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Principles of Management Unit 10: Teams, Communication and Control

Managers get work done through groups, through communication and by checking results. This unit covers how teams develop and perform, how communication works and breaks down, and how the control process keeps an organization on track.

Covers: Groups, teams and Tuckman's stages of development, Norms, roles, conformity, cohesiveness and social loafing, Types of work teams and managing conflict, The communication process and channel richness, Barriers to communication and the grapevine, The control process and range of variation, Types of control, financial ratios and the balanced scorecard

Study guide

A group is two or more interacting, interdependent people who come together to achieve goals. A work team is a group whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability and complementary skills. Bruce Tuckman described five stages of group development: forming (uncertainty about purpose and leadership), storming (conflict over who controls the group), norming (close relationships and shared expectations), performing (the group is fully functional and focused on the task) and adjourning (wrapping up for temporary groups). Common team types include problem-solving teams, self-managed teams (which plan and run their own work without a manager), cross-functional teams (members from different specialties) and virtual teams (members linked by technology).

Group behavior is shaped by roles (behaviors expected of a position), norms (standards shared by members) and conformity pressure; Solomon Asch's line experiments showed that many people will go along with a clearly wrong group answer. Cohesiveness is how strongly members are attracted to one another and to the group's goals. Cohesive groups follow their norms more closely, so a cohesive group with high performance norms is very productive, while a cohesive group with low performance norms is the least productive. Social loafing is the tendency to put in less effort in a group than alone, reduced by making individual contributions identifiable. Small groups finish tasks faster, while large groups gather more diverse input; the number of two-way communication links in a group of n people is n(n − 1) ÷ 2.

Conflict is perceived incompatible differences that result in interference or opposition. The traditional view saw all conflict as bad, the human relations view saw it as natural, and the interactionist view says some conflict is necessary for good performance. Functional conflict supports goals; dysfunctional conflict hurts them. Task conflict (about content and goals) at low to moderate levels and process conflict (about how work is done) at low levels can help, while relationship conflict is almost always dysfunctional. Thomas's conflict-handling styles are avoiding, accommodating, forcing (competing), compromising and collaborating, which seeks a win-win solution that fully satisfies both sides.

Communication is the transfer and understanding of meaning. In the communication process, a sender encodes a message, sends it through a channel, and a receiver decodes it, with feedback closing the loop; noise is anything that disturbs the message at any point. Channels differ in richness, their ability to carry multiple cues and allow fast feedback: face-to-face talk is richest, then video, phone, email and written reports. Rich channels suit complex or emotional messages, and lean channels suit routine ones. Barriers include filtering (shaping information to look good to the receiver), selective perception, information overload, emotions, defensiveness, language and jargon, and national culture. The grapevine, the informal communication network, is fast and often surprisingly accurate.

Controlling is monitoring activities to make sure they are done as planned and correcting significant deviations. The control process has three steps: measure actual performance, compare it with a standard, and take managerial action. Managers set a range of variation, the acceptable band around the standard; within it, no action is needed. Outside it, they either correct actual performance (immediate or basic corrective action) or revise the standard if it was unrealistic. Feedforward control prevents problems before an activity starts, concurrent control happens during the activity (such as management by walking around), and feedback control happens after the activity. Financial controls include ratios such as the current ratio (current assets ÷ current liabilities) and profit margin (net income ÷ revenue). The balanced scorecard measures performance in four areas: financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth.

Key ideas

• Teams move through forming, storming, norming, performing and, for temporary teams, adjourning.
• Cohesive groups follow their norms closely, so cohesiveness helps only when performance norms are high.
• Social loafing falls when individual contributions can be identified.
• The interactionist view holds that low to moderate task conflict can improve performance, while relationship conflict is harmful.
• Rich channels such as face-to-face talk fit complex messages; lean channels fit routine messages.
• The control process is measure, compare, act, and action is needed only outside the range of variation.
• Feedforward controls act before, concurrent controls during, and feedback controls after an activity.

Formulas and rules

Common mistakes

• Assuming high cohesiveness always raises productivity; with low performance norms it lowers productivity.
• Mixing up storming (conflict over control) with norming (agreement on expectations).
• Saying all conflict is bad; the interactionist view treats low to moderate task conflict as functional.
• Confusing feedforward control (before) with feedback control (after).
• Taking corrective action for every small deviation instead of only for deviations outside the range of variation.

Before the test, make sure you can

• Identify a team's stage of development from a description.
• Explain how norms, conformity, cohesiveness and social loafing affect performance.
• Distinguish types of teams and types and views of conflict, and choose a conflict-handling style.
• Trace the communication process and calculate communication links in a group.
• Choose a channel based on richness and identify barriers such as filtering.
• Apply the three-step control process and a range of variation to data.
• Classify controls as feedforward, concurrent or feedback and calculate basic financial ratios.
• Describe the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard.

Words to know

Group

Two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to achieve specific goals.

Work team

A group whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using positive synergy, mutual accountability and complementary skills.

Storming stage

The second stage of group development, marked by intragroup conflict over control and leadership.

Norms

Standards or expectations that are accepted and shared by a group's members.

Group cohesiveness

The degree to which group members are attracted to one another and share the group's goals.

Social loafing

The tendency for individuals to put in less effort when working in a group than when working alone.

Self-managed work team

A formal group that operates without a manager and is responsible for a complete work process or segment.

Cross-functional team

A work team composed of individuals from various specialties.

Interactionist view of conflict

The view that some conflict is necessary for a group to perform effectively.

Relationship conflict

Conflict based on interpersonal relationships; almost always dysfunctional.

Collaborating

A conflict-handling style that seeks a solution advantageous to all parties.

Encoding

Converting a message into symbols, such as words or gestures, for transmission.

Noise

Any disturbance that interferes with the transmission, receipt or feedback of a message.

Channel richness

A channel's capacity to carry multiple cues and allow immediate feedback.

Filtering

The deliberate manipulation of information to make it appear more favorable to the receiver.

Grapevine

The informal organizational communication network.

Range of variation

The acceptable parameters of variance between actual performance and the standard.

Feedforward control

Control that takes place before a work activity is done, to prevent problems.

Balanced scorecard

A performance measurement tool that looks at financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth perspectives.

Sample practice questions

30 more questions like these, from level 1 to 5, are in the practice set.