8
Team
Dynamics
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Teamwork at HFT Investment
Management Co.
HFT Investment
Management Co. Ltd. believes in the “value derived from teamwork.”
The Shanghai-based investment fund company makes all investment decisions in teams.

8-2

What are Teams?
Groups of two or more people Exist to fulfill a purpose
Interdependent – interact and collaborate
Mutually accountable for achieving common goals
– influence each other
Perceive themselves to be a team
8-3

Many Types of Teams
Permanence
How long that type of team usually exists

Skill differentiation
Degree of skill/knowledge diversity in the team

Authority differentiation
Degree that decisionmaking responsibility is distributed throughout the team or centralized

8-4

Informal Groups
Groups that exist primarily for the benefit of their members
Reasons why informal groups exist:
Innate drive to bond
Social identity -- we define ourselves by group memberships Goal accomplishment
Emotional support

8-5

Team Advantages/Challenges
Advantages
1. Make better decisions, products/services
2. Better information sharing
3. Increase employee motivation/engagement

Challenges
1. Process losses – resources needed for team maintenance 2. Social loafing – members potentially exert less effort in teams than alone

8-6

Team Effectiveness
Model
Team Design
Organizational and
Team Environment

• Rewards

• Task characteristics
• Team size
• Team composition

Team Processes

• Org leadership
• Physical space

• Accomplish tasks
• Satisfy member needs • Communication
• Org structure

Team
Effectiveness

• Maintain team survival • Team development
• Team norms
• Team cohesiveness
• Team trust

8-7

PSA Peugeot Citroën’s
Team Space
PSA Peugeot Citroën set up an “obeya room” (shown here) to speed up team decision making. Plastered with charts and notes on key issues, the space encourages face-to-face interaction to quickly resolve issues.

8-8

Organization/Team
Environment
Reward systems
Communication systems
Organizational structure
Organizational leadership
Physical space

8-9

Best Tasks for Teams
1. Complex tasks divisible into specialized roles
2. Well-structured tasks – easier to coordinate
3. Higher task interdependence
 Team members must share materials, information, or expertise to perform their jobs
 Teams usually better because high interdependence
(a) requires better communication/coordination and
(b) motivates team membership
 But teams less effective if task goals differ (e.g. serving different clients) – use other coordinating mechanisms 8-10

Levels of Task
Interdependence
High

A

Reciprocal

Sequential

Pooled
Low

B

A

C

B

C

Resource
A

B

C

8-11

Team Size
Smaller teams are better because:
less process los -- need less time to coordinate roles and resolve differences
require less time to develop
more engaged with team – know members, more influence on the team
feel more responsible for team’s success

But team must be large enough to accomplish task

8-12

Team Player Selection at
Menlo Innovations
Ann Arbor, Michigan software company Menlo
Innovations identifies job applicants with the best team skills through a group selection process in which applicants are paired with each other to complete software tasks.

8-13

Team Composition
Effective team members must be willing and able to work on the team
Effective team members possess specific competencies
(5 C’s in diagram)

Cooperating
• Share resources
• Accommodate others
Conflict
Resolving
• Diagnose conflict sources • Use best conflicthandling strategy

Team Member
Competencies

Comforting
• Show empathy
• Provide psych comfort • Build confidence

Coordinating
• Align work with others • Keep team on track Communicating
• Share information freely, efficiently, respectfully • Listen actively

8-14

Team Composition: