Teams are groups of two or more people who interact with and influence each other, are mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization. Different types of teams can be distinguished by team permanence (1), skill diversity (2) and authority dispersion (3). Team permanence refers to how long that type of team usually exists. Authority dispersion refers to the degree that decision-making responsibility is distributed throughout the team or is vested in one or a few members of the team. There are three types of teams: departmental teams (1), self-directed teams (2) and task force teams (3). Informal groups exist because humans are social animals, they want to belong to a group, they accomplish personal objectives and we are comforted by the presence of others. People are more motivated in groups because they have a drive to bond, because of the accountability to fellow team members and because co-workers are used for comparisons. Teams make use of process losses, which are resources expended toward team development and maintenance rather than the task. If a task can be performed by one person, process losses can make a team less effective than an individual working alone. Process losses are amplified when more people are added or replace others on the team. Brook’s law states that adding more people to a late software project only makes it later. Social loafing is a problem that occurs when people exert less effort when working in teams than when working alone. Social loafing is more likely when individual performance is difficult to distinguish (1), the work is not very significant (2), employees lack motivation (3) and because of individual characteristics (4). There are several strategies to reduce social loafing: form smaller teams (1), specialize tasks (2), measure individual performance (3), increase job enrichment (4) and select...

Power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others. Power is based on the target’s perception that the power holder controls. Power is also based on dependence, the target needs to believe that someone has access to a resource that can help or hinder him to achieve a goal. Countervailing power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to keep a more powerful person or group in the exchange relationship. A minimum level of trust is crucial in order to have power. There are several sources of power:Legitimate power (power from position)This is an agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can request certain behaviours of others. This is usually the most important source of power in organizational settings. Legitimate power has restrictions; it gives the power holder only the right to ask others to perform a limited domain of behaviours. This is called the zone of indifference. Information control is a form of legitimate power.Reward power (power from position)This is the power derived from a person’s ability to control the allocation of rewards valued by others and to remove negative sanctions. Coercive power (power from position)This is the ability to apply punishment. Expert power (power from characteristics)This is an individual’s or work unit’s capacity to influence others by possessing knowledge or skills valued by others. Expertise can help companies cope with uncertainties in three ways: prevention (1), forecasting (2) and absorption (3). Referent power (power from characteristics)This is the capacity to influence others on the basis of identification with and respect for the power holder. Referent power is associated with charisma. Humans have a norm of reciprocity, a felt obligation and social expectation to help someone who has previously helped you. This norm is a form of legitimate power because it is an informal rule of conduct we are expected to follow....

Leadership refers to influencing, motivating and enabling others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members. Leadership refers to a role and not a position. Shared leadership is the view that leadership is a role, not a position assigned to one person and people within the team and organization lead each other. In order for shared leadership to be effective, formal leaders need to be willing to give up some power. Transformational leadership refers to a leadership perspective that explains how leaders change teams or organizations by creating, communicating and modelling a vision for the organization and inspiring employees to strive for that vision. There are four elements of transformational leadership:Develop and communicate a strategic visionA vision is a positive image or model of the future that energizes and unifies employees. An effective strategic vision refers to an idealized future with a higher purpose, is challenging and makes use of symbols. The effectiveness of this vision depends on how leaders convey it to followers.Model the visionThis is personifying the vision, act like the vision. This creates a shared mental image. This requires consistency between words and actions.Encourage experimentationThis includes not punishing people for making mistakes as transformational leadership is associated with change and change is accompanied by mistakes.Build commitment toward the visionThis can be done by being consistent with actions and reinforce the vision.Charisma is a personal trait or relational quality that provides referent power over followers. It can be useful for transformational leadership but is not required for it. Charismatic leadership tends to produce dependent followers. A crisis leads to a greater attribution of charisma. Managerial leadership is a perspective that states that effective leaders help employees improve their performance and well-being...

Values are stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations. Shared values are values that people within the organization or work unit have in common. Shared assumptions are nonconscious, taken-for-granted perceptions or ideal prototypes of behaviour that are considered the correct way to think and act toward problems and opportunities. Espoused values are the stated values and enacted values are values we actually act upon. The organization’s culture consists of shared values and shared assumptions.There are seven main corporate cultures, although many of the popular organizational culture models and measures oversimplify the variety of organizational cultures because as long as employees have diverse values, an organization’s culture will have noticeable variability. The seven main corporate cultures are innovation (1), stability (2), respect for people (3), outcome orientation (4), attention to detail (5), team orientation (6) and aggressiveness (7). Subcultures can enhance the dominant culture by espousing parallel assumptions and values. Countercultures embrace values or assumptions that directly oppose the dominant culture. Countercultures potentially create conflict and dissension among employees, but can also maintain the organization’s standards of performance and ethical behaviour and they act as spawning grounds for emerging values that keep the firm aligned with the evolving needs and expectations of the environment. Artefacts are the observable signs and symbols of an organization’s culture. There are four broad categories of artefacts:Organizational stories and legendsThis includes stories and legends that serve as powerful social prescriptions of the way things should or should not be done. The stories also produce emotions in listeners and these emotions tend to improve listeners’ memory of moral of the story.Organizational languageThis includes how...