly limited. )

2. Social-Organizational suggestions

full

•

Trained

facilitators

(they

can

better

follow

rules

of

brainstorming, help creat an orgnal memory, keep teams on track. Indeed,

they

can

bring

up

the

level

of

team

performance up to that of nominal groups)
•

Brain-writing (it is the simultaneous generation of written ideas. At key intervals during a brainstorming session, group members cease all talking and all interaction and write their ideas silently and independently. It can eliminate the problem of production blocking)

•

Brief breaks (short breaks will increase their productivity)

•

Nominal group technique (having a prior session of solitary writing. It is a variation of brain-writing)

•

Delphi technique(group members donot interact face to face, suited for groups whose members are geographically dispersed) •

Stepladder technique (it is a membership change tech, is a decision making approach in which members are added one by one to a team. When members joined the core group, they must present their point before hear from others)

3. Structural-Environmental suggestions
•

Diversify the team (diverse perspectives)

•

Membership change and rotation (more creative ideas than consistent membership)

•

Organizational networking (fluid team boundaries, allowing cross functional networking, more creative)

•

Build

a

playground

(working

environment

to

foster

creativity)

5.Electronic Brainstorming
It uses computers to allow members to interact and exchange ideas.
It tends to be expressed more freely and in greater quantity. It gives org the opportunity to gather ideas efficiently, org those ideas, and subsequently make decision.
Participants can view subsets of ideas generated by other team members on part of the screen at any time by using a keystroke.

-ADS
•Parallel entry of ideas
•

Anonymity (reducing many people’s inhibitions and concerns about what others think of them)

•

Size (allow large group member to involved )

•

Proximity (members can meet even they are dispersed)

• Memory
•

Refinement and evaluation of ideas(allow software to help refine, organize and evaluate ideas)

•

Equality

-DISADS
• Small teams (smaller ESB groups cannot generate many ideas as big groups)
•Loss of social interaction
•

Loss of power (higher position people lose their status)

•

No credit (some people do nothing, may cause free riding.
And people feel their contribution is not recognized)

CH10 Networking, Social capital
1. Team boundaries
Team boundaries differentiate one work group from another and affect knowledge transfer and distribution of resources. -underbounded
Teams have many external ties but an inability to coalesce and motivate members to pull together. -over-bound
Teams have high internal loyalty and a complex set of internal dynamics but an ability to intergrate with others when needed.

-Four Types of Teams (in Relation to Environment)
1.Insulating teams
Teams is isolated from other parts of the org or its customer, team concentrates solely on internal functioning, usually highly goal driven. -ads:

-Less likely to compromise ideals and objectives
-Especially conducive for creative team
-insulate themselves from competitors who have strategic reasons to learn their secrets

-disads:
-disconnected from rest of the org
-may develop groupthink or overconfidence

2.Broadcasting teams
Teams concentrate on internal team processes until the team is ready to inform outsiders of its intentions.
-ads:
-Control over negative information broadcasting is relatively inexpensive

-disads:
-may fail to sense true needs of customers
-may fail to develop customer support

3.Marketing teams

Team concentrate on getting buy in from outsiders through advertising, self promotion, lobbying -ads:
High visibility often is helpful for teams

-diads:
-may fail to meet true needs of customers
-marketing costs can be high

4.Surveying teams
Team

concentrates

on

diagnosing

needs

of

customers,

experimenting with solutions, revising their knowledge, initiating programs and collecting data -ads:
-greatest potential customer satisfaction
-understand outsiders’ demand
-rated by outsiders as higher performers -disads:
-often extremely costly and time consuming
-may surface latent conflict within the org
-possible low cohesion due to divergent views created by surveying
-possible dissatisfaction

5.X-teams
-exploration
Team members try to understand their task from a novel vantage point, generating as many insights and ideas as possible. exploitation
The team settles upon one product they wish to create, using rapid prototyping to move from possibilities to reality. -exportation
They find ways to move their product and their knowledge and excitement into the broader org and market.
*This relationship of team has with its environment evolves, sometimes from direct managerial intervention, but more often orgnal norms, culture and situational constraints.
-ads:
-rapid

execution

-rapid prototyping -disads:
-need top management support, setting appropriate milestones so that exploitation does not dwarf exploration

