Premium Essay

Team Behavior

In:

Submitted By Mzwoo
Words 2371
Pages 10
Team Behavior
The organizational structure is compromised of groups and teams. Organizational behavior theory examines individual and group behavior types in relation to performance, organizational structure, ethics, and conflict resolution. Extensive research has been done in the field of development and application of team behavior and the positive or negative impact it has on accomplishing organizational objectives. Tuckman’s team development theory, Mintzberg’s study of organizational politics, and The Ringelmann effect will be examined. These theories provide insight into the complexities inherent in group structure and the mechanisms organizations need to minimize dysfunctional activities.
The term group and team are used interchangeably for this discussion although they do not have the same meaning. A team consists of a number of people committed to common goals. Teams help organizations enhance performance, reduce costs, and provide employees with a sense of dignity and self-fulfillment. A team’s composition is formal or informal, its effectiveness is predicated, in part, on an organizations’ culture and the personalities and roles of the team members. .
Group Development

1. There are critics of the five‐stage group development model. Their main point is that this presentation of a group’s development is too static. Do you agree with this criticism? Why?
The Tuckman stages of team development focuses on building and developing teams by analyzing team behavior. The first stage is forming. Group members get to know each other. Tuckman calls this the “ice breaking” stage. The second stage is storming. In this stage conflicts and power struggles occur as individuals compare views. The third stage is norming. In this stage group roles and rules are established. The fourth stage is performing. In this stage roles and rules are followed in order to

Similar Documents

Free Essay

The Six Team Behaviors in Project Managment

...Lakisha Archie May 17, 2015 Mang. Project Teams For Union Railroad to achieve better measurement of performance, monitoring, and motivational aspects within their team environment, they must first understand how the six key team behaviors effect the project team. The six team behaviors are: mutual trust, interdependency, accountability, valuing individual differences, transparency, learning and recognition. Each team behavior works together to help the project team reach their desired goal and gain the best performance from the team. When used properly they help to enhance the team and maximize performance. Mutual trust is an important aspect to team building and motivating the team. Each member of the team needs to understand their role on the team, while also accepting other member’s strengths’ and weaknesses. They must feel comfortable expressing how they feel about one another’s actions and decision making. When a majority of the team members feel comfortable with each other they will continuously work hard for each other. They feel safe to speak up without criticism and judgement. Interdependency is essential in order to have an effective team that works together. All team members must understand that they are all working toward the same goal. Any ideas are ideas of the team and not any one individual. The team takes ownership of everything that is presented and no person accolades are expected. There is mutual trust among the team members and they remain loyal to one another...

Words: 794 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Organizational Behavior: Benefits and Limitations of Teams

...Discuss the benefits and limitations of teams, and explain why employees join informal groups. Apply one of these to a real life professional or personal experience involving creativity in your life (from childhood to adulthood). Cite the textbook in your explanation. A team is much more than a collection of people. When linked in a common purpose mutual commitment creates synergy, resulting in improved performance. A team can be beneficial in several ways, for instance a wider range of ideas can be generated among a group versus an individual working solely on a given task. In addition teams have a range of personalities such as leaders, thinkers and workers who each contributes the correct balance of skills necessary to achieve set tasks. Team members are not only task-orientated, being a member of an effective team is akin to being a member of a family. Members provide support and mentoring helping develop members individually as well (McShane, 2013). Although there are many advantages to working with teams, there are many disadvantages as well. Many of these problems arise in problem solving. Because of the cohesiveness achieved within teams, members are more likely to agree to the quickest solution simply because it is the quickest and easiest solution. Many times these solutions are not the optimal solution to the problem, and had the team spent more time exploring individual member ideas a better solution could be reached. Teams may also have difficulty making decisions...

Words: 1383 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Gm591 Case Study - Forgotten Team Member

...GM591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior Through utilizing the information from the case study of “The Forgotten Group Member,” and the explanation of the stages of team development in the course textbook, Organizational Behavior, (2010, p. 166) of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning, the majority of the group members are in the norming stage, but never resolved issues that started in the storming stage. Therefore, collectively, they are still in the storming stage. The group is in a state of conflict because Mike is non-committal with meeting, does not hand in quality work, and is acting jealous of the relationships the team has formed while in his absence. Mike’s role in the group was not clearly defined. Christine is the team coordinator, Steve is assigned to creating an agenda each meeting, Diane is resourceful, and Janet is reliable in doing more than what is expected for the group. All of these roles have been informally defined, and Mike’s role and expectations were not defined well enough for him to see his value to the group. In the forming stage of team development, team members are concerned more with seeing where they fit in, and what their role is on the team. Since the rest of the group has been meeting, they have formed a relationship and a clique without Mike. When other group members see they are not being included, this can create emotion and conflict, which is characteristic of the storming stage. Later in the case, we learn...

