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  • Social Benefits of Group Membership

    In the last byte we looked at how work processes help in making a work team more effective. In today’s byte, we look at some of the social benefits of group membership.

    If we were to wonder if there are any social benefits at all, we begin realizing that there are two broad categories of social benefits:

    1. Psychological Intimacy
    2. Integrated involvement
    Psychological Intimacy refers to the emotional and psychological closeness to other team or group members. In case the member doesn’t finds a feeling of affection, warmth, opportunity for emotional expression etc, it would lead to a feeling of emotional isolation and loneliness. While this is important for emotional health and well-being, it need not necessarily achieved in a work setting – this could happen outside the work settings as well.

    Integrated involvement refers to the closeness achieved through tasks and activities. This means that a person going through integrated involvement would find a joy and involvement in activities, have a social identity, value for one’s skills and abilities etc. If this is not possible it could result in social isolation. Integrated involvement is found to be more behavior and activity based compared to Psychological Intimacy.

  • Team Processes 2

    In the last byte, we looked at how team structures help in making the work teams effective. In today’s byte, we look at the second dimension team processes.

    There are two aspects of the team processes that influence team effectiveness, these are:

    1. managing cooperative behavior in a team
    2. managing competitive behavior in a team
    While these two are seemingly contradictory, they really are complementary behaviors and both are essential to getting the work teams effective.

    The skills involved in cooperative behavior include open communication, trust, personal integrity, positive interdependence, and mutual support. The positive competitive dimension skills the ability to enjoy competition, play fair, take both winning and losing in the stride, not over exaggerating the results, etc.

    It is interesting to note, that when teams are made broader and are deals global dimensions the complexity of these dimensions and their effectiveness become harder.

  • Team Structures & Work Team Processes

    In the last byte, we looked at how the context of team has evolved over time. In today’s byte, we look at the importance of work team structures and work team processes.

    In the new context of work environment, it is increasingly important for the management to look at both the structure and processes when considering the effectiveness of work teams. The issues addressed by these two dimensions are listed below:

    The structural issues deal with the team’s – goals and objectives, operating guidelines, performance measures, role specifications etc
    The work team processes deals with the issues of managing of cooperative behavior and also the competitive behavior. We deal about these in the next byte.

    The work team’s goals and objectives would help specify what is intended to be achieved by the work team, while the operating guidelines help put a boundary for the organizational activity and the decision making.
    The work team would also like to know how it is being assessed and thus the performance measures that helps the team members decide what tasks they intend to accomplish. The work team structures would require a clear specified set of role for the executives and managers who overlook the working of the team – this helps these team leaders exercise influence over team members.

  • Team Environment – New and Old

    In the last byte, we looked at the need for a work team. In today’s byte, we look at how the context of team has evolved over time, but begin with defining teamwork itself.

    Teamwork refers to the joint action a team of people in which individual interests are subordinated to team unity. This forms the core value of numerous high performing companies world over. Teams are also appropriate when knowledge, talent, skills and abilities are disbursed across organizational members and an integrated team effort is needed to establish the tasks – team work plays a crucial role here. In today’s world the need for team work is ever increasing.

    It would be interesting to ask if there has been any change in the way teams have worked over the last few decades. Here is an interesting comparison (please see the table below) that was made in 1991 itself!


  • Work Teams – Need

    In the last byte, we continued our discussion on task and maintenance functions. In today’s byte, we look at the need for work teams in organizations.

    Work teams generally refer to task oriented groups but the usage and context could change. These teams don’t just give an important or valuable contribution to the organization, but also give satisfaction to the members involved in the team.

    Groups themselves could be seen in different coordination styles, the use of a sports analogy here could be useful here. Some teams are like baseball teams where there is a set responsibility, while other could be like football where there is coordination and that drives the action, yet other are like doubles tennis teams where there is flexibility in the responsibilities but all roles are primary for the completion of the tasks. It is important to also note that while every type of team may have a useful role in the organization, the individual expertise couldn’t be overlooked. It is important to make use of the expertise and allow the individual shine at the right time, and in the right context.

    The need for teams itself need not be questioned, where individuals fail – teams have succeeded. Teams are generally preferred when the task is complicated, complex, inter-related, and voluminous and a single individual might not be able to handle it.

  • Task and Maintenance Functions 2

    In the last byte, we looked at some of the task and maintenance functions. In today’s byte, we continue the discussion further.

    It has been observed that the teams which successfully fulfill the task and maintenance functions help their members a potential psychological intimacy and integrated involvement!

