CH-9 Work Teams and Groups – ORGB Organizational Behavior : Book Guide

Chapter 9 Work Teams and Groups In This Chapter, You’ll Find: Chapter Overview Learning Outcomes Key Terms PowerPoint Guide Review Questions and Answers Discussion and Communication Questions and Suggested Answers Ethical Dilemma Self-Assessments—What about You? Issues in Diversity Experiential Exercises Additional Examples Case Study and Suggested Responses: Achieving Success in Virtual Teams Video: Profile on Holden Outerwear Student Handouts: Ethical Dilemma What About You?: How Cohesive Is Your Group? What About You?: How Much Diversity Is on Your Team? Issues in Diversity: Appoint More Women or Else!—Achieving Gender Balance in Top Teams Experiential Exercise: Tower Building: A Group Dynamics Activity Experiential Exercise: Design a Team Experiential Exercise: Putting the Beat Back in Groups Case Study: Achieving Success in Virtual Teams Chapter Overview Groups and teams continue to play a vital role in organizational behavior and performance. Advanced technologies give organizations the ability to use virtual teams that have members from anywhere in the world. This chapter offers a traditional discussion of group behavior and group development in the first two sections, a discussion of teams in the third section, and an exploration of issues such as self-managed teams and upper echelon teams in the final two sections. Learning Outcomes After reading this chapter, students should be able to do the following: 1. Define group and work team. Answer: A group is formed when two or more people have common interests, objectives, and continuing interaction. A work team is a group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common mission, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. 2. Explain the benefits organizations and individuals derive from working in teams. Answer: Teams are very useful in performing work that is complicated, fragmented, and/or more voluminous than one person can handle. Complex, collaborative work tasks and activities tend to require considerable amounts of teamwork. When knowledge, talent, and abilities are dispersed across numerous workers and require an integrated effort for task accomplishment, teamwork is often the only solution. On an individual level, team or group members derive benefits from the collective experience of teamwork. These individual benefits are best organized into two categories. One set of benefits accrues from achieving psychological intimacy, while the other comes from achieving integrated involvement. 3. Identify the factors that influence group behavior. Answer: Group norms of cooperative behavior within a team can lead to members working for mutual benefit, which in turn facilitates team performance. Organizational culture and corporate codes of ethics, such as Johnson & Johnson’s credo (Figure 2.3), reflect behavioral norms expected within work groups. Finally, norms that create awareness of and help regulate emotions are critical to groups’ effectiveness. Group cohesion can enhance job satisfaction for members and improve organizational productivity. Social loafing occurs when one group member comes to rely on the efforts of other group members and fails to contribute her own time, effort, thoughts, or other resources to the group. This may create a real drag on the group’s efforts and achievements. Loss of individuality is a social process through which group members lose self-awareness and its accompanying senses of accountability, inhibition, and responsibility for individual behavior. 4. Describe how groups form and develop. Answer: After its formation, a group goes through predictable stages of development. If each of the stages is successfully negotiated, the group emerges as a mature and tightly knit entity. Formal groups such as project task forces, boards of directors, and temporary committees come together to perform specific tasks. Informal groups evolve in the work setting to gratify a variety of member needs not met by formal groups. Diversity is an important consideration in the formation of groups, as it can enhance performance and lead to new ways of thinking. Mature groups are able to work through the interpersonal, task, and authority issues inevitable at the highest echelons of the business world. Immature groups often experience personality clashes and other fault lines (i.e., potential breaking points within the group) at various stages of development. Bruce Tuckman’s five-stage model of group development proposes that team behavior progresses through five stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. 5. Explain how task and maintenance functions influence group performance. Answer: An effective group or team carries out various task functions to perform its work successfully and various maintenance functions to ensure member satisfaction and a sense of team spirit. Teams that successfully fulfill these functions afford their members the potential for the social benefits of psychological intimacy and integrated involvement. Task functions are those activities directly related to the effective completion of the team’s work. Maintenance functions are those activities essential to the effective, satisfying interpersonal relationships within a group or team. Both task and maintenance functions are important for successful groups and teams. 6 Discuss the factors that influence group effectiveness. Answer: Work team effectiveness in the new team environment requires management’s attention to both work team structure and work team process. In addition to how the team is structured and what the team does, diversity and creativity are emerging as two areas with significant impact on team performance. Work team structure issues include goals and objectives, operating guidelines, performance measures, and role specification. Work team process is the second important dimension of effectiveness. Two of the important process issues in work teams are the managing of cooperative behaviors and the managing of competitive behaviors. Both sets of behaviors are helpful in task accomplishment, and they should be viewed as complementary. 7. Describe how empowerment relates to self-managed teams. Answer: To be successful, teams require a culture of empowerment in the organization in which they are implemented. This is especially true of self-managed teams which are designed to take on responsibilities and address issues traditionally reserved for management. Empowerment may be thought of as an attribute of a person or of an organization’s culture. As an organizational culture attribute, empowerment encourages participation, an essential ingredient for teamwork. Competence skills are the first set of skills required for empowerment. Empowerment also requires certain process skills. A third set of empowerment skills involves the development of cooperative and helping behaviors. Communication skills are a final set of essential empowerment skills. Self-managed teams are one way to implement empowerment in organizations. 8. Explain the importance of upper echelons and top management teams. Answer: Self-managed teams at the top of the organization—top-level executive teams—are referred to as upper echelons. Organizations are often a reflection of these upper echelons. Upper echelon theory argues that the background characteristics of the top management team can predict organizational characteristics and set standards for values, competence, ethics, and unique characteristics throughout the organization. Key Terms Group (p. 137) Work team (p. 137) Teamwork (p. 137) Psychological intimacy (p. 138) Integrated involvement (p. 138) Norms of behavior (p. 139) Group cohesion (p. 139) Social loafing (p. 139) Loss of individuality (p. 139) Status structure (p. 144) Task function (p. 144) Maintenance function (p. 145) Self-managed team (p. 148) Upper echelon (p. 149) PowerPoint Guide Introduction Slide 2—Learning Outcomes LO1 Define group and work team. Slide 3—LO - 9.1 Slide 4—Groups and Teams LO2 Explain the benefits organizations and individuals derive from working in teams. Slide 5—LO - 9.2 Slide 6—Why Teams? Slide 7—Beyond the Book: Two CEOs? LO3 Identify the factors that influence group behavior. Slide 8—LO - 9.3 Slide 9—Group Behavior LO4 Describe how groups form and develop. Slide 10—LO - 9.4 Slide 11—Types of Groups Slide 12—Figure 9.1: Tuckman’s Five Stage Model of Group Development Slide 13—Mature Group Characteristics Slide 14—Beyond the Book: ‘What You Don’t Want in a Team’ LO5 Explain how task and maintenance functions influence group performance. Slide 15—LO - 9.5 Slide 16—Table 9.2: Task and Maintenance Functions in Teams or Groups LO6 Discuss the factors that influence group effectiveness. Slide 17—LO - 9.6 Slide 18—Factors Influencing Group Effectiveness LO7 Describe how empowerment relates to self-managed teams. Slide 19—LO - 9.7 Slide 20—Empowerment Skills Slide 21—Self-Managed Teams LO8 Explain the importance of upper echelons and top management teams. Slide 22—LO - 9.8 Slide 23–24—Upper Echelons Slide 25—Holden Outerwear Key Terms Slide 26—Key Terms Summary Slide 27–29—Summary Review Questions and Answers 1. What is a group? What is a work team? Answer: A group is formed when two or more people have common interests, objectives, and continuing interaction. A work team is a group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common mission, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. 