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  • Decision Making Process

    In the last byte, we looked at the difference between the responsibilities of a manager and a team leader. In today’s byte, we look at decision making process.

    Decision Making is an integral component of the life of a manager. We could classify these into 2 categories:

    1. Programmed Decisions
    2. Non Programmed Decisions

    Programmed Decisions refer to those decisions which are simple routine matters for which a manager has an established decision rule.

    Non Programmed Decisions refers to those decisions which made in new and could therefore be complex decisions that require a creative solution.

    Independent of the classification of decision making, it would be best we understand the process – how a decision is made by an individual or in a group. The following diagram illustrates such a process.

  • Managerial Implications of Team Work

    In the last byte, we began our discussion about the managerial implications on team work in the modern day. In today’s byte, we continue the discussion further and look at the managerial implications in detail.

    The manager’s responsibility in the triangle of new age team management is that of creating a receptive organizational environment for work groups and teams to work in. So, the manager would have to look at a balance between setting limits and removing barriers to enable the employees work better at their full potential. Unlike the traditional model, the manager here would be required to create a broad charter for this team, and give the team members the freedom to work – the role required from the manager would be to coach the team. Timely feedback and performance evaluation are other responsibilities that the manager would shoulder.

    The team leader role differs from the managers’ role on the following dimensions. The team leader would need to teach, listen, solve problems, manage conflicts, and enhance team functioning to ensure its success. It is primarily the team leaders’ responsibility to help the team work through interpersonal, task, and authority issues and show skill in nurturing a cohesive and effective team. Clearly we find that the team leaders’ role is more hands on than the managers’ role described above.

    Simply put, the team leaders should be skilled at forging the teamwork amongst diverse group of individuals, while the managers would need to be skilled in forging collaboration amongst diverse groups.

  • Managing in a New Environment


    In the last byte, we looked at how empowerment plays a role in forming effective teams. In today’s byte, we look at the triangle for managing in a new environment.

    In an earlier byte (look here) we discussed about the difference in the new and old work environments. Given that most current day work environments prefer following the new work environment, we look at three components – managers, teams and individuals in a work environment. There are a lot of unique demands that the new work environment places – managing these requires and understanding of the individual diversity and interrelationships of individuals, teams, and managers as shown below.


    We shall continue this discussion in the next byte.

  • Empowerment in Teams

    In the last byte, we looked at how diversity and creativity influence the group settings. In today’s byte, we talk about empowerment.

    In order to ensure that teams manage themselves (self-manage) it would also be important to empower them. While team work builds the spirit of a team and helps the team members achieve more than they could individually do, if empowered it the right skills they could achieve more. Here are a list of four such skills that help empower the team members and there by the teams.

    1. Competence Skills – these refer to the skills that deal with the strength – the mastery and experience in one’s chosen discipline and profession. This is like the bed rock on which other skills and the team’s performance could be built up.
    2. Negotiation Skills – this helps the individual team members negotiate with their friends and foes on various aspects to be able to actively achieve what they intend.
    3. Cooperative Skills – this deals with the individual’s ability to motivate his/her colleagues to work on increasing the gains for everyone in the team – this behavior is usually encouraging, helping etc to bring about the sought end.
    4. Communications Skills – this is an essential skill that allows the team member to express self and also reflect and think. It is this expression that allows people to express and understand others.

  • Diversity and Creativity in Teams

    In the last byte, we looked at the social benefits of work groups. Today’s byte, we shall briefly discuss about the role of diversity and creativity in teams.

    We understand that teams are united by their purpose – this is like the shared goal towards which the team-members work, however this doesn’t imply that the team members should be similar or they should all follow a strict defined way to doing things. We are hinting here at the role of similarity (a component of diversity) and creativity in teams.

    Dissimilarity amongst team members have varied affects on the team and the individuals involved in terms of the employee’s commitment, turnover intentions, beliefs, self-esteem etc. While the dissimilarity also helps in enhancing the creativity given that the same aspects is observed by team members from diverse opinions. This means that creativity could be looked at in a team context and not just the individual context; there could be a process that could help tap the creativity of individuals and solve the work-team challenges.

    The creativity aspect in work teams could not just arise for the dissimilarities in the social context, but also the prior experience of the team members. This is also one of the reasons why diversity based on the team composition varying in experience levels and the domains could actually benefit the teams in solving challenging problems.

  • 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.