Management Question

11

Teams: Characteristics
and Diversity
ORGANIZATIONAL
MECHANISMS
Organizational
Culture

Organizational
Structure

INDIVIDUAL
MECHANISMS

GROUP
MECHANISMS

Job
Satisfaction

Leadership:
Styles &
Behaviors
Leadership:
Power &
Negotiation
Teams:
Processes &
Communication
Teams:
Characteristics &
Diversity

Stress

INDIVIDUAL
OUTCOMES
Job
Performance

Motivation

Trust, Justice,
& Ethics

Organizational
Commitment

Learning &
Decision Making

INDIVIDUAL
CHARACTERISTICS
Ability

Personality &
Cultural Values

LEARNING GOALS
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:

11.1 What are the five general team types and their defining characteristics?
11.2 What are the three general types of team interdependence?
11.3 What factors are involved in team composition?
11.4 What are the types of team diversity, and how do they influence team functioning?
11.5 How do team characteristics influence team effectiveness?
11.6 How can team compensation be used to manage team effectiveness?

334

WHOLE FOODS

W

hich grocery store chain comes to mind when you
think of high-quality natural and organic foods?
Chances are the answer to this question is Whole
Foods. Founded in 1980, Whole Foods is now a Fortune
500 company, with sales of nearly $15 billion generated
from its 460 stores and 87,000 employees. Even if there’s
not a Whole Foods market located near you, or you could
care less about whether your food has hydrogenated fats
or artificial colors and preservatives, you may be familiar
with the company because of accolades and coverage from
news and business publications. As examples, the company has been named to Fortune’s list of the “100 Best
Companies to Work For” each year since the list’s inception
in 1998. It’s also one of Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired
Companies” and has appeared on Newsweek’s list of “Top
Green Companies in the U.S.,” and Forbes’ list of “100 Most
Trustworthy Companies in America.”
So, what accounts for Whole Foods’ tremendous growth
and reputation? To sum it up in one word, the answer may be
“teams.” The original idea behind Whole Foods was that the
world was ready for a natural foods supermarket. However,

Brooks Kraft/Contributor/Getty Images

the company’s success has been driven largely by a strong
set of values that are enacted through teams and supportive
team practices. The company believes that teams not only
result in the type of collective learning and intelligence that
promotes incremental progress, but also that teams reinforce a sense of community and dedication to the company,
customers, and other stakeholders in society.
Although many companies claim that they value and rely
on teams, Whole Foods’ belief in teams is all-encompassing.
Each store is structured around 8 to 10 teams, and because
these teams are largely self-managed, they are teams in
the true sense of the word. Team members not only work
together to carry out the responsibilities of their department,
but they also meet regularly to discuss issues, make decisions, and solve problems. Team members are also given
feedback about how well their team is performing relative to
historical standards and to other teams, and their compensation is tied to the performance of their team as well. Because
the fate of team members is shared at Whole Foods, employees are motivated to work cooperatively, and this maximizes
the chance that the interests of everyone are satisfied.

335

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Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

TEAM CHARACTERISTICS AND DIVERSITY
The topic of teams is likely familiar to almost anyone who might be reading this book. In fact,
you’ve probably had firsthand experience with several different types of teams at different points
in your life. As an example, most of you have played a team sport or two (yes, playing soccer in
gym class counts). Most of you have also worked in student teams to complete projects or assignments for courses you’ve taken. Or perhaps you’ve worked closely with a small group of people
to accomplish a task that was important to you—planning an event, raising money for a charity,
or starting and running a small cash business. Finally, some of you have been members of organizational teams responsible for making a product, providing a service, or generating recommendations for solving company problems.
But what exactly is a team, and what is it that makes a team more than a “group”? A team
consists of two or more people who work interdependently over some time period to accomplish
common goals related to some task-oriented purpose.1 You can think of teams as a special type of
group, where a group is just a collection of two or more people. Teams are special for two reasons.
First, the interactions among members within teams revolve around a deeper dependence on one
another than the interactions within groups. Second, the interactions within teams occur with a
specific task-related purpose in mind. Although the members of a friendship group may engage
in small talk or in-depth conversations on a frequent basis, the members of a team depend on
one another for critical information, materials, and actions that are needed to accomplish goals
related to their purpose for being together.
The use of teams in today’s organizations is widespread. National surveys indicate that teams
are used in the majority of organizations in the United States, regardless of whether the organization is large or small.2 In fact, some researchers suggest that almost all major U.S. companies are
currently using teams or planning to implement them, and that up to 50 percent of all employees
in the United States work in a team as part of their job.3 Thus, whereas the use of teams was limited to pioneers such as Procter & Gamble in the 1960s, teams are currently used in all types of
industries to accomplish all the types of work necessary to make organizations run effectively.4
Why have teams become so widespread? The most obvious reason is that the nature of today’s
work requires them. As work has become more complex, interactions among multiple team
members have become more vital. This is because interactions allow the team to pool complementary knowledge and skills. As an example, surgical teams consist of individuals who received
specialized training in the activities needed to conduct surgical procedures. The team consists of
a surgeon who received training for the procedure in question, an anesthesiologist who received
A surgical team consists of
specialized members who
depend on one another to
accomplish tasks that are
both complex and important. Why might you not
want to have surgery conducted by a surgical team
that functions like a group?

Photodisc Collection/Getty Images

CHAPTER 11

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

337

training necessary to manage patient pain, and an operating room nurse who was trained to provide overall care for the patient.
Teams may also be useful to organizations in ways beyond just accomplishing the work itself.
For example, one study revealed that problem-solving teams composed primarily of rank-and-file
workers could boost productivity in steel mills by devising ways to increase the efficiency of production lines and quality control processes.5 Although implementing teams often makes sense in
settings such as these, for which the nature of the work and work-related problems are complex,
teams vary a great deal from one another in terms of their effectiveness. The goal of this chapter,
as well as the next, is to help you understand factors that influence team effectiveness. Fortunately,
there has been over a century of research on this topic that we can refer to in this effort.6

WHAT CHARACTERISTICS CAN BE USED TO
DESCRIBE TEAMS?
This is the first of two chapters on teams. This chapter focuses on team characteristics—the task,
unit, and member qualities that can be used to describe teams and that combine to make some
teams more effective than others. Team characteristics provide a means of categorizing and examining teams, which is important because teams come in so many shapes and sizes. Team characteristics play an important role in determining what a team is capable of achieving and may
influence the strategies and processes the team uses to reach its goals. As you will see, however,
there’s more to understanding team characteristics than meets the eye. Team characteristics such
as diversity, for example, have many meanings, and its effect on team functioning and effectiveness depends on what type of diversity you’re concerned with as well as several additional complicating factors. Chapter 12 will focus on team processes and communication—the specific actions
and behaviors that teams can engage in to achieve synergy. The concepts in that chapter will help
explain why some teams are more or less effective than their characteristics would suggest they
should be. For now, however, we turn our attention to this question: “What characteristics can be
used to describe teams?”

TEAM TYPES
One way to describe teams is to take advantage of existing taxonomies that place teams into various types. One such taxonomy is illustrated in Table 11-1. The table illustrates that there are five
general types of teams and that each is associated with a number of defining characteristics.7 The
most notable characteristics include the team’s purpose, the length of the team’s existence, and
the amount of time involvement the team requires of its individual members. The sections to follow review these types of teams in turn.
WORK TEAMS Work teams are designed to be relatively permanent. Their purpose is to produce
goods or provide services, and they generally require a full-time commitment from their members.
As an example of a work team, consider how cars and trucks are manufactured at Toyota.8 Teams
are composed of four to eight members who do the physical work, and a leader who supports the
team and coordinates with other teams. Although the teams are responsible for the work involved
in the assembly of the vehicles, they are also responsible for quality control and developing ideas
for improvements in the production process. Team members inspect each other’s work, and when
they see a problem, they stop the line until they are able to resolve the problem.
MANAGEMENT TEAMS Management teams are similar to work teams in that they are designed
to be relatively permanent; however, they are also distinct in a number of important ways. Whereas
work teams focus on the accomplishment of core operational-level production and service tasks,
management teams participate in managerial-level tasks that affect the entire organization.
Specifically, management teams are responsible for coordinating the activities of organizational
subunits—typically departments or functional areas—to help the organization achieve its long-term
goals. Top management teams, for example, consist of senior-level executives who meet to make

11.1
What are the five general
team types and their defining
characteristics?

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Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

TABLE 11-1

Types of Teams

TYPE OF TEAM

PURPOSE AND
ACTIVITIES

LIFE SPAN

MEMBER
INVOLVEMENT

SPECIFIC
EXAMPLES

Work team

Produce goods or
provide services.

Long

High

Self-managed
work team
Production
team
Maintenance
team
Sales team

Management
team

Integrate activities
of subunits across
business functions.

Long

Moderate

Top management team

Parallel team

Provide recommendations and resolve
issues.

Varies

Low

Quality circle
Advisory council
Committee

Project team

Produce a onetime output (product, service, plan,
design, etc.).

Varies

Varies

Product design
team
Research group
Planning team

Action team

Perform complex
tasks that vary in
duration and take
place in highly visible or challenging
circumstances.