2. Explain four aspects of group behavior. How can each aspect help or hinder the group’s functioning? Answer: The four aspects of group behavior are as follows: norms of behavior, group cohesion, social loafing, and loss of individuality. The standards that a work group uses to evaluate the behavior of its members are its norms of behavior. They may evolve informally or unconsciously, or they may arise in response to specific challenges, such as firefighters’ disciplined behavior in responding to a three-alarm fire in a manner that protects the group. Group norms of cooperative behavior within a team can lead to members working for mutual benefit, which in turn facilitates team performance. On the other hand, verbal expressions of negativity can be detrimental to team performance and a violation of group norms. Organizational culture and corporate codes of ethics, such as Johnson & Johnson’s credo (Figure 2.3), reflect behavioral norms expected within work groups. Finally, norms that create awareness of and help regulate emotions are critical to groups’ effectiveness. The interpersonal glue that makes the members of a group stick together is group cohesion. Group cohesion can enhance job satisfaction for members and improve organizational productivity. In addition to improved performance, highly cohesive groups can lead to the maintenance of close relationships among the members. Social loafing occurs when one group member comes to rely on the efforts of other group members and fails to contribute her own time, effort, thoughts, or other resources to a group. This may create a real drag on the group’s efforts and achievements. Some scholars argue that social loafing, also known as free riding, is a rational response to feelings of inequity or situations in which individual efforts are hard to observe. Loss of individuality is a social process through which group members lose self-awareness and its accompanying senses of accountability, inhibition, and responsibility for individual behavior. People may engage in morally reprehensible acts and even violent behavior as committed members of their group or organization when their individuality is lost. The loosening of normal ego control mechanisms in the individual sometimes leads to prosocial behavior and even heroic acts in dangerous situations. 3. Describe what happens in each stage of a group’s development according to Tuckman’s Five-Stage Model. What are the leadership requirements in each stage? Answer: Dependence on guidance and direction is the defining characteristic of the forming stage. At this point, team members are unclear about individual roles and responsibilities and tend to rely heavily on the leader to answer questions about the team’s purpose, objectives, and external relationships. During this time, it may also be beneficial for leaders to encourage team members to get to know each other on an interpersonal level before focusing on task performance. Team members compete for position in the storming stage. Clarity of purpose increases, but uncertainties still exist. This is also the stage in which members assess one another with regard to trustworthiness, emotional comfort, and evaluative acceptance. The group leader’s coaching style is key during this stage of development, as team members may challenge her. Agreement and consensus are characteristic of team members in the norming stage. It is during this period that roles and responsibilities become clear and are accepted. The group may address questions of authority, such as the necessity of a primary spokesperson and the delegation of roles within the group. Wallace Supply Company, an industrial distributor of pipes, valves, and fittings, found employee teams particularly valuable in raising and answering questions of authority. The teams concluded that leadership ought to be facilitative and that certain responsibilities could be delegated to teams themselves. As the team moves into the performing stage, it becomes more strategically aware of its mission and purpose. In this stage of development, the group has successfully worked through interpersonal, task, and authority issues and can stand on its own with little interference from the leader. A mature group is able to control its members through the judicious application of both positive and negative sanctions based on the evaluation of specific behaviors. Members at this stage do not need to be instructed but may ask for assistance from the leader in regard to personal or interpersonal development. The final stage of group development is the adjourning stage. When the task is completed, everyone on the team can move on to new and different things. The leader’s role at this point is primarily to recognize the group’s achievements. But unless the group is a task force or other informal team, most groups in organizations remain at the performing stage and do not disband as the adjourning stage suggests. 4. Describe the four characteristics of mature groups. Answer: A mature group has four characteristics that are as follows: a clear purpose and mission, well-understood norms and standards of conduct, a high level of group cohesion, and a flexible status structure. 5. Why are work teams important to organizations today? How and why are work teams formed? Answer: A work team is a group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common mission, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. All work teams are groups, but not all groups are work teams. Work teams emphasize shared leadership, mutual accountability, and collective work products. Teams are very useful in performing work that is complicated, fragmented, and/or more voluminous than one person can handle. However, individual limitations can be overcome through teamwork and collaboration. Teams make the most significant contributions to organizations when members can put aside individual interests in favor of unity. A recent movement toward team-oriented work environments has championed empowerment through collaboration rather than self-reliance and competition. Teams with experience working together may produce valuable innovations, and individual contributions within teams are valuable as well. Larry Hirschhorn labeled this structure “the new team environment,” founded on a significantly more empowered workforce in the industrial sectors of the American economy. In this new environment, teams must bring together members with different specialties and knowledge to work on complex problems. The ability to do so improves team performance and psychological well-being. On an individual level, team or group members derive benefits from the collective experience of teamwork. One set of benefits accrues from achieving psychological intimacy, while the other comes from achieving integrated involvement. Psychological intimacy is emotional and psychological closeness to other team or group members. Integrated involvement is closeness achieved through tasks and activities. Integrated involvement contributes to social psychological health and well-being. 6. Describe at least five task and five maintenance functions that effective work teams must perform. Answer: Task functions that effective work teams must perform includes activities such as initiating activities, seeking information, giving information, elaborating concepts, coordinating activities, summarizing ideas, testing ideas, evaluating effectiveness, and diagnosing problems. Maintenance functions include activities such as supporting others, following others’ leads, gatekeeping communication, setting standards, expressing member feelings, testing group decisions, consensus testing, harmonizing conflict, and reducing tension. 7. Discuss diversity and creativity in teams. Answer: Diversity is an important consideration in the formation of groups, as it can enhance performance and lead to new ways of thinking. Diversity also plays a large role in how effective work groups and teams are. Recent research in diversity has focused on the effect of dissimilarity within a team. Since creativity concerns new ideas, some amount of dissimilarity is necessary within a team in order for creativity, novelty, and innovation to blossom. Recent relational demography research finds that demographic dissimilarity influences employees’ absenteeism, commitment, turnover intentions, beliefs, work group relationships, self-esteem, and OCB. Thus, dissimilarity may have positive or negative effects in teams and on team members. Structural diversity concerns the number of structural holes, or disconnections between members, within a work team. The teams with moderate structural diversity achieve the best performance. Creativity is often thought of in an individual context rather than a team context. However, there is such a thing as team creativity. In a study of fifty-four research and development teams, team creativity scores were explained by aggregation processes across both people and time. 8. Describe the necessary skills for empowerment and teamwork. Answer: To be successful, teams require a culture of empowerment in the organization in which they are implemented. This is especially true of self-managed teams which are designed to take on responsibilities and address issues traditionally reserved for management. The skills necessary for empowerment and teamwork include competence skills, process skills, cooperative and helping behaviors, and communication skills. 