-6 steps of X-team behavior
-choosing team members for their networks

-making external outreach the modus operandi
-help the team focus on scouting, ambassadorship and task coordination -set milestones and deliverables for exploration, exploitation and exportation -use internal process to facilitate external work
-work with top management for commitment, resources and support. 2. Common Roles in Work Groups
-boundary spanner
Acts as bridge between units or people in an org who would not otherwise interact. They are exposed to more ideas than members who donot interact with other groups. Indeed, they expend time with different groups exhibit greater integrative complexityin their thinking. -bufferer
They protects the team from bad or disappointing news that may cause moral to suffer and volunteers to absorb pressure or criticism from others.

-interpreter
They shape the collective understanding of the team. This is important because in many cases the messages that the teams receive form others are ambiguous and open interpretation.

-advisor
They inform the team about which options they should consider and what approach they should take in dealing with changing events.

-gatekeeper
They control the flow of information to and from the team.

-lobbyist
It is an extremely critical role, especially for new product groups. By providing meanings about that the team is doing and how successful it is to people outside the team, they control the interpretation of what the team is perceived to be doing.

-negotiator or mediator
They are empowered by the team to negotiate on behalf of the group. This person has extraordinary power in terms of garnering resources, defining options. They may act as mediator in cases where the team is in conflict with others.

-spokesperson
A person in voice of the team. This position determined in 2 ways: by the group members themselves and by the members of the external environment who have their choice in terms of contacting group members.

-strategist
Like the negotiator, plans how to approach management for resources and deal with threats and other negative information.

-coordinator
Arranges formal or informal communication with other people or units outside the team.
*Despite the benefits of boundary spanning for teams, they can be stressful and challenging, requiring effort and time. Role overload occurs when a person has too much work to do in time available.
High levels of boundary spanning within the team can mitigate personal costs and improve team viability.

3.Networking: a key successful team work
-Communication
In an ideal orgnal environment, there is clear and consistent communication among the different functional and geographic units.
It quickly disperses innovation, reduces unnecessary duplication of

effort and facilitates the implementation of best practice. But the ideal communication rarely happened in the org. Most org are composed of

informal

communication

networks,

in

which

communication is incomplete and information is not ubiquitously dispersed throughout the company.

-Human capital and Social capital
Some teams are singled out and win more approval from senior management than other teams. The explanation centers upon two reasons. -human capital
Inequalities result from differences in individual ability. People who are more intelligent, educated and experienced rise to top of their org. -social capital
It is the value managers add to their teams and org through social networks and elite institutional ties. It is the value that comes from knowing who, when, and how to coordinate through various contacts. *whereas human capital refers to individual ability, social capital refers to opportunity created through relationships. Managers with more social capital get higher returns on their human capital because they are positioned to identify and develop more rewarding opportunities. -2 social networks in org

Perceived network may predict performance more than actual networks. 1.

this information provides a good assessment of who is powerful in the org.

2.

this information can be used to identify where the coalitions are in an org, their size, their sources of support.

3.

An

accurate

assessment

of

the

network

can

expose

the

weaknesses in other groups by exposing holes, gaps and lack of support. -Gregory

It has a network of relatively close colleagues, most likely from the same function unit. This type of close knit, self contained network is a clique network and is reminiscent of the traditional family unit.
In the clique network, groups of people, all whom know one another quite well, share largely redundant communication structures. At the extreme, members of clique networks are only aware of other with whom they have direct contact.

-boundary spanning

Individuals who span orgnal divided and integrate the knowledge and best practice from different areas of the org are extremely valuable for the org. These people are boundary spanners, bridge the functional gaps or structure holes that exist in org. They fills a unique spot

in

the

orgnal

network,

bring

together

people,

knowledge and information that would otherwise nor be connected.

