INTRODUCTION OF TEAM WORK

Twenty-five years ago, when companies like W.L. Gore, Volvo, and General
Foods introduced teams into their production processes, it made news because
no one else was doing it. Today, it’s just the opposite. It‘s the organization that
doesn’t use teams that has become newsworthy. Currently, 80 percent of
Fortune 500 companies have half or more of their employees on teams. And 68
percent of small U.S manufactures are using teams in their production area.

In recent year, teams have emerges as the most important groups

phenomenon in organizations. The team “team” is not new to organizations. The
best known quality “guru” Joseph Juran took his “Team Approach to Problem
solving” to the Japanese in 1950s, and then to the United States in 1980s.
Today, teams are becoming increasingly popular.

“Unlike students in most classrooms, IBM trainees are taught to work as a

team. For sixteen years of schooling, students are told, “Don’t look at anyone’s
paper. Do your own work” Now for the first time, IBM trainees are told, “Here’s
the problem. The four of you must solve it together.” Initially, most trainees don’t
know how to react to this different approach to problem solving. They have to
learn to share and cooperate intellectually, as thy work on a single assignment
that requires each of them to fulfill specific tasks. The problem cannot be solved
unless they work together. This closely approximates the type of team effort and
cooperation that the sales representative will be expected to display in the field”.

DEFINITIONS OF TEAM

Green and Baron define a team as “a group whose members have

complementary skills and are committed to a common purpose or set of
performance goals for which they hold themselves mutually accountable”.

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 Stephen Robbins describes a work team as “a group whose individual efforts
results in a performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs”.
The important characteristic of a team are:
• A team consists of few peoples as the interaction and influence processes
needed for the team to function can occur only when the number is small.
• A team includes people with a mix of skills appropriate to the tasks to be
done.
• A team comes together to take action to pursue a goal. The purpose
becomes the focus of the team, which makes all decisions in pursuit of the
goal.
• Mutual accountability is a kind of promise that members make to each
other to do everything possible to achieve their goals, and it requires
commitment and trust of all members.

TEAM VERSUS GROUP

Group and teams are not the same thing. A group is defined as two or more
individuals interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve
particular objectives. A work groups is a group that interacts primarily to share
information and to make decisions to help each member perform within his or her
area of responsibility.

A work team generates positive synergy through coordinated effort. Their

individual efforts results in a level of performance that is greater than the sum of
those individual inputs.

There are several important distinctions between teams and work groups.
There are as follows:
 Performance.
 Accountability.
 Commitment.

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  Connection to management.
 Performance : In work groups, performance depends on the work of
individual members. On the other hand, the performance of a team
depends on both individual contribution and collective work products. That
is the point outcome of members working individually and collectively.
 Accountability : In a team the focus is on individual accountability as well
as mutual accountability. The team works together to produce an outcome
and each team member is responsible for that outcome. Rewards are
shared in a team. In a group, members do not consider themselves
responsible for any result other than their own. Although members pool
their resources together to attain the goal, it is individual performance that
is taken in to account while giving rewards.
 Commitment : In a group, members share a common interest goal. Team
members not only have common goal but they also have a common
commitment to the purpose.
 Connection to management : Team differ from work groups with regard to
the nature of their connections to management. Teams usually have
greater autonomy than groups. Work group have to respond regularly to
the demands placed on them by the management. In contrast work team
have greater flexibility and less interference from the management.

TYPES OF TEAM

There are many different kinds of teams. They are as follows.

1) Work teams: Some teams are mainly concerned with the work done in the
organization such as developing new products, providing service to the
customers and so on. Such teams are known as work teams. Their focus is
on optimal utilization of organizational resources in order to yield the best
possible results.

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2) Problem solving teams or improvement teams: Some teams are concerned
with ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment. Such
teams are referred to as problem – solving teams or improvement teams.
Their mission is to increase the effectiveness of the processes that are used
by the organization.
In problem-solving teams, members share ideas or offer
suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved. Rarely,
however, are these teams given the authority to unilaterally implement any
of their suggested actions.
A problem-solving team usually consists of 8 to 10 employees and
supervisors who meet regularly to discuss quality
problems, investigate causes of the problems, recommend solutions, and
take corrective actions.
These work teams and problem-solving teams or improvement teams
are differ from each other with regard to their purpose or mission.

3) Temporary teams: Some teams are established for a specific project and for
a specific time only. They are disbanded once the job is done. Teams of
such kinds are known as temporary teams.

4) A permanent team: An infinite existence and remains intact as

long as the organization exists. For example, teams focusing on customer
service exist permanently in the organization.
These temporary teams and permanent teams differ with regard to their
period of existence.

5) Work groups: The amount of operational autonomy or freedom that teams

have another feature that distinguishes one team from another. Teams with
little autonomy are referred to as work groups. In such teams, the leaders
makes all the decisions on behalf of group members who in turn follow the

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 leader’s orders. Such teams are becoming increasingly less popular in
organizations today.

6) Self-managed work teams: These teams are becoming

increasingly more popular. These teams have a high level of autonomy at
work. In self-managed work teams, team members are permitted to make
key decisions about how their work is done.
Self-managed work teams are groups of employees (typically 10 to 15 in
number) who perform highly related or interdependent jobs and take on
many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors. Typically these
includes planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members
collective control over the pace of work, making operating decisions, taking
action on problems and working with suppliers and customers. Fully self-
managed work teams even select their own member and have the members
evaluate each other’s performance. As a result, supervisory positions take
on decreased importance and may even be eliminated.

7) Intact teams: In some teams, people operate within a certain area only and
do not move away from their area of expertise. Such teams are known as
intact teams.
8) Cross-functional teams : Cross-functional teams have employees
from about the same level but from different work areas, who come together
to accomplish a task. Such teams are composed of people from different
specialty areas with the organization.
Custom Research’s reorganization illustrates the use of cross-functional
teams. These teams are made up of employees from about the same
hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to
accomplish a task.
Many organizations have used horizontal, boundary-spanning groups for
decades. For example, IBM created a large task force in the 1960s – to

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 develop its highly successful system 360. And a task force is really nothing
other than a temporary cross-functional team.

9) Virtual teams: The previous types of teams do their face-to-face. Virtual

teams use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed
members in order to achieve a common goal.
Virtual teams can do all the things that other teams do –share
information make decisions, complete tasks. And they can include members
from the same organization or link an organization’s members with
employees from other organizations (i.e., suppliers and joint partners). They
can convene for a few days to solve a problem, a few months to complete a
project, or exist permanently.
The three primary factors that differentiate virtual teams from face to face
teams are –
1) The absence paraverbal and nonverbal cues;
2) Limited social context;
3) The ability to overcome time and space constraints. In face to face
conversation, people use paraverbal (tone of voice, inflection,
voice volume) and nonverbal (eye movement, facial expression,
hand gestures, and other body language) cues. These help clarify
communication by providing increased meaning, but aren’t
available in on line interactions.

CREATING EFFECTIVE TEAMS

The need for teamwork has been recognized by organizations. But
assembling a team is not an easy task. A sound team requires not just the right
combination of skilled people but also individuals who are willing to work together
with others as a team. Considerable managerial skill and hard work are need to
develop effective teams.

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 Hackman has proposed a model which provides useful guidelines on how to
design work teams. This model suggest that the process involves four distinct
stages. Keep in mid two caveats before we proceed. First, team differ in form and
structure. Since the model we presents attempt to generalize across all varieties
of teams, we need to be careful not to rigidly apply the model’s predictions to all
the teams. The model should be used as a guide, not as an inflexible
prescription. Second the model assumes that it’s already been determined that
teamwork is preferable over individual work. Creating effective teams in situation
in which individuals can do he job better is equivalent to solving the wrong
problem perfectly. Now let us see the four stages :

1) Prework : The first stage of creating a effective team is called as prework.

The most important step of team building is to determine whether there is
necessity for a team to be created. The manager has to decide whether
the subordinates can do the work individually or whether having a team
may lead to the most creative and insightful ways of getting things done.
Before creating a team manager should decide the work that needs to be
done, the objective and composition of the team. Even the authority for
executing the task.
2) Creating performance condition : This is the second stag. In this stage, the
organization has to ensure that the team has the proper conditions for
carrying out its work. The team must be provided with the necessary
resources and support to ensure its success. Resources include material
resources as well as human resources. The team is likely to fail in the
absence of the right conditions.
3) Forming and building the team : There are three things that a manager
can do in order to help the team to get off to a good start. Firstly to avoid
ambiguity and frustration, the manger should make it very clear as to who
is a member of the team and who is not. Secondly, members must accept
the team’s overall mission and purpose. If they do not do so, the team is
bound to fail. Thirdly, it is very important to let the team know what exactly

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 is expected from them. What is their area of responsibility and what they
are supposed to do.
4) Provide ongoing assistance: The manager should provide whatever
support and assistance the team need. Although he need not directly
intervene in its routine functioning, he can support the team by removing
any obstacles that the team encounters such as replacing uncooperative
members, ensuring regular supply of material resources and so on. Such
ongoing assistance will help the team to perform even better.

DEVELOPING TEAM PLAYER

Developing team players is extremely challenging in organizations that
have always valued individual achievement and have employees with a highly
individualistic national culture. The managers need to pay close attention to
the following elements while trying to turn individuals into team player.
1) Selection : Some people already possess the inter-personal skills to be
effective team players. When hiring team members, in addition to the
technical skills required to fill the job, care should be taken to ensure
that candidates can fulfill their team roles as well as technical
requirements.
2) Training : On more optimistic note, a large proportion of people raised
on the importance of individual accomplishments can be trained to
become team players. Training specialists, conduct exercises that
allow employees to experience the satisfaction that teamwork can
provide. They typically offer workshops to help employees to improve
their problem solving, communication, negotiation, conflict-
management, and coaching skills. Emerson Electric’s Specialty Motor
Division in Missouri, for instance, has achieved remarkable success in
getting its 650 members workforce not only to accept, but welcome,
team training. Outside consultants were brought in to give workers
practical skills for working in teams. After less than a year, employees
have enthusiastically accepted the value of teamwork.

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 3) Reward : The reward system should be redesigned to encourage
employees to work as team players. For instance, Hallmark Cards,
Inc; added an annual bonus based on achievement of team goals to its
basic individual incentive system. Promotion, pay raise, and other
forms of recognition should be given to individuals for how effective
they are as a collaborative team member. This doesn’t mean individual
contributions are ignored; rather, they are balanced with selfless
contribution to the team. Lastly, don’t forget the intrinsic reward that
employees can receive from teamwork in the form of opportunities for
developing friendship, helping teammates, being a member of a
successful team and the satisfaction of personal development.

ROLE OF COOPERATION, TRUST AND COHESIVENESS

IN EFFECTIVE TEAM WORK

Due to competitive pressures, it has been realized that organizational success

greatly depends on teamwork. Some companies e.g. Xerox, have gone to the
extent of filing the position of company president with a team of executives
instead of an individual.

In the world of business three components of teamwork are receiving the

greatest attention. These are cooperation, trust and cohesiveness. Let us
consider the contributions of these factors to effective teamwork.

 COPERATION : Individuals are said to be cooperating when they work

together to attain shared goals. Benefits of co-operations are usually
compared with those of competition. However, we have to consider the
role of cooperation in the context of work groups.
A meta-analysis of 122 studies brought out the following :
1.Cooperation is superior to competition in promoting achievement and
productivity.

