Interpersonal and Group Process Approaches:Team Building, Team Building Process

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Organization Development MGMT 628

Lesson 31

Interpersonal and Group Process Approaches

4. Team Building

A team is a group of individuals with complementary skills who depend upon one another to accomplish

common purpose or set of performance goals for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

Teamwork is work done when members subordinate their personal prominence for the good of the team.

Members of effective teams are open and honest with one another, there is support and trust, there is a

high degree of cooperation and collaboration, decisions are reached by consensus, communication channels

are open and well developed, and there is a strong commitment to the team's goals.

Many organizations are attempting to increase productivity by implementing team-based programs. Almost

80% of all companies have some type of team-based, employee involvement program in place. Just like the

Army believes that individuals perform better when they are part of a stable group; they are more reliable,

and they take responsibility for the success of the overall operation.

Developing teams is necessary because technology and market demands are compelling manufactures to

make their products faster, cheaper, and better.

The coordination of individual effort into task accomplishment is most important when the members of a

team are interdependent. Interdependence refers to situations where one person's performance is

contingent upon how someone else performs. In order to understand the workings of teams we can draw

some good parallels from sports like cricket, football, and basketball. Among the three major professional

sports cricket, football, and basketball basketball is more of a team sport than the other two.

Cricket is a game of pooled interdependence where team member contributions are somewhat independent

of one another. The players are separated on a large field, they are not all involved actively in every play,

and they come to bat one at a time.

Football, in contrast, involves sequential interdependence. A flow of players and first downs are required to

score. The players are closer to each other than in cricket, and there is greater degree of interdependence.

Players are normally grouped together functionally (i.e. offence and defense) and the two groups do not

contact one another. Unlike cricket, all the players on the field are involved in every play.

Basketball exhibits the highest degree of interdependence. Players are closely grouped together and the

team moves together on the court. Every player may contact any other player, and the player's roles or

functions are less defined than in football. All the players are involved in offense, defense, and trying to

score.

Organizations frequently use sport teams as a model. For example, some organizations require close

teamwork similar to basketball, whereas other organizations require team involvement similar to cricket.

Using sports terminology, a production manager expressed his vision of his work team by saying, "I have a

picture of an ideal basketball team in my head that I compare to the production team. When I see people

not passing to each other or when I see somebody taking all the shots, I know we have to work on

teamwork."

One major OD technique, termed team building or team development, is used for increasing the

communication, cooperation, and cohesiveness of units to make them productive and effective. Team

building is an intervention where the members of a work group examine such things as their goals,

structure, procedures, culture, norms, and interpersonal relationships, to improve their ability to work

together effectively and efficiently.

The OD in Practice illustrates how Starbucks uses team methods.

OD in Practice: A Cup of Coffee at Starbucks

Howard Schultz's vocabulary, at least in formal interviews, makes him sound like a college professor of

management. The interviews are prepared with words like "collaborative," "teams," "empowerment,"

"empathize," and "vision."

Schultz just happens to be one of the founders, chairperson of the board, and chief strategist of Starbucks

Coffee Company, and he is intent on moving Starbucks to new heights. "We are in the second inning of a

nine-inning game," he says. Starbucks stock has gone up more than 3,000 percent since it first went public

in 1992. The firm has over 7,500 stores in 36 countries and is expanding so rapidly that the running joke is

that a new Starbucks will be opening in the restroom of a current Starbucks. Over 25 million people visit

Starbucks each week. No American retailer has a higher frequency of customer visits. Besides a good cup

of Coffee, what is the Starbucks formula for success?

Perhaps it is the firm's vision. Says former US Senator and current Starbucks board member Bill Bradley,

"Howard is consumed with his vision of Starbucks. That means showing the good that a corporation can

do for his workers, shareholders, and customers." On Starbucks six-point mission statement, number one

is "Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity."

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Starbucks overriding Company philosophy is "Leave no one behind." This philosophy shows up in new

employees receiving 24 hours of in-store training, higher-than-average salaries, and benefit packages. All

employees who work more than 20 hours a week receive stock options and full health-care benefits.

