Workforce Arrangements Quarter

Workgroup Design Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is a lecture introducing the learners to team design primarily through key topics related to workgroup design. The Quarter is the third of four lectures of Team Quadrivium, which is the sixth of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi (hereinafter, the Course). The Course is designed to introduce the learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

Business Intelligence Quarter is the predecessor lecture. In the enterprise design series, the previous lecture is Information Architecture Quarter.

Concepts

1. Workgroup design. Purpose, planning, or intention that exists or is thought to exist behind a workgroup.
   • Organizational behavior. A field of study that investigates the impact individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization's effectiveness.
   • Workforce diversity. (1) The ways in which people in an enterprise are different from and similar to one another; (2) The concept that enterprises are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics.
2. Workgroup. A group that interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility.

   Productivity criteria		Interacting group	Brainstorming group	Nominal group	Electronic group
   Ideas	Number and quality of ideas	Low	Moderate	High	High
   Groupthink	Social pressure	High	Low	Moderate	Low
   Expenses	Money costs to form the group	Low	Low	Low	Moderate
   Speed	Speed of group operations	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
   Consistency	Task orientation	Low	High	High	High
   Conflict	Potential of interpersonal conflict	High	Low	Moderate	Low
   Commitment	Commitment to solution	High	Not applicable	Moderate	Moderate
   Cohesiveness	Development of group cohesiveness	High	High	Moderate	Low

3. Groupthink. (1) A phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action; (2) A situation in which a group exerts extensive pressure on an individual to align her or his opinion with others; (3) An aggregate of opinions of various group members.
   • Conformity. The adjustment of one's behavior to align with the norms of the group.
   • Hawthorne Studies. A series of studies during the 1920s and 1930s that provided new insights into individual and group behavior.
4. Groupshift. A change between a group's decision and individual decision that a member within the group would make; the shift can be toward either conservatism or greater risk but it generally is toward a more extreme version of the group's original position.
   • Stereotype threat. The degree to which we internally agree with the generally negative stereotyped perceptions of our groups.
5. Group functioning. The quantity and quality of a group's work output.
   • Social loafing. The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually.
   • Group decision-making. Decision making made by a group as opposed to individual decision-making.

     Decision making		Individual decision-making	Group decision-making
     Ideas	Number and quality of ideas	Varies; tends to be moderate	High
     Groupthink	Social pressure	Not applicable	Varies; tends to be high
     Expenses	Money costs to form the group	Not applicable	Low
     Speed	Speed of group operations	Varies; tends to be high	Moderate to low
     Consistency	Task orientation	Varies; tends to be high	Varies; tends to be moderate
     Conflict	Potential of interpersonal conflict	Not applicable	Varies; tends to be high
     Commitment	Commitment to solution	Varies; tends to be moderate	Varies; tends to be high

6. Employee empowerment. Giving employees more authority (power) to make decisions.
   • Decentralization. The degree to which lower-level employees provide input or actually make decisions.
   • Centralization. The degree to which decision making is concentrated at a single point, usually at upper levels, in an organization.
7. Workteam. (1) A group whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills; (2) A group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs.

   Comparison criteria	Workgroup	Workteam
   Goal	Information sharing	Collective performance
   Synergy	Neutral (sometimes, negative)	Positive
   Accountability	Individual	Both individual and mutual
   Skills	Random and varied	Complementary

