CHAPTER 8 : TEAM DYNAMICS

Teams - groups of two or more people who interact with and influence each other, are mutually
accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives and perceive
themselves as a social entity within an organization.
Informal groups - Groups include people assembled together, whether or not they have any
interdependence or organizationally focused objective. Informal groups are also the backbone
of social networks, which are important sources of trust building, information sharing, power,
influence, and employee well-being in the workplace.
Process losses - resources (including time and energy) expended toward team development
and maintenance rather than the task.
Brooks’s law - the principle that adding more people to a late software project only makes it
later
Social loafing - the problem that occurs when people exert less effort (and usually perform at a
lower level) when working in teams than when working alone.
Task interdependence - the extent to which team members must share materials, information,
or expertise in order to perform their jobs.
Pooled interdependence - lowest level of interdependence, occurs when an employee or work
unit shares a common resource, such as machinery, administrative support, or a budget, with
other employees or work units.
Sequential interdependence - Interdependence is higher, in which the output of one person
becomes the direct input for another person or unit.
Reciprocal interdependence - in which work output is exchanged back and forth among
individuals, produces the highest degree of interdependence.
Five Cs of Effective Team Member Behavior
1. Cooperating. Effective team members are willing and able to work together rather than
alone
2. Coordinating. Effective team members actively manage the team’s work so that it is
performed efficiently and harmoniously.
3. Communicating. Effective team members transmit information freely (rather than
hoarding), efficiently (using the best channel and language), and respectfully (minimizing
arousal of negative emotions). They also listen actively to coworkers.
4. Comforting. Effective team members help coworkers maintain a positive and healthy
psychological state. They show empathy, provide emotional comfort, and build coworker
feelings of confidence and self-worth.
5. Conflict handling. Conflict is inevitable in social settings, so effective team members
have the skills and motivation to resolve disagreements among team members.
Team processes - includes team development, norms, cohesion, and trust. These elements
represent characteristics of the team that continuously evolve.
Forming - the first stage of team development, is a period of testing and orientation in which
members learn about each other and evaluate the benefits and costs of continued membership
People tend to be polite, will defer to authority, and try to find out what is expected of them and
how they will fit into the team.
Storming stage - is marked by interpersonal conflict as members become more proactive and
compete for various team roles. Members try to establish norms of appropriate behavior and
performance standards.
Norming stage - the team develops its first real sense of cohesion as roles are established and
a consensus forms around group objectives and a common or complementary team-based
mental model.
Performing stage - team members have learned to efficiently coordinate and resolve conflicts.
Adjourning stage - occurs when the team is about to disband. Team members shift their
attention away from task orientation to a relationship focus.
Role - a set of behaviors that people are expected to perform because they hold certain
positions in a team and organization.
Team building - a process that consists of formal activities intended to improve the
development and functioning of a work team.
Norms - the informal rules and shared expectations that groups establish to regulate the
behavior of their members.
Team cohesion - the degree of attraction people feels toward the team and their motivation to
remain members.
Six of the most important influences on team cohesion are described below:
1. Member similarity. A well-established research finding is that we are attracted more to
coworkers who are similar to us. This similarity-attraction effect occurs because we
assume that people are more trustworthy and more likely to accept us if they look and
act like us.
2. Team size. Smaller teams tend to have more cohesion than larger teams. One reason is
that it is easier for a few people to agree on goals and coordinate work activities.
Another reason is that members have more influence in smaller teams, so they feel a
greater sense of involvement and ownership in the team. However, small teams have
less cohesion when they lack enough qualified members to perform the required tasks.
3. Member interaction. Teams tend to have more cohesion when their members interact
with each other fairly regularly. More frequent interaction occurs when team members
perform highly interdependent tasks and work in the same physical area.
4. Somewhat difficult entry. Teams tend to have more cohesion when entry to the team
is restricted. The more elite the team, the more prestige it confers on its members, and
the more they tend to value their membership in the unit.
5. Team success. Team cohesion increases with the team’s level of success because
people are attracted to groups that fulfill their needs and goals. Furthermore, individuals
are more likely to attach their social identity to successful teams than to those with a
string of failures.
6. External competition and challenges. Teams tend to have more cohesion when they
face external competition or a challenging objective that is important. Employees value
their membership on the team because of its ability to overcome the threat or
competition and as a form of social support.
Trust - refers to positive expectations one person has toward another person in situations
involving risk.
TYPE OF TRUST
1. Calculus-based trust - represents a logical calculation that other team members will act
appropriately because they face sanctions if their actions violate reasonable
expectations.
2. Knowledge-based trust - is based on the predictability of another team member’s
behavior. This predictability refers only to “positive expectations” as the definition of trust
states because you would not trust someone who tends to engage in harmful or
dysfunctional behavior.
3. Identification-based trust - is based on mutual understanding and an emotional bond
among team members. It occurs when team members think, feel, and act like each
other.

