Project: Communication

Haukur Ingi Jonasson, Helgi Thor Ingason

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429806391
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Business

All teamwork is grounded on effective communication. Project Communication enables project managers, leaders of project teams and team members to get their ideas heard, facilitate effective teamwork, create a culture of openness and creative thinking--in short, a culture of effective communication within their team..

The book opens with an orientation on what group dynamics and interpersonal communication entail, particularly in terms of management teams. It then guides the reader on a personal journey whereby different theories and concepts in group dynamics, communication and project team management are gradually introduced. Readers are encouraged to use the book to explore and improve their personal communication style, with the aim of sustaining growth and development within project teams and their respective organisations.

Project Communication is an ideal companion to professionals, specialists, and project managers who are leading or working in teams within all types of organisations, businesses, NGO´s and governmental and transnational institutions. The book should be of interest to all those who want to use psychological knowledge to improve their teams. It is also a practical guide that can be used as a training course in interpersonal communication in general, with a special focus on project teams.

1 Teams and their dynamics

In the following chapters we will systemically discuss many different aspects relating to the interpersonal dimension at the heart of teams and organisations. We will explore how insights from social psychology and the discipline of group dynamics can be used to improve team performance. The gathering together of highly talented individuals to undertake a project and achieve goals may not always suffice as a recipe for success. Pertinent issues include: How does the team encourage individuals within it? How do individuals perform within the team? What keeps the team together? What is the effect of one individual on another within the team? From where does the team derive its sense of power? How can communication within the team best be facilitated? It is our aim in this book to describe and discuss these challenges.

In this first chapter, we look at teams’ social entities and seek to deepen your understanding of what constitutes a team and what characterises them. We will then embark on a journey that will show how to strengthen your communication skills in order to excel at personal communication with your co-workers and turn your team into a communication training lab alongside getting things done.

Teams and team dynamics

While the contents of this book may relate to all kinds of human activities, the main focus here is on those factors that impact upon the productivity and contentment of teams and their members. Thus, we need to have an understanding of what a team is and also what it is not. We consider a team to be a collection of people who have placed themselves in certain special relationships with each other in order to closely co-operate and achieve set goals. This collaborative structure may be ongoing, with no set time limit attached to it, and part of the everyday operations of an organisation. Alternatively, it may be associated with particular projects that are defined by having a set of specific goals outside of routine operations and a defined lifespan. Simply having three individuals together in a work environment does not mean that they have formed a team. These three people may not know each other and may work separately in their rooms on unrelated projects. An arrangement of individuals working in the same area, but there is no relationship between any of them and they do not see themselves collectively as a unit, is not a team. These three people would form a “team” only if the situation changed so that, for instance, everyone began to work on the same project, recognised a common goal, and were in close communication on a regular basis.

Organisations and teams are categories of groups where there is a greater degree of structure and co-ordination in relationships and interactions. With sporting reference, for example, a group of supporters may provide much-needed encouragement for a player to perform to the best of their abilities, but a medical team will be needed in order to put them right for their next match if they get injured. A team is here defined as a group of people with different skills and different tasks that work together on a common endeavour, and who mutually interact and support each other. An organisation is a more permanent entity where a number of individuals co-operate to achieve ongoing success, such as in business, and whose lifespan is greater than that associated with individual projects.

To sum it up, a team is therefore a group that works consciously and purposefully together towards meeting common goals and objectives. Project teams work on a certain task or tasks within a defined structure that includes variables such as cost, time, and any other special attributes unique to that project. The word “task” is used here in relation to projects in the sense of being “a unique series of interconnected components that have one goal and one purpose. A task needs to be completed within a certain time, according to budget and in accordance with the specified description of the ­project” (Wysocki et al., 2000).

Classical studies of social psychology, which we reference heavily here, have a direct bearing for understanding team dynamics and their performance. In physics, the word dynamics refers to the movement of objects due to the forces that act upon them. While interactions between inanimate moving objects have clear physical laws that can be used to determine outcomes, there is less certainty in the case of interpersonal interactions although management experience in this area has shown a number of clear trends that have predictive value. Team dynamics, therefore, relates to the interactions between individuals and the associated events that follow. We will use the term team dynamics to mean the behavioural relationships between members of a group that are assigned connected tasks. This will mean both the behaviour of individual team members when they are influenced by the team and the collective behaviour of a team within its environment. In this book, we discuss team dynamics and team communication in order to heighten general awareness of these terms and their implications and to show the impact that positive interpersonal relations and communication can have.

The quality of the interpersonal relations between team members working together towards a common goal greatly affects team performance. Managers, leaders, and team members will, therefore, benefit from having a sound knowledge of interpersonal team dynamics and also be able to harness the communication skills of both individual team members and the team as a whole.