9. What are the benefits and potential drawbacks of self-managed teams? Answer: Self-managed teams are one way to implement empowerment in organizations. A one-year study of self-managed teams suggests that they have a positive impact on employee attitudes but not on absenteeism or turnover. Nevertheless, there are risks, such as groupthink in self-managed teams that must be prevented or managed if the team is to achieve full development and function. 10. What is the role of the manager in the new team environment? What is the role of the team leader? Answer: The new team environment today requires a clearly specified set of roles for the executives and managers who oversee the work of the team, for the work team leaders who exercise influence over team members, and for team members. These role specifications should include information about required role behaviors, such as decision making and task performance, as well as restrictions or limits on role behaviors, such as the limitations on managerial interventions in work team activities and decision making. Expectations as well as experience may be especially important for newcomer role performance in work teams. Discussion and Communication Questions and Suggested Answers 1. What was the most effective group (or team) that you have been a member of? What made that group (or team) so effective? Answer: Students’ answers will vary. Students can use the characteristics of an effective team from the chapter, and they can probably name other characteristics. Issues of leadership, empowerment, cohesion, norms, and diversity are especially applicable. Most effective group: My most effective team was a project group in college that excelled due to clear communication, diverse skills, and mutual respect. We set specific goals, regularly checked progress, and supported each other, leading to successful outcomes. 2. Have you ever experienced peer pressure to act more in accordance with the behavioral norms of a group? Have you ever engaged in a little social loafing? Have you ever lost your head and been caught up in a group’s destructive actions? Answer: Students’ answers will vary. Students who have worked in groups, outside the class, would have experienced peer pressure. Students should be sure to point out that social loafing and not meeting the requirements of the group are not the same. Instructors should also emphasize to students that destructive actions have been referred to as “mob mentality.” Both the Los Angeles riots and the spring break fiascoes in Florida are examples of destructive actions. Peer pressure and behavior: Yes, I've experienced peer pressure to conform to group norms and engaged in social loafing occasionally. I’ve also been involved in group decisions I later regretted, driven by the group's momentum. 3. Name a company you know of that successfully uses teamwork and empowerment. What has that company done that makes it so successful at teamwork and empowerment? Has its team approach made a difference in its performance? How? Answer: Students’ answers will vary. Students who are not able to single out individual organizations may refer to the companies that are mentioned in the text. The Ritz-Carlton is also a good example for instructors to discuss with their students because it is the only hotel that has ever won the Malcolm Baldrige Award. Company using teamwork: Google effectively uses teamwork and empowerment by fostering a collaborative environment and giving employees autonomy. This approach enhances innovation and performance, evidenced by its industry-leading products and high employee satisfaction. 4. Think of a person whom you think is a particularly good member of a team. What makes him or her so? Think of someone who is a problematic team member. What makes this person a problem? Answer: Students’ answers will vary. This question can prove to be constructive if properly managed, but care must be taken to avoid embarrassing students by pointing them out as “problems.” Students should identify the criteria they used to decide whether a person is a good team member or a problematic team member when they discuss their examples. Good and problematic team members: A strong team member is reliable, communicative, and supportive, enhancing team success. A problematic member might be uncooperative, disruptive, or disengaged, hindering team effectiveness. 5. Think about your current work environment. Does it use quality circles or self-managed teams? What are the barriers to teamwork and empowerment in that environment? What elements of the environment enhance or encourage teamwork and empowerment? (If you do not work, discuss this question with a friend who does.) Answer: Students’ answers will vary. In class, students with experience in teams have an opportunity to tell other students their frustrations and their rewards in working with teams. Cultural differences are relevant, and international students from collectivist cultures can be encouraged to share their views of teamwork. Current work environment: My workplace uses self-managed teams. Barriers include lack of resources and unclear goals, while encouragement comes from supportive leadership and open communication channels. 6. Have students prepare a memo describing their observations about work teams and groups in their workplace or university. Instruct students to address the following questions: Where have you observed teams or groups to be most effective? Why? What changes might be made at work or in the university to make teams more effective? Answer: Students’ answers will vary. Encourage students to consider different types of teams that they might observe, particularly those at different levels in the organization. Students should draw on the material from the text in discussing the effectiveness of teams. Observations memo: Teams are most effective where roles are clear, goals are aligned, and there’s strong communication. Improvements could include more structured feedback and team-building activities. 7. Have each student develop an oral presentation about what the most important norms of behavior should be in an academic community or a workplace. The presentation should include how these norms should be established and reinforced. Answer: Students’ answers will vary. In addition to outlining important norms, students should also provide support for why those norms are important. Students should discuss whether norms should be the same for faculty, staff, administration, and students. If there has been a recent debate on the campus regarding a particular norm and how it is reinforced, this is a good opportunity to discuss the issue. Norms presentation: Essential norms include respect, accountability, and open communication. They should be established through clear policies and reinforced by modeling behavior and regular feedback. 8. Interview an employee or manager about what he or she believes contributes to cohesiveness in work groups and teams. Ask the person what the conclusions are based on. Be prepared to discuss what you have learned in class. Answer: Students’ answers may vary. If the comments of the person interviewed differ from the text material, students should probe as to why this is the case. During class discussion, compare and contrast the different perspectives of the people interviewed. Interview insights: Cohesiveness in work teams is often attributed to shared goals, trust, and effective communication. These conclusions are based on successful team outcomes and positive feedback. 9. Do you admire the upper echelons in your organization or university? Why or why not? Do they communicate effectively with groups and individuals throughout the organization? Answer: Students’ answers will vary. Students should consider whether others in the organization or university share their opinion about the upper echelons. Discuss why there might be differences in perspectives between individuals and groups. Admiring leadership: I admire the upper echelons in my organization for their strategic vision and effective communication. They foster a positive environment and keep teams informed and motivated. Ethical Dilemma The purpose of Ethical Dilemmas is to encourage students to develop their awareness of ethical issues in the workplace and the managerial challenges they present. The dilemmas are set up to present situations in which there is no clear ethical choice. The goal for the instructor is to guide students through the process of analyzing the situation and examining possible alternative solutions. There are no “right” answers to the questions at the end of each scenario but only opportunities to explore alternatives. Students can generate discussions on the appropriateness of each alternative. The student portion of the activity is provided on a handout at the end of this chapter guide. Hank’s options are to either recommend Jason for the newly opened account manager position or keep him in his current position to manage the Maxim Factory project. 1. Using consequential, rule-based, and character theories, evaluate Hank’s options. Answer: Consequential Theory If Hank recommends Jason for the new position and Jason gets promoted, Hank will have kept his promise to Jason. He will most likely be very happy to get promoted, but the potential for mismanagement of the important Maxim Factory project will increase. If Hank holds off on recommending Jason for a promotion, he might lose his personal and professional credibility with Jason and perhaps others. He may also find that Jason’s performance on the Maxim Factory project is reduced due to his disappointment on not being promoted. Rule-Based Theory Hank’s obligation to Jason is to keep his word by recommending him for the newly opened account manager position. His obligations toward the company are to submit the best possible candidates for promotion and to put the best possible person in charge of the Maxim Factory project. Character Theory Hank has spent a great deal of time in preparing Jason for a promotion and reassuring him that he is an excellent candidate for promotion. He has also promised Jason on more than one occasion that he would recommend him for the next available promotion. Hank also worked hard to earn the Maxim Factory account for his section. 2. What should Hank do? Why? Answer: Hank should recommend Jason for the newly opened account manager position. Based on the consequential theory, the Maxim Factory project may, but won’t necessarily, be compromised either way. However, recommending Jason for the new position will make Jason happy by giving him the promotion he deserves and will allow Hank to maintain his personal and professional credibility by keeping his word. Considering the rule-based theory, Hank’s obligations to the company involve the “best possible person” with regard to promotions and project assignments. He can recommend Jason for the promotion and still assign the “best possible person” (i.e. of those left on the team after Jason’s promotion) to manage the Maxim Factory project. Hank has invested a great deal into Jason and his prospects for promotion, and, based on the character theory, it will go against his character to not recommend Jason for promotion at this point. Self-Assessments—What about You? 9.1 How Cohesive Is Your Group? This challenge could be assigned prior to the class discussion on cohesiveness. During the class discussion, students could be asked to share their experiences from the group they evaluated in the challenge to help illustrate the points related to cohesiveness. This exercise could form the basis for a particularly interesting discussion if students have been placed in groups within the class for the duration of the semester. Instructors should have students simply answer the questions with no discussion immediately after being put in groups, and then when this chapter comes up, they should have them answer the questions again after they’ve been working together for several weeks. Instructors should also discuss the differences in their responses as the groups evolve over time. The student portion of the activity is provided on a handout at the end of this chapter guide. 9.2 How Much Diversity Is On Your Team? This exercise allows students to explore the level of diversity on teams of which they are members in the classroom, at their schools or universities, at their workplaces, or elsewhere. It provides a good launching point for discussions centered on what types of diversity exist in those teams and how the presence or absence of various types of diversity affects the teams. It might also be useful to discuss ways in which diversity characteristics can work against team cohesion if not properly managed. The student portion of the activity is provided on the review card in the student edition of ORGB and on a handout at the end of this chapter guide. Issues in Diversity Appoint More Women or Else!—Achieving Gender Balance in Top Teams Over the past 15 years, Noëlle Lenoir has put together an impressive list of accomplishments. She has practiced international law, taught at Columbia University’s law school, served as the French Minister of European Affairs, chaired the department at France’s leading business school, and served on France’s Institutional Council, which is the equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2008, Lenoir was appointed to the board of directors of a global insurance giant, Generali Group. Around the same time, many European governments were passing bold new legislations that were designed to increase the number of women in its corporate boardrooms—mandating gender quotas. Research shows that companies often perform better on bottom line financial indicators such as return on equity, return on sales, and return on invested capital when women are on their corporate boards. Still, the proportion of women on corporate boards worldwide has not improved much over the past two decades. 15% of U.S. corporate boards consist of women. In comparison, women made up less than 10% of EU-wide corporate boards in 2009. The country-specific breakdown painted a bleaker picture. Though Germany and the UK have 13% and 12% of women on their boards respectively, the proportion of women on corporate boards in France was 9% or less. Some have suggested another simplistic reason why lesser number of women hold more positions of power—men have no incentive, personal or professional, to relinquish their positions. Before Norway passed gender quota legislation in 2003, only 7% of corporate directorships were held by women. The mandate required all state-owned and publicly-traded companies to increase female board directorships to 40% by the beginning of 2009 or risk being shut down. Similar legislation is scheduled to take effect in Spain and the Netherlands in 2015 and 2016 respectively. France plans to pass its version of gender quota legislation requiring a 40% increase in female board presence by 2016. Lenoir supports the establishment of gender quotas and believes that women will have greater corporate opportunities as a result. 1. Do you believe that legal quotas are necessary to increase the diversity of top management teams? Answer: Students should not only consider the issue as a simple question of whether representation of women on top management teams will increase with or without legal quotas but also consider when such an increase will occur. It is a possibility that the proportion of women will eventually increase to appropriate levels without such quotas, but the time required for that increase to occur naturally may be considered unacceptable by some. Legal quotas can be effective in increasing diversity in top management teams by providing a structured mandate for inclusion. They address systemic barriers and create opportunities for underrepresented groups. However, their necessity depends on the organization's context and the effectiveness of other diversity initiatives. While quotas can drive progress, they should be complemented by broader efforts like mentorship programs, inclusive hiring practices, and a supportive organizational culture to ensure sustainable and meaningful diversity. 2. How can companies leverage the increasing numbers of women on corporate boards? Answer: One way to leverage the number of women on corporate boards would be to encourage them to seek out and be appointed to chair those corporate boards or serve in other positions of greater authority and responsibility within corporate boards. Experiential Exercises 9.1 Tower Building: A Group Dynamics Activity This exercise provides students with an opportunity to examine group dynamics in a task-oriented situation. Students must take the responsibility to bring to class the necessary materials for building a tower. All materials must fit into a box that is not greater than eight cubic feet. This exercise is a favorite for instructors as it helps many students to uncover the dynamics of group and leadership behavior. The advantage of this exercise is that it takes far less time than game-oriented simulations. The student portion of the activity is provided on a handout at the end of this chapter guide. 9.2 Design a Team This exercise provides students with an excellent opportunity to apply much of the material from the text and to think in depth about how teams should be formed. As each group shares their responses to the questions, instructors should be sure to discuss the similarities and differences in their responses. At the conclusion of the group presentations, try to reach at an agreement as a class on the ideal profile for this team. The student portion of the activity is provided on a handout at the end of this chapter guide. 9.3 Putting the Beat Back in Groups This exercise may be discussed in at least three ways. (1) Students may use this opportunity to review or teach the chapter components to each other in the group, (2) this serves as a team development exercise, where instructors may ask how cohesive the group is and where the group development is on this project, and (3) this is a lighthearted avenue to receive different contributions from students than are normally provided. It is difficult for instructors to convince students that they utilize creativity throughout their lives. This exercise provides an avenue for students to risk being creative among their peers. The student portion of the activity is provided on a handout at the end of this chapter guide. * SOURCE: Adapted from Donald D. Bowen, The University of Tulsa. Additional Examples No Stars Here: Just World-Class Teamwork While the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is a large business with a world-class medical brand, the face of the clinic is the patient treatment from doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals who always put the patient first. The clinic hires no stars. Mayo ardently searches for people who are team players and hires them for their values as well as their talent. Clinic patients get more than a doctor; they get the whole Mayo team, as and when needed. All of the staff practices medicine as a cooperative science, not a competitive