12) ________ teams are defined as groups of employees who perform highly related or interdependentjobs and take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors.A) IndependentB) Self-managed workC) Cross-functionalD) Problem-solvingE) TraditionalAnswer:B Show 13) Nick, the director of manufacturing at a large electronics company, has created a team of elevenemployees from quality control for working on high priority projects. Nick gives the team members theresponsibility of planning and scheduling their own work, and making all functional decisions. Also,members of this team evaluate each other's performance. This is an example of a ________ team.B14) Which of the following statements is true regarding self-managed work teams? Get answer to your question and much more Get answer to your question and much more 15) Which of the following teams is more likely to be made up of employees from about the samehierarchical level but different work areas?C Get answer to your question and much more 16) To retain its edge in the organic health food market, Natura has established a high-priority teamcomprised of senior executives from the company's production, marketing, and research divisions. Theseemployees work together closely to study consumer attitudes about organic health foods and come upwith a closely monitored development and marketing strategy for new products. This ensures that eachdivision is informed of the specific needs, timelines, and expected outcomes of the strategy. It alsomakes Natura a company that adapts to changes in market trends swiftly. The team Natura uses here isof the ________ type.A) problem-solvingB) self-managed workC) cross-functionalD) traditionalE) departmentalAnswer:C 17) GoAir, a low-cost airline, has created a team made up of employees from production, planning,3 There are mainly four types of work teams - Self-managed work teams, Cross-functional teams, Virtual teams and Problem-solving teams. Self-managed teams are work teams that are given permission to organize and control the work that they do. These group of people perform highly related or inter dependent jobs and take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors. This includes planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work, making operating decisions, and taking action on problems. Fully self-managed work teams even select their own members and have the members evaluate each other‘s performance. Cross-functional work teams are a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. Typically, it includes employees from all levels of an organization. Members may also come from outside an organization (in particular, from suppliers, key customers, or consultants). Cross-functional teams often function as self-directed teams assigned to a specific task which call for the input and expertise of various departments. Each member offers an alternative perspective to the problem and potential solution to the task. Members of a cross-functional team must be well versed in multi-tasking as they are simultaneously responsible for their cross-functional team duties as well as their normal day-to-day work tasks. Making a decision within a team may depend on majority votes, but often is led by a team leader. Leadership can be a significant challenge with cross-functional teams. Leaders are charged with the task of directing team members of various disciplines. They must transform different variations of input into one cohesive final output. Virtual ... ... middle of paper ... ...s. CA2 saw some aspects of this as members work constructively on the mind maps, to ensure that fellow group members could understand their respective parts during the peer teaching session. There is a sense of achievement after the completion of CA2. This sense of fulfilment is transcended into CA3 where members feel good about the progress and work done on the report. While there was an early encounter with failure in game 1 (CA1), the members were proud that there was a sense of cohesiveness throughout the assessment. Game 2 (CA1) was successful as a result, due to positivity and determination to achieve greater results in the following assessments.The adjourning stage is when temporary group disbands. There is a sense of fulfilment and sadness over the loss in working opportunities. Members would move on to form new teams and groups for future endeavours.
Learning Outcomes
Business organizations have both groups and teams. A group is formed around a common interest or purpose with the goal of sharing information, but there is no collective accountability. Work groups may consist of social clubs or volunteer efforts. A team’s focus is collective performance, with both individual and mutual accountability. For example, all of the people who work in accounting constitute a group, but people from each functional department who meet regularly to standardize financial procedures are a team. Before we look more closely at what constitutes an effective (high-performing) team, we will review the advantages and disadvantages of using teams in the workplace. Advantages of Teams in the WorkplaceTeams bring together people with diverse skills and make something that nobody could do alone. A well-planned team improves motivation. Communication is higher on teams, and the diverse skill set means teams can discover new approaches. Because teams have specific shared goals, team members usually enjoy greater autonomy, variety, task identity, task significance, and feedback. Teams often enjoy the social support for difficult tasks, improving morale and motivation. Another benefit of teams is to improve product and service quality. Each Whole Foods grocery store operates with an average of ten “self-managed” teams, including produce, prepared foods, groceries, etc. Each store also has a team made up of just the team leaders from each team to facilitate communication and sharing. Each team takes responsibility for the quality of the products and service in its area. Efficiency in product development is another advantage to building teams within the traditional hierarchy. Teams can analyze and identify dependent tasks in a nonlinear process, sometimes realizing startling improvements. Employees also benefit from participating on teams. They develop relationships to people from other areas of the business and learn more about what is happening across functional department lines (cross training). A 2009 study by CG and WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management of eighty global software development teams showed that members of