The main explanation for the initially high trust (called swift trust) in organizational
settings is that people usually believe fellow team members are reasonably competent
(knowledge-based trust) and they tend to develop some degree of social identity with the
team (identification-based trust)
Self-directed teams (SDTs) - cross-functional work groups that are organized around work
processes, complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks, and have
substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks.
Virtual teams - teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational
boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks.
Production blocking - a time constraint in team decision making due to the procedural
requirement that only one person may speak at a time.
Evaluation apprehension - a decision-making problem that occurs when individuals are
reluctant to mention ideas that seem silly because they believe (often correctly) that other team
members are silently evaluating them.
Team efficacy - the collective belief among team members in the team’s capability to
successfully complete a task.
Brainstorming - a freewheeling, face-to-face meeting where team members aren’t allowed to
criticize but are encouraged to speak freely, generate as many ideas as possible, and build on
the ideas of others.
Brainwriting - a variation of brainstorming whereby participants write (rather than speak about)
and share their ideas
Electronic brainstorming - a form of brainwriting that relies on networked computers for
submitting and sharing creative ideas.
Nominal group technique - a variation of brainwriting consisting of three stages in which
participants (1) silently and independently document their ideas, (2) collectively describe these
ideas to the other team members without critique, and then (3) silently and independently
evaluate the ideas presented.

CHAPTER – 9: COMMUNICATING IN TEAMS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Communication - the process by which information is transmitted and understood between two
or more people. Communication flows through one or more channels (also called media)
between the sender and receiver. The transmission of meaning from one person to another is
hampered by noise—the psychological, social, and structural barriers that distort and obscure
the sender’s intended message.
A central feature of the communication model is the channel (also called the medium) through
which information is transmitted. There are two main types of channels: verbal and nonverbal.
Verbal communication uses words, so it includes spoken or written channels. Nonverbal
communication is any part of communication that does not use words and it includes facial
gestures, voice intonation, physical distance, and even silence. Spoken and written
communication are both verbal (i.e., they both use words).
The term flaming has entered our language to describe messages that convey strong negative
emotions.
Emotional contagion - the nonconscious process of “catching” or sharing another person’s
emotions by mimicking that person’s facial expressions and other nonverbal behavior.
Synchronicity - the extent to which the channel requires or allows both sender and receiver to
be actively involved in the conversation at the same time (synchronous) or at different times
(asynchronous)
Social presence - the extent to which a communication channel creates psychological
closeness to others, awareness of their humanness, and appreciation of the interpersonal
relationship.
Social acceptance - refers to how well the communication medium is approved and supported
by the organization, teams, and individuals involved in the exchange.
Media richness - a medium’s data-carrying capacity—that is, the volume and variety of
information that can be transmitted during a specific time.
Persuasion - the use of facts, logical arguments, and emotional appeals to change another
person’s beliefs and attitudes, usually for the purpose of changing the person’s behavior.
Jargon—specialized words and phrases for specific occupations or groups—is usually
designed to improve communication efficiency.
Information overload - a condition in which the volume of information received exceeds the
person’s capacity to process it.
Voice intonation is one form of cross-cultural communication barrier. Language is an obvious
cross-cultural communication challenge.
COMPONENT OF LISTENING
1. Sensing. Sensing is the process of receiving signals from the sender and paying
attention to them.
2. Evaluating. This component of listening includes understanding the message meaning,
evaluating the message, and remembering the message.
3. Responding. This third component of listening involves providing feedback to the
sender, which motivates and directs the speaker’s communication.
Management by walking around (MBWA) - a communication practice in which executives get
out of their offices and learn from others in the organization through face-to-face dialogue.
Grapevine - an unstructured and informal communication network founded on social
relationships rather than organizational charts or job descriptions.

CHAPTER 10: POWER AND INFLUENCE IN THE WORKPLACE

Power - the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others.