science. This makes collaboration the norm and expected behavior. The team concept underlies Mayo’s clinical excellence, its personal service, and its highly efficient care. Positive Effects of Team Optimism For a decade, positive psychology, positive organizational behavior, and positive organizational scholarship have uncovered the important role that positivity plays in both individual and organizational success. It is therefore surprising that few researchers have investigated positivity at the team level. A recent study examines the emergence of team-level positive psychological capacities and their relationship with team functioning. The research included over 300 students working for two sessions of three-member or four-member teams. The final results were based upon data from 101 teams, each of which completed four projects during the course of the research. In addition to information on previous teammate knowledge and task interdependency, the researchers measured three positive psychological attributes from Luthans’ PsyCap framework. These were team efficacy, team resilience, and team optimism. The key team outcomes considered in the research were cohesion, cooperation, coordination, and conflict and team satisfaction. The results showed that team optimism is an important predictor of many team outcomes when teams are newly formed. However, after the completion of several projects, team resilience and team efficacy show greater explanatory power concerning team outcomes. Team optimism seems to be the most functional positive organizational behavior (POB) capacity for newly formed teams. The research concluded that more is not necessarily better and that the level of teammate interactions is important in team processes and team outcomes. SOURCE: B. J. West, J. L. Patera and M. K. Carsten, “Team Level Positivity: Investigating Positive Psychological Capacities and Team Level Outcomes,” Journal of Organizational Behavior 30 (2009): 249–267. Leading Differently at Parker Hannifin, Time Warner Cable Sharon Powell of Parker Hannifin Corporation understands that it is not just the country an employee comes from but what part of America one comes from that can make a difference. Team members from New York, the Midwest, and the Deep South can display differences in communication, language, idioms, business etiquette, and attire as diverse as team members from different countries. Even teams made up entirely of Americans may still be multicultural. Time Warner Cable finds that the diversity among its customers has demanded that diversity be represented in every aspect of the company if it is going to serve those diverse customers well. Case Study and Suggested Responses Achieving Success in Virtual Teams LINKAGE OF CASE TO CHAPTER MATERIAL “Harnessing the power of virtual worlds is now a necessity as industry penetrates every corner of our planet and workers are required to be in touch with teammates on the next block and on distant continents at any time. In most companies, participating in virtual teams is no longer an exotic exercise, but a bottom-line requirement.” This quote at the beginning of the case sets the context for exploring the human factors that are crucial to whether virtual teams succeed or fail. Communication effectiveness and stimulating work are essential factors but so are interdependent work relationships. Volvo is used as an example of a company that has taken the issues of communication effectiveness and stimulating work to heart in working toward making its virtual teams as effective as possible. The case can be connected to the following concepts from Chapter 9: characteristics of effectively functioning groups, behavioral norms, task and maintenance functions of groups, and diversity and creativity within teams. Suggested Answers for Discussion Questions 1. Describe the attributes that contribute to the success of virtual teams and those that contribute to the failure of virtual teams. Answer: Based upon information contained in the case, attributes that contribute to the success of virtual teams include the following: • Team members share common goals and responsibilities. • Team members are self-reliant and self-motivated. • Team members understand people, cultures, and organizations. • Team members can tolerate or even relish ambiguity in their job responsibilities. • Team members communicate clearly in oral form. • Team members write well. • Team members have stimulating work. The opposites of the above attributes contribute to the failure of virtual teams. For example, “[a]mbiguity can be a detriment because the way virtual workers write and comprehend written communications can alter meaning and generate unneeded tension among team members and managers.” Further, team members “who like regimented schedules and concrete instructions on how to do their jobs won’t perform as well in virtual work settings.” Moreover, when team members do not experience the work as stimulating and challenging, “[t]hey simply fade away, with fewer and fewer dialing into the weekly conference calls or posting ideas on the shared site. It’s not that the members don’t like one another, it’s simply that the atmosphere becomes more like a country club than a dynamic collection of inspired people.” Success Attributes: Clear communication, trust, technology proficiency, defined roles, and regular updates. Failure Attributes: Poor communication, lack of trust, ineffective technology use, unclear roles, and infrequent check-ins. 2. Discuss the extent to which the characteristics of well-functioning, effective groups overlap the attributes that contribute to the success of virtual teams. Answer: According to the textbook, the characteristics of well-functioning, effective groups include the following: • The atmosphere tends to be relaxed, comfortable, and informal. • The group’s task is well understood and accepted by the members. • The members listen well to one another; most members participate in a good deal of task-relevant discussions. • People express both their feelings and their ideas. • Conflict and disagreement are present and centered on ideas or methods, not personalities or people. • The group is aware and conscious of its own operation and function. • Decisions are usually based on consensus, not majority vote. • When actions are decided, clear assignments are made and accepted by members of the group. Examination of the attributes that contribute to the success of virtual teams (see suggested response to question 1) reveals a considerable overlap with the characteristics of well-functioning, effective groups. As a means of more easily identifying the overlapping (or intersecting) items on the two lists, students should be encouraged to set up the lists in a two-dimensional matrix. Overlap: Effective groups share attributes with successful virtual teams, such as clear goals, open communication, and mutual respect. These overlap in fostering collaboration, trust, and accountability. 3. Explain how cultural diversity can affect the effective functioning of virtual teams operating in a global economy. Answer: As indicated in the case, “[t]he challenge [that] virtual teams face is productively brainstorming ideas, solving problems, and executing on projects with people whose physical locationnot to mention specialty, and in some cases, culturemakes it difficult to freely and clearly speak one’s mind.” In short, diversityin its many incarnations and interpretationsposes a significant challenge for virtual teams. And this diversity can have either positive or negative effects on the team and its individual members. It can have a positive effect if the dissimilarities of team members are used to encourage multiple perspectives and ideas that can help to develop a more powerful, more widely accepted solution to problems. Diversity can have a negative effect if the dissimilarities of team members are allowed to divide them and undermine their ability to see the value of contributions generated from a different perspective. The success or failure of virtual teams is mostly due to the team members, not to their reliance on technology. When there is diversity among team membersas there naturally is in virtual teams that draw members from around the globethose team members must ensure that diversity works to their advantage. This can be accomplished in two ways: (a) having stimulating work to pursue, and (b) ensuring that the members communicate effectively with one another. Stimulating work helps people to focus on the goals and tasks required to achieve those goals and to take advantage of all the input that can help the members successfully meet the team’s challenges. Effective communication is essential to the functioning of team members who are geographically dispersed; it also contributes to better understanding of other people and the cultural influences that impact their individual contributions. Cultural Diversity Impact: It can lead to varied communication styles and perspectives, enhancing creativity but also creating misunderstandings and conflict if not managed effectively. 