   • Self-managed workteam. (1) A workteam that operates without a manager and is responsible for a complete work process or segment; (2) A workteam usually of 10 to 15 people who take on responsibilities of their former supervisors.
   • Virtual team. A workteam that uses computer technology to link physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.
   • Problem-solving team. A workteam usually of 5 to 12 employees from the same department of functional area who meet often for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving work activities or solve specific problems such as quality, efficiency, and the work environment.
   • Cross-functional team. A workteam composed of employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.
   • Multiteam system. A collection of two or more interdependent teams that share a superordinate goal; a team of teams.
8. Team characteristic.
   • Reflexivity. A team characteristic of reflecting on and adjusting the master plan when necessary.
   • Mental model. Team members' knowledge and beliefs about how the work gets done by the team.
   • Team efficacy. A team's collective belief that they can succeed at their tasks.
   • Team identity. A team member's affinity for and sense of belongingness to his or her team.
9. Job design. The way tasks are combined to form complete jobs or, in other words, the way the elements in a job are organized.
   • Proactive perspective of work design. An approach to job design in which employees take the initiative to change how their work is performed.
   • Relational job design. Constructing jobs so employees see the positive difference they can make in the lives of others directly through their network.
   • Relational perspective of work design. An approach to job design that focuses on how people's tasks and jobs are increasingly based on social relationships.
10. Job involvement. The degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and considers performance important to self-worth.
    • Job involvement. The degree to which an employee identifies with her or his job, actively participates in it, and considers her or his job performance to be important self-worth.
    • Personality-job fit theory. A theory that identifies six personality types and proposes that the fit between personality type and occupational environment determines satisfaction and turnover.
    • Person-organization fit. A theory that people are attracted to and selected by organizations that match their values, and leave when there is not compatibility.
11. 

    Work specialization
    Work specialization. (1) The degree to which tasks in an organization are subdivided into separate jobs; (2) The process of dividing work activities into separate job tasks.
    • Formalization. The degree to which jobs within an organization are standardized and/or the extent to which employee behavior is guided by rules and procedures.
    • Job depth. The degree of control employees have over their work.
    • Job score. The number of different tasks required in a job and the frequency with which those tasks are repeated.

Roles

1. Human factors ergonomist. A professional who designs objects, facilities, and environments to optimize human well-being and overall system performance, applying theory, principles, and data regarding the relationship between humans and respective technology. He or she investigates and analyzes characteristics of human behavior and performance as it relates to the use of technology.
2. Contingent worker. A temporary, freelance, or contract worker whose employment is contingent on demand for her or his services.

Methods

1. Group decision-making technique. An established procedure for making decisions by a group.
   • Nominal group technique. A group decision-making technique in which individual members meet face to face to pool their judgments in a systematic but independent fashion.
   • Thumb vote. A quick pulse to get a sense of where the team are in terms of commitment, or agreement on a decision, etc. thumb up generally means agree, yes, or good, and thumb down disagree, no or bad; the analog version of this allows the thumb to be anywhere on the half circle to indicate differing degrees of agreeability.
2. Survey feedback. The use of questionnaires to identify discrepancies among member perceptions; discussion follows, and remedies are suggested.
3. Delphi method. A method of group decision-making and forecasting that involves successively collating the judgments of experts.

Instruments

1. Team effectiveness model. A model that suggests that team effectiveness depends on three groups of factors, which are context, composition, and functioning.
   • Team context. The circumstances that form the setting for a team including its adequate resources, leadership and structure, climate of trust, performance evaluation and reward systems.
   • Team composition. The characteristics of each of team memberss and the way of their assembly including abilities of members, personalities, allocating roles, diversity, size of teams, member flexibility, and member preferences.
   • Team functioning. Workteam's working or operating in a particular way including its common purpose, specific goals, team efficacy, conflict levels, and social loafing.
2. Material symbol. What conveys to employees who is important, the degree of egalitarianism top management desires, and the kinds of behavior that are appropriate.
3. Group decision tool. A tangible and/or software implement used to make decisions by a group.
   • Unanimity (or consensus). A group decision tool that makes a decision when every participant of the group agrees on a single action. An example of reaching unanimity is the Delphi technique wherein a selective group of experts answer questionnaires and give feedback on the responses of each round of gathering requirements.
   • Majority. A group decision tool that makes a decision when it is chosen by more than a half of the group participants. To avoid a tie, it is important to have an uneven number of participants during the group decision making.
   • Plurality. A group decision tool that makes a decision when it is chosen by the largest block of the group. This is used when there are more than two options being nominated upon.
   • Dictatorship. A group decision tool that makes a decision when it is made only by one individual -- usually the leader -- for the entire group.
4. Open workplace. Workplace with few physical barriers and enclosures.

Practices

Leadership Quarter is the successor lecture. In the enterprise design series, the next lecture is Organizational Culture Quarter.