G has a network that spans one structural hole, the relatively weak connection between a cluster reached through 1, 2 and 3 versus the other cluster that is reached through contacts 4 and 5.

*the structural holes that exist between people, functional units and teams represent

opportunities

for

teams

and

their

leaders.

Boundary spanners broker the flow of information between people on opposite ends of a structural hole and control the nature of projects they bring people together on opposite ends of the structural hole. Managers who contact networks rich in structural holes are the people who know about, have hand in, and exercise more control over rewarding opportunities.

-Cliques vs. boundary-spanning (entrepreneur) networks
G is in a tightly constructed, dense clique net work. Members of clique networks consider one another to be their closest contacts and because they focus their efforts at internal communication.
They

are

often

sequestered

from

the

larger

org.

For

the

entrepreneur network, G seems more secure, nestled in his cohesive group and more successful.
G is an orgnal clone, expendable at least on a socio-structural level.
It is a highly cohesive group, which can be advantageous when it comes to managing the internal team environment. But it does not learn anything new by interacting with members in the group. And

G network may apply social pressure on the members, because they know each other.
-Berta

Berta network is much less tightly knit than Gregory. It spans what appear to be more functional units than G. In a sense, B knows more people who donot know each other. B’s network is structurally more unique than G.
G’s network is highly identical to all the other people in his clique, but B’s network does not look like anyone else’s in terms of the connections she has.

- boundary spanning
B preserves the connections with both clusters in G’s network but expands the network to a more diverse set of contacts. B’s network, adding three new clusters of people, spans 10 structure holes.

-Cliques vs. boundary-spanning (entrepreneur) networks
B is much less dense, more unique and more varied.
B’s entrepreneur network is a less tightly knit group, with contacts in a variety of disparate orgnal areas. B does not appear to be housed in any particular network. B is a boundary spanner, a link between different subgroups and functional units that without her

would not be connected. B occupies a unique position in her network as she single handedly bridges these separate groups.
In this sense, B is an information broker, because she alone is at critical junction between these networks and serves the important role of brokering information. People in B network are more depended on B for information. It serves an important team and orgnal function by generating information that would otherwise be unavailable to the team or the org.
Members in B network feel less social pressures, because they donot know each other. B’s position as a structural hole is an indicator that people on either side of the hole circulate in different flows of information. But it does not mean people in two clusters are unaware of one another. Rather, people are so focused on their own activities that they have little time to attend to the activities of people in the other cluster.
B network contains diverse contacts and it enhance the quality of benefits. And B is able to monitor information more effectively than is possible with typical bureaucratic control. It is highly mobile relative to bureaucracy.

-Clique Network Ads:
Boundary-Spanning Network
High cohesion
Loyalty and support
Increased efficiency of decision making
Leverages diversity
Capitalizes on opportunity
Disads:
Redundant communication

Greater innovation

Biased communication
Groupthink
Dispensable members

Earlier promotions
Higher salaries

Greater conflict, both task and relationship
Power struggles

-Group social capital
It is the configuration if team members’ social relationships within a group and in the social structure of the broader org. Boundary spanning might decrease the group’s internal cohesiveness and affect the performance. Some teams have greater social group capital “liquidity” because their members have positions in the overall sreucture of the org.
It is actually counterproductive for team members to socialize informally outside of the org. such ties are particularly critical because the shift in focus from work to social interaction invites a shift in the types of resources that are transferred among members.

-Leadership ties
The network structure of team leaders is important for team performance. Teams with leaders who are central in team’s

intergroup networks and teams are central in their intergroup network performs better.
Leader centrality-performance hypothesis, team leaders from whom subordinates seek advice or friendship tend to have relatively comprehensive views of the social structures of their teams. This perspective helps them make better decision. Central leader occupy structurally advantageous positions in their social networks and often act as gatekeeper and regulators resource flow.