4. Is Volvo’s approach to evaluating the effectiveness of its virtual teams one that could serve as a useful model for other organizations to follow in evaluating their own virtual teams? Justify your answer. Answer: Volvo evaluates the effectiveness of its virtual teams with a variety of metrics in four major categories that can be framed in the form of the following four questions: • How aligned is the team’s understanding of goals, actions, and expected results? • How familiar is the team with roles and responsibilities? • How comfortable is the team with communicating internally? • How clear are project timelines and milestones? These evaluative questions target activities and processes that are fundamental to the effective functioning of any collaborative effortwhether it occurs virtually or face-to-face. Thus, Volvo’s approach could serve as a useful model for evaluating teamwork in any organizational setting. According to Volvo’s evaluation model, peak performance occurs when its virtual teams have attained “shared accountability [and] shared leadership for achieving team objectives.” This peak performance criterion can be applied to any virtual team or any face-to-face team in any organization. Volvo’s Approach: If Volvo’s evaluation method includes regular feedback, performance metrics, and adaptability, it can be a useful model for other organizations by ensuring continuous improvement and alignment with team goals. SOURCE: This case was written by Michael K. McCuddy, the Louis S. and Mary L. Morgal Chair of Christian Business Ethics and Professor of Management, College of Business Administration, Valparaiso University. Video Profile on Holden Outerwear At Holden, the use of teams emerged out of necessity. For much of the company’s brief history, managers worked independently on design projects. But as the company grew, founder Mikey LeBlanc needed more designers, and he began looking to outside freelancers for help. For the first time, Holden managers formed virtual teams to produce new apparel lines, and many of the team members were outside contractors. The change was especially positive for Nikki Brush, a design and development manager who began working for Holden as an outside freelancer. Brush’s freelance work was so good that LeBlanc eventually hired her as a full-time employee. Discussion Questions and Solutions 1. Is design manager Nikki Brush a part of a group or part of a work team? Explain the difference. Answer: Groups differ from teams. Although groups and teams are composed of multiple members who have common objectives, members of a work team possess a common mission, goals, and task responsibility. Nikki Brush is part of a work team at Holden Outerwear because she works collaboratively with others on collective work projects, interacts regularly with team members, and sets shared performance goals. Work teams emphasize shared leadership and mutual accountability; in contrast, groups emphasize individual leadership and individual accountability. Although all work teams are groups, not all groups are work teams. 2. What changes in technology made it possible for designer Nikki Brush to be a member of Holden’s work teams while she was an outside freelancer? Answer: When Nikki Brush was an outside freelancer working on Holden projects, she was a member of a virtual team. Virtual teams are composed of members who are geographically dispersed. These team members, although separated by distance, share work assignments using collaboration software, intranets, wikis, videoconferencing, and e-mail. Internet technology and mobile computing have made it possible for teams to have members inside and outside the traditional boundaries of the organization. 3. What are the potential disadvantages of teams for Holden’s apparel designers? What can managers do to help minimize these downsides? Answer: Students’ answers will vary. Apparel design is highly creative work, and poorly managed teams are susceptible to negative performance issues that can stifle creativity. Downsides of teams include social loafing, conformity, groupthink, loss of independence, and conflict. In the video, Nikki Brush says she experienced group performance dilemmas in college. For instance, one student would cut a pattern, another person would cut fabric, and still another would have to sew—but no one took ownership of the project, and performance suffered. However, Brush says things changed when she entered the workforce and received a team assignment that was highly productive. “It made us so much better as designers and more effective at delivering the product,” Brush says. Managers at Holden can promote effective teamwork by defining roles, establishing norms, and setting goals. In particular, managers need to establish the proper organizational context (e.g., establish proper team type, team characteristics, and team composition), oversee team processes (e.g., development stages, cohesiveness, norms, and conflict), and assess team effectiveness (e.g., monitor productive output, member satisfaction, and the capacity to adapt and change). Potential Disadvantages: 1. Conflict: Diverse opinions may lead to interpersonal conflicts. 2. Coordination Issues: Difficulties in aligning efforts and communication across team members. 3. Social Loafing: Some members might contribute less if they rely on others to do the work. Minimizing Downsides: 1. Conflict Resolution: Implement clear conflict resolution strategies and encourage open communication. 2. Effective Coordination: Use project management tools and regular meetings to keep everyone aligned. 3. Accountability: Set clear individual responsibilities and performance metrics to ensure active participation. Student Handouts Ethical Dilemma Hank Krendle, account manager for Craven Marketing, believes that Jason Krueger is a great candidate for promotion—Jason has consistently met the expectations set for his position, has initiated cost-saving procedures, and is a consummate team player. Jason has met with Hank regularly to make certain that he’s on target for advancement, and Hank has encouraged Jason that his productivity and ability to lead make him an excellent candidate. The team with which Jason currently works collaborates very well, and Hank believes that Jason has the skills to become a competent manager and to grow and develop within the company. Just as Hank is set to make his recommendations to his boss to consider Jason for a newly opened account manager position, he becomes aware that Jason’s team is next scheduled to work on the Maxim Factory account, which is one of Craven’s largest clients. Hank worked hard to earn that account for his section, and Jason and his team are the best people at Craven to get the work done efficiently. Hank knows that the people in his department are all capable, but Jason is really the stand-out, and certainly the only person who can manage this complex and high-profile project to the satisfaction of the management team at Maxim Factory. If Hank recommends Jason for the account manager’s position, it would leave his team without his invaluable talents. However, Hank has been promising Jason that he would fully back him for the next opening. If Hank holds off recommending Jason for this current opening, there may not be another for quite some time. Is it fair to overlook Jason for something he has worked so hard to get? That could really hurt Jason’s career advancement. But, is it fair not to give Maxim the best possible attention? Maxim is one of Craven’s largest and oldest clients. Questions 1. Using consequential, rule-based, and character theories, evaluate Hank’s options. Answer: Evaluation Using Theories: • Consequential Theory: • Promoting Jason: Long-term benefit for Jason’s career, but short-term risk to Maxim’s account quality. • Keeping Jason: Maxim’s account is managed excellently, but Jason's career advancement is delayed. • Rule-Based Theory: • Promoting Jason: Adheres to the principle of rewarding hard work and merit. • Keeping Jason: Aligns with the rule of prioritizing current client needs and project success. • Character Theory: • Promoting Jason: Demonstrates commitment to employee development and integrity in career promises. • Keeping Jason: Reflects responsibility and loyalty to client satisfaction and team effectiveness. 2. What should Hank do? Why? Answer: Recommendation: Hank should balance the immediate needs of Maxim’s account with Jason’s career development. Promoting Jason could be delayed until a more suitable project arises, while ensuring Maxim’s account receives optimal attention. This approach supports both Jason's career advancement and the high standards expected by Maxim. What about You? How Cohesive is Your Group? Think about a group of which you are a member. Answer each of the following questions in relation to this group by circling the number next to the alternative that most reflects your feelings. 1. Do you feel that you are really a part of your group? Answer: 5—Really a part of the group. 4—Included in most ways. 3—Included in some ways, but not in others. 2—Do not feel I really belong. 1—Do not work with any one group of people. 2. If you had a chance to do the same activities in another group for the same pay, how would you feel about moving? Answer: 1—Would want very much to move. 2—Would rather move than stay where I am. 3—Would make no difference to me. 4—Would rather stay where I am than move. 5—Would want very much to stay where I am. 3. How does your group compare with other groups that you are familiar with on each of the following points? Answer: • The way people get along together. 5—Better than most. 3—About the same as most. 1—Not as good as most. • The way people stick together. 