Types of groups and teams

Modern life requires that we spend a large part of our time interacting with other people within groups, teams, and organisations. There are differences in the level and nature of these interactions depending on how we define our relationships. A group is a collection of people who are aware they belong together in some form and have social ties (Figure 1.1). Most people probably belong to more groups than they realise at first glance. These groups can range from families to group associations on the Internet, political parties, associations, sports clubs, professional groups, working groups, or large collective groups defined by ethnicity, or opinions, as in the case of protesters.

Figure 1.1 Group is a collection of people with social ties.

Groups have been classified, more formally, in various ways (Forsyth, 2019: pp. 5–7). Usually, the function of a group, or specific common features that are intrinsic in groups, is to unite individuals together. At the end of the 19th century, the sociologist Charles Horton Cooley separated groups into two main types: primary groups and secondary groups (Cooley, 1909). By Cooley’s definition, family, friends, close associates, and even work teams that work intimately together can be classified as primary groups. They are usually small with direct person-to-person communication and interaction, their life cycle is long, and there is a strong cohesion between individuals belonging to the group. Sometimes people become members of a group without having decided to do so. Individuals do not choose their families, for example, but are rather born or adopted into them. Primary groups often protect individual group members, taking care of the sick and sheltering them. Based on his observations, Cooley concluded that the main significance and purpose of primary groups was to bridge the gap between individuals and society.

Secondary groups, by contrast, are usually larger and more formal than primary groups; interaction is less intimate and more focused on goals and objectives. They are usually formed to perform functions and personnel would usually be interchangeable. Members can share interests or activities and work carried out will typically be associated with monetary reward, although volunteering is also common. This description covers, for instance, typical for-profit business with its owners and employees being rewarded for their contributions, as well as unpaid members of a volunteer organisation. Operational or project teams are, in most cases, more secondary in nature than primary. It can be useful for managers to understand the different kinds of belonging that people seek out by joining groups. Linking oneself to the collective life and attempting to gain social status can be an important factor relating to your motivation and sense of self.

Teams can also be understood according to how they are formed (based on Cartwright & Zander, 1960). Organised teams would then be created with a specific purpose in mind. They can be formed internally or externally and include project teams, sports teams, committees, councils, study groups, support groups, and commercial organisations. Organised groups are usually well defined and formalised, and their work has clearly-set goals.

Circumstantial groups (or ad hoc groups) are formed when people come together and relationships emerge on this basis. The group is formed without an “express resolve” among members to form a group. Examples of such groups are those formed for informal audience events, or people who find themselves stuck at an airport together, due to a delay. While these groups are not systematically assembled, they often form unwritten rules of interaction between the individuals within them.

Informal groups commonly crop up within organisations and they may have particular interests or beliefs that may differ from those leading an organisation. For example, they can be concerned about the direction in which an organisation is being steered and seek to gain gradual influence. These groups can have blurred outer boundaries, making it hard to discern who belongs to the group and who lies outside of it.

Teams can also be classified as mixed teams, created teams, situational teams, and self-generated teams (based on Arrow et al., 2000) and their classification based on their size, duration, permeability, interaction, and importance; team classification can also be based on the intuitive understanding of how people perceive their participation (Lickel et al., 2000). The following list of types of groups illustrates this, and is here modified as to apply to teams (based on Forsyth, 2019):

• Concocted teams are planned by someone outside the team.

• Founded teams are planned by someone within the team.

• Emergent teams get created when people come together repeatedly and relations form and they unconsciously begin to organise themselves.

• Circumstantial teams get created when external circumstances provoke interaction and mutual action.

• Self-organising teams get formed when people come together and willingly organise themselves.

• Intimate teams are small teams where there are strong relationships between individuals.

• Task teams are teams with strong emphasis on well-defined mutual goals.

• Weak associations are a collection of individuals who informally form, for a short time, a team randomly.

• Social categories are collections of individuals that share common features.

Reflection points

• What characterises the teams that you belong to?

• Try to find examples of teams to which you have belonged under each of the categories provided in the list above.

The size of a team can range from two people to a very large number of people but, in most cases, teams are relatively small (see Figure 1.2). Team size is important for many reasons and its size can have different effects on performance. In smaller teams, all the members can easily interact with one another but, as the team grows in size, it may become more difficult for each individual to interact with other team members. Thus, the complexity of the team’s stru...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Preface to the series
• Foreword
• 1 Teams and their dynamics
• 2 Understanding teams and interpersonal communication
• 3 Team selection and team communication
• 4 Team cohesion and expressions of emotions
• 5 Communication competence
• 6 Authority and conformity in teams
• 7 Decision-making in teams
• 8 Assertive leadership in teams
• 9 Successful teams in context
• Index