Varies

Varies

Surgical team
Musical group
Expedition
team
Sports team

Sources: Cohen, S. G., and D. E. Bailey. “What Makes Teams Work: Group Effectiveness Research from the Shop Floor to
the Executive Suite.” Journal of Management 27 (1997): pp. 239–290; and Sundstrom, E., K. P. De Meuse, and D. Futrell.
“Work Teams: Applications and Effectiveness.” American Psychologist 45 (1990): pp. 120–133.

decisions about the strategic direction of the organization. It may also be worth mentioning that
because members of management teams are typically heads of departments, their commitment to
the management team is offset somewhat by the responsibilities they have in leading their unit or
teams in their unit.
A Toyota work team is
responsible for vehicle
assembly and quality
control.

Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images

PARALLEL TEAMS Parallel
teams are composed of members from various jobs, and
other teams, who provide recommendations to managers
about important issues that run
“parallel” to the organization’s
production processes.9 Parallel
teams require only part-time
commitment from members,
and they can be permanent or
temporary, depending on their
aim. Quality circles, for example, consist of individuals who
normally perform core production tasks, but who also meet

CHAPTER 11

regularly with individuals from
other work groups to identify
production-related
problems
and opportunities for improvement. As an example of a more
temporary parallel team, committees often form to deal with
unique issues or issues that arise
only periodically. Examples of
issues that can spur the creation
of committees include changes
to work procedures, purchases
of new equipment or services,
and non-routine hiring.

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

The Rolling Stones, an
English rock band formed
in 1962, is an example of
an action team that has
stayed together for an
extended period of time.

Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance/Getty Images

PROJECT TEAMS Project teams are formed to take on “one-time” tasks that are generally complex and require a lot of input from members with different types of training and expertise.10
Although project teams exist only as long as it takes to finish a project, some projects are quite
complex and can take years to complete. Members of some project teams work full-time, whereas
other teams demand only a part-time commitment. A planning team comprised of engineers,
architects, designers, and builders, charged with designing a suburban town center, might work
together full-time for a year or more. In contrast, the engineers and artists who constitute a design
team responsible for creating an electric toothbrush might work together for a month on the project while also serving on other project teams.
ACTION TEAMS Action teams perform tasks that are normally limited in duration. However, those
tasks are quite complex and take place in contexts that are either highly visible to an audience or of
a highly challenging nature.11 Some types of action teams work together for an extended period of
time. For example, sports teams remain intact for at least one season, and musical groups like the
Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Kiss, and AC/DC sometimes stick together for decades. Other
types of action teams stay together only as long as the task takes to complete. Surgical teams and
aircraft flight crews may only work together as a unit for a single two-hour surgery or flight.
SUMMARY So how easy is it to classify teams into one of the types summarized in Figure 11-1?
Well, it turns out that teams often fit into more than one category. As an example, consider the
teams at Pixar, the company that has produced many computer-animated hit films, such as Toy
Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars, Wall-E, Up, Brave, Monsters University, Inside Out, Finding
Dory, and Coco. On the one hand, because the key members of Pixar teams have mostly remained
together for each film the company has produced, it might seem like Pixar uses work teams.12 On
the other hand, because the creation of each film can be viewed as a project, and because members are likely involved in multiple ongoing projects, it might seem reasonable to say that Pixar
uses project teams. It’s probably most appropriate to say that at Pixar, teams have characteristics
of both work teams and project teams.

FIGURE 11-1

339

Types of Teams

• Work teams
• Management teams
• Parallel teams
• Project teams
• Action teams

Team
Types

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Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

As you read the descriptions of the different team types, it may have occurred to you that
it’s possible that employees find themselves working in a variety of teams and team types. This
situation arises naturally with parallel teams; however, it occurs often with project, management,
and action teams as well. In fact, estimates are that between 65 percent and 95 percent of people
employed in knowledge-intensive jobs work in multiple teams—often three or four at a time.13
Research on this type of work arrangement, referred to as multiple team membership, indicates
that employees do not identify with each team equally and that these differences have important
implications as to how much effort and commitment employees bring to each of their teams.14
As an example that may be familiar to you, consider your experience as a student. During any
given semester, you may have had membership in two or more teams as part of the requirements
of the courses you were taking. If this is the case, you may have noticed that you did not experience the same type of satisfaction with each team. With some teams, you might have been fully
engaged in the team’s work and with the other team members, while in other teams, you may have
put forth less effort and limited your involvement with your teammates. Regardless of whether
these differences in your attitude and behavior were due to the meaningfulness of the teams’
projects, the time and level of involvement required to complete the teams’ tasks, or perhaps the
drama and stress members of some of these teams created for you, it’s likely these differences
had an influence on how well each team did on projects and assignments and, quite possibly,
the grades you earned in those courses. It turns out that this process unfolds the same way in
the workplace. However, instead of grades, the consequences of how team members’ divide their
attention and effort may be the success of a multimillion-dollar project, and following from this,
whether the team members receive sizable year-end bonuses.
At this point, we should point out that multiple team membership is not necessarily conducive
to organizational effectiveness, especially in complex work contexts where it is critical that members of teams develop tight interpersonal bonds and specialized work routines that can deal with
the unique challenges they face.15 Although employees might like the variety of working in multiple
teams and can learn from their experiences working with different teams and teammates, it takes a
great deal of time and effort to coordinate meeting times with different teams and to switch between
teams and tasks when the time comes. Given these challenges, researchers have begun to consider
actions that managers could take to enhance how employees feel about the various teams in which
they work, particularly those teams that are most crucial to organizational success. As an example,
one recent study found that team leaders who share authority, encourage self-management, and bolster confidence tend to inspire positive team behavior from members, and that, remarkably, these
positive team behaviors carry over to benefit other teams in which the team members also work.16

VARIATIONS WITHIN TEAM TYPES

The Pixar team, shown
here at the Cannes Film
Festival, has characteristics
of both work teams and
project teams. Trying to
characterize this team is
even more complicated
when you consider that
key members are involved
in the management of
the company, and their
involvement in the films
runs parallel to these other
responsibilities.

Even knowing whether a team is a project team, an action team, or some other type of team
doesn’t tell you the whole story. In fact, there are important variations within those categories
that are needed to understand
a team’s functioning.17 As one
example, teams can vary with
respect to the degree to which
they have autonomy and are
self-managed.18 If you’ve ever
been on a team where members
have a great deal of freedom
to work together to establish
their own goals, procedures,
roles, and membership, you’ve
worked on a team where the
level of autonomy and selfmanagement is high. You may
also have worked on a team
where the level of autonomy
Venturelli/Contributor/Getty Images

CHAPTER 11

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

and self-management is low. In these teams, there are strict rules regarding goals, procedures,
and roles, and team leaders or managers make most of the decisions regarding management of
the team with respect to membership. Research has shown that although people generally prefer
working in teams where the level of autonomy and self-management is high, the appropriate level
of self-management with regard to overall team effectiveness may depend on a variety of factors.19
For example, researchers have concluded that high levels of self-management may be most advantageous for teams where team members have high levels of team-relevant knowledge obtained
from outside experts and others in their social networks.20
Another way that teams can vary relates to how the members typically communicate with each
other. Virtual teams are teams in which the members are geographically dispersed, and interdependent activity occurs through electronic communications—primarily e-mail, instant messaging,
group calendars, web conferencing, social media, and other meeting tools.21 Although communications and group networking software is far from perfect, it has advanced to the point that it’s
possible for teams doing all sorts of work to function virtually, and it’s also true that many teams
do at least some of their work virtually even if the members are colocated. In fact, there has been
an 800 percent increase in the number of virtual employees over the last decade or so, and it’s
likely that there are tens of millions of virtual teams operating today.22 Companies such as Con
Edison, New York’s giant electric and gas utility, have invested significant resources in technology and training to help these teams function and perform more effectively.23 The same is true at
IBM, where at least 40 percent of the employees work virtually.24 At TRW, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, virtual teams provide an efficient way to accomplish work on projects
when members are geographically separated.25 In fact, many companies in high-tech industries
are leveraging virtual teams to make continuous progress on work tasks without members having
to work 24/7. For example, Logitech, the Swiss company that makes things such as computer
mice and keyboards, universal remotes for home entertainment systems, and gaming controllers,
attributes its success to teams of designers and engineers who are located in different places
around the world.26 Although you might be inclined to believe that time-zone differences would
be a hindrance to this sort of team, Logitech turned it into a competitive advantage by letting the
work follow the sun.27 Specifically, work at Logitech is accomplished continuously because members of a team who have finished their workday in one country electronically hand off the work
to team members in another country who have just arrived at the office. Because these electronic
hand-offs occur continuously, product development and other work needed to bring innovative
products to the market can be completed much more quickly.
In addition to varying in their “virtuality,” teams of any type can differ in the amount of experience they have working together. One way to understand this point is to consider what occurs in
teams at different stages of their development as they progress from a newly formed team to one
that’s well-established. According to the most well-known theory, teams go through a progression
of five stages shown in the top panel of Figure 11-2.28 In the first stage, called forming, members
orient themselves by trying to understand their boundaries in the team. Members try to get a feel
for what is expected of them, what types of behaviors are out of bounds, and who’s in charge. In
the next stage, called storming, members remain committed to ideas they bring with them to the
team. This initial unwillingness to accommodate others’ ideas triggers conflict that negatively
affects some interpersonal relationships and harms the team’s progress. During the next stage,
norming, members realize that they need to work together to accomplish team goals, and consequently, they begin to cooperate with one another. Feelings of solidarity develop as members work
toward team goals. Over time, norms and expectations develop regarding what different members
are responsible for doing. In the fourth stage of team development, which is called performing,
members are comfortable working within their roles, and the team makes progress toward goals.
Finally, because the life span of many teams is limited, there’s a stage called adjourning. In this
stage, members experience anxiety and other emotions as they disengage and ultimately separate
from the team.
But does this sequence of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning apply to
the development of all types of teams? Chances are that you’ve had some experience with teams
that would lead you to answer this question with an emphatic “no.” In fact, although this theory
of group development is intuitively appealing and identifies things that may occur as teams gain

341

342

CHAPTER 11

FIGURE 11-2

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

Two Models of Team Development

Some teams develop in a predictable sequence . . .

