# Managing Groups and Teams/Glossary

1.  **Action oriented.** This is the tendency to act and encourage
    others to perform. It is a intended effort to make something happen.
2.  **Accountability.** Accountability is entailed by responsibility.
    Anyone who is responsible is thereby accountable. To be responsible
    is to accept judgments, acts and omissions (refusals or failures to
    act) as one\'s own burden where appropriate, and in whole or in
    part. Accountability is a state of responsiveness. The readiness or
    preparedness to give an explanation or justification to relevant
    others (stakeholders) for one\'s judgments, intentions, acts and
    omissions when appropriately called upon to do so.
3.  **Altruism.** The satisfaction that comes from knowing that your
    responsibilities and work have a beneficial affect on others.
4.  **Ambivert.** One who is not strongly inclined towards the
    characteristics of an extrovert or introvert. Rather, an ambivert
    tends to transition between the two personality types depending on
    the setting at hand. In groups and teams an ambivert may assert
    himself as a leader or vocal group participant or simply take a more
    quiet or reserved role.
5.  **Autonomy.** One who values freedom in the work place and dislikes
    \"micromanagment\".
6.  **Belligerent.** When a person is constantly involved in conflict
    which they have provoked or voluntarily entered.
7.  **Belittle.** Use to make someone or something less important.
8.  **Collaboration.** The willing exchange of diverse and varying
    ideas, visions, and perspectives with the objective of creating a
    unique and dynamic idea to better the organization while working
    together.
9.  **Competency Trap.** Doing the thing we knew worked once, even
    though it isn\'t working now.
10. **Confirmation Trap.** A confirmation trap is the tendency to look
    for additional information that conforms to our understanding of a
    situation rather than seeking balanced and unbiased evidence that
    may be disconfirming.
11. **Conformity.** is the degree to which members of a group will
    change their behavior, views and attitudes to fit the views of the
    group. Sometimes conformity is distinguished by type: compliance,
    conforming only publicly, but keeping one\'s own views in private;
    identification, conforming while a group member, publicly and
    privately, but not after leaving the group; and internalization,
    conforming publicly and privately, during and after group
    membership. Sociologists believe that compliance is conformity that
    is usually a result of a direct order while internalization is
    conformity that comes from one\'s total and utter belief in one\'s
    act.
12. **Consensus with qualification.** When every member of a team
    discuss a problem or idea and after certain time can\'t have an
    agreedment and the final decision is make by a CEO involved.
13. **Constructive Feedback.** Communication which alerts an individual
    to an area in which his/her performance could improve. Constructive
    feedback is not criticism; it is descriptive and should always be
    directed to the action, not the person.
14. **Core Competency.** This is working knowledge. It is comprised of
    our experience to do the job and having the essential
    problem-solving skills needed to overcome obstacles.
15. **Counterattack.** When we feel that we need to be defensive and
    fight about something that we believe is important to us.
16. **Convergent thinking.** Thought process often adopted by groups in
    which the group brings together similar information focused on
    finding a single best answer to bring closure to and resulting in
    feelings of security about a question, discussion or project.
    Convergent thinking is characterized by the need or intent to find
    one solution or answer to a problem. In other words, the group
    \"converges\" on an answer.
17. **Cross Functional Team.** A cross-functional team consists of a
    group of people working toward a common goal and made of people with
    different functional expertise. It could include people from
    finance, marketing, operations, and human resources departments.
    Typically it also includes employees from all levels of an
    organization. Members may also come from outside an organization (in
    particular, from suppliers, key customers, or consultants).
18. **Cross-functional teams.** It is the team that has the mission to
    work on specific problem, issue or task with the goal of improve
    production.
19. **Culture.** Culture refers to the standards of social interaction,
    values, and beliefs from a given group of people. Cultural issues
    can affect team interactions through different understandings of
    communication, family, and can appear to be an excuse for
    preferential treatment.
20. **Divergent thinking.** Divergent thinking is characterized by the
    production of as many ideas as possible, avoiding repetition or
    convergence.
21. **Diversity.** Team Diversity is the uniqueness of each individual
    on a team. This should not only include the usual diverse selections
    such as religion, sex, age, and race, but also additional unique
    personality characteristics such as introverts and extroverts,
    liberals and conservatives, etc.
