Page 334 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

CHAPTER 10 • Understanding Groups and Managing Work Teams 333
4. The final type of team is the virtual team, which is a team that uses technology to link virtual team
physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal. For instance, a virtual A type of work team that uses technology to link
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team at Boeing-Rocketdyne played a pivotal role in developing a radically new product. physically dispersed members in order to achieve
Another company, Decision Lens, uses a virtual team environment to generate and evalu- a common goal
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ate creative ideas. In a virtual team, members collaborate online with tools such as
wide-area networks, videoconferencing, fax, e-mail, or Web sites where the team can
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hold online conferences. Virtual teams can do all the things that other teams can—
share information, make decisions, and complete tasks; however, they lack the normal
give-and-take of face-to-face discussions. That’s why virtual teams tend to be more task-
oriented, especially if the team members have never personally met.

Try It!
If your professor has assigned this, go to the Assignments section of mymanagementlab.com to
complete the Simulation: Virtual Teams.

What makes a Team Effective?

Making a Team Effective

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Much research has been done on what it is that makes a team effective. Out of these
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efforts, we now have a fairly focused model identifying those characteristics. Exhibit 10–6
summarizes what we currently know about what makes a team effective. As we look at this
model, keep in mind two things. ❶ Teams differ in form and structure. This model attempts
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to generalize across all teams, so you should only use it as a guide. ❷ The model assumes
that managers have already determined that teamwork is preferable to individual work.
Creating “effective” teams in situations in which individuals can do the job better would be
wasted effort.

::::::: Technology and the Manager’s Job :::::::

KEEPInG ConnECTED: IT AnD TEAmS

Thirty percent of managers say their work teams are “digitally Today, online collaborative tools have given work teams
fluent” and communicate very well using new electronic chan- more efficient and effective ways to get work done. For instance,
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nels. Work teams need information to do their work. With work engineers at Toyota use collaborative communication tools to
teams often being not just steps away, but continents away from share process improvements and innovations. These commu-
each other, it’s important to have a way for team members to com- nication tools allow employees to collectively share common
municate and collaborate. That’s where IT comes in. Technology knowledge and innovate faster. Managers everywhere should
has enabled greater online communication and collaboration within look to the power of IT to help work teams improve the way work
teams of all types. 31 gets done.
The idea of technologically aided collaboration actually origi- If your professor has assigned this, go to the Assignments section of
nated with online search engines. The Internet itself was initially mymanagementlab.com to complete these discussion questions.
intended as a way for groups of scientists and researchers to share
information. Then, as more and more information was put “on the TaLk aBouT IT 5: What challenges do managers face in man-
Web,” users relied on a variety of search engines to help them find aging teams that must rely on IT to communicate?
that information. Now, we see many examples of collaborative TaLk aBouT IT 6: Using Exhibit 10–6, discuss how the four
technologies such as wiki pages, blogs, and even multiplayer virtual major components of team effectiveness would affect and be
reality games. affected by a team’s use of IT.