You have recently been promoted to take over a poor performing team of ten. The

Question

You have recently been promoted to take over a poor performing team of ten. The team’s performance has been dropping steadily over the last five months. Among your many new responsibilities, you have been specifically asked to suggest specific ideas for motivating the team. Based on the material in this chapter: 1. What theories would you likely use? Please be specific and explain why. 2. How might these theories work together to properly motivate the team? 3. What additional information might you want to gather regarding the team?

Explanation / Answer

In their journal article Beyond Relational Demography: Time and the Effects of Surface- and Deep-Level Diversity on Work Group Cohesion, David A. Harrison, Kenneth H. Price, and Myrtle P. Bell discuss the composition of teams and its effect on cohesiveness. They describe two different categories of diversity, namely surface level and deeper level.

Surface-Level Diversity:

Surface level attributes are “immutable [and] almost immediately observable.” [2] Such attributes include age, sex, and race/ethnicity. In general, the findings have been fairly inconsistent within and across studies as to how diversity in these areas affect team cohesion.

Deep-Level Diversity:

Deep-level diversity includes differences among members’ attitudes, beliefs, and values. These attributes are less apparent than surface-level differences and are “learned through extended, individualized interaction and information gathering.” They are communicated differences which are shared through both verbal and nonverbal behavior. There has been less research done in this area with regards to teams in workplace settings, though a number of social psychological studies have been conducted. The findings consistently suggest that “attitudinal similarity associated with higher group cohesiveness.”  Diversity also improves communication, reduces personal conflict, attracts friendships, and gives more satisfaction to group members.

Communication

In the article “Building Team Cohesion: Becoming “We” Instead of “Me” the authors stress the importance of not losing the “human moment” which they define as “not to lose the powerful impact of face-to-face, immediate interaction in real time and space.” Furthermore, the authors add the following:

“It is communication in the “human moment” that most powerfully creates team synergy – the energy that truly makes “the whole greater than the sum of its parts.” It is communication in the “human moment” that also most powerfully creates team cohesion – a strong sense of loyalty and commitment to the team vision as one’s own.”

“Providing communication opportunities in real time and space for forensics team members is necessary to build team cohesion. Whether a room or lounge where team members can congregate between classes and the end of the day, practice space for formal and informal coaching sessions, travel time in cars and vans, or social time to enjoy pizza and a movie, both quantity and quality of communication are necessary to build a cohesive team climate of openness and trust…According to Bormann(1990), highly cohesive groups interact in an open climate where individuals are free to ask questions and disagree with one another; even the ability to work through inevitable team conflict in such a constructive climate will only serve to strengthen team cohesion.”

The roles that management has in a team that they oversee are extremely important. But it is also important for the management to understand the boundaries of what their roles and responsibilities are and what the roles and responsibilities of the team itself are. The manager is often placed in the management position because of their people and technical skills and experience. A team often benefits from the manager’s abilities, skills, aptitudes, insights and ideas. But neither the management nor the team should ever forget that it is the team’s responsibility to perform the actual work. So what role should management play in a team that they oversee? How best can they serve the team to ensure they are successful? A critical role that management can and should have is to facilitate and encourage team cohesion.

Several factors that lead to the failure of team cohesion:

The model in this chapter is a mental map for helping team leaders constantly assess their team’s effectiveness, as well as when and where the team’s leaders need to intervene. If an intervention is needed, is it internal task, internal relational, or external? This constant analysis is necessary for continuous team improvement. Just as hockey general managers need to continuously assess their team coaches and players, whether winning or losing, team leaders in nonsports organizations need to continuously push for improvement and, for example, must know when it is appropriate to change the coach and/or team members. The team leadership model assists in this push for continuous improvement and helps determine weaknesses that might need an intervention on the part of a member of the team’s shared leadership structure. To continue with the sports analogy, it may be necessary for the team captain to hold a playersonly meeting, it may be appropriate for the coach to change team strategy when playing different teams, and/or it might be appropriate for the general manager to change the coach and/or team players. Lou Lamoriello, the general manager of the New Jersey Devils National Hockey League team, changed his team’s coach with eight games to play at the end of the 2000 season and ended up winning the Stanley Cup. Since he became the general manager in 1987, the Devils have won three Stanley Cups (he is tied with Ken Holland of the Detroit Red Wings for the most Stanley Cups won by any general manager since 1987), and Lamoriello has done this with a different coach each time whereas Ken Holland has done it with only two different coaches

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