What is a group?
Two or more individuals who interact and depend on each other to achieve shared objectives.
What is the difference between a formal and informal group?
Formal group: Created by the organization, with assigned tasks (like a project team).
Informal group: Naturally forms from social contact, no formal structure (like colleagues grabbing lunch together).
👉 Example: A marketing department = formal; coffee break buddies = informal.
What is the difference between a group and a team?
Every team is a group, but not every group is a team. Teams go further:
Higher interdependence
Stronger focus on collective performance
Stronger commitment to a common goal
Mutual accountability
👉 Analogy: A group of people at the gym (group) vs. a basketball squad playing a match together (team).
What defines an effective team?
Productive output: Quality, quantity, timeliness in the client’s eyes.
Team viability: The team can keep performing together.
Member outcomes: Satisfaction and learning.
👉 Example: A project group that delivers on time, enjoys working together, and learns new skills.
What factors make teams effective?
Strong collaboration, shared accountability, synergy, and motivation — but beware of conflicts and annoyances.
👉 Example: TEAM can mean “Together Everyone Achieves More” OR “Together Everyone Annoys Me” — success depends on managing cooperation.
What is the basic Input–Process–Outcome (IPO) framework?
Input: Team composition (who is in the team).
Process: Teamwork processes (how they work together).
Outcome: Team effectiveness (results + satisfaction).
👉 Analogy: Like baking — ingredients (input), mixing & baking (process), cake quality (outcome).
What are the main factors in “making the team”?
Team size, member characteristics, and diversity.
👉 Analogy: Like planning a dinner — you decide how many people to invite (size), who to invite (characteristics), and whether to mix different backgrounds for lively conversation (diversity).
What are the process losses of increasing team size?
More fragmented airtime, harder coordination, relationship management challenges, and free-riding.
👉 Analogy: Like too many chefs in a kitchen — harder to coordinate, some just stand around.
What are the process gains of increasing team size?
More hands on deck, more information, and more perspectives.
👉 Example: A 6-person study group can split chapters and bring multiple viewpoints, covering more ground.
What is the general conclusion about optimal team size?
Depends on the task, but research shows 4–6 members is most effective. Productivity drops clearly beyond 10.
What is the “too much talent” effect?
In highly interdependent tasks (football, basketball), too many stars lower performance due to coordination issues. In low interdependence tasks (baseball), more talent improves performance.
👉 Analogy: A band with too many lead singers clashes, but in a relay race each star can shine.
What is the first perspective on team composition?
Hire the best individual for each position. Teams do better when members are smarter, conscientious, and knowledgeable.
👉 Example: Like assembling the Avengers — each hero has unique expertise.
Can having only “the best” members backfire?
Yes, if everyone is highly talented but interdependence is high, coordination suffers.
What is the second perspective on team composition?
Talent isn’t everything — teamwork skills matter. Agreeable, socially sensitive, and teamwork-knowledgeable members boost performance.
👉 Example: The Minions succeed not because they’re geniuses, but because they collaborate well.
What is the third perspective on team composition?
The talent of core role holders is more critical than peripheral roles. Some positions are central to workflow and face more exposure to key tasks and problems. Their performance has a disproportionate impact on the entire team.
👉 Example: In baseball, the pitcher has far more influence than the left fielder because almost every play starts with the pitcher. Similarly, in a consulting project, the person managing client communication is more critical than the intern handling formatting.
What is the fourth perspective on team composition?
It’s about the combination of members’ characteristics, not just individual qualities. The configuration — how skills, personalities, and roles interact — often explains more about performance than individual talent alone.
👉 Example: A team with 3 brilliant but stubborn people may perform worse than a mixed team with moderate talent but complementary skills (one planner, one motivator, one implementer).
👉 Analogy: Like a recipe — flour, sugar, and eggs alone don’t make a cake. It’s how they’re combined in the right proportions that determines success.
What are the two main perspectives on the effects of team diversity?
Optimistic perspective: Diversity provides more perspectives, networks, and knowledge, leading to better problem-solving, creativity, and innovation.
Pessimistic perspective: Diversity can trigger social categorization and intergroup bias, which reduces team cohesion and effectiveness.
👉 Analogy: Like cooking — more ingredients (diversity) can make a dish tastier (optimistic) or clash in flavor if not combined well (pessimistic).
Why does diversity sometimes have “no overall effect” on team performance in research findings?
Because diversity’s impact depends on its type (demographic vs. job-related). When studies mix different kinds of diversity, positive and negative effects cancel out.
👉 Example: Age and cultural diversity might cause tension, while diversity in skills or experience can boost performance — averaging these together makes the “effect” look neutral.
What is the difference between demographic diversity and job-related diversity?
Demographic diversity: Differences in age, gender, ethnicity, appearance → often linked to bias and categorization.
Job-related diversity: Differences in background, experience, expertise → often enhances performance.
According to research, how do supervisors’ perceptions of diversity differ from objective performance measures?
Objective measures show little to no effect of diversity on performance, but supervisors often show bias — rating job-related diversity more positively and demographic diversity more negatively.
👉 Example: A manager may overvalue having a team of mixed functional backgrounds but undervalue gender or cultural diversity due to stereotypes.
What is the integrative perspective on diversity?
Any kind of diversity (demographic or job-related) can lead to both functional (good) and dysfunctional (bad) outcomes, depending on the situation.
👉 Analogy: Like a double-edged sword — diversity can sharpen creativity or cut cohesion, depending on how it’s handled.
When do diverse teams perform better than homogeneous ones?
When tasks are complex and members are motivated to learn and engage with new information (instead of rushing to consensus).
👉 Example: A medical research team tackling a rare disease benefits from having doctors, statisticians, and engineers collaborating deeply
When do diverse teams perform worse than homogeneous ones?
When differences create “faultlines,” making it easy to split into subgroups (e.g., by gender, age, or nationality).
👉 Analogy: Like a cracked glass — once the faultline appears, it’s easier for the group to break apart.
How do attitudes and relations affect diverse team success?
Teams perform better when members share a positive diversity mindset and are open to experience.
👉 Analogy: Think of diversity as a playlist — it only sounds good if people are open to hearing different genres.