Forming

Storming

Norming

Performing

Adjourning

Time
. . . whereas many develop in a less linear fashion.
Process
Revision

Inertia

Punctuated Equilibrium
Forming and
Pattern
Creation

Inertia

Time

Midpoint

Time

experience working together, there are factors in work organizations that can significantly alter
what occurs during a team’s life.29 One situation in which this developmental sequence is less
applicable is when teams are formed with clear expectations regarding what’s expected from the
team and its members. With many action teams, for example, there are established rules and
standard operating procedures that guide team members’ behaviors and their interactions with
one another. As a specific example, an aircraft flight crew doesn’t have to go through the forming, storming, norming, and performing stages to figure out that the pilot flies the plane and the
flight attendant serves the beverages. As another example, though the adjourning stage only happens once for each type of team, the implications are likely to be more significant for team types
with longer life spans that require high member involvement. Dissolving a work team that’s been
together for four years is likely to trigger greater anxiety and stronger emotions among members
than a situation in which a committee that meets briefly once a month for a year is disbanded. For
an example of an action team that developed very quickly, see our OB on Screen feature.
Another situation in which the development sequence is less applicable may be in certain
types of project teams that follow a pattern of development called punctuated equilibrium.30 This
sequence appears in the bottom panel of Figure 11-2. At the initial team meeting, members make
assumptions and establish a pattern of behavior that lasts for the first half of its life. That pattern
of behavior becomes a matter of habit for members and creates an inertia that continues until
roughly the midway point of the project. Then something remarkable happens: Members realize
that they have to change their approach to the task to complete it on time. Teams that take this
opportunity to plan a new approach during this transition tend to do well, and the new framework
dominates their behavior until task completion. However, teams that don’t take the opportunity to
change their approach tend to persist with their original pattern and may “go down with a sinking
ship.” Interestingly, the realization that things have to change at the midway point of task completion occurs regardless of the time frame of the project.

CHAPTER 11

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

OB On Screen
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
Alright, I have a plan, or at the least the beginnings of one. It’s pretty simple. We draw him in,
pin him down. Get what we need. Definitely don’t want to dance with this guy. We just want the
gauntlet.*
With those words, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) attempts to provide direction for a
motley group of superheros, in the movie, Avengers: Infinity War (Dirs. Anthony Russo and Joe
Russo, Marvel Studios, 2018). You see, Avengers Stark, Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), and
Peter Parker/Spider Man (Tom Holland) unexpectedly meet up for the first time on the planet
Titan with Guardians of the Galaxy Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista),
and Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and they discover that they’re all trying to achieve the same overarching goal. That is, they want to stop an extremely formidable villain named Thanos (James
Brolin) from obtaining a complete set of six infinity stones, something that will give him limitless
power. To a student of organizational behavior, the scene may be of interest because it depicts the
formation and development of a new team.

Entertainment Pictures/Alamy

Consistent with the forming stage of team development, the six superheros find themselves
together, and after some misunderstanding and discussion, they come to understand that they
share a goal of immense importance. If Thanos acquires the stones, and affixes them on his
gauntlet glove, he’ll be able to achieve his ambition to eradicate half of all life in the universe. The
team members also realize that no single superhero possesses the power to stop Thanos and that
they’ll all have to work together. Assuming the role of team leader, Stark tells the group, “We gotta
coalesce,” after which he conveys the plan outlined in the opening quote. However, consistent
with the storming stage of team development, there’s disagreement about roles and what has to
happen to move forward. This is best reflected by Quill’s statement to Stark that, “I like your plan.
Except, it sucks. So let me do the plan and that way it might be really good.”*
The superheros quickly realize that they have to get serious and work together to achieve their
goal. Dr. Strange, who possesses the time stone, views 14,000,605 alternative futures and tells
the team that there’s only one future in which Thanos is defeated. The team’s development really
speeds up when Thanos arrives later in the film. As in the norming phase of team development,
the superheros learn how to work with each other by employing their superpowers at just the right
moments. Eventually, the team subdues Thanos, and although their success is short-lived, it seems
evident that they made it to the performing stage of team development.
*The Walt Disney Company

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11.2
What are the three
general types of team
interdependence?

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

TEAM INTERDEPENDENCE
In addition to taxonomies of team types, we can describe teams by talking about the interdependence that governs connections among team members. In a general sense, you can think of interdependence as the way in which the members of a team are linked to one another. That linkage
between members is most often thought of in terms of the interactions that take place as the team
accomplishes its work. However, linkages among team members also exist with respect to their
goals and rewards. In fact, you can find out where your student project team stands on different
aspects of interdependence using our OB Assessments feature.

OB Assessments
INTERDEPENDENCE
How interdependent is your student project team? This assessment is designed to measure three
types of interdependence: task interdependence, goal interdependence, and outcome interdependence. Read each of the following questions with a relevant student team in mind. Answer each
question using the response scale provided. Then follow the instructions below to score yourself.
(Instructors: Assessments on deep-level diversity, team role tendencies, and team viability can
be found in the PowerPoints in the Connect Library’s Instructor Resources and in the Connect
assignments for this chapter.)
1
TOTALLY
DISAGREE

2
DISAGREE

3
SOMEWHAT
DISAGREE

4
NEUTRAL

5
SOMEWHAT
AGREE

6
AGREE

7
TOTALLY
AGREE

1. The responsibilities of members of my team are interconnected.
2. I cannot be an effective team member unless my teammates provide information or resources to me.
3. My teammates cannot be effective in their tasks unless I provide information or resources to them.
4. My team’s goals determine my goals while working in this team
5. I think about my team’s goals when deciding how to prioritize my work
activities.
6. The goals of my team strongly influence my teammates’ goals and priorities.
7. I receive rewards that are determined based on how well my team does.
8. My performance evaluations are a function of the effectiveness of my team.
9. The feedback I get about my performance is based largely on my team’s
performance.

SCORING AND INTERPRETATION
Task Interdependence: Sum up items 1–3. _____
Goal Interdependence: Sum up items 4–6. _____
Outcome Interdependence: Sum up items 7–9. _____
If you scored 14 or above, then your team may be above average on a particular dimension. If
you scored 13 or below, then your team may be below average on a particular dimension.
Source: From M.A. Campion, E.M. Papper, and G.J. Medsker, “Relations between Work Team Characteristics and
Effectiveness: A Replication and Extension,” Personnel Psychology 49 (1996), pp. 429–52. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

CHAPTER 11

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

TASK INTERDEPENDENCE Task interdependence refers to the degree to which team members interact with and rely on other team members for the information, materials, and resources
needed to accomplish work for the team.31 As Figure 11-3 illustrates, there are four primary types
of task interdependence, and each requires a different degree of interaction and coordination.32
The type of task interdependence with the lowest degree of required coordination is pooled
interdependence.33 With this type of interdependence, group members complete their work assignments independently, and then this work is simply “piled up” to represent the group’s output.
Consider what pooled interdependence would be like on a fishing boat. Each person would bait
a pole, drop the baited line into the water, reel the fish in, remove the fish from the hook, and,

FIGURE 11-3

Task Interdependence and Coordination Requirements

Member
3

Member
4

Comprehensive
Interdependence

Output

Member
1

Member
2

Output

Sequential
Interdependence

Member
1

Member
2

Member
3

Member
4

Member
1

Member
2

Member
3

Member
4

Member
3

Member
4

Output
Pooled
Interdependence
Member
1

Member
2

Output

Degree of Coordination Required

Reciprocal
Interdependence

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Face-to-face team meetings that involve comprehensive interdependence
can consume a lot of time,
yet these meetings are an
important part of accomplishing work that requires
collaboration.

