INGREDIENTS OF

EFFECTIVE TEAMS

Supportive Environment
- creating such an environment involves
encouraging members to think like a team,
providing adequate time for meetings, and
demonstrating faith in members capacity to
achieve.
Skills and Role Clarity
- team members must be reasonably qualified
to perform their jobs and have the desire to
cooperate.

What is needed fxr

teamwxrk?
My supervisxr txld me that teamxrk depends xn
the perfxrmance xf every single persxn xn the
team. I ignxred that idea until my supervisxr
shxwed me hxw my cxmputer keybxard
perfxrms when just xne single key is xut xf xrder.
All the keys xn my keybxard wxrk just fine
except xne, but that xne destrxys the
effectiveness xf the whxle keybxard. Nxw I knxw
that even thxugh I am xnly xne persxn, I am
needed if the team is tx wxrk as a successful
team shxuld.

Superordinate Goals
- a major responsibility of managers is to try to
keep the team members oriented toward their
overall task.
Superordinate goal- higher goal that
integrates the efforts of two or more persons. It
can only be attained only if all parties carry their
weight.
Team Rewards
- these may be financial or they may be in the
form of recognition.

Empowered Teams
team members will likely feel more motivated
and empowered when they:

Share a sense of potency (have a can-do

attitude)

Experience meaningfulness (have a

commitment to a worthwhile purpose)

Are given autonomy (have freedom and

discretion to control resources and make
decisions)

See their impact on results (can assess,

monitor, and celebrate their contributions and
results)

Potential Team Problems

Changing Composition
- being complex and dynamic, teamwork is sensitive to all
aspects of organizational environment
Social Loafing
- when employees think their contributions to a group cannot be
measured, they may lessen their output and engage in social loafing.
Causes:
perception of unfair division of labor
belief that co-workers are lazy
feeling able to hide in a crowd and therefore not be able to be
singled out for blame
if a member believes that others intend to withhold their efforts
and thus he or she would be foolish not to do the same