Schultz says, "The most important thing I ever did was give our employees stock options. That's what sets

us apart and gives a higher quality employee that cares more."

In employee surveys Starbucks ranks ahead of other companies. Starbucks employees show an 82% job-

satisfaction rate compared to a 50% rate for all employees. Starbucks has the lowest employee turnover rate

of any restaurant or fast-food company. Another survey found that the two principal reasons people work

for Starbucks are "the opportunity to work with an enthusiastic team" and "to work in a place where one

has value." A Starbucks spokesperson says, "We look for people who are adaptable, self-motivated,

passionate, creative team players." Maintaining this spirit is not easy in a company with around 11,000 full-

time and almost 70,000 part-time employees. "Getting big and staying small," is the Starbucks objective,

says Schultz.

Starbucks has lower profit margins than other companies in the fast-food industry, partly because it has

higher salaries and benefit costs. All of the stores are owned by Starbucks, which enables the company to

control store operations. "I look at franchising as a way of accessing capital, and I will never make the

tradeoff between cheap money and losing control over our stores," says Schultz.

There are several reasons for using team building to improve organizational effectiveness. First, the work

group is basic unit of the organization and thus provides a supportive change factor. Second, the operating

problems of work groups (or the basic units) are often sources of inefficiency.

Teams or work groups often have difficulty in operating effectively. The problems that inhibit effective

operation include lack of clear objectives, interpersonal differences or conflicts, ineffective communication,

difficulty in reaching group decisions, and inappropriate power and authority levels in the group.

Need for Team Building:

Work teams may be of two basic types:

Natural work team people come together because they do related jobs or because of the

structure of the organizations design.

Temporary task team groups meet for limited periods to work on a specific project or problem

and disband after they solve it.

Need for team building varies with situation.

Team Building :

Team building refers to broad range of planned activities that help group improve the way they accomplish

tasks and help group members enhance interpersonal and problem-solving skills. Effective approach to

team building involves:

Team-Building Activities

Team Building Process

The Manager's Role in Team Building

When is Team Building Appropriate?

Results of Team Building

Team-Building Activities:

A team is a group of interdependent people who share a common purpose, have common work methods,

and hold each other accountable. The nature of that interdependence varies, creating the following types of

team: groups reporting to the same supervisor, manager, or executive, groups involving people with

common organizational goals; temporary groups formed to do a specific, one-time task; groups consisting

of people whose work roles are interdependent; and groups whose members have no formal links in the

organization but whose collective purpose is to achieve tasks they cannot accomplish alone. In addition,

there are a number of factors that affect the outcomes of any specific team-building activity: the length of

time allocated to the activity, the team's willingness to look at the way in which it operates, the length of

time the team has been working together, and the team's permanence. Consequently, the results of team--

building activities can range from comparatively modest changes in the team's operating mechanisms (for

Organization Development MGMT 628

example, meeting more frequently or gathering agenda items from more sources) to much deeper changes

(for example, modifying team members' behavior patterns or the nature and style of the group's

management, or developing greater openness and trust).

In general, team-building activities can be classified as follows: (1) activities relevant to one or more

individuals; (2) activities specific to the group's operation and behavior; and (3) activities affecting the

group's relationship with the rest of the organization. Usually, a specific team-building activity will overlap

these three categories. On occasion, a change in one area will have negative results in other areas. A very

cohesive team may increase its isolation from other groups, leading to intergroup conflict or other

dysfunctional results, which in turn can have a negative impact on the total organization unless the team

develops sufficient diagnostic skills to recognize and deal with such results.

Activities Relevant to One or More individuals:

People come into groups and organizations with varying needs and wants for achievement, inclusion,

influence, and belonging. These needs and wants can be supported and nurtured by the team's structure

and process or they can be discouraged. Almost all team-building efforts result in one or more of the

members gaining a better understanding of the way authority, inclusion, emotions, control, and power

affect problem solving and other group processes. Such activities provide information so that people have a

clearer sense of how their needs and wants can or will be supported. This information then gives group

members a choice about their level of involvement, commitment, and investment in the team's functioning.

