Team Characteristics and Organizational Structure

Posted on Aug 4, 2024 in Psychology and Sociology

Pooled interdependence: Members complete work separately, work is “pooled” to create group’s output
Sequential interdependence
- Members specialize in one of many sub-tasks, which are done in a prescribed order to complete team’s objective
- One slow person or a difficult sub-task can hold the group back (“weakest link”), because each sub-task is required to complete the team’s objective
- No way for other members to take up the slack
Reciprocal interdependence
- Members specialize in one of many sub-tasks, but there is no prescribed order of completion —continual two-way interaction among subsets of team members
Comprehensive interdependence
- Members are continually interacting with and dependent on every other team member to complete the team’s objective. Tasks are dynamic, always changing, self-directed.

Two or more people who work interdependently over some time period to accomplish common goals related to some task-oriented purpose

A special type of group
- Interdependence among members—you need each other to accomplish group’s goals
- Interactions revolve around task—not primarily about social bonding
Team characteristics
- Qualities that can be used to describe teams and that combine to make some teams more effective than others
Team types
- Work, management, parallel, project, action teams

Forming
- “Ice breaking” stage; low trust; holding back; need for leadership
Storming
- Power structure is tested; subgroups form
Norming
- Questions about power and authority resolved; develop expectations about how people should behave and who does what; cooperation ensues, feelings of solidarity develop
Performing
- Members settle in to their roles; attention devoted to solving task problems/achieving goals
Adjourning
- Work is done; return to independence; a sense of loss

Organizational structure
- The way in which jobs (i.e., work roles) are divided and coordinated (e.g., reporting relationships) between individuals and groups within the company
Work specialization
- The way in which (or the degree to which) tasks in an organization are divided into separate jobs
Chain of command
- “Who reports to whom?”
Span of control
- The number of employees a manager is responsible for

Stage 1 (novice): follow rules, no consideration of situational features
Stage 2 (advanced beginner): situational features are taken into account
Stage 3 (competence): no longer calculating or problem-solving, but beginning to develop a “feel” for what to do
Stage 4 (proficiency): situation is viewed holistically, processed quickly
Stage 5 (expertise): self-conscious application falls away and the skill becomes ‘embodied’
- Experts possess both explicit AND tacit knowledge, but tacit (i.e., “embodied”) knowledge is the hallmark of true expertise (Dreyfus, 2005; Ryle, 1984).
Critical thinking! Can computers become experts, according to this model?

Reinforcement
- We learn what to do and what not to do through rewards and punishments
- Operant conditioning
- Positive reinforcement: if you do desired behavior A, then I WILL give you positive outcome B
- Negative reinforcement: if you do desired behavior A, then I WON’T give you negative outcome C
- Punishment: if you do undesired behavior D, then I WILL give you negative outcome E
- Extinction: if you do undesired behavior D, then I WON’T give you positive outcome F
- Critical thinking! Is this an ethically-sound way of helping someone learn?

Learning influences the types of decisions employees make:

Identify the problem à Is the problem recognized? Has it been dealt with before? If yes:

Programmed Decisions. If no: Nonprogrammed Decisions

Your knowledge and experience level largely determine whether a decision is…

programmed (automatic and intuitive)
- - Common when situation is frequent and known
- nonprogrammed (step-by-step, rational, and deliberate)
  Common when situation is new and unknown