Convenience

Chapter 13:
Managing Work Groups and Teams
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but has become a mechanism for accomplishing the purpose of the group. Reebok’s
sportswear business is now growing consistently and has successfully avoided the pro-
blems that plagued it at first.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GROUPS AND TEAMS
As groups and teams mature and pass through the four basic stages of development, they
begin to take on four important characteristics—a role structure, norms, cohesiveness,
and informal leadership.
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Role Structures
Each individual in a team has a part, or
role
, to play in helping the group reach its goals.
Some people are leaders, some do the work, some interface with other teams, and so on.
Indeed, a person may take on a
task specialist role
(concentrating on getting the group’s
task accomplished) or a
socioemotional role
(providing social and emotional support to
others on the team). A few people, usually the leaders, perform both roles; a few others
may do neither. The group’s
role structure
is the set of defined roles and interrelation-
ships among those roles that the group or team members define and accept. Each of us
belongs to many groups and therefore plays multiple roles—in work groups, classes, fam-
ilies, and social organizations.
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Role structures emerge as a result of role episodes, as shown in Figure 13.3. The process
begins with the expected role—what other members of the team expect the individual to
do. The expected role gets translated into the sent role—the messages and cues that team
members use to communicate the expected role to the individual. The perceived role is
what the individual perceives the sent role to mean. Finally, the enacted role is what the
individual actually does in the role. The enacted role, in turn, influences future expecta-
tions of the team. Of course, role episodes seldom unfold this easily. When major disrup-
tions occur, individuals may experience role ambiguity, conflict, or overload.
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