People working together in teams have the potential to produce more or higher quality outputs than would have resulted if the individual efforts of team members were later combined. Process gain refers to the performance improvements that occur because people work together rather than independently. Process gain is the goal of working in teams. people working together doing more and doing it better than would be possible working alone. Unfortunately, many teams do not realize process gain and instead experience process loss.
Process loss occurs when a team of people working in a group or a team performs worse than individual members would have worked alone. Process loss can be reduced by making clear roles and task assignments and not tolerating free riders. Free riders do not contribute because they rely on the work of others. Paying attention to how a team does its work can help you to identify and remedy many of the factors contributing to process loss.
One useful technique for promoting process gains is to develop and promote team efficacy. Team efficacy is a team's shared belief that it can organize and execute the behaviors necessary to reach its goals. Members of a highly cohesive team are motivated to stay in the team, contribute as much as they can, and conform to team norms.
Because members of teams that lack cohesiveness are not strongly committed to the team and its goals and do not contribute to their full potential, team performance is compromised. Therefore, managers of new groups and teams should strive to promote cohesiveness. Managers should also try to build trust among team members. Trust is our confidence that other people will honor their commitments, especially when it's difficult to monitor or observe other people's behavior.
Teams build trust through repeated positive experiences, commitment to shared goals, and an understanding of team members'needs, motives, and ideas. Because the lack of trust in a team can undermine any team activity, building trust is an important managerial task. Members should also try to prevent social loafing. Indeed, social loafing is a primary cause of process loss.
Social loafing often occurs because team members feel that their individual contributions will not be evaluated or because they expect others in the team to do tasks that they choose not to do. An opposite behavior occurs when people actually work harder and are more motivated when others are present than when they're working alone. Social facilitation happens when people are motivated to look good to others and want to maintain a positive self-image. It happens when people are working alone, but the presence of an audience exists. People sometimes increase their effort when working in a group simply because others are present or because of the evaluation apprehension they might have.
Keeping the team size small, clarifying what the team expects each member to do, and making individual contributions to the team identifiable, can help reduce social loafing and encourage social facilitation. In addition, managers should establish clear roles. Roles define the behaviors and tasks each team member is expected to perform because of the position they hold. One of the primary outcomes of the process of group and team development is the establishment of clear roles in the team.
Understanding what your teammates expect you to do and what you expect your teammates to do reduces conflict and enables smooth team performance. Making team roles and expectations clear helps reduce process loss. It also is important to establish positive norms.
By helping team members know what's expected of each other, norms help to ensure high performance. An example of a positive team norm is arriving to meetings prepared and on time and participating fully. Team members comply with team norms for a few reasons. to avoid punishments and receive rewards, to imitate team members who they like and admire, and because they have internalized the norm and believe it's the appropriate way to behave. When possible, managers should create shared team goals and provide feedback.
High-performing teams have clear and challenging goals that all team members are committed to and create sub-goals and milestones against which they measure themselves. Team rewards also motivate effective teamwork behaviors. Tying team rewards to performance motivates team members to pursue team goals rather than individual goals.