Countervailing power - the capacity of a person, team, or organization to keep a more
powerful person or group in the exchange relationship.
Legitimate power - an agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles
can request certain behaviors of others.
Norm of reciprocity - a felt obligation and social expectation of helping or otherwise giving
something of value to someone who has already helped or given something of value to you.
Reward power - is derived from the person’s ability to control the allocation of rewards valued
by others and to remove negative sanctions (i.e., negative reinforcement).
Coercive power - is the ability to apply punishment. This occurs when managers warn
employees about the consequences of poor performance, yet employees also have coercive
power.
Expert power - originates from within the power holder. It is an individual’s or work unit’s
capacity to influence others by possessing knowledge or skills valued by others.
Expertise can help companies cope with uncertainty in three ways. These coping
strategies are arranged in a hierarchy of importance, with prevention being the most
powerful:
1. Prevention—The most effective strategy is to prevent environmental changes from
occurring.
2. Forecasting—The next best strategy is to predict environmental changes or variations.
In this respect, trends potters and other marketing specialists gain power by predicting
changes in consumer preferences.
3. Absorption—People and work units also gain power by absorbing or neutralizing the
impact of environmental shifts as they occur. An example is the ability of maintenance
crews to come to the rescue when machines break down.
Referent power - the capacity to influence others on the basis of an identification with and
respect for the power holder.
Charisma - a personal characteristic or special “gift” that serves as a form of interpersonal
attraction and referent power over others.
Centrality - a contingency of power pertaining to the degree and nature of interdependence
between the power holder and others.
Social networks - social structures of individuals or social units that are connected to each
other through one or more forms of interdependence.
Social capital - the knowledge and other resources available to people or social units (teams,
organizations) from a durable network that connects them to others.

Three factors determine your centrality in a social network:

1. Betweenness - which literally refers to how much you are located between others in the
network.
2. Degree centrality - the number or percentage of connections you have to others in the
network.
3. A third factor in centrality is the “closeness” of the relationship with others in the
network. High closeness refers to strong ties.
Structural hole - an area between two or more dense social network areas that lacks network
ties.
Influence - any behavior that attempts to alter someone’s attitudes or behavior
TYPES OF INFLUENCE TACTICS
- The first five are known as “hard” influence tactics because they force behavior
change through position power (legitimate, reward, and coercion). The latter three—
persuasion, impression management, and exchange—are called “soft” tactics
because they rely more on personal sources of power (referent, expert) and appeal to
the target person’s attitudes and needs.
1. Silent Authority. The silent application of authority occurs when someone complies with
a request because of the requester’s legitimate power as well as the target person’s role
expectations.
2. Assertiveness might be called “vocal authority” because it involves actively applying
legitimate and coercive power to influence others.
3. Information Control. Earlier in this chapter we explained that people with centrality in
social networks have the power to control information. This power translates into
influence when the power holder actually distributes information selectively, so it
reframes the situation and causes others to change their attitudes and/or behavior.
4. Coalition Formation .When people lack sufficient power alone to influence others in the
organization, they might form a coalition of people who support the proposed change.
5. Upward appeal - a type of influence in which someone with higher authority or expertise
is called on in reality or symbolically to support the influencer’s position
6. Persuasion - the use of facts, logical arguments, and emotional appeals to change
another person’s beliefs and attitudes, usually for the purpose of changing the person’s
behavior.
7. Impression management - actively shaping through self-presentation and other means
the perceptions and attitudes that others have of us.
8. Exchange. Exchange activities involve the promise of benefits or resources in exchange
for the target person’s compliance with your request.
Inoculation effect - a persuasive communication strategy of warning listeners that others will
try to influence them in the future and that they should be wary of the opponent’s arguments
Coalition - a group that attempts to influence people outside the group by pooling the resources
and power of its members.
Resistance - occurs when people or work units oppose the behavior desired by the influencer.
Compliance - occurs when people are motivated to implement the influencer’s request for
purely instrumental reasons.
Commitment - is the strongest outcome of influence, whereby people identify with the
influencer’s request and are highly motivated to implement it even when extrinsic sources of
motivation are not present.
Organizational politics - behaviors that others perceive as self-serving tactics at the expense
of other people and possibly the organization.
Machiavellian values - the beliefs that deceit is a natural and acceptable way to influence
others and that getting more than one deserves is acceptable. Machiavellianism is named after
Niccolò Machiavelli, the 16th-century Italian philosopher who wrote The Prince, a famous
treatise about political behavior.