-4 key skills for boundary management

*Teams with more

prestigious formal leaders whom a high

proportion if subordinate sought for advice experienced lower levels of conflict and had higher levels of team viability.
- Strategic Network Expansion

4.Building Connections across Functional Groups
•

Analyze your social network

•

Determine the brokers in your social network

•

Identify “structural holes” in your organization

•

Expand the size of the network

•

Understand gender scripts in networks

•

Diversify networks

•

Build hierarchical networks

•

Multi-team systems

CH11 Leadership: managing the paradox
1.Leadership and management
Leadership is not the same as management. People donot want to be managed, they want to be led. Management is a function that must be exercised in any business or team, whereas leadership is a relationship between the leader and the led that can energize a team or org.
Leadership is the ability to influence people to achieve the goals of a team. A leader is able to influence people to achieve a group or org’s goals.

Management

Leadership

-----------------------------------------------------------

A function

A relationship

Planning

Selecting talent

Budgeting

Motivating

Evaluating

Coaching

Facilitating

Building trust

2.Leadership styles
-Task VS Person
Task oriented leader focuses on accomplishing the objectives of the team. Relationship-oriented leader focuses on the process of getting there. -Transactional VS transformational
Transformational leadership is developmental and usually begins with a transactional approach. At a basic level, leaders and their teams are in an exchange leadership that involves negotiation to establish outcomes and rewards. A psychological contract is a person’s belief in mutual obligations between that person and another party, such as an ER or leader.
They motivate their teams to work toward goals that go beyond immediate charisma,

self

interest.

intellectual

And

they

rely

stimulation

consideration to produce change.

on and three

behaviors:

individualized

They also predict the collective personality of the team, this affects team performance. So they create teams that are characterized by collective openness to experience, agreeableness, extraversion and greater conscientiousness.
*hypocrisy attribution dynamic
It refers to the tendency for team members to draw sinister conclusions about leader’s behavior. This can happen when EE are promoted to engage in sense making in strong values driven org.

Transactional leadership depends on the leader’s power to reinforce subordinates for their

successful

completion of

the

bargain. This relationship of leadership sets up a competitive relationship. -Active VS Passive
Leader activity can range from highly involved and active to laissez-faire. They are highly involved in team activities and is highly visible to team members.
Passive leader is on who is usually not involved in the day-to-day activities of the team, and his or her influence is seldom directly felt by the team

-Autocratic VS Democratic

Another view of leadership focuses on a continuum of behavior ranging from entirely autocratic to purely democratic. Also known as vertical leadership, this type of leadership stems from an appointed or formal leader of a team, whereas shared leadership is a group process in which leadership is distributed among, and stems from team members.
Autocratic leadership is displayed by leaders who seek sole possession of authority, power and control, whereas democratic leadership is displayed by leaders who share authority, power and control with their team.

3.Team coaching
-Team coaching
It is direct interaction with a team intended to help members make coordinated and task-appropriate use of their collective resources in accomplishing the team’s work. It is including 3 features:
-the function that coaching serves for a team
-the specific times in the task performance process when coaching intervention are most likely to have their intended effects
-the conditions under which team focused on coaching is likely to facilitate performance.

-types of coaching

-4 conditions for team coaching to be effective
1.The team performance process that are essential for success
(knowledge

and skill,

motivation

and

coordination)

must

be

relatively unconstrained by task or orgnal requirements.
2.The team must be well

designed and the orgnal

context

supportive. Well designed teams respond better to good coaching and are undermined less by ineffective coaching than poorly designed team
3. Coaching behaviors should focus on salient task performance

process, rather than interpersonal relationships or processes not under a team’s control. E.G.
Leaders trained in two specific forms of process facilitation, strategy development and coordinating were better able to lead their teams through a specific battle simulation operation.
4. Coaching interventions should be introduced when the team is

ready and able to incorporate them. For motivational

interventions, the beginning of the task cycle is ideal. For consultative strategy interventions, the midpoint is ideal, and fro educational interventions, the end of the task cycle is ideal.

4.Decision Analysis Model

- Decision styles
• Autocratic (leader makes the decision with little or no involvement of other team members)
•

Inquiry (has the leader asking for information from the team but ultimately making the decision independently)

•

Consultative(involves different degrees of consultation with team members, but the leader is the final decision maker) •

Consensus-building (involves extensive consultation and consensus building with the team. The leader essentially is another member of the team and has no more or less influence than any other member)

•

Delegation (delegation of decision making to the team.
Team makes decision without the leader, the leader gives the problem to the team and lets the team determine the best course of action with virtually no additional input)

-Problem identification
The leader must determine the right questions and the right order in which to ask them. This influences the best decision style in a particular context.
Team members prefer participative style in decision making process; even though they know the autocratic style is more effective. -Decision tree model

It is one in which all of these questions and alternatives are put together to formulate a sound decision. A fundamental assumption in this model is that consultation within teams and individuals is inefficient because it requires time, therefore, the model is conservative in that it tends to push the leader toward autocratic or individual control strategy, the leader must not let people think that they have control when they actually do.

CH12 Iterteam relations: competition and cooperation
1. personal and team identity
People define themselves in many ways by the org they belong to and the teams they are member of. They naturally seek group affiliation, the reputation and accomplishments of their teams are a critical source if their self identity and self esteem.
-Most Common Categories of Personal and Team Identity
•

Gender groups

•

Position, level, class

•

Functional unit

•

Regional unit

•

Ethnicity and race

The extent to which a given person identities with a group on three distinct levels:

cognitive,

emotional

and

behavioral.

People’s

affiliation with their team affects how they think, act and feel.

-Individual, relational, and collective selves
It contains 3 fundamental self-representations:

1.Individual self
They are realized by differentiating ourselves from others and relies on interpersonal comparison processes and is associated with the motive of protecting or enhancing the person psychologically.

2.Relational self
It is achieved by assimilating with significant others (relationship partners, parents, friends) and is based on personalized bonds of attachment. 3.Collective self
It is achieved by inclusion in large, social groups and contrasting the group to which one belongs with relevant out-groups.

-Independent versus interdependent self orientation
Two types of relational focus, also known as egocentric Vs sociocentric, individualism Vs collectivism:
1.Independent
People focus on the extent to which they are autonomous and unique. 2.Interdependent
People focus on the extent to which they are embedded within a larger social network.

-Self-interest versus group-interest
It is one of the most important challenges of effective teamwork is the fact that people often focus only on self-interest rather than team interest.
Self-interest is the extent to which a person feels “identified” with this team. Strengthening group identity increases the value that people attach to their team’s welfare verse their personal welfare.
When group receive performance feedback, teams that have strong group identifies show an increase in group-level interest. -Ingroups and outgroups
Team members categories themselves and others in terms of ingroups and outgroups
1.Ingroup
People who are like themselves or who belong to the same groups
2.Outgroup
People who are not in their group or who are members of competitor group

*At another level, people may see himself of a particular team.
Another level, as a member of a unit or functional area. One’s chronic way of perceiving ingroup and outgroup affects one’s behavior. A person who identifies with company is going to engage in more cooperative behavior when interacting with a person from a different group because his or her self-identity is defined at the

company level. In contract, people who see oneself primarily in terms of one’s team membership or individual identity.

-Optimal distinctiveness theory
It is a theory of collective social identity. It explains why people seek and maintain conceptualizations of the self that extend to the collective level. A person’s collective identity derives from the interplay of

two

opposing

social

motives:

inclusion

and

differentiation. People desire to be included in larger social collectives and teams.
But they also feel distinct or different from others.
The optimal collective social identity meets a person’s need for inclusion by assimilating with groups and teams and serves a need for differentiation by distinguishing oneself from others.

-Balancing the need to belong and the need to be distinct
Most people seek an optimal distinctiveness to their selfidentities, such that they want to be neither too different nor too similar to others. Personal identity is the individuate self, those characteristics that differentiate one person from others in a given team. Social identities are categorizations of the self into more inclusive social units that effectively depersonalize the self concept.
Intrateam and interteam respect