5—Better than most. 3—About the same as most. 1—Not as good as most. • The way people help one another on the job. 5—Better than most. 3—About the same as most. 1—Not as good as most. Add up your circled responses. If you have a number of 20 or above, you view your group as highly cohesive. If you have a number between 10 and 19, you view your group’s cohesion as average. If you have a number of 7 or less, you view your group as very low in cohesion. SOURCE: From S. E. Seashore, Group Cohesiveness in the Industrial Work Group, University of Michigan, 1954. Reprinted by permission. What about You? How Much Diversity is On Your Team? This exercise allows you to explore the level of diversity on your team. Listed below are words that describe a variety of individual differences in the workplace. Categories and Types of Diversity Surface-Level Deep-Level Social-category differences Race Ethnicity Gender Age Religion Sexual orientation Physical abilities Differences in values or beliefs Cultural background Personality differences Cognitive style Affective disposition Organizational- or community-status differences Tenure or length of service Differences in social and network ties Work-related ties Friendship ties Differences in knowledge or skills Education Functional knowledge Information or expertise Training Experience Abilities Ideological beliefs Motivational factors Position title Community ties In-group memberships Think about the level of diversity you have on your team. 1. Which of the above-listed attributes are in your team? Answer: Attributes on Your Team: • Surface-Level: Race, gender, age. • Deep-Level: Cognitive style, personality differences, values or beliefs. • Social-Category Differences: Ethnicity, physical abilities. • Differences in Knowledge or Skills: Education, experience. 2. What attributes contribute to team effectiveness/performance? Answer: Attributes Contributing to Effectiveness/Performance: • Deep-Level: Cognitive style and personality differences can enhance problem-solving and creativity. • Differences in Knowledge or Skills: Diverse education and experience enrich the team's capabilities and decision-making. 3. What diversity characteristics need to be added to your team to make it more effective? Answer: Diversity Characteristics to Add: • Additional Cognitive Styles: To introduce varied problem-solving approaches. • Broader Experience Backgrounds: To cover different industry practices and knowledge. • More Cultural Backgrounds: To enhance global perspectives and inclusivity. SOURCE: Adapted from E. Mannix and M. A. Neale, “What Differences Make a Difference?” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 6 (2005): 31–55. Issues in Diversity Appoint More Women or Else!—Achieving Gender Balance in Top Teams Over the past 15 years, Noëlle Lenoir has put together an impressive list of accomplishments. She has practiced international law, taught at Columbia University’s law school, served as the French Minister of European Affairs, chaired the department at France’s leading business school, and served on France’s Institutional Council, the equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2008, Lenoir was appointed to the board of directors of global insurance giant, Generali Group. Around the same time, many European governments were passing bold new legislations designed to increase the number of women in its corporate boardrooms—mandating gender quotas. Research shows that companies often perform better on bottom line financial indicators such as return on equity, return on sales, and return on invested capital when women are on their corporate boards. Still, the proportion of women on corporate boards worldwide has not improved much over the past two decades. 15% of U.S. corporate boards consist of women. In comparison, women made up less than 10% of EU-wide corporate boards in 2009. The country-specific breakdown painted a bleaker picture. Though Germany and the UK have 13% and 12% of women on their boards respectively, the proportion of women on corporate boards in France was 9% or less. Some have suggested another, more simplistic reason why more women don’t hold more positions of power—men have no incentive, personal or professional, to relinquish theirs. Before Norway passed gender quota legislation in 2003, only 7% of corporate directorships were held by women. The mandate required all state-owned and publicly-traded companies to increase female board directorships to 40% by the beginning of 2009 or risk being shut down. Similar legislation is scheduled to take effect in Spain and the Netherlands in 2015 and 2016 respectively. France plans to pass its version of gender quota legislation requiring a 40% increase in female board presence by 2016. Lenoir supports the establishment of gender quotas and believes that women will have greater corporate opportunities as a result. Questions 1. Do you believe that legal quotas are necessary to increase the diversity of top management teams? Answer: Legal quotas can be necessary to accelerate diversity in top management teams by enforcing a minimum standard and breaking through entrenched barriers. Without such measures, progress may be slow due to systemic biases and resistance. 2. How can companies leverage the increasing numbers of women on corporate boards? Answer: Companies can leverage increasing numbers of women on corporate boards by enhancing decision-making diversity, improving financial performance, and reflecting a more inclusive corporate culture. This can lead to better innovation, broader market appeal, and enhanced reputation. SOURCE: B. Crumley, “Boardroom revolution,” Time (April 26, 2010); L. Joy, N.M. Carter, H.M. Wagner, and S. Narayanan, “The bottom line: Corporate performance and women’s representation on boards,” Catalyst (October 2007). Experiential Exercise Tower Building: A Group Dynamics Activity This exercise gives you an opportunity to study group dynamics in a task-oriented situation. Each group must bring their own materials to class to build a tower. All materials must fit into a box that is not greater than eight cubic feet. Step 1. Each group is assigned a meeting place and a workplace. One or two observers should be assigned in each group. Instructors may assign a manager to each group. Step 2. Each group plans for the building of the paper tower (no physical construction is allowed during this planning period). Towers will be judged on the basis of height, stability, beauty, and meaning. (Another option is to have the groups do the planning outside of class and come prepared to build the tower.) Step 3. Each group should construct its tower. Step 4. Groups should inspect other groups’ towers, and all group members should rate the towers other than their own. See the evaluation sheet at the right. Each group turns in its evaluation sheet (i.e., someone in the group adds up each person’s total for all groups rated) to the instructor, and the instructor will announces the winner. Step 5. Group dynamics analysis—observers report observations to their own groups, and each group analyzes the group dynamics that occurred during the planning and building of the tower. Step 6. Groups report on major issues in group dynamics that arose during the tower planning and building. Complete the tower building aftermath questionnaire as homework if requested by your instructor. Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Group 8 Height Stability /Strength Beauty Meaning Total Rate each criterion on a scale of 1–10, with 1 being lowest or poorest, and 10 being highest or best. SOURCE: From Organizational Behavior and Performance, 5/e by Szilagyi/Wallace, © 1997. Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, N.J. Experiential Exercise Design a Team The following exercise gives students an opportunity to design a team. Working in a six-person group, students should address the individual characteristics, team composition, and norms for an effective group whose task is to make recommendations on improving customer relations. The president of a small clothing manufacturer is concerned that his customers are not satisfied enough with the company’s responsiveness, product quality, and returned-order process. He has asked each group to put together a team to address these problems. Step 1. Form the class into groups of approximately six members each. Each group elects a spokesperson and answers the following questions. The group should spend an equal amount of time on each question. a. What characteristics should the individual members of the task team possess? Answer: Members may consider professional competence, skills, department, and/or personality and behavioral characteristics in the group’s discussion. b. What should the composition of the task team be? Once your group has addressed individual characteristics, consider the overall composition of the task team. Have special and/or unique competencies, knowledge, skills, and abilities been considered in your deliberations? c. What norms of behavior do you think the task team should adopt? Answer: A team’s norms of behavior may evolve, or they may be consciously discussed and agreed upon. Take the latter approach. Step 2. Each group will share the results of its answers to the questions in step 1. Cross-team questions and discussions follow. Experiential Exercise Putting the Beat Back In Groups You and the members of your team are lyricists for a major music publishing house, Country & Western, Inc. (CWI). CWI specializes in country music, and has developed a unique approach to the creative business of developing hit country songs. In contrast to the normal approach to song writing, artists under contract to CWI provide only the music to their songs. CWI