    It should also be noted that some task function are more important at a particular time in a group life, while other function are important at a different juncture. If we think of a team that is beginning to work on an outsourced project, initially the role of the project lead would be to help draft the product specs and allocate work with need to distribute information, while as the project progresses, these change to a state where the project lead would do more of coordination than of initiation. It is also important to note that the effective use of task functions could lead to the success of the group and the failure to use them may lead to a disaster. Examples of these are many and wouldn’t need to be explained.

    While the task functions could increase the tension into teams and groups working together, the maintenance functions play a crucial role in draining off these negative or destructive feelings. The humor, joking etc that is part of the work environment are ingredients of the maintenance functions.

    It is clear that to build an effective group, both task and maintenance functions are important and only if both are well executed will it lead to the formation of a successful group or team.

  • Task and Maintenance Functions

    In the last byte, we looked at status structures and discussed who it affects the forming of a mature group. In today’s byte we, look at some of the functions that the group takes up and discuss it further.

    If we look at an effective group and try to understand the various functions that are involved in the group, we could classify them into two classes:

    1. Task Functions
    2. Maintenance Functions
    Task functions refer to activities that are directly related to the effective completion of a team’s work.
    Maintenance functions refer to the activities that are essential to an effective, satisfying interpersonal relationship within a team or a group.

    The following table highlights some of these tasks:

  • Group Formation: Structure

    In the last byte, we looked at group cohesion. In today’s byte, we look status structure and attempt to understand how this influences the characteristics of a mature group.

    Status structure refers to the set of authority and task relations among a group’s members! However there is no specific indication of how these status structures are created – it could be hierarchical or democratic – it depends on the group in discussion. If these issues are resolved within a team, it would result in a well-understood status structure and a good leader-follower relationship that emerges.

    Leadership in a team could also be of two types depending on the team in question. It could be a single person acting as the task master of the group setting agenda, initiating much of the work activity and ensuring the team meets its deadlines or could also be a shared leadership in which case there are multiple group members taking up different but interrelated leadership roles in the group settings. Example for the second kind: there could be someone who could be a task master while there could be someone else in the team who maintains the interpersonal relationships to an optimal level.

    There could be role diversity in a group and these could be classified into one of the following ways:

    1. Contributor – one who is data driven, supplies necessary information, adheres to high performance standards
    2. Collaborator – sees the big picture, keeps the focus on the mission constantly, urges other members to join the effort for accomplishing the mission
    3. Communicator – listens well and facilitates the group processes and humanizes the collective effort
    4. Challenger – acts as a devil’s advocate
    Over and above these it would definitely help if there is the role of an integrator who stitches the various role diversities in a group.

  • Group Cohesion

    In the last byte, we looked at the purpose, mission and behavioral norms that are characteristics of a mature group. In today’s byte, we look at group cohesion.

    Group cohesion refers to the interpersonal attraction that keeps the group members together. It is like the glue that keeps the group members under control and adhering to the group norms and standards. While cohesion keeps the group together, its binding strength decreases when there are unpleasant experiences, or domination of a sub-group etc. As the cohesiveness of the group decreases, so does the effectiveness of control amongst the group members.

    Group cohesiveness is found to create a calming effect on the group members when it comes to work anxiety or tension. Given that there is a strong bond amongst the group members and everyone can rely on the other for support, the productivity of such a group is found to be more consistent. It is found that the members generally are more satisfied, committed and communicate well in highly cohesive groups.

    There are number of factors that influence group cohesion – some of these are: time, size, prestige of the being in the group, external pressures, internal competition etc.

  • Purpose and Mission in Behavioral Norms

    In the last byte, we listed the characteristics of a mature group. In today’s byte, we look at the aspects of Purpose and Mission as well as Behavioral Norms.

    Purpose and Mission: A group could have a purpose or a vision for itself through one of the two methods:

    1. The purpose/mission was assigned to the group
    2. The purpose/mission emerged from within the group.

    In the first case it is also possible that group may reexamine, modify, revise or question the mission; or it may simply accept the mission given to it.

    Behavioral Norms: these are standards of behavior that is well-understood by the group members. These could have evolved over time too. These are like the bench marks against which the team members would be evaluated.

    These Behavior Norms could be written rules – say something like an attendance policy; or could be informal.

    These norms could also evolve around performance and productivity. It has been observed that high-performance teams would set its productivity standards above organizations expectation – so that they could excel, while the average teams set it consistent with the organizational expectations, the non-compliant or counterproductive teams would set its standards below the organizational productivity!