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 2.Cooperation is superior to individualistic efforts in promoting
achievement and productivity.
3.Cooperation without intergroup competition promotes higher
achievement and productivity than cooperation with intergroup
competition.

Another study involves 72 health care professionals found a negative

correalation between cooperation and team size. This brings out the need for
restricting the size of work teams.

 TRUST : Many employees have become suspicious of management.

Lower level employees too rate trust highly. Trust may be defined as
reciprocal faith in other’s intentions and behaviour. The reciprocal aspect
shows that trust be gets trust; and distrust begets intentions. In the case of
trust, there is a “cognitive leap” i.e. we need to have faith in the other’s
good intentions.
How to build trust? : Trust needs to be earned. It cann’t be demanded.
Following six qualities for building and maintaining trust :
1) Communication : Keep team members and employees informed by
explaining policies and decisions and providing accurate feedback.
Tell the truth.
2) Support : Provide help, advice, coaching and support for team
member’s ideas.
3) Respect : Delegate decision making authority. Actively listen to the
ideas of others.
4) Fairness : Make sure that all performance appraisals and
evaluations are objective and impartial.
5) Predictability : Be consistent and predictable in your daily affairs.
Keep both expressed and implied promises.
6) Competence : Enhance your credibility by demonstrating good
business sense, technical ability, and professionalism.

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 COHESIVENESS : Cohesiveness is a process by which a sense of “we
ness” makes people forget individual differences. Members of a cohesive
group stick together. On the basis of these two reasons, sociologists have
identified two types of cohesiveness. There are socio-emotional
cohesiveness and instrumental cohesiveness.
Socio-emotional cohesiveness is a sense of togetherness that develops
when individual derive emotional satisfaction from group participation.
Instrumental cohesiveness is a sense of togetherness based on mutual
dependency needed for getting the job done. Supports of team-based
work assume that both types of cohesiveness are essential to productive
teamwork.

Social emotional cohesiveness.

1) Keep the group relatively small.
2) Encourage interaction and cooperation.
3) Emphasize members common characteristics and interests.
4) Point out environment threats to keep the group together.

Instrumental cohesiveness.
1) Regularly update and clarify the team’s goal.
2) Give every team member a vital “piece of action”.
3) Channel each team member’s special talents towards the common
goal.
4) Recognize and reinforce every member’s contribution.
5) Frequently remind team members that they need each other to get the
job done.

Overall research supports that role of cohesiveness in team

performance. But research also brings out that cohesiveness is not a
“secret weapon” for improving team performance.

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SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL TEAMS

Considerable research work has been done to determined why some teams
succeed while others fails. Although researchers have not been able to come to
any conclusive findings, it has been found that a wide variety of factors play an
important role in determining whether a team succeed of fails.

According to Newstrom and Davis, the following ingredients are essential for a
team to succeed:
1) Supportive environment : A supportive management is essential for a
team to flourish. The management can develop a supportive environment
by :
a. Encouraging member to think like a team.
b. Proving adequate time for meetings.
c. Demonstrating faith in the team members capacity to achieve.

Such an environment boosts the morale of the team and motivates them to
perform better.
2) Skill and role capacity : Team members must have clear and proper
understanding about their team members. They should know what exactly
they and their team mates are supposed to in order to attain the team
goals. Such clarity lets a team member act immediately without waiting for
instructions.
3) Super-ordinate goals : It is desirable for the manager to create super
ordinate goals. A super ordinate goal is a higher goal that integrates the
efforts of two or more persons. Super ordinate goals helps the team to
focus its unity efforts and become more cohesive. It also helps to resolve
internal conflicts.

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 4) Team rewards : Rewards that are valued by the team members and which
are dependent on the group’s task performance encourage, teamwork and
contribute to the success of the team. Reward may be financial or they
could be in the form of recognition.