employs specialists in lyrics (you and your teammates) to write the titles and words. When a musician submits a new melody to CWI, the Vice President of Creativity listens to the tune, identifies a topic he believes to be appropriate for the melody, then assigns one of the lyric production teams to develop a catchy title for the song including the words (or variations of them) the Vice President used to designate the topic of the song. For example, if the assigned topic was “love”, acceptable titles might include: “I ain't had a beer since breakfast so what I'm feelin’ must be love,” or “Lovin’ you sure beats punchin’ cows.” The Vice President of Creativity has just assigned the following topics for titles. Make a creative country and western song title out of as many as possible in the time allotted. Topic Proposed Title 1. Empowerment 2. Group cohesion 3. Team 4. Group development 5. Quality circles 6. Social loafing 7. Upper echelon 8. Psychological intimacy Case Study Achieving Success in Virtual Teams “Harnessing the power of virtual worlds is now a necessity as industry penetrates every comer of our planet, and workers are required to be in touch with their teammates on the next block and on distant continents at any time. In most companies, participating in virtual teams is no longer an exotic exercise, but a bottom-line requirement.” “Often widely separated geographically and located in distant time zones, virtual teams are frequently composed of members from different cultures who work in different organizations with unfamiliar standards and models of behavior.” Members of virtual teams most likely have never met each other in person. NetAge, a company that provides consulting services for networked organizations, maintains that the secret to successful virtual teams is 10 percent technology and 90 percent people. Likewise the failure of virtual teams is largely due to people. The substantial role of people in the success of virtual teams prompts the question: What are some human factors that contribute to the success of virtual teams, and what are some human factors that contribute to the failure of virtual teams? Virtual teams require interdependent work relationships. “Interdependent work teams share common goals and responsibilities; at the same time, the team members are self-reliant and self-motivated.” Effective virtual collaboration requires an understanding of people, cultures, and organizations. Employees who can tolerate or even relish ambiguity in their job responsibilities tend to function well in virtual teams, whereas employees “who like regimented schedules and concrete instructions on how to do their jobs won’t perform as well in virtual work settings.” Two very key human factors that determine the success or failure of virtual teams are communication effectiveness and stimulating work. When it comes to communication in virtual team settings, ambiguity increases the chances of failure and clarity of communication contributes to success. “Employees must write well to draft easy-to-understand and to-the-point communications. Ambiguity can be a detriment because the way virtual workers write and comprehend written communications can alter meaning and generate unneeded tension among team members and managers.” As Joseph Grenny, writing in Leadership Excellence, observes: “The challenge [that] virtual teams face is productively brainstorming ideas, solving problems, and executing on projects with people whose physical locationnot to mention specialty, and in some cases, culturemakes it difficult to freely and clearly speak one’s mind.” Reporting in The Wall Street Journal, Lynda Gratton observes that the work of virtual teams is frequently unsupervised and consequently team members’ tasks should be challenging and stimulating. Otherwise, disinterest could cause the virtual team to disintegrate. When team members do not experience the work as stimulating and challenging, “[t]hey simply fade away, with fewer and fewer dialing into the weekly conference calls or posting ideas on the shared site. It’s not that the members don’t like one another. It’s simply that the atmosphere becomes more like a country club than a dynamic collection of inspired people.” Volvo is one company that has taken the issues of communication effectiveness and stimulating work to heart in working toward making its virtual teams as effective as possible. With a very significant global footprint of manufacturing in 19 countries and sales in 180 countries, and 120,000 employees with half of those being information workers, the Volvo Information Technology (VIT) unit seeks to support team effectiveness around the world. The mission for improving the effectiveness of the company’s virtual teams is to “[a]ssist teams with establishing effective ways of communicating and collaborating to reach business objectives.” Volvo evaluates the effectiveness of its virtual teams with a variety of metrics in four major categories that can be framed in the form of the following four questions: “How aligned is the team’s understanding of goals, actions, and expected results? How familiar is the team with roles and responsibilities? How comfortable is the team with communicating internally? How clear are project timelines and milestones?” At peak performance, Volvo’s virtual teams would be judged as having attained “shared accountability [and] shared leadership for achieving team objectives.” Attaining this level of virtual team performance is possible only by having interesting work for the team members to do and effective communication among them. Discussion Questions 1. Describe the attributes that contribute to the success of virtual teams and those that contribute to the failure of virtual teams. Answer: Success Attributes: Clear communication, strong trust, and regular updates; technology proficiency and well-defined roles. Failure Attributes: Poor communication, lack of trust, and inadequate technology or training. 2. Discuss the extent to which the characteristics of well-functioning, effective groups overlap the attributes that contribute to the success of virtual teams. Answer: Many attributes of effective groups, such as open communication, trust, and clear roles, overlap with those of successful virtual teams, emphasizing the importance of these traits. 3. Explain how cultural diversity can affect the effective functioning of virtual teams operating in a global economy. Answer: Cultural diversity can enhance creativity and problem-solving but may also introduce challenges like miscommunication and differing work styles. 4. Is Volvo’s approach to evaluating the effectiveness of its virtual teams one that could serve as a useful model for other organizations to follow in evaluating their own virtual teams? Justify your answer. Answer: Volvo's approach to evaluating virtual teams—focusing on performance metrics and team feedback—can serve as a model for other organizations by ensuring that virtual teams are both productive and aligned with organizational goals. SOURCE: This case was written by Michael K. McCuddy, The Louis S. and Mary L. Morgal Chair of Christian Business Ethics and Professor of Management, College of Business Administration, Valparaiso University. R. Ubell, “Virtual Team Learning,” T + D 64(8) (August 2010): 52 (7 pages). R. Ubell, “Virtual Team Learning,” T + D 64(8) (August 2010): 52 (7 pages). W.D. Gardner, “Enterprise 2.0: Making Virtual Collaboration Work,” Informationweek, http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/collaboration/218101362. (accessed February 13, 2014) Anonymous, “Virtual Teams,” NetAge web site, http:www.netage.com/virtualteams/index.html (accessed February 13, 2014). B. Leonard, “Managing Virtual Teams,” HRMagazine 56(6) (June 2011): 39 (4 pages). W.D. Gardner, “Enterprise 2.0: Making Virtual Collaboration Work,” Informationweek, http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/collaboration/218101362 (accessed February 13, 2014). B. Leonard, “Managing Virtual Teams,” HRMagazine 56(6) (June 2011): 39 (4 pages). B. Leonard, “Managing Virtual Teams,” HRMagazine 56(6) (June 2011): 39 (4 pages). J. Grenny, “Virtual Teams,” Leadership Excellence 27(5) (May 2010): 20. L. Gratton, “Business Insight (A Special Report): Organization; Working Together...When Apart: As employees scatter around the globe, virtual teamwork has become crucial; Here are 10 rules for making it work,” The Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition) (June 16, 2007): R4. L. Gratton, “Business Insight (A Special Report): Organization; Working Together...When Apart: As employees scatter around the globe, virtual teamwork has become crucial; Here are 10 rules for making it work,” The Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition) (June 16, 2007): R4. W.D. Gardner, “Enterprise 2.0: Making Virtual Collaboration Work,” Informationweek, http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/collaboration/218101362 (accessed February 13, 2014). V. Adamson, “Volvo: Driving Virtual Team Productivity,” Enterprise 2.0 Conference (June 22-25, 2009): 2. V. Adamson, “Volvo: Driving Virtual Team Productivity,” Enterprise 2.0 Conference (June 22-25, 2009): 3. V. Adamson, “Volvo: Driving Virtual Team Productivity,” Enterprise 2.0 Conference (June 22-25, 2009): 5. V. Adamson, “Volvo: Driving Virtual Team Productivity,” Enterprise 2.0 Conference (June 22-25, 2009): 5. Solution Manual for ORGB Organizational Behavior Debra L. Nelson, James Campbell Quick 9781305663916, 9781337148443