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

finally, throw the fish into a tank filled with ice
and other fish. At the end of the day, the boat’s
production would be the total weight of the fish
that were caught.
The next type of task interdependence is called
sequential interdependence.34 With this type of
interdependence, different tasks are done in a
prescribed order, and the group is structured
such that the members specialize in these tasks.
Although members in groups with sequential
interdependence interact to carry out their work,
Digital Vision/Getty Images
the interaction occurs only between members
who perform tasks that are next to each other in the sequence. Moreover, the member performing the task in the latter part of the sequence depends on the member performing the task in the
earlier part of the sequence, but not the other way around. The classic assembly line in manufacturing contexts provides an excellent example of this type of interdependence. In this context, an
employee attaches a part to the unit being built, and once this is accomplished, the unit moves
on to another employee who adds another part. The process typically ends with the unit being
inspected and then packaged for shipping.
Reciprocal interdependence is the next type of task interdependence.35 Similar to sequential
interdependence, members are specialized to perform specific tasks. However, instead of a strict
sequence of activities, members interact with a subset of other members to complete the team’s
work. To understand reciprocal interdependence, consider a team of people who are involved in a
business that designs custom homes for wealthy clients. After meeting with a client, the salesperson would provide general criteria, structural and aesthetic details, and some rough sketches to an
architect who would work up some initial plans and elevations. The architect then would submit
the initial plans to the salesperson, who would review the plans with the customer. Typically, the
plans need to be revised by the architect several times, and during this process, customers have
questions and requests that require the architect to consult with other members of the team. For
example, the architect and structural engineer may have to meet to decide where to locate support beams and load-bearing walls. The architect and construction supervisor might also have to
meet to discuss revisions to a design feature that turns out to be too costly. As a final example,
the salesperson might have to meet with the designers to assist the customer in the selection of
additional features, materials, and colors, which would then need to be included in a revision of
the plan by the architect.
Finally, comprehensive interdependence requires the highest level of interaction and coordination among members as they try to accomplish work.36 In groups with comprehensive interdependence, members have a great deal of discretion in terms of what they do and with whom they
interact in the course of the collaboration involved in accomplishing the team’s work. Teams at
IDEO, arguably the world’s most successful product design firm, function with comprehensive
interdependence. These teams are composed of individuals from very diverse backgrounds, and
they meet as a team quite often to share knowledge and ideas to solve problems related to their
design projects.37
It’s important to note that there’s no one right way to design teams with respect to task interdependence. However, it’s also important to recognize the trade-offs associated with the different
types. On the one hand, as the level of task interdependence increases, members must spend
increasing amounts of time communicating and coordinating with other members to complete
tasks. This type of coordination can result in decreases in productivity, which is the ratio of work
completed per the amount of time worked. On the other hand, increases in task interdependence
increase the ability of the team to adapt to new situations. The more members interact and communicate with other members, the more likely it is that the team will be able to devise solutions to
novel problems it may face.
GOAL INTERDEPENDENCE In addition to being linked to one another by task activities,
members may be linked by their goals.38 A high degree of goal interdependence exists when team

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members have a shared vision of the team’s goal and align their individual goals with that vision
as a result.39 To understand the power of goal interdependence, visualize a small boat with several
people on board, each with a paddle.40 If each person on the boat wants to go to the exact same
place on the other side of a lake, they will all row in the same direction, and the boat will arrive
at the desired location. If, however, each person believes the boat should go someplace different,
each person will row in a different direction, and the boat will have major problems getting anywhere. In most team contexts, there are asymmetries in the goals of individual team members that
interfere with the pursuit of team goals, and what makes managing this situation difficult is that
team members often don’t become aware of the incompatibilities until it’s too late.41
So how do you create high levels of goal interdependence? One thing to do would be to ensure
that the team has a formalized mission statement that members buy into. Mission statements can
take a variety of forms, but good ones clearly describe what the team is trying to accomplish in
a way that creates a sense of commitment and urgency among team members.42 Mission statements can come directly from the organization or leaders, but in many circumstances, it makes
more sense for teams to go through the process of developing their own mission statements. This
process not only helps members identify important team goals and the actions the team needs to
take to achieve these goals, but it also increases feelings of ownership toward the mission statement itself. Table 11-2 describes a set of steps that a team could take to develop their own mission
statements.43

TABLE 11-2

The Mission Statement Development Process
STEPS IN MISSION STATEMENT DEVELOPMENT

1. The team should meet together in a room or virtually. Allow enough time and avoid
interruptions.
2. The team leader (or facilitator) should describe the purpose of a mission statement
and what it should look like. Emphasize that mission statements should include
action verbs and be relatively short (probably no more than four sentences).
3. The team leader (or facilitator) should clarify the team’s core responsibilities.
4. The team should brainstorm to identify themes to include in the mission statement.
5. Members draft preliminary mission statements. If the team is large enough, form
subgroups to create first drafts.
6. Members (or subgroups) should share the first drafts with one another.
7. The team should identify the best ideas, and integrate them into a single mission
statement.
8. The mission statement should be evaluated using the following criteria:
Focus—Does the mission statement articulate a purpose that is sufficiently clear and
focused?
Meaningfulness—Does the mission statement reflect a purpose that is meaningful to the members, and will accomplishing the purpose result in benefits that are
important to the members?
Realistic—Does the mission statement reflect something that the members believe
they can actually achieve?
Challenge—Does the mission statement convey a sense of challenge and urgency
to members?
9. The team should identify weak areas of the mission statement relative to the four
criteria in step 8 and revise accordingly.
10. Return to step 7 and continue the process until there’s consensus that the mission
statement inspires commitment among members to the same common purpose.
Source: For a similar take on how to develop mission statements, see MacMillan, P.S. The Performance Factor: Unlocking
the Secrets of Teamwork, 51–53. Broadman & Holman Publishers: Nashville, 2001.

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Although you might believe that the mission for some team tasks is very obvious, all too often
this isn’t the case. In student teams, for example, you might expect that the obvious goal in the
minds of the team members would be to learn the course material. However, it’s typically the
case that students come to a team with individual goals that are surprisingly different, and they
may never realize their goals are different because they don’t talk about them. Some students
might be more interested in “just getting by” with a passing grade because they already have a
job and just need to graduate. Other students might want to do well in the course, but are more
concerned with maintaining balance with the demands of their lives outside of school. Finally,
other students might be focused solely on their grades, perhaps because they want to get into a
prestigious graduate school in an unrelated discipline. Of course, the problem here is that each
of these goals is associated with a different approach to working in the team. Students who want
to learn the course material will work hard on the team assignments and will want to spend extra
time discussing assignment-related issues with teammates, students who just want to get by will do
the minimum amount of work, students who want to maintain their work–life balance will look for
the most efficient way to do things, and students who are focused on their grades would be willing
to take shortcuts that might inhibit learning. Although trying to reach a consensus on a team mission may not be easy in a situation in which the members have goals that vary along these lines,
researchers have found that teams of students experience significantly greater effectiveness if they
invest time and effort doing so soon after the team first forms.44
OUTCOME INTERDEPENDENCE The final type of interdependence relates to how members
are linked to one another in terms of the feedback and outcomes they receive as a consequence of
working in the team.45 A high degree of outcome interdependence exists when team members share
in the rewards that the team earns, with reward examples including pay, bonuses, formal feedback
and recognition, pats on the back, extra time off, and continued team survival. Of course, because
team achievement typically depends on the performance of each team member, high outcome
interdependence also implies that team members depend on the performance of other team members for the rewards that they receive. In contrast, low outcome interdependence exists in teams in
which individual members receive rewards and punishments on the basis of their own individual
performance, without regard to the performance of the team. Research on project teams involved
in consulting, financial planning, and research and development has shown that higher levels of
outcome interdependence increase the amount of information shared among members, which
promotes learning, and, ultimately, team performance.46 As we discuss in the Application section
at the end of this chapter, the way a team is designed with respect to outcome interdependence
also has important implications for the level of cooperation and motivation in the team.

11.3
What factors are involved in
team composition?

TEAM COMPOSITION
You probably already have a sense that team effectiveness hinges on team composition—or the
mix of people who make up the team. If you’ve been a member of a particularly effective team,
you may have noticed that the team seemed to have the right mix of knowledge, skills, abilities,
and personalities. Team members were not only capable of performing their role responsibilities
effectively, but they also cooperated and got along fairly well together. In this section, we identify
the most important characteristics to consider in team composition, and we describe how these
elements combine to influence team functioning and effectiveness. As shown in Figure 11-4, five
aspects of team composition are crucial: roles, ability, personality, diversity, and team size.
MEMBER ROLES A role is defined as a pattern of behavior that a person is expected to display in
a given context.47 In a team setting, there are a variety of roles that members can take or develop in
the course of interacting with one another, and depending on the specific situation, the presence
or absence of members who possess these roles may have a strong impact on team effectiveness.48
One obvious way that roles can be distinguished is by considering the specific sets of task-focused
activities that define what the individual members are expected to do for their team. For example,
a soccer team consists of members who play positions, such as forward, midfielder, defender, and
goal keeper, that have unique responsibilities on the field. As another example, top management
teams often include a chief financial officer, a chief operations officer, and a chief marketing

CHAPTER 11

FIGURE 11-4

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

Five Aspects of Team Composition
Member
Roles
Member
Ability
Member
Personality

Team
Composition

Team
Diversity
Team
Size

officer. These team members may work together to develop and implement an appropriate firm
strategy, but they also have unique functional responsibilities related to day-to-day operations of
the firm.
Another way to distinguish roles is to consider what leaders and members do. In leader–staff
teams, the leader makes decisions for the team and provides direction and control over members
who perform assigned tasks, so this distinction makes sense in that the responsibilities of the
leader and the rest of the team are distinct.49 Typically, however, team members have some latitude with respect to the behaviors they exhibit. In these situations, team roles can be described in
terms of categories that are more general than the task-focused roles described earlier. By general,
we mean that these roles can apply to many different types of teams. As shown in Table 11-3, these
general roles include team task roles, team-building roles, and individualistic roles.50
Team task roles refer to behaviors that directly facilitate the accomplishment of team tasks.
Examples include the orienter who establishes the direction for the team, the devil’s advocate who
offers constructive challenges to the team’s status quo, and the energizer who motivates team
members to work harder toward team goals. As you may have realized, the importance of specific
task-oriented roles depends on the nature of the work in which the team is involved. The orienter
role may be particularly important in teams that have autonomy over how to accomplish their
work. The devil’s advocate role may be particularly important in team contexts in which decisions
are “high stakes” in nature. Finally, the energizer role may be most important in team contexts in
which the work is important but not intrinsically motivating.
In contrast to task-oriented roles, team-building roles refer to behaviors that influence the quality of the team’s social climate. For example, a team member who tends to be helpful to other
team members is fulfilling an important team-building role. Indeed, it has been shown that a single team member who goes the extra mile in this way inspires greater levels of participation from
other members of the team.51 Similarly, a member who lightens things up during a contentious
team meeting by doing something humorous is also fulfilling a team-building role. The simple act
of telling a joke may foster additional humor and, in turn, a positive climate that enhances team
functioning and performance.52 Specific examples of team-building roles include the harmonizer
who steps in to resolve differences among teammates, the encourager who praises the work of
teammates, and the compromiser who helps the team see alternative solutions that teammates
can accept. In sum, and as you may have gathered as you read these examples, the presence of
members who take on team-building roles helps their teams manage conflicts that could hinder
team effectiveness.