Words: 1773 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Team Dynamics Summary

...Group Behaviors and Team Dynamics (Group 2) Group of 2+ people who interact and influence one another , mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives, and perceive themselves as a social entity within organization. Typically , a team was formed because of a goal to be met. Can also team formed because of the need to collaborate with each other to achieve a common goal . These types of teams are divided into three divisions , namely : Duration teams, differences in abilities , and differences authority. Making the team is usually seen from how long the team will be there . Division teams usually according to the ability of each individual , usually refers to the ability and knowledge to the team . Differences authority is the third case in the formation of a team , referring to the difference in decision-making in a team . Informal groups A group consists of people who shared in an interdependent or an organization that is focused on a goal. Friends that you've encountered while lunch is usually called informal groups (groups not officially), but they can not be called a team because they do not depend on each other and do not have a specific purpose. This Informal group arises because man is a social creature. This is proven because everyone will use their time and effort to create a group and preserve their social life on this informal group. 2nd reason why people participate in the group's...

Words: 1924 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Value Alignment

...survivorship of an employee’s position in the workplace. These same values describe and define the personal outlook on an individual’s life. Team B will analyze the individual values and Dell’s values as reflected by Dell’s organizational plans and actions. The team will describe each one’s own evolution of personal and workplace values. An explanation will explain how individual values drive Team B’s actions and behavior, and analyze the alignment between the Team’s alignment between their values, actions, and behavior. A description of the degrees of alignment between Dell’s stated values, plans, and actions are provided. An explanation is also submitted in an effort to show the difference and analyze the degree of alignment between the Team’s values and Dell’s values as reflected by Dell’s plans and actions. Evolution of Personal and Workplace Values The origin and subsequent evolution of Team B’s personal and workplace values are similar. Each member was nurtured at an early age about how to exhibit practical values such as integrity, accountability, diligence, perseverance, and discipline. The same values are applied in the team’s personal lives as it is in their workplace. Often times business men and women lie on the job, steal company supplies, and use company equipment for personal gain. Valuable lessons were taken in by Team B from watching employees in the workplace get caught, suffer the consequences, and sometimes get fired. The same lessons apply personally...

Words: 1195 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Authentic

...you're at the equilibrium of a teamsstage? | | 8 | What is the process when teams have to interact with each other? | | 9 | What is comprehensive interdependence? | | 10 | What is reciprocal? | | 11 | | | 12 | | | 13 | | | 14 | What is sensitivity? | | 15 | | | 16 | | | 17 | | | 18 | What contribute filidety loss | | 19 | | | 20 | | | 21 | | | 22 | | | 23 | | | 24 | | | 25 | What is pressure? | | 26 | What is ingratiation? | | 27 | | | 28 | | | 29 | What are powers, internal, personal, external, organizational and directional? | | 30 | | | 31 | | | 32 | | | 33 | | | 34 | What is low discretion? | | 35 | What is substitutability? | | 36 | What is visibility? | | 37 | What is coalition? | | 38 | What is visibility? | | 39 | | | 40 | | | 41 | What is low quality exchange? | | 42 | What is intrinsic? | | 43 | What is low exchange? | | 44 | What is high exchange? | | 45 | What is extrinsic? | | 46 | What is management by exception? | | 47 | Leader member exchange theory? | | 48 | in group readiness | | 49 | out group readiness | | 50 | high general cognitive ability | | 51 | high extroversion | | 52 | high stress tolerance | | 53 | openness to experience | | 54 | leader effectiveness | | 55 | autocratic leader | | Review: Team- A team consists of two or more people who work interdependently over some time period...

Words: 3531 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Testing

...Forming In the first stages of team building, the forming of the team takes place. The individual's behavior is driven by a desire to be accepted by the others, and avoid controversy or conflict. Serious issues and feelings are avoided, and people focus on being busy with routines, such as team organization, who does what, when to meet, etc. But individuals are also gathering information and impressions - about each other, and about the scope of the task and how to approach it. This is a comfortable stage to be in, but the avoidance of conflict and threat means that not much actually gets done. The team meets and learns about the opportunities and challenges, and then agrees on goals and begins to tackle the tasks. Team members tend to behave quite independently. They may be motivated but are usually relatively uninformed of the issues and objectives of the team. Team members are usually on their best behavior but very focused on themselves. Mature team members begin to model appropriate behavior even at this early phase. Sharing the knowledge of the concept of "Teams - Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing" is extremely helpful to the team. Supervisors of the team tend to need to be directive during this phase. The forming stage of any team is important because, in this stage, the members of the team get to know one another, exchange some personal information, and make new friends. This is also a good opportunity to see how each member of the team works as an individual and how...