For example, in one team, the typical decision-making process included the leader having several agenda

items for discussion. Each of the items, however, had a predetermined set of actions that she wanted the

group to take. Most members were frustrated by their inability to influence decision making. During the

team-building process, group members asked whether the boss really wanted ideas and contributions from

group members. They gave specific examples of the leader's not-so-subtle manipulation to arrive at

preconceived decisions and described how they felt about it. At the end of the discussion, the boss

indicated her willingness to be challenged about such preconceived decisions, and the other team members

expressed their increased willingness to engage in problem--solving discussions, their trust in the leader,

and their ability to make the challenge without fear of reprisal.

Sometimes, the team-building process generates pressures on individual members, such as requests for

higher levels of task performance. Such requests could have negative results unless accompanied by

agreement for further one-to-one negotiations among team members. If these demands are made of the

boss, for example, he or she may feel a loss of power and authority unless the team can agree on ways in

which the boss can be kept informed about what is happening. Methods to meet these needs for control

and influence without causing feelings of isolation can be explored.

Activities Oriented to the Group's Operation and Behavior:

The most common focus of team building activities is behavior related to task performance and group

process. In an effective team, task behavior and group process must be integrated with each other as well as

with the needs and wants of the people making up the group. Team-building activities often begin by

clarifying the team's purpose, priorities, goals, and objectives. This establishes a framework within which

further work can be done. In most team-building activities, groups spend some time finding ways to

improve the mechanisms that structure their approach to work. A group may discuss how a meeting agenda

is created, the efficiency of key work processes, or strategies for lowering costs. In addition, groups often

examine their communications patterns and determine ways in which they can be improved. Frequently,

this leads to dropping some communications patterns and establishing new ones that are more open and

conducive to problem solving in nature.

Another group operation issue is the effective use of time. To improve in this area, the group may examine

its present planning mechanisms, introduce better ones, and identify ways for using its skills and knowledge

more effectively. The group also may make decisions about recognizing and redistributing the workload. As

the group develops over time, it tends to become more aware of the need for action plans about problems

or tasks as well as for better self-diagnosis about the effectiveness of its task-accomplishment processes.

Frequently, groups examine and diagnose the nature of their problem-solving techniques. Specific items

usually are diagnosed in the earlier stage of team building, and as teams mature they broaden the scope of

these diagnostic efforts to include areas that are more directly related to interpersonal styles and their

impact on other group members. Throughout this process, group norms become clearer, and the group can

provide more opportunity for members to satisfy individual needs within the group. As a result, the team is

much more willing to take risks within both the team and the organization. Team members become more

capable of facing difficulties and problems, not only within their own group but also within the larger

organization. A spirit of openness, trust, and risk taking develops.

Organization Development MGMT 628

Activities Affecting the Group's Relationship with the Rest of the Organization:

As the team gains a better understanding of itself and becomes better able to diagnose and solve its own

problems; it focuses on its role within the organization. A group's relationship to the larger organizational

context is an important aspect of group effectiveness. As a result, the team may perceive a need to clarify

its organizational role and to consider how this role can be improved or modified. Sometimes, the team

may recognize a need for more collaboration with other parts of the organization and so try to establish

working parties or project teams that cross the boundaries of existing teams.

As the team becomes more cohesive, it usually exerts a stronger influence on the other subsystems of the

organization. Because that is one area in which team building can have negative effects, the process

consultant must help the group understand its role within the organization, develop its own diagnostic

skills, and examine alternative action plans so that inter-group tensions and conflicts do not expand.

Team Building Process:

Managing a team involves more than supervising people. In today's world, managers must bring a divergent

group of people together to work on a common project. Since no one person can possess all the knowledge

necessary to analyze and solve today's complex problems, teams are used to bring together the required

expertise. The nature of work groups makes team development interventions probably the single most

important and widely used OD activity.

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