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TABLE 11-3

Team and Individualistic Roles

TEAM TASK ROLES

DESCRIPTION

Initiator-contributor

Proposes new ideas

Coordinator

Tries to coordinate activities among team members

Orienter

Determines the direction of the team’s discussion

Devil’s advocate

Offers challenges to the team’s status quo

Energizer

Motivates the team to strive to do better

Procedural-technician

Performs routine tasks needed to keep progress moving

TEAM-BUILDING ROLES

DESCRIPTION

Encourager

Praises the contributions of other team members

Harmonizer

Mediates differences between group members

Compromiser

Attempts to find the halfway point to end conflict

Gatekeeper-expediter

Encourages participation from teammates

Standard setter

Expresses goals for the team to achieve

Follower

Accepts the ideas of teammates

INDIVIDUALISTIC ROLES

DESCRIPTION

Aggressor

Deflates teammates, expresses disapproval with hostility

Blocker

Acts stubbornly resistant and disagrees beyond reason

Recognition seeker

Brags and calls attention to himself or herself

Self-confessor

Discloses personal opinions inappropriately

Slacker

Acts cynically, or nonchalantly, or goofs off

Dominator

Manipulates team members for personal control

Source: Adapted from Benne, K., and P. Sheats. “Functional Roles of Group Members.” Journal of Social Issues 4 (1948):
pp. 41–49.

Finally, whereas task roles and team-building roles focus on activities that benefit the team,
individualistic roles reflect behaviors that benefit the individual at the expense of the team. For
example, the aggressor “puts down” or deflates fellow teammates. The recognition seeker takes
credit for team successes. The dominator manipulates teammates to acquire control and power.
If you’ve ever had an experience in a team in which members took on individualistic roles, you
probably realize just how damaging they can be to the team. Individualistic role behaviors foster
negative feelings among team members, which serve to hinder a team’s ability to function and
perform effectively.53
MEMBER ABILITY Team members possess a wide variety of abilities (see Chapter 10 on ability
for more discussion of such issues). Depending on the nature of the tasks involved in the team’s
work, some of these may be important to consider in team design. For example, for teams involved
in physical work, relevant physical abilities will be important to take into account. Consider the
types of abilities that are required of pit crew members in stock car racing, where margins of
victory can be one-tenth of a second. When a car pulls into pit row, crew members need to leap
over the pit wall and lift heavy tires, jacks, and other equipment to get the race car back on the

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track—ideally in about 14 seconds. In this setting, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance, and explosive strength are required, and in fact, racing teams have hired professional trainers and even built
gyms to improve these abilities of their pit crew members.54
It’s also important to take cognitive abilities into account when designing teams. General cognitive ability is important in many different types of teams. In general, smarter teams perform
better because teamwork tends to be quite complex.55 Team members not only have to be involved
in several different aspects of the team’s task, but they also have to learn how best to combine
their individual efforts to accomplish team goals.56 In fact, the more that this type of learning
is required, the more important member cognitive ability becomes. For example, research has
shown that cognitive ability is more important to teams when team members have to learn from
one another to adapt to unexpected changes, compared with contexts in which team members
perform their assigned tasks in a routine fashion.57
Of course, not every member needs high levels of these physical or cognitive abilities. If you’ve
ever played a trivia game using teams, you might recall playing against another team in which only
one of the team members was smart enough to answer any of the questions correctly. In fact, in
tasks with an objectively verifiable best solution, the member who possesses the highest level of
the ability relevant to the task will have the most influence on the effectiveness of the team. These
types of tasks are called disjunctive tasks.58 You may also recall situations in which it was crucial
that everyone on the team possessed the relevant abilities. Returning to the pit crew example,
stock cars cannot leave the pit area until all the tires are mounted, and so the length of the pit stop
is determined by the physical abilities of the slowest crew member. Tasks like this, for which the
team’s performance depends on the abilities of the “weakest link,” are called conjunctive tasks.
Finally, there are additive tasks, for which the contributions resulting from the abilities of every
member “add up” to determine team performance. The amount of money that a Girl Scout troop
earns from selling Thin Mints and Samoas is the sum of what each Girl Scout is able to sell on
her own.
MEMBER PERSONALITY Team members also possess a wide variety of personality traits (see
Chapter 9 on personality and cultural values for more discussion of such issues). These personality traits affect the roles that team members take on,59 the norms that develop on the team,60 and
ultimately, how teams function and perform as units.61 For example, the agreeableness of team
members has an important influence on team effectiveness.62 Why? Because agreeable people
tend to be more cooperative and trusting, and these tendencies promote positive attitudes about
the team and smooth interpersonal interactions. Moreover, because agreeable people may be
more concerned about their team’s interests than their own, they should work hard on behalf of
the team.63 There’s a caveat regarding agreeableness in teams, however. Because agreeable people
tend to prefer harmony and cooperation rather than conflict and competition, they may be less
apt to speak up and offer constructive criticisms that might help the team improve.64 Thus, if a
team is composed of too many highly agreeable members, there’s a chance that the members will
behave in a way that enhances harmony of the team at the expense of task accomplishment.65
As another example, team composition in terms of members’ conscientiousness is important to teams.66 After all, almost any team would benefit from having members who tend to be
dependable and work hard to achieve team goals. What might be less obvious to you is the strong
negative effect on the team of having even one member who is particularly low on conscientiousness.67 To understand why this is true, consider how you would react to a team member who was
not dependable and did not appear to be motivated to work hard toward team goals. If you’re
like most people, you would find the situation dissatisfying, and you would consider different
ways of dealing with it. Some people might try to motivate the person to be more responsible
and work harder; others might try to get the person ejected from the team.68 The problem is that
these natural reactions to a low conscientiousness team member not only divert attention away
from accomplishing work responsibilities, but they also can result in some very uncomfortable
and time-consuming interpersonal conflicts. Moreover, even if you and the other members of the
team work harder to compensate for this person, it would be difficult for your team to perform
as effectively as other teams in which all members are more interpersonally responsible and
engaged in the team’s work.

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A task that can go only as
quickly as the slowest team
member, like a pit stop
in a car race, is a
­conjunctive task.

Action Sports Photography/Shutterstock

Finally, the personality characteristic of extraversion is relevant to team composition.69 People
who are extraverted tend to perform more effectively in interpersonal contexts and are more positive and optimistic in general.70 Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise you to read that having extraverted
team members is generally beneficial to the social climate of the group, as well as to team effectiveness in the eyes of supervisors.71 At the same time, however, research has shown that having
too many members who are very high on extraversion can hurt the team. The reason for this can
be attributed to extraverts’ tendency to be assertive and dominant. As you would expect when
there are too many members with these types of tendencies, power struggles and unproductive
conflict occur with greater frequency.72

11.4
What are the types of team
diversity, and how do they
influence team functioning?

DIVERSITY Another aspect of team composition refers to the degree to which members are
different from one another in terms of any attribute that might be used by someone as a basis of
categorizing people. We refer to those differences as team diversity.73 Trying to understand the
effects of diversity on teams is difficult because there are so many different characteristics that
may be used to categorize people. Beyond obvious differences among people in their physical
appearance, there can be separation among members in terms of their values and beliefs, variety
among members in their knowledge and expertise, and disparity among members in their social
status, power, and even their sense of time urgency and the way they like to pace their work.74
Moreover, diversity of team member characteristics may matter more or less depending on the
nature of the team and organizational context.75 For example, you might imagine how the dynamics in a team consisting of both men and women could vary depending on whether the team is in
an organization dominated by men (or women) or whether it’s balanced in terms of the employees’ sex. Finally, there are multiple reasons different types of diversity influence team functioning
and effectiveness, and some of these reasons seem contradictory.76
One predominant theory that has been used to explain why diversity has positive effects is called
the value in diversity problem-solving approach.77 According to this perspective, diversity in teams is
beneficial because it provides for a larger pool of knowledge and perspectives from which a team
can draw as it carries out its work.78 Having greater diversity in knowledge perspectives stimulates
the exchange of information, which in turn fosters learning among team members.79 The knowledge
that results from this learning is then shared and integrated with the knowledge of other members,
ultimately helping the team perform more effectively.80 Research has shown that these benefits of
diversity are more likely to occur when the team includes members who are able and willing to
put in the effort necessary to understand and integrate different perspectives.81 Teams that engage
in work that’s relatively complex and requires creativity tend to benefit most from diversity, and
research on teams that are diverse in terms of many different characteristics related to knowledge
and perspectives—ethnicity, expertise, personality, attitudes—supports this idea.82
A theory that’s been used widely to explain why diversity may have detrimental effects on
teams is called the similarity-attraction approach.83 According to this perspective, people tend to