Words: 868 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

The Team That Wasnt

..."The Team that Wasn't" (copy attached) Randy (the Sales Manager) was proving to be a difficult team member. Using the Group Performance Model elements included in Organizational Context, Group Structure and Group Process terms, identify: a) 3 components of the model that were not being successful with Randy and explain your reason (rationale) and b) identify what the team leader could do about it (suggested solution) and your rationale. The Group Performance Model is also attached for your reference. 1) Problem and Rationale: Lack of Leadership by Eric of Randy – Randy has taken advantage of Eric’s poor leadership by inserting himself in as the informal leader and through his disruptive behaviors and actions .Eric has not shown to be a good team leader – he has not led the establishment of objectives, norms, or decision making processes. More importantly he has not stepped in to resolve conflicts as they occur, instead allowing them to fester and build. Eric is the formal leader, he was named as the team leader, and so has the responsibility to manage the group and its dynamics. Suggested Solution and Rationale: Eric, the team leader, needs to become a leader – he needs to go back and re-look at group dynamics and team performance models and identify what needs to be done to lead this team back on track. He specifically needs to establish the leadership role with Randy – he should have a special meeting with him to establish their roles and position on the team, encourage...

Words: 1207 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Integrative Paper

...Integrative Paper Julian Harris Webster University   Preface The Heart of Change is a book that tells stories of large scale change within organizations. These stories all revolve around eight key steps that should guide the reader from the beginning to the end of the change process. The book Organizational Behavior and Management is a great tool to support the concepts that are presented. My goal is to describe and discuss what is needed to make these types of large scale change efforts work using the examples provided to me along with more academic information to support or go against these stories. There are many components that are used in conjunction in order to make an organization run. Each one of these components is equally important to successful change. Hopefully by the end of this paper the change process won’t seem so bad.   Step One: Increase Urgency When working in many professional settings, you will hear the phrase “act with a sense of urgency”. People who work with a sense of urgency are normally seen as go getters or movers and shakers. In chapter 14 of Organizational Behavior and Management, urgency is said to relate to time (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2014, p. 406). This is the way many managers see urgency as well. “Time is Money” is not just a saying. In most cases, a full time employee is expected to work an 8 hour shift or 40 hours per week. When management assumes that one is not moving with a sense of urgency, this could lead to...

Words: 5311 - Pages: 22

Premium Essay

The Heart of Change

...Konopaske & Matteson, 2010). In reality, not all organizations will successfully make appropriate changes or adopt the correct procedures to make the change last. There is no doubt that change can cause anxiety within the ranks. According to Kotter and Cohen, authors of “The Heart of Change”, people change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking. In most cases, they change because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). When change is implemented effectively, it is not only a win for the organization but for the employees as well. Kotter and Cohen explained that change involves an eight-step process. Those eight steps are increasing urgency, building the guiding team, getting the vision right, communicating for buy-in, empowering action, creating short-term wins, do not let up and making change stick. Discussion Urgency is defined as pressing importance or requiring speedy action (Merriam-Webster.com). According to Kotter and Cohen, the first stage of large-scale transformation should be to create a sense of urgency that the change is necessary. Urgency helps motivate personnel to overcome complacency, fear, anger, or pessimism, which may result in resistance (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). Individuals resist change because they fear what will happen to them. The reasons for resistance could include the threat of loss of position, power, economic insecurity and feelings of inadequacy. Resistance can...

Words: 1849 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Business

...| | | Topic Summary This topic contains relevant information on how to * establish a productive team * lead your team effectively * handle problems with your teams as they arise * evaluate your team’s productivity. | | Topic Index Topic Overview What Would You Do? Where Should You Focus? Topic Index Topic Summary About the Mentors Using the Topic Core Concepts Team Building: An Overview Understanding How Teams Work Establishing a Team Becoming an Effective Team Leader Handling Problems Evaluating Performance Steps Steps for Starting a Team Steps for Leading an Effective Team Tips Tips for Selecting Team Members Tips for Building Team Performance Practice Instructions Scenario Tools Worksheet for Forming a Team Checklist for Evaluating Whether a Group Is a Team Checklist for Assessing a Team’s Performance Checklist for Assessing Your Team’s Goals Checklist for Evaluating Yourself as a Team Leader Role Clarification Worksheet Test Yourself Instructions Questions To Learn More Harvard Online Article Notes and Articles Books Other Information Sources eLearning Programs | | About the Mentors Donna D. Conlin, M.Ed., is Organizational Development and Education Manager at Bose Corporation. She has twenty years of human resources development experience in a variety of business environments from entrepreneurial start-ups to established corporations, all experiencing significant change in their...