22. **Dud-Person:** A person on the team
    who does not have the skills they claimed to have to get on the
    team, or that their manager thought they had when they were assigned
    to the team.
23. **Emotionally Tone-Deaf.** Inability to 'read' body language signals
    in others. Inability to understand how other's emotions affect their
    actions/behaviors.
24. **Empire Builders.** Those to believe that the team that has more
    members is the one that will win.
25. **Empowered Team** It is the team that has the rights to plan and
    put in place any improvements to their process.
26. **Entrenched.** Something well establish. Not for changes.
27. Extrovert. Extroverts tend to be
    energetic, enthusiastic, action-oriented, talkative, assertive,
    gregarious and unreserved. Therefore, an extroverted person is
    likely to enjoy time spent with people and find less reward in time
    spent alone. While extraversion is associated with high levels of
    warmth, and also with enjoyment of thrills and strong sensations, it
    is common also for people to have divergent levels of extraversion
    at this micro or \"facet\" level of the trait - for instance,
    preferring moderate group-sizes, but relishing excitement. They view
    team meetings as productive and energizing. A venue for essential
    thought provoking discussions and a place to surcease any problems
    that may arise.
28. **Facilitator.** A person whose job it is to make sure that meetings
    run well and achieve the goal they are seeking.
29. **Feedback.** Communication to a person or a team of people
    regarding the effect their behavior is having on another person, the
    organization, the customer, or the team.
30. **Group.** A group is a collection of individuals that are linked by
    some associational characteristic(s). In organizations, groups can
    include departments (Accounting, Marketing, etc.) as well as
    temporary sets of individuals (task forces, cross-department groups,
    etc.)
31. **Group Contract.** A formal written contract established by a group
    to eliminate confusion and set a standard for the group\'s
    expectations, individual responsibilities, forms of communication,
    and methods of discipline
32. Group Polarization. A group
    taking on the ideas of a single group member, i.e., one liberal
    talking, soon the whole group is liberal.
33. **Group Potency.** The spiritual energy of a team. Often referred to
    the team's ability to believe in themselves.
34. **Group success.** Success in groups is hard to define. The most
    obvious and commonly used measure of success is performance in the
    task (e.g., productivity). In addition, however, others (notably
    Hackman, 1986) have suggested the need to incorporate additional
    dimensions. Hackman suggests two dimensions that must be accounted
    for, the ability of group members to work together again (viability)
    and the growth of individuals participating in the team (learning).
    The ability of group members to work together again attempts to show
    that, even if a group performs its task well, it is not successful
    if the relationships between members are destroyed. Similarly,
    unless the individual growth objectives of group members are met
    through their participation in a group, the group cannot be
    considered a complete success. Although this expansion of notions of
    group success is valuable, the research literature on groups does
    not have a uniform or universal understanding of what constitutes
    group success.
35. **Groupthink.** Process where members of a group start thinking
    alike and there are less individual ideas and creativity.
36. **Guided Experience.** Process by which agencies can tap into the
    knowledge of their employees by using a coach to expedite the
    process and create a database of shared insights and knowledge.
37. **Halo Effect.** The halo effect is our tendency to assume that if
    one is excellent in some dimensions that will be excel in others
    even though they are not related in nature.
38. **Heterogeneous Group.** The people who join this kind of group
    usually have differente knowdlege, education, values, etc. This
    group usually are very competitive.
39. **Homogeneous Group.** The people who join this group have similar
    experience, feelings, values, etc. This group usually are very
    supportive.
40. **Homosocial reproduction.** The tendency of workplaces to promote
    according to social identification and individuals moving in the
    \"right\" social circles. For example, in a male-oriented workplace,
    corporate executives and managers may provide greater weight to the
    activities and interests of other men, thereby favoring them
    (sometimes unconsciously), giving them greater opportunity and
    greater access to promotions.
41. **Infrastructure.** The underlying base or foundation for the group
    or team. This could take the form of the various roles within the
    team/group or the policies and procedures that exist for the team.