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Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

be more attracted to others who are perceived as
more similar. People also tend to avoid interacting with those who are perceived to be dissimilar,
to reduce the likelihood of having uncomfortable
disagreements. Consistent with this perspective,
research has shown that diversity on attributes
such as cultural background, race, and attitudes
is associated with communication problems and
ultimately poor team effectiveness.84
So it appears that there are two different
­theories about diversity effects that are relevant to Fuse/Getty Images
teams, and each has been supported in research.
Which perspective is correct? As it turns out, a
key to understanding the impact of team diversity requires that you consider both the general type
of diversity and the length of time the team has been in existence.85
Surface-level diversity refers to diversity regarding observable attributes such as race, ethnicity, sex, and age.86 Although this type of diversity may have a negative impact on teams early in
their existence because of similarity-attraction issues, those negative effects tend to disappear as
members become more knowledgeable about one another. In essence, the stereotypes that members have about one another based on surface differences are replaced with knowledge regarding
underlying characteristics that are more relevant to social and task interactions.87
One complication here is that faultlines often occur in diverse groups, whereby informal subgroups develop based on similarity in surface-level attributes such as gender or other characteristics.88 The problem with faultlines is that knowledge and information possessed by one subgroup
may not be communicated to other subgroups in a manner that might help the entire team perform more effectively. In a study of boards of directors, for example, the presence of strong faultlines decreased the amount of discussion that board members had with each other in regards to
entrepreneurial issues that could affect their companies.89 Research has shown, however, that
the effects of subgroups depend on the type of subgroup, and that detrimental effects of having
subgroups can be offset with training that reinforces the idea that teams may benefit from their
diversity.90 Leadership or reward practices that reinforce the value of sharing information and
promote a strong sense of team identity also help diverse teams perform more effectively.91 More
generally, effective interactions among team members may hinge on the members’ awareness that
they should guard against unconscious prejudices and assumptions of other members based on
surface level characteristics. For a discussion of this issue, see our OB at the Bookstore feature.
Deep-level diversity, in contrast, refers to diversity with respect to attributes that are less easy
to observe initially but that can be inferred after more direct experience. Differences in attitudes,
values, and personality are good examples of deep-level diversity.92 In contrast to the effects of
surface-level diversity, time appears to increase the negative effects of deep-level diversity on team
functioning and effectiveness.93 Over time, as team members learn more about one another, differences that relate to underlying values and goals become increasingly apparent. Those differences
can therefore create problems among team members that ultimately result in reduced effectiveness.
Fortunately, it appears that the negative effects of deep-level diversity can be managed.94 As an
example, diversity in members’ approach to pursing goals has been shown to hinder team functioning and effectiveness, but this effect can be reduced if teams are instructed to take the time
to reflect on their progress toward goals and their strategies.95 Deep-level diversity has also been
shown to have positive effects on team creativity when members are instructed to take the perspective of their teammates.96 As another example, negative effects of deep-level diversity with respect
to members’ values have been found to be reduced when team leaders emphasize the teams’ task
and provide explicit direction regarding team procedures, standards, roles, and expectations.97 We
should also point out, however, that team leaders can also exacerbate problems associated with
deep-level diversity. Conflict that results from diversity in members’ values appears to increase in
teams with leaders who emphasize things like freedom of expression and participation.98 See our
OB Internationally feature for a discussion of the challenges of managing deep-level diversity in
teams that include members from different cultures.

coL61557_ch11_333-373.indd

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Surface-level diversity can
sometimes create issues
for teams as they begin
their tasks, but such problems usually disappear
over time.

11/30/20 11:02 AM

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OB At the Bookstore
BIASED

by Jennifer L. Eberhardt (New York: Viking, 2019)

How do we know when we are being insensitive or unfair? How
much of who we are and how we feel is dictated by things outside
our awareness or control? How often are we really the tolerant, fairminded person we want to be? And how can we learn to check ourselves and mute the negative impact that bias can have?*
With those words, author Jennifer Eberhardt urges readers to take
a hard look within themselves and to consider a very uncomfortable
possibility. That is, might we have hidden prejudices that unintentionally serve to hinder others in a wide variety of settings, including
the workplace? Eberhardt presents compelling evidence that this is,
in fact, the case. That is, despite our good intentions, and the sincere
belief that we are fair and unprejudiced, we have ­deep-rooted beliefs
that shape what we see and think, and that as a consequence of this
Roberts Publishing, Inc.
process, we end up making decisions and behaving in ways that are
biased against people of other groups. Although the book focuses on bias based on race and ethnicity, the same basic ideas hold for other surface-level characteristics as well.
Eberhardt provides the reader with an overview of the relevant psychological and socialpsychological research to support the idea that people have unconscious biases and that fairly
predictable consequences follow. As an example, the book explains that stereotypes are created
within demographic groups that simplify the mental task of making sense of other demographic
groups. The book further explains that stereotypes have an influence on what people do because
they influence what people see. For instance, stereotypes open the door for confirmation
bias, which refers to people paying attention to information and seeking support for what they
implicitly believe to be true. Although the basic concepts and research findings are described
clearly, the book is also laced with vivid accounts of how these processes have played out to create
discrimination and other systematic disadvantages for certain groups of people.
The book serves as a compelling eye-opener for those of us who might be inclined to think
we’re completely free of bias in the way we think and feel and behave toward others. Indeed,
the book explains that bias toward others who are believed to be different is universal and that
even the most well-intended among us are influenced by it. Importantly, however, Eberhardt also
asserts that “neither our evolutionary path nor our present culture dooms us to be held hostage by
bias”* and that “change requires a kind of open-minded attention that is well within our reach.”*
In fact, the primary message that Eberhardt conveys in her book is that the most important step in
confronting bias towards others is to understand that it exists, that it shapes our reality, and that
social and workplace harms follow.
*Source: Biased by Jennifer L. New York: Viking, 2019.

We also should mention an important caveat here. Although personality is normally considered a deep-level diversity variable,99 some specific personality types do not function this way.100
In the previous section on personality, for example, we pointed out that though having team members who are extraverted and agreeable is generally a good thing, problems arise if a team has too
many members with these attributes. So whereas diversity on most deep-level characteristics is

CHAPTER 11

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OB Internationally
Businesses are increasingly using teams composed of members from different cultures, and so
teams today often possess members who differ from one another in terms of their attitudes, values, ideas, goals, and behaviors. These types of teams, called multicultural teams, can approach
problems from several different perspectives, which opens the door to highly innovative solutions.
Cultural diversity also allows teams to serve a diverse customer base that may differ in terms of
culture and nationality.
Unfortunately, the attributes that give multicultural teams these advantages also give them
disadvantages. As an example, people from different cultures communicate differently, which can
lead to misunderstandings. For example, to people in the United States, the phrase “to table something” means to put it off until later, whereas to people in some European countries, it means discuss it right now. Imagine your reaction if you didn’t know this difference, and you told a team you
were leading that you wanted to table something, and then one of your team members started to
discuss options and recommendations about the issue. There are differences in the directness of
communications as well. Westerners tend to be very direct and to the point, but to people in other
countries, such as Japan, this directness may cause embarrassment and a sense of disrespect.
There are also cultural differences in decision-making processes. In some cultures, decisions can
be made only after careful consideration and reconsideration of all relevant issues, which is much
different from the style in other cultures, such as the United States, where decisions are made
rather quickly and with less analysis. Although these differences might seem trivial, they often
lead to misunderstandings that reduce the willingness of team members to cooperate.
So how can multicultural teams be managed to ensure the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? Although there’s no one best way to manage multicultural teams, one proven approach is to
encourage team members to take the time to communicate openly with each other about cultural
differences and to proactively develop strategies the team can use to accommodate them.
Sources: J. Brett, K. Behfar, and M.C. Kern, “Managing Multicultural Teams,” Harvard Business Review 84 (November
2006), pp. 84–91; S. Gupta, “Mine the Potential of Multicultural Teams: Mesh Cultural Differences to Enhance
Productivity,” HR Magazine (October 2008), pp. 79–84; M. Harris, Cultural Anthropology, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper and
Row, 1987); H.C. Triandis, Culture and Social Behavior (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994).

problematic for teams, this claim does not apply to extraversion and agreeableness, because for
these two personality characteristics, teams are likely to benefit from having a mix of members.
TEAM SIZE Two adages are relevant to team size: “the more the merrier” and “too many cooks
spoil the pot.” Which statement do you believe is true in terms of how many members to include
on a team? The answer, according to the results of one meta-analysis, is that having a greater
number of members is beneficial for management and project teams but not for teams engaged in
production tasks.101 Management and project teams engage in work that’s complex and knowledge
intensive, and these teams therefore benefit from the additional resources and expertise contributed by additional members.102 In contrast, production teams tend to engage in routine tasks that
are less complex. Having additional members beyond what’s necessary to accomplish the work
tends to result in unnecessary coordination and communication problems. Additional members
therefore may be less productive because there’s more socializing, and they feel less accountable
for team outcomes.103 Although making a claim about the absolute best team size is impossible,
research with undergraduate students concluded that team members tend to be most satisfied
with their team when the number of members is between four and five.104 Of course, there are
other rules of thumb you can use to keep team size optimal. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com,
uses the two-pizza rule: “If a team can’t be fed by two pizzas, it’s too large.”105

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SUMMARY: WHAT CHARACTERISTICS CAN BE USED TO
DESCRIBE TEAMS?
The preceding sections illustrate that there are a variety of characteristics that can be used to
describe teams. As Figure 11-5 illustrates, teams can be described using taxonomies of team types.
For example, teams can be described by categorizing them as a work team, a management team,
a parallel team, a project team, or an action team. Teams can also be described using the nature
of the team’s interdependence with regard to its task, goals, and outcomes. Finally, teams can be
described in terms of their composition. Relevant member characteristics include member roles,
member ability, member personality, member diversity, and team size.

