Indira Angajala, Nishan Persad, Umar Desai, Karen Torres, Mark Swanson

Professor Miller
OBHR 3310.001

OB in the News Essay

The idea of teams is becoming more common in the workplace and most individuals have

already experienced a variety of different types of teams in their career. With companies

expanding globally, and the fast-growing economy, teams have become essential for an efficient

and productive workplace. Students are often aware of teamwork through participation in school

organizations and group projects, or other such small group to accomplish a task of value and

importance. Important features in teams such as interdependence and a task oriented purpose

would ultimately help an organization achieve their common goal. Today, teams are not just used

for purposes to achieve work related progress, but are also used to improve the organization at a

process-level; these teams are known as problem-solving teams. Through our video, Power of

Teamwork-Good Team Work, it portrays various scenarios that exemplify the different types of

teams and the variations within them, the types of interdependence, compensation, composition ,

and diversity within teams

Team Types and Variations

Teamwork is an essential factor when dealing with the success of the organization or the

group itself. Each type of team has a different task that they define as critical for their roles,

which is important because these cumulative responsibilities will lead to the success of the

organization as a whole. In the video it shows many different scenarios of individuals coming

together as a unit to complete a task. Not every scenario depicted the same type of team within it,

one can see that their were various types of teams who took on different types of responsibilities.

The most common team people may have experienced when working for their company would

be a work team. They are designed to be relatively permanent, with a general purpose of
producing goods or providing services. Most of the time they require full-time commitment from

the members within it. An example for this type of team would be how cars are manufactured.

The teams are created within 3-9 employees who perform the physical labor of putting together

the cars. A more strategic type of team would fall under management teams. This team is

designed to be relatively permanent, and take a focus on the managerial level task that influences

the entire organization. One of their primary responsibilities is to regulate the activities within

the organizations sub-unit. An example of this type of team would be senior level executives

coming together for a meeting in regards to the necessary steps the company should take for the

future. A team that requires more variable job work and commitment would fall under parallel

teams. They are primarily made up of members from different types of jobs who provide

suggestions to managers about specific issues that run parallel with the companys production

process. This team only requires part time commitment and can be temporary or permanent in

regards to their goals. An example of this would be the creation of a committee to update the

work procedures. Teams that are formed to take on unique task that are one time operations

would fall under project teams. This team performs one time task that are usually complex and

require plenty of knowledge from the members involved with their vast types of training. The

group exist only as long as the project takes to complete. This unique team will also have some

members working full time, while others may only work part time. An example of this would be

a planning team composed of engineers, designers, architects, and builders, who all must work

together to create a town center. The project itself may take a couple of years to finish for the

builders. The artist and engineers who primarily make up the design team may only need to work

on the project for a couple of months. Teams that come together for a limited time would fall

under action teams. The members of this team execute task that are essentially limited in how
long they last. The complicated task can take place in front of an audience or simply be

challenging in nature. An example of this would be a surgical team that comes together for a

small period of time to perform a surgery. Variations within the teams that have been discussed

so far can occur. Location can be a factor that exemplifies the need and use for virtual teams.

This occurs when team members are geographically spread out. In such cases we see

interdependent activity become more prevalent through electronic communication. A few

examples of this would be emailing, messaging, or web conferencing between members in a

group.

Types of Interdependence:

As seen in the video, different individuals depend on each other to accomplish team goals.

Different organizations, or teams use different types interdependence to achieve a common

objective. There are three types of interdependence, which are task interdependence, goal

interdependence, and outcome interdependence. Teams that depend on each other by their

specific tasks could face pooled interdependence, sequential interdependence, reciprocal

interdependence, or comprehensive interdependence. Teams that face pooled task

interdependence, usually have low coordination with other team members because they simply

fulfill their individual tasks and pile up all the work when finished, to achieve the team

objective. For example, when a company that makes travel kits goes through its manufacturing

stage, different individuals would be in charge of producing their respective product in the kit.

By the end of day, the members in the team would pool up all the products to create the kit.

Another type of task interdependence, which requires a higher degree of coordination, is

sequential task interdependence. This task interdependence requires the team members to fulfill

their individual tasks, and also requires coordination between members who perform tasks that
are next to each other in the sequence. An example of sequential task interdependence would be

the process a restaurant goes through, from taking the customers order to receiving payment for

the meal. Another task interdependence is reciprocal task interdependence, which requires a

higher level of coordination than sequential interdependence. In this task interdependence, team

members are assigned individual work and will also have to work with a subset of other

members to ultimately achieve their goal. For example a surgeon, who is responsible for his/her

own specific task during surgery, would also need to work with the nurses, anesthesiologists, and

other doctors, to complete a surgery. The last type of task interdependence, which requires the

highest level of coordination, is comprehensive task interdependence. This task interdependence

involves individuals who have great freedom with what they do and who they interact with. In

other words, comprehensive task interdependence is not centered around specific goals for each

individual, rather it is based on a team effort from individuals with diverse backgrounds. The

next type of interdependence is goal interdependence. Goal interdependence is when members in

a team have the same vision, and work together for a common goal. For example, if members of

a team were partaking in a competition, they would work for the same vision of winning the

competition; these members would be facing a goal interdependence as their actions are focused

on achieving the same goal. The last type of interdependence is outcome dependence. Outcome

interdependence often exists when team members share the rewards that the team earns,

therefore team members depend on each other to achieve those rewards. For example, a

company guarantees a pay raise if the team succeeds in completing a project, then the team is

more likely to come across a team interdependence. These interdependencies are key to

understanding how individuals work together to achieve a common goal.

