Teamwork vs. Groups and Organizational Culture

Posted on Mar 19, 2025 in Other subjects

Differences Between a Group and a Team

  • Objectives:
    • Group: Individual objectives.
    • Team: Shared objectives.
  • Roles:
    • Group: Roles are not defined; everyone does what seems best.
    • Team: Roles are clearly defined.
  • Leadership:
    • Group: Individual leadership.
    • Team: Shared leadership.
  • Conflicts:
    • Group: Conflicts are avoided or not resolved.
    • Team: Conflicts are faced and resolved by consensus.
  • Communication:
    • Group: Disorganized work; members may not listen to each other.
    • Team: Organized work; different opinions are heard to make better decisions.
  • Participation:
    • Group: Only some members participate.
    • Team: All members participate according to their abilities.
  • Rules:
    • Group: No defined rules.
    • Team: Rules are clearly defined and followed by all members.

Benefits of Working in Teams

Benefits for Individuals

  • Reduced stress.
  • Shared responsibility.
  • More rewarding experience.
  • Shared prizes and awards.
  • Better decision-making.

Benefits for Companies

  • Optimized times in research and projects.
  • Increased generation of knowledge and information.
  • Better ways to face problems.
  • Decisions are better understood.
  • Greater diversity of viewpoints.

Organizational Culture

A system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and norms that characterizes the members of an organization.

Seven Primary Characteristics of Organizational Culture

  1. Innovation and Risk-Taking: The degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks.
  2. Attention to Detail: The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision and analysis.
  3. Outcome Orientation: The degree to which management focuses on results rather than on techniques or processes used to achieve those outcomes.
  4. People Orientation: The degree to which management decisions consider the effects on people.
  5. Team Orientation: The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals.
  6. Aggressiveness: The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing.
  7. Stability: The degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth.

Culture’s Functions

  • Creates distinctions between organizations.
  • Creates a sense of identity for organization members.
  • Facilitates the generation of commitment.
  • Creates standards for employee conduct.

How a Strong Culture Can Affect Your Company: Potential Barriers

  • Barriers to Change: Most likely to occur when an organization’s environment is dynamic. Strong cultures can become barriers when “business as usual” is no longer effective.
  • Barriers to Diversity: Hiring employees with different points of view from those shared among the rest of the members.
  • Barriers to Mergers: Cultural compatibility has become a key factor that managers consider in making merger decisions.

How Employees Learn Culture

  • Stories: Narratives about the organization’s founders and history, connecting the present to the past.
  • Rituals: Repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce key organizational values.
  • Material Symbols: Offices, furniture, transportation, and other tangible items.
  • Language: Terminology and words used among members of an organization (e.g., BOLD: Boeing Online Data, CATIA: Computer-Graphics-Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application, MAIDS: Manufacturing Assembly and Installation Data System).

Creating a Positive Organizational Culture

  • Building on employee strengths.
  • Rewarding more than punishing.
  • Emphasizing growth.