effective teams are more motivated and report greater job satisfaction, which leads to fewer employees quitting. Disadvantages of TeamsNot all teams are wildly successful. When companies do not make adequate efforts to create, build, and support strong teams, employees may initially become discouraged and leave the firm. You read in the first section about some of the behavioral problems related to teams, including social loafing. Another phenomenon that can happen in groups is groupthink. We’ll discuss this in more detail in the next section, but it involves the reluctance to speak out against the majority opinion in fear of upsetting other members and disrupting social cohesion. When a few people begin to speak for the whole team, individual members may not feel as responsible for the team’s success. Teams are also ineffective when they lack leadership, when the decision making is not democratic, and when the team lacks expertise and necessary skills. Eventually, team members don’t feel accountable, and the team fails. Finally, some teams fail because the members are not adequately prepared or supported. Teams can’t perform well if they have no clear purpose, are not given autonomy, and don’t have the resources required. Some individuals are not compatible with teamwork. Workers must be selected to fit the team as well as requisite job skills. Conflict will develop between team members, so leaders must be able to step in. And teams can be time-consuming due to the need for coordination and consensus.  Companies create different types of teams for different purposes. A cross-functional team is just what it sounds like—a team that pulls its members from across the different functional areas of an organization. For example, cross-functional teams may be composed of representatives from production, sales, marketing, finance, and legal. The strength of this type of team lies in its members having different functional backgrounds, education, and experience. The diversity of experience aids innovative problem solving and decision making. Unfortunately, the very factors that give cross-functional teams strength can also lead to weaknesses. Without a strong leader and very specific goals, it may be hard to foster social cohesion in cross-functional teams and to create a system of accountability. A cross-functional team might be brought together to review and make recommendations on potential acquisitions or mergers. A task force is a group or committee, usually of experts or specialists, formed for analyzing, investigating, or solving a specific problem. Quite often, a task force is formed in reaction to a problem or specific event, and once the job is done, the task force is disbanded. The goal of a task force is to offer solutions, support, and, if possible, create preventive measures for issues. Types of concerns that may generate task forces in the workplace include bullying, health and wellness, employee training, increasing customer sales, or improving employee job satisfaction. A project team is similar to a task force, but a project team is often ongoing and covers a wider range of tasks. Virtual teams are groups of individuals working together with a common purpose but from different locations. People may be in different time zones or even different organizations. The obvious advantage of a virtual team is the low cost, both in time and money to maintain it. Meeting in virtual time increases flexibility for the members (no need to get dressed before the meeting!) and allows the organization to use the talent of people from around the globe. The idea of virtual teams is relatively new. However, according to the IQVIS management consulting firm, virtual teams have grown 80 percent in business use from 2005 to 2015. Virtual teams are possible thanks to advances in communications and technology, such as e-mail, the World Wide Web (Internet), videoconferencing, and other products. Working across cultures can be as challenging as working cross-functionally. Working with different cultures means working with very different leadership styles and decision-making processes. In the United States, managers tend to gather data, make a quick decision, and move forward, making corrections as need. Northern Europeans prefer to slowly build consensus, whereas French schoolchildren are trained to debate and confront. Some business consultants will tell you that decisions in Japan are made in small, informal conversations before the formal meeting ever takes place. In spite of these barriers, many companies have been adapting virtual teams. SAP is the world’s largest inter-enterprise software company with more than thirty thousand employees in sixty countries. It relies on virtual teams to survive. It has five headquarters around the globe, each one with a specific area of expertise shared via virtual meetings. IBM and General Electric are corporations that also depend on virtual team strategies. Self-Managing TeamsA self-managed team is a group of employees that’s responsible and accountable for all or most aspects of producing a product or delivering a service. It could be thought of as a mini-company within a larger organization. Traditional organizations assign tasks to employees depending on their skills or the functional department (sales, finance, production). A self-managed team carries out the supporting tasks as well, such as planning and scheduling the technical workflow tasks, and human resource tasks such as managing vacations and absences. Team members may take turns leading and assuming technical responsibilities. Because of the autonomy given to self-managed teams, these teams have greater ownership of the jobs they perform. Some benefits of self-managed teams are: team members share accountability for what they accomplish, which can be a great motivator; individuals have greater commitment to the task because they’re directly responsible for its results; and they take on some of a manager’s work so he can continue on other tasks. However, self-managed teams are not without problems. Groupthink occurs more frequently with these teams. Members may struggle during the transition from supervisor-led management to self-management, possibly because of lack of interpersonal skills or poor implementation by the company. Not surprisingly, the most effective self-managing teams are found in companies where the corporate culture supports democratic decision making and the employees are generally well-educated. Contribute!Did you have an idea for improving this content? We’d love your input. Improve this pageLearn More |