Team Composition
 A team relies on the member's characteristics, that when perfectly combined it can

positively influence the team's functioning and effectiveness thus creating a good team

composition. There are five important aspects of team composition crucial for the component of

the unit. The first aspect are the roles members have on their team.The pattern of behavior that

the members are expected to display in a given situation can vary. They can be energizers or

coordinators in team task roles which facilitates the accomplishment of team task. The role of a

harmonizer and encourager refer to behaviors that influence the quality of the team's social

climate when having team-building roles. Members with individualistic roles reflect behaviors

that benefit the individual at the expense of the team, which can hinder a teams ability to

function effectively. The second aspect of a teams composition are the abilities members have

and can bring to their team. Depending on the tasks involved in the teams work the members

abilities are considered. With a disjunctive task of an objectively verifiable best solution, the

member with the highest level of ability relevant to the task has the most influence on the

effectiveness on the team. If its a task that can go only as quickly as the slowest team member it

would be considered conjunctive task. For task that require the contribution of every member to

determine the overall results are called additive task. The third aspect for a good team

component is the combination of personalities in the team. There has to be an equilibrium of

personality mixture were teams can function and perform as a unit. The trustworthiness of

agreeable members are needed to promote positive attitudes that leads to harmonious

atmospheres, but not to many since the enhancement of harmony can affect with task

performance. Positive and optimistic extroverts are wanted in a team, but again to many can

cause their assertive and dominant personalities to collide. A good combination of characters is a

must as well as their diversity, the fourth aspect for a team component. Diversity is the degree in
which members are different from one another in terms of any attribute that might be used as a

basis of categorizing people. The effect of diversity on the team depends on time. It also depends

whether the diversity is surface level which refers to observable attributes like race and sex or

deep-level diversity which is inferred after more direct experience. Lastly team size can be a

factor for the teams composition. The size of a team should depend on what the duties needed to

be accomplished are. As long as all task are being fulfilled, the absolute perfect team size does

not exist. Overall team effectiveness hinges on team composition.

Team Diversity & Characteristics

Team diversity is the degree to which members are different from one another that might

be used as a basis to categorize people. There are various ways to categorize people beyond their

physical appearance such as values, beliefs, knowledge, expertise, and disparity among members

in their social status and power. These differences may value more or less depending on the

nature of the team and its context. There are several reasons diversity might influence team

functioning and effectiveness.

One theory that explains why diversity has positive effects is called the value in diversity

problem solving approach. This concept states that diversity in large teams is beneficial because

it provides for a larger pool of knowledge and perspectives from which a team can draw as it

carries out its work. Greater diversity encourages the exchange of information which fosters

learning among team members. The benefits of diversity are more likely to occur when the

teams members are more likely to put in the necessary effort to understand and integrate

different perspectives. Diversity contributes most to teams that engage in relatively complex

work that requires creativity.

 In contrast, similarity-attraction is the theory that examines the harms or detriments of

diversity. According to this concept, people tend to be more attracted to others who are perceived

to be similar. Moreover, people tend to avoid interacting with those who are dissimilar to them,

thus reducing the possibility of uncomfortable disagreements.

Surface level diversity regards the observable attributes such as race, ethnicity, sex and

age. Deep level diversity refers to diversity with respect to attributes that are inferred after direct

experience rather than through initial observation. Examples of this type of diversity include

differences in attitudes, values, and personality. As members learn more about each other, their

differences become more apparent which may lead to reduced effectiveness. When team leaders

emphasize the teams tasks and provide explicit direction regarding standards, procedures and

roles they contribute negatively to deep level diversity. The positive effects of deep level

diversity are seen when members are instructed to take the perspectives of their teammates.

Team effectiveness is measured through team performance which may include metrics

such as quantity and quality of goods or services produced and customer satisfaction, etc. Team

commitment or team viability is the likelihood that teams can work together effectively into the

future.

Task performance is higher when teams coordinate effectively rather than working

independently. The relationship between task interdependence and team performance is higher in

teams that work on complex tasks as opposed to simpler tasks. Complex work requires

communication and sharing of information and resources among teams which results in greater

task interdependence. Simple tasks can be accomplished at an individual or small group basis

because less information is required.

 Team interdependence and team commitment have a weak relationship. Teams that

perform complex tasks have a higher probability of including members who are committed to

their teams continued existence than teams that perform simple tasks.

Team Compensation

Team compensation has a major impact on the effectiveness of interdependence. A group

with high outcome interdependence will be more likely to have a higher level of cooperation, due

to mutual self-interest. However, the higher-performing members of the group may have a lower

level of motivation, as they feel that they are not being compensated properly for their efforts. To

solve this issue, many organizations have utilized hybrid outcome interdependence, meaning that

that team members will be rewarded based on both their teams performance and their own

personal performance. Organizations can also align task interdependence with outcome

interdependence to achieve better productivity, as team members tend to perform better when a

project that has low task interdependence also has low outcome interdependence, and likewise

with projects with high task interdependence that also have high outcome interdependence.

Discussion Questions

1. For your current job, what type of team do you think you work for?
2. What type of interdependence did you notice in your workplace? Do you prefer a certain type of

interdependence over another, when you are working?

3. What are some barriers in regards to diversity make affect the workplace environment? How can

individuals and organizations overcome these barriers to promote a positive environment?

Exam Question

1. Which teams purpose is to produce goods or provide services?

A. Work Team
B. Management Team
C. Parallel Team
D. Project Team

Answer: Work Team

Citation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxf6EtskpRs