Organizational Behavior (Stephen Robbins)

participation.”^71 There is also instrumental cohesiveness:the “sense of togetherness that

develops when group members are mutually dependent on one another because they

believe they could not achieve the group’s goal by acting separately.” Teams need to

achieve a balance of these two types of cohesiveness to function well. OB in Action—

Increasing Group Cohesivenessindicates how to increase both socio-emotional and instru-

mental cohesiveness.

What, if anything, can management do to increase team effi-

cacy? Two possible options are helping the team to achieve

small successes and skill training. Small successes build team

confidence. As a team develops an increasingly stronger per-

formance record, it also increases the collective belief that future

efforts will lead to success. In addition, managers should con-

sider providing training to improve members’ technical and

interpersonal skills. The greater the abilities of team members,

the greater the likelihood that the team will develop confi-

dence and the capability to deliver on that confidence.

Managed Level of Conflict

Conflict on a team is not necessarily bad. Though relationship

conflicts—those based on interpersonal incompatibilities, ten-

sion, and animosity toward others—are almost always dys-

functional, teams that are completely void of conflict are likely

to be less effective, with the members becoming withdrawn and

only superficially harmonious. Often, if there were no conflict,

the alternative was not agreement, but apathy and disengage-

ment. Teams that avoid conflict also tend to have lower per-

formance levels, forget to consider key issues, or remain unaware

of important aspects of their situation.^72 So effective teams are

characterized by an appropriate level of conflict.^73

Kathleen Eisenhardt of the Stanford Graduate School of

Business and her colleagues studied top management teams

in technology-based companies to understand how they man-

age conflict.^74 Their research identified six tactics that helped the

teams successfully manage the interpersonal conflict that can

accompany group interactions. These are presented in OB in

Action—Reducing Team Conflict.By handling the interpersonal

170 Part 2Striving for Performance

Cohesiveness

Performance Norms

Low

High productivityHigh productivityModerate

Low

productivity

Moderate to

low productivity

High Low

EXHIBIT 5-7 Relationship Among Team Cohesiveness, Performance Norms,

and Productivity

OB IN ACTION

Increasing Group Cohesiveness

Increasing socio-emotional cohesiveness

➔Keep the group relatively small.

➔Strive for a favourable public imageto increase

the status and prestige of belonging.

➔Encourage interactionand cooperation.

➔Emphasize members’ common characteristics

and interests.

➔Point out environmental threats(e.g., competi-

tors’ achievements) to rally the group.

Increasing instrumental cohesiveness

➔Regularly update and clarify the group’s goal(s).

➔Give every group member a vital “piece of the

action.”

➔Channel each group member’s special talents

toward the common goal(s).

➔Recognizeand equitably reinforce every mem-

ber’s contributions.

➔Frequently remind group members they need one

anotherto get the job done.

Source: R. Kreitner and A. Kinicki, Organizational Behavior,

6th ed. (New York: Irwin, 2004), p. 460. Reprinted by per-

mission of McGraw Hill Education.