Team do not always succeed, they sometimes fail. Some of the factors that
serve as obstacles to a team’s success are:
1) Lack of co-operation : Team fail when members are unwilling to co-
operate with each other. This happens when members do not share a
common vision and re not committed to attaining it.
2) Lack of management support : Team often fail when they do not receive
adequate support from the top management. If the teams mission or
project is not a priority with the management, or if the management does
not provide the team with required resources then the chances of the team
succeeding are dim.
3) Unwillingness of managers to give up control : Managers are used to
giving orders and having them followed. However in team managers have
to build consensus and allow team members to make decisions.
Managers often find hard to let go their control resulting in conflicts with
their team mates.
4) Failure to co-operate with other teams : Although teams may have their
specific objective. It must ultimately contribute to the attainment of the
organization’s goals. When the different teams in the organization do not
co-operates with each other, the organization will not reap the benefits
due to it from the creation of teams.

BUILDING HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM

We have examined the various factors that contribute to the success or failure
of a team. If a team is to yield high performance then it should be properly cared

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and maintained. Greenberg and Baron have identified several vital elements that
a manager needs to pay attention to in order to build high performance teams:

1) Small size: Good teams are usually small teams. A team should not have
more people than required. The ideal number is 10 to 12.
If the number is too small then team members feel over burdened. However if
the number is too big then coordination among members becomes difficult. They
have difficulty agreeing and the feeling of oneness does not develop. The
commitment and mutual accountability essential for high performance is absent.

2) Members with diverse skills: It is vital that a team has the right mix of
members. It must have members with diverse skills and experiences. It needs
members with three different types of skills:
a) Technical expertise
b) Problem-solving and decision-making skills
c) Interpersonal skills
If a team does not have members who possess the three skills then it is
difficult for it attain a high level of performance.

3) Proper selection: As far as possible only those individuals who like working in
teams must be selected. Individuals who are loners must not be selected. Team
members must be selected on the basis of the skills they possess to accomplish
the task.

4) Training: team members need to be given trained in skills that they are lacking
in. training in technical skills, interpersonal skills, decision making and problem
solving skills may be given to the team members to develop them in to high
performance teams.
5) Proper role allocation: The manager must attempt to understand the strengths
and weakness of each team member and allocate them roles that fit the team’s
requirements as well as the individual’s preference.

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6) Goal clarity: The team goals must be clearly stated. It must be specific and
realistic so that all the team members can put their efforts in the same direction.

7) Rewards contingent on team performance: The reward system should be so

design that team members can share the share the success of the group. They
must know that they will earn their rewards only if the team does well.

8) Appropriate performance measures: Teams must be given freedom to develop

their own measures of success. The same methods of performance evaluation
used with individuals cannot be applied to teams.

9) Participation: All the team members must be encouraged to participate in the

decision making process. This leads to greater identification with and
commitment to the decision, thus promoting high performance.

10) Creating team spirit: Team members must be supportive of each other and
they must also have the backing of the top management. Everything should be
done to create a positive and ‘can do’ attitude among the team members.

11) Encourage communication and cooperation: The manager must encourage

communication and cooperation not only among the teammates but also with
other teams. Only then will the organization benefit from the team.

12) Urgency: Certain amount urgency about the task must be created in teams
as it challenges and pushes them to deliver a high caliber performance.

13) Clarify rule behaviour: It must be clearly stated to the team what standards of
behaviors are expected from them. Ambiguity of any kind must be totally
avoided.

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14) Confront teams with new facts: Teams should be regularly provided with new
facts and information that will encourage innovation. New developments
challenge teams and charge them up.

15) Acknowledge and reward contribution to the team: Besides linking rewards to
the team performance, spectacular contribution of individuals to the success of
the team should be acknowledged and rewarded.

16) Develop mutual trust: Members of high performance teams have a high level
of mutual trust. However trust takes a long time to built and is easily destroyed.
Managers must ensures that any misunderstanding among team members is
quickly sorted out.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN SKILLS – II K. T. BASANTANI.

2. FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN SKILLS – II VINAY. V. PRAHBU

3. ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR STEPHENS ROBBIN

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