FIGURE 11-5

What Characteristics Can Be Used to Describe Teams?

• Work teams
• Management
teams
• Parallel teams
• Project teams
• Action teams

Team
Types

Task
Interdependence
Goal
Interdependence

Team
Interdependence

Outcome
Interdependence

Member
Roles
Member
Ability
Member
Personality
Team
Diversity
Team
Size

Team
Composition

Team
Characteristics

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Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

357

HOW IMPORTANT AR E TEAM CHARACTERISTICS?
In previous chapters, we have described individual characteristics and mechanisms and discussed
how these variables affect individual performance and commitment. In this chapter, we’re concerned with team characteristics, and so naturally, we’re interested in how they influence team
effectiveness. One aspect of team effectiveness is team performance, which may include metrics
such as the quantity and quality of goods or services produced, customer satisfaction, the effectiveness or accuracy of decisions, victories, completed reports, and successful investigations. Team
performance in the context of student project teams most often means the quality with which the
team completes assignments and projects, as well as the grades they earn.
A second aspect of team effectiveness is team commitment, which is sometimes called team
viability. Team viability refers to the likelihood that the team can work together effectively into the
future.106 If the team experience is not satisfying and the members do not feel a bond with one
another or with the team itself, members may become disillusioned and focus their energy on activities away from the team. Although a team with low viability might be able to work together on shortterm projects, over the long run, a team such as this is bound to have significant problems.107 Rather
than planning for future tasks and working through issues that might improve the team, members of
a team with low viability are more apt to be looking ahead to the team’s ultimate demise.
Of course, it’s difficult to summarize the relationship between team characteristics and team
performance and commitment when there are so many characteristics that can be used to describe
teams. Here we focus our discussion on the impact of task interdependence. We focus on task interdependence because it’s one of the most important characteristics that distinguishes true teams
from mere groups of individuals. As Figure 11-6 shows, it turns out that the relationship between

FIGURE 11-6

11.5
How do team characteristics
influence team effectiveness?

Effects of Task Interdependence on Performance and Commitment

Task
Interdependence

Team
Performance

Task interdependence has a moderate positive effect on Team Performance. However,
the correlation is higher in teams involved in more complex knowledge work rather than
less complex work.
Task
Interdependence

Team
Commitment

Task interdependence has a weak relationship with Team Commitment. However, the
correlation is stronger for teams involved in more complex knowledge work than in
teams involved in less complex work.
Represents a strong correlation (around .50 in magnitude).
Represents a moderate correlation (around .30 in magnitude).
Represents a weak correlation (around .10 in magnitude).

Sources: Campion, M. A., G. J. Medsker, and A. C. Higgs. “Relations Between Work Group Characteristics and
Effectiveness: Implications for Designing Effective Work Groups.” Personnel Psychology 46 (1993): pp. 823–849;
Campion, M. A., E. M. Papper, and G. J. Medsker. “Relations Between Work Team Characteristics and Effectiveness:
A Replication and Extension.” Personnel Psychology 49 (1996): pp. 429–452; Courtright, S. H., G. R. Thurgood, G. L.
Stewart, and A. J. Pierotti. “Structural Interdependence in Teams: An Integrative Framework and Meta-Analysis.” Journal
of Applied Psychology 100 (2015): pp. 1825–1846; and Stewart, G. L. “A Meta-Analytic Review of Relationships Between
Team Design Features and Team Performance.” Journal of Management 32 (2006): pp. 29–54.

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task interdependence and team performance is moderately positive.108 That is, task performance
tends to be higher in teams in which members depend on one another and have to coordinate
their activities rather than when members work more or less independently. It’s important to mention that the relationship between task interdependence and team performance varies somewhat
depending on how team performance is measured. Additionally, the relationship tends to be significantly stronger in teams that are responsible for completing complex knowledge work rather
than simple tasks. When work is more complex, interdependence is necessary because there’s a
need for members to interact and share resources and information. When work is simple, sharing
information and resources is less necessary because members can do the work by themselves.
In the lower portion of Figure 11-6, you can see that the relationship between task interdependence and team commitment is weaker.109 Teams with higher task interdependence have only a
slightly higher probability of including members who are committed to their team’s continued
existence. As with the relationship with team performance, task interdependence has a stronger
effect on viability for teams doing complex knowledge work. Apparently, sharing resources and
information in a context in which it’s unnecessary is dissatisfying to members and results in a
team with reduced prospects of continued existence.

APPLICATION: TEAM COMPENSATION

11.6
How can team compensation
be used to manage team
effectiveness?

Although all team characteristics have implications for managerial practices, outcome interdependence is particularly relevant for two reasons. First, outcome interdependence has obvious
connections to compensation practices in organizations,110 and most of us are interested in factors
that determine how we get paid. If you work for an organization with compensation that has high
outcome interdependence, a higher percentage of your pay will depend on how well your team
does. If you work for an organization with compensation that has low outcome interdependence,
a lower percentage of your pay will depend on how well your team does.
A second reason outcome interdependence is important to consider is that it presents managers with a tough dilemma. High outcome interdependence promotes higher levels of cooperation
because members understand that they share the same fate—if the team wins, everyone wins, and
if the team fails, everyone fails.111 At the same time, high outcome interdependence may result in
reduced motivation, especially among higher performing members. High performers may perceive
that they’re not paid in proportion to what they contributed to the team and that their teammates
are taking advantage of this inequity for their own benefit.112
One solution to this dilemma has been to design team reward structures with hybrid outcome
interdependence, which means that members receive rewards that are dependent on both their
team’s performance and how well they perform as individuals.113 In fact, the majority of organizations that use teams use some sort of hybrid outcome interdependence. But what percentage of
team members’ pay is typically based on team performance in business organizations? This is a
difficult question to answer, because as we discussed earlier in the chapter, there are so many different types of teams doing so many different types of tasks, and also because organizations vary
dramatically in their approaches to rewarding their employees. For example, the size of team-based
pay in the goods and service sectors averages around 10–12 percent of an employee’s base pay.114
In contrast, production workers at Nucor, the Crawfordsville, Indiana–based steel company, earn
team-based bonuses of 170 percent of their base pay, on average.115 It’s important to note that
hybrid outcome interdependence, in and of itself, may not always be that effective in promoting
team functioning and effectiveness. Research conducted at Xerox, for example, shows that service
teams with hybrid outcome interdependence are less effective than service teams with very high
or very low levels of outcome interdependence.116 Part of the problem with hybrid outcome interdependence is that it can lead to uncertainty about which types of behaviors are being rewarded
and how pay ultimately is determined. To make hybrid interdependence work, organizations need
to ensure that the system makes sense to employees. At Nucor, most production workers know
within one-tenth of 1 percent what the team’s bonus is for the week, as well as which products will
be produced next and how these future operations will likely affect their bonuses.117

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One way to resolve the dilemma of outcome interdependence is to implement a level of teambased pay that matches the level of task interdependence. Members tend to be more productive in
high task interdependence situations when there’s also high outcome interdependence. Similarly,
members prefer low task interdependent situations when there’s low outcome interdependence.118
To understand the power of aligning task and outcome interdependence, consider scenarios in
which there’s not a good match. For example, how would you react to a situation in which you
worked very closely with your teammates on a team project in one of your classes, and though
your professor said the team’s project was outstanding, she awarded an A to one of your team
members, a B to another, and a C to you? Similarly, consider how you would react to a situation
in which you scored enough points for an A on your final exam, but your professor averaged everyone’s grades together and gave all students a C. Chances are you wouldn’t be happy with either
scenario.

Takeaways
11.1 There are several different types of teams—work teams, management teams, action teams,

project teams, and parallel teams—but many teams in organizations have characteristics
that fit in multiple categories and differ from one another in other ways.

11.2 Teams can be interdependent in terms of the team task, goals, and outcomes. Each type of

interdependence has important implications for team functioning and effectiveness.

11.3 Team composition refers to the characteristics of the members who work in the team.

These characteristics include roles, ability, personality, and member diversity, as well as
the number of team members.

11.4 The effect of diversity on the team depends on time and whether the diversity is surface

level or deep level. The effects of surface-level diversity tend to diminish with time, whereas
the effects of deep-level diversity tend to increase over time.

11.5 Task interdependence has a moderate positive relationship with team performance and a

weak relationship with team commitment.

11.6 Outcome interdependence has important effects on teams, which can be managed with

compensation practices that take team performance into account.

