Roles
In groups, each individual fills a particular role. By this term, we mean a set of expected
behaviour patterns of a person in a given position in a social unit. Within almost any
group, two sets of role relationships need to be considered: task-oriented roles and
maintenance roles. Task-oriented rolesare performed by group members to ensure that
the tasks of the group are accomplished. These roles include initiators, information
seekers, information providers, elaborators, summarizers, and consensus makers.
Maintenance rolesare carried out to ensure that group members maintain good rela-
tions. These roles include harmonizers, compromisers, gatekeepers, and encouragers. You
may recall from this chapter’s vignette that Beatrice Sze was an encourager—helping
team members achieve their best.
Effective teams maintain some balance between task orientation and maintenance of
relations. Exhibit 5-5 on page 165 identifies a number of task-oriented and mainte-
nance behaviours in the key roles that you might find in a team.
On many teams, there are individuals who will be flexible enough to play multiple
roles and/or complete each other’s tasks. This is an obvious plus to a team because it
greatly improves its adaptability and makes it less reliant on any single member.^42
Selecting members who themselves value flexibility, and then cross-training them to
be able to do one another’s jobs, should lead to higher team performance over time.
Occasionally within teams, you will see people take on individual rolesthat are
not productive for keeping the team on task. When this happens, the individual is
demonstrating more concern for himself or herself than the team as a whole.
Most roles, whether in the workplace or in our personal lives, are governed by role
expectations, that is, how others believe a person should act in a given situation. Role
conflictexists when an individual finds that complying with one role requirement may
make it more difficult to comply with another.^43 At the extreme, it can include situations
in which two or more role expectations are mutually contradictory! Case Incident—Role
Conflict Among Telephone Service Employeeson the CD-ROM that accompanies this text-
book looks at how role conflict affects one’s work life.Diversity
Group diversityrefers to the presence of a heterogeneous mix of individuals within a
group.^44 Individuals can be different not only in functional characteristics (jobs, posi-
tions, expertise, or work experiences) but also in demographic or cultural characteristics
(age, race, sex, and citizenship).RESEARCH FINDINGS Team Diversity
Managing diversity on teams is a balancing act (see Exhibit 5-6 on page 166).^45 On the one
hand, a number of researchers have suggested that diversity brings a greater number of ideas,
perspectives, knowledge, and skills to the group, which can be used to perform at a higher
level.^46 On the other hand, researchers have suggested that diversity can lead people to recall
stereotypes and therefore bring bias into their evaluations of people who are different
from them.^47 Diversity can thus make it more difficult to unify the team and reach agree-
ments.^48 We consider some of the evidence to help us resolve these opposing views.
In a study examining the effectiveness of teams of
strangers and teams of friends on bargaining, researchers
found that teams of strangers gained greater profit than
teams of friends, when teams reported to a supervisor.^49
However, teams of friends were more cohesive than teams of
strangers. Another study of 60 teams found that in effective
teams, about 50 percent of the individuals considered them-
selves friends, which underscores the importance of teams’164 Part 2Striving for Performance
individual roles Roles performed
by group members that are not pro-
ductive for keeping the team on task.
role expectations How others
believe a person should act in a
given situation.
role conflict A situation in which an
individual finds that complying with
one role requirement may make it
more difficult to comply with another.
group diversity The hetero-
geneous mix of individuals within a
group.
role A set of expected behaviours
of a person in a given position in a
social unit.
task-oriented roles Roles per-
formed by group members to ensure
that the tasks of the group are
carried out.
maintenance roles Roles per-
formed by group members to main-
tain good relations within the group.
Is building a team
just from people who
are friends a good
idea?