Words: 15653 - Pages: 63

Free Essay

Organizational Behavior Case Study

...key facts and critical issues presented in the case.  Specifically, highlight the critical issues facing the Bank of America's I & D team. The case study of Bank of America as presented in the Harvard Business Review, Bank of America (BoA) experienced many issues found in organizations as they interject change in efforts to continually evolve. BoA, in the early 2000’s, was a juggernaut in the global banking and financial industry. Being one of the world’s largest financial institutions, it had to continuously pursue ways to improve, innovate, and remain the leader in its class. As banking competition increased, the number of branches began to decrease. Recognizing this, BoA set out to create a team that would be charges with the task of keeping the bank evolving, account holders growing, and to find innovations that kept them the leader of in the industry. The Innovations & Development (I&D) team was created. The I&D team reviewed the banks history of growth and acquisitions, evaluated its competition, and developed ideas and innovated programs that would theoretically keep the bank moving forward. As these ideas evolved, they needed to be tested in the market prior to implementing the new programs company wide. The leadership of the bank decided to create a small number of test sites that would allow the I&D team to implement their improvement strategies while having a minor effect on the company as a whole. As in most organizations, implementing...

Words: 1457 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Team Work

...TEAM WORK IN ORGANIZATION DEFINITION A unit of two or more people who interact and coordinates their work to accomplish a specific goal. A small group of people with complementary skills, who work together to achieve a shared purpose and hold themselves mutually accountable for its accomplishment. A team is a group of workers that functions as a unit, often with little or no supervision, to carry out organizational functions. Teamwork The process of people actively working together to accomplish common goals Group Versus Team Team Designated strong leader Individual accountability Same purpose as organization Individual work products Runs efficient meetings Effectiveness by effect on business Delegates work to individuals. Group Rotates leadership Accountable to each other Specific team vision Collective work products Participative meetings Effectiveness by collective work Shares work TYPES OF TEAMS 1.FORMAL TEAM A team created by the organization as part of the formal organization structure. Teams that are officially recognized and supported by the organization for specific purposes. May appear on the organization chart. A functional team is a formally designated work team with a manager or team leader. Three common types of formal team. Horizontal team ...

Words: 1418 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Half Assed

...effort on the part of a group of persons acting together as a team or in the interests of a common cause or working in a team. Teamwork is often a crucial part of a business, as it is often necessary for colleagues to work well together, trying their best in any circumstance. Teamwork means that people will try to cooperate, using their individual skills and providing constructive feedback, despite any personal conflict between individuals. Teamwork can be likened to two compounds, almost essential to modern life. It’s the glue which keeps a team together, a bond which promotes strength, unity, reliability and support. Teamwork is also the oil that makes the team work. It can enable smoother movement towards targets, can prolong forward momentum, and can help teams to overcome obstacles. Teamwork has the potential to underpin so much of what is valuable in work. In fact, the benefits to be gained from teamwork synergies are essential for the effective management of resources. Teamwork matters because : MOTIVATION, You have a greater number of people working together in close proximity on the same goal. The motivation factor is going to be high especially when the team members understand each other, have a sense of healthy competition, are willing to help the others along and are big-hearted enough to take pride in each other’s successes. After all, what’s the fun in celebrating if you are going to do it alone? Regular team-bonding exercises and outings will also lead to strong friendships...

Words: 1593 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Conflicts Management

...Journal of Organizational Behavior J. Organiz. Behav. 30, 359–378 (2009) Published online 25 April 2008 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.537 Team conflict management and team effectiveness: the effects of task interdependence and team identification ANIT SOMECH1*, HELENA SYNA DESIVILYA2 AND HELENA LIDOGOSTER1 1 2 University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel Emek Yezreel College, Emek Yezreel, Israel Summary The present study explores the dynamics of conflict management as a team phenomenon. The study examines how the input variable of task structure (task interdependence) is related to team conflict management style (cooperative versus competitive) and to team performance, and how team identity moderates these relationships. Seventy-seven intact work teams from high-technology companies participated in the study. Results revealed that at high levels of team identity, task interdependence was positively associated with the cooperative style of conflict management, which in turn fostered team performance. Although a negative association was found between competitive style and team performance, this style of team conflict management did not mediate between the interactive effect of task interdependence and team identity on team performance. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Introduction In modern organizations, teams have become the method of choice for responding quickly to technological and market changes and thus improving the organization’s...

Words: 11106 - Pages: 45