Key Terms
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Team
Work team
Management team
Parallel team
Project team
Action team
Multiple team membership
Virtual team
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
Punctuated equilibrium

p. 336
p. 337
p. 337
p. 338
p. 339
p. 339
p. 340
p. 341
p. 341
p. 341
p. 341
p. 341
p. 341
p. 342

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Task interdependence
Pooled interdependence
Sequential interdependence
Reciprocal interdependence
Comprehensive
interdependence
Goal interdependence
Outcome interdependence
Team composition
Role
Leader–staff teams
Team task roles
Team-building roles
Individualistic roles

p. 345
p. 345
p. 346
p. 346
p. 346
p. 346
p. 348
p. 348
p. 348
p. 349
p. 349
p. 349
p. 350

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•
•
•
•
•

Disjunctive tasks
Conjunctive tasks
Additive tasks
Team diversity
Value in diversity problemsolving approach

p. 351
p. 351
p. 351
p. 352
p. 352

•
•
•
•
•

Similarity-attraction approach
Surface-level diversity
Deep-level diversity
Team viability
Hybrid outcome
interdependence

p. 352
p. 353
p. 353
p. 357
p. 358

Discussion Questions
11.1 In which types of teams have you worked? Were these teams consistent with the taxonomy

of team types discussed in this chapter, or were they a combination of types?

11.2 Think about your student teams. Which aspects of both models of team development apply

the most and least to teams in this context? Do you think these teams function best in an
additive, disjunctive, or conjunctive manner? What are the advantages and disadvantages
of each structure?

11.3 Think about a highly successful team with which you are familiar. What types of task, goal,

and outcome interdependence does this team have? Describe how changes in task, goal,
and outcome interdependence might have a negative impact on this team.

11.4 What type of roles do you normally take on in a team setting? Are there task or social roles

that you simply don’t perform well? If so, why do you think this is?

11.5 How would you describe your student team in terms of its diversity? In what ways would

there be advantages and disadvantages to increasing its diversity? How might you be able
to manage some of the disadvantages so that your team is able to capitalize on the potential advantages?

Case: Whole Foods
Teams are taken very seriously at Whole Foods. Not only are company employees referred to as
“team members,” but teams are given a great deal of freedom to make important decisions. For
example, teams help decide what items to order and sell, and how to price and promote them.
Although it might not seem all that unusual for a company to give teams the liberty to make decisions so they can carry out their core functional responsibilities, Whole Foods goes much further
in providing autonomy to its teams. Perhaps there is no better example of this than how new
team members are hired at the company.
In most organizations, individuals seeking employment fill out an application form or submit
a résumé. Those with qualifications that are judged to match a job description are interviewed
by human resource personnel or a manager to make sure the applicant fits with the job and organization. At Whole Foods, the process is quite different and much more involved. Applicants
not only fill out an application and have one-on-one interviews with managers, but they also
have interviews with panels composed of recruiters, managers, and select team members. But
that’s not all. An applicant who makes it through this process is placed on a team for a 30-day
trial period, after which the team votes for whether or not to accept the applicant on their team.
Applicants who don’t get a two-thirds vote are out of that team. They may be placed on a new
team, where the trial process begins anew, or they leave the company.
This hiring process typically takes about 60 days and is applied at all levels of the organization, from employees who stock shelves in the stores to accountants who work in the corporate
office. Whole Foods believes that hiring decisions should be made by the team members, in part,
because they’re the ones who are most directly affected by the choices that are made. A new hire
who ends up hurting a team’s performance will reduce bonuses paid to team members, whereas

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Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

the opposite would be true of a hire that ends up promoting a team’s performance. Whole Foods
also believes that the team members themselves are the best judges of who might fit within their
team. Finally, involving team members in the hiring process promotes a sense of ownership for
the decision, and following from this, team members may be more inclined to help a new hire
who is struggling to catch on.
11.1

What label would best describe the type of team that Whole Foods uses in its stores?
Explain.

11.2 Describe the advantages and disadvantages of Whole Foods’ hiring process with respect to

managing team composition.

11.3

What steps could Whole Foods take to mitigate potential disadvantages of their hiring
process?

Sources: D. Burkus, “Why Whole Foods Builds Its Entire Business on Teams,” Forbes, June 8, 2016,
com/sites/davidburkus/2016/06/08/why-whole-foods-build-their-entire-business-on-teams/#1553674b3fa1; C. Fishman,
“Whole Foods Is All Teams,” Fast Company, April 30, 1996,
Whole Foods, “Whole Foods Market History,” (accessed Mach 31, 2017).

Exercise: Paper Plane Corporation
The purpose of this exercise is to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of sequential versus
pooled interdependence on a team production project. This exercise uses groups, so your instructor will either assign you to a group or ask you to create your own group. The exercise has the
following steps.
11.1 Your professor will supply you with the materials you need to create your final product

(as many paper airplanes as you can fold to quality standards in three 5-minute rounds).
Instructions for folding the paper airplanes and judging their quality are provided below.
Before you start work on your airplanes, do the following:
a. As a group, select a team manager (who will supervise operations and get additional
resources as needed) and a team inspector (who will judge the quality of the work on
airplanes).
b. Familiarize yourself with how to make a paper airplane by folding one according to the
instructions.
c. Be sure you are in a space where all of the team members can work comfortably.
d. To the extent possible, move away from other groups.
e. Familiarize yourself with the information about the Paper Plane Corporation.
11.2 Your group is the complete workforce for the Paper Plane Corporation. Established in

1943, Paper Plane has led the market in paper plane production. Presently under new management, the company is contracting to make aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. You must
determine the most efficient method for producing these aircraft. You must make your
contract with the Air Force under the following conditions:
a. The Air Force will pay $200,000 per airplane.
b. The aircraft must pass a strict inspection by a quality control manager.
c. A penalty of $250,000 per airplane will be subtracted for each failure to meet the production requirements.
d. Labor and other overhead will be computed at $3,000,000.
e. Cost of materials will be $30,000 per bid plane. If you bid for 10 but make only 8, you must
pay the cost of materials for those you failed to make or those that did not pass inspection.

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11.3 In the first round of the airplane manufacturing process, the Air Force has asked you to

focus on individuality. Each Paper Plane worker should manufacture his or her own planes
from start to finish. When each plane is finished, it should be put in a central location for
quality inspection. When time is called, you will record your team profit on the Summary
Sheet.
11.4 In the second round of manufacturing, the Air Force has asked you to give each worker a

specific job. In other words, the manufacturing process will take place in an assembly-line
fashion. When planes come off the assembly line, they will be given directly to the quality
control manager for inspection. When time is called, you will record your team profit on
the Summary Sheet.
11.5 In the final round of manufacturing, the Air Force has asked your team to devise a manu-

facturing process that will maximize both efficiency and effectiveness. You may do whatever you like in terms of creating paper airplanes. You will have the same amount of time
that you did in the two previous rounds. When time is called, you will record your team
profit on the Summary Sheet.
11.6 Class discussion (whether in groups or as a class) should center on the following questions:

a. Did pooled interdependence (Round 1) or sequential interdependence (Round 2) work
better for your group in terms of the number of planes made correctly? Why do you
think you got the result you did?
b. How did you change your work structure in Round 3? Did the changes you implemented
help you achieve better productivity? Why or why not?
c. From your perspective, what are the advantages and disadvantages of pooled and/or
sequential interdependence?

STEP 1: Take a sheet of
paper and fold it in half,
then open it back up.

STEP 2: Fold upper
corners to the middle.

STEP 4: Fold in half.

STEP 5: Fold both
wings down.

STEP 6: Fold tail fins up.

STEP 3: Fold the corners
to the middle again.

Completed Aircraft

CHAPTER 11

Teams: Characteristics and Diversity

Round 1

Bid: _____ Aircraft @ $200,000 per aircraft = _____
Results: _____ Aircraft @ $200,000 per aircraft = _____
Subtract: $3,000,000 overhead + _____ × $30,000 cost of raw materials + _____ × $250,000
penalty for not completing a bid plane = _____
Profit: _____

Round 2

Bid: _____ Aircraft @ $200,000 per aircraft = _____
Results: _____ Aircraft @ $200,000 per aircraft = _____
Subtract: $3,000,000 overhead + _____ × $30,000 cost of raw materials + _____ × $250,000
penalty for not completing a bid plane = _____
Profit: _____

Round 3

Bid: _____ Aircraft @ $200,000 per aircraft = _____
Results: _____ Aircraft @ $200,000 per aircraft = _____
Subtract: $3,000,000 overhead + _____ × $30,000 cost of raw materials + _____ × $250,000
penalty for not completing a bid plane = _____
Profit: _____

Source: J.M. Ivancevich, J.M, R. Konopaske, and M. Matteson, Organizational Behavior and Management, 7th ed. (New
York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2005). Original exercise by Louis Potheni in F. Luthans, Organizational Behavior (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1985), p. 555.

Endnotes
11.1 Ilgen, D.R.; D.A.

Major; J.R. Hollenbeck;
and D.J. Sego. “Team
Research in the
1990s.” In Leadership
Theory and Research:
Perspectives and
Directions, ed. M.M.
Chemers and R.
Ayman. New York:
Academic Press, 1993,
pp . 245–70.

11.2 Devine, D.J.; L.D.

Clayton; J.L. Philips;
B.B. Dunford; and
S.B. Melner. “Teams
in Organizations:
Prevalence,
Characteristics, and
Effectiveness.” Small
Group Research 30
(1999), pp . 678–711;
Gordan, J. “Work
Teams: How Far Have
They Come?” Training

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