42. **Integration.** The combining efforts of various departments,
    personnel, and social classes to promote diversity, collaboration
    and education in a safe and productive environment with the purpose
    of achieving a higher understanding and knowledge of any particular
    problem or solution.
43. **Introvert.** One who\'s thoughts and interests are directed
    inwardly rather than outwardly toward others. In groups and teams
    introverts may be inclined to take a back seat role rather than
    assert their opinions or views to the other group members.
44. **Interface.** A point where certain groups or teams can interact.
    This could be in the form of a certain person that acts as a liaison
    for multiple groups, or it could be a medium, such as teleconference
    or some other technology.
45. In-group. (from Wikipedia) In sociology, an
    ingroup is a social group towards which an individual feels loyalty
    and respect, usually due to membership in the group. This loyalty
    often manifests itself as an ingroup bias. Commonly encountered
    ingroups include family members, people of the same race or
    religion, and so on. Research demonstrates that people often
    privilege ingroup members over outgroup members even when the
    ingroup has no actual social standing; for instance, a group of
    people with the same last digit in their social security number.
46. **Interdependence.** A dynamic of being mutually responsible to and
    dependent on others. Each unique action is key to overall system
    success.
47. **Interpersonal Reflex.** The social phenomenon in which one
    person\'s behavior (smiling, complaining, goofing off) can cause
    others to unconsciously behave similarly. Also called the \"Dyadic
    Effect,\" the \"Norm of Reciprocity,\" and the \"Lock-in Effect.\"
    (Team 8)
48. Leadership. Skill that somebody has to
    drive a group or a team. Be the leader mean that other members of
    the team come to you with questions or because they need somebody to
    help them when they have a task assigned. Usually is the person with
    knowdlege and experience, but some people has a innate leadership.
49. **Management.** The close and steering direction of a group, often
    has a more negative connotation than leadership.
50. **Marginalize**. to place in a position of marginal importance,
    influence, or power
51. **Mentoring.** Mentoring is a supportive learning relationship
    between a caring individual who shares his/her knowledge, experience
    and wisdom with another individual who his willing and ready to
    benefit from this exchange to enrich his/her professional journey.
52. **Meritocrats.** Individuals that feel emotion, but do not believe
    that emotion should play a part in making decisions. These people
    have problems functioning because they do not understand the
    motivations that drive other's decision making processes.
53. **Mindguarding.** Symptom of groupthink in which an individual or
    individuals in a group appoint themselves to the role of protecting
    the group from adverse information or disturbing ideas that might
    threaten group complacency.
54. **Motivate.** To provide someone with an incentive to do something;
    proper incentives should outweigh actions required to achieve
    incentives, although it is not required.
55. **Newcomer.** A newcomer is an individual who has recently joined
    the group, a newby. A newcomer joins the group for a variety of
    reasons, including the need of the group for greater work capacity
    (in volume, skill, or knowledge) and the need of the individual to
    accomplish his or her own goals.
56. **Openness.** Be able to discuss an issue, a problem or situation
    with a peer, relative or superior and be honest and open about what
    we think and our feelings.
57. **Organizational design.** It is the way a office, group or company
    is structured and presented to all the employees and public in
    general. Employees will know to what area they belong and to who
    they have to report.
58. **Organizational politics.** The desire of those within an
    organization to further their own interests rather than achieving a
    collective goal.
59. Out-group "wikilink") (from Wikipedia) In
    sociology, an outgroup is a social group towards which an individual
    feels contempt, opposition, or a desire to compete. Members of
    outgroups may be subject to outgroup homogeneity biases, and
    generally people tend to privilege ingroup members over outgroup
    members in many situations.
60. **Passive Conspiracy.**A way of avoiding confrontation by
    dysfunction. It is an evolved group norm and results in an agreement
    to accept the condition rather than deal with it openly.
61. **Peacekeeper.** Person who avoids conflict at all cost, to the
    point of detrimental behavior.
62. **Peacemaker.** Recognize conflict; attempt to resolve rather than
    avoid.
63. **Personal agendas.** A dysfunctional group dynamic that undermines
    the group objectives. Occur when the natural process of jockeying
    for a position of status within the group progresses into individual
    members of the group becoming overly preoccupied with personal
    concerns and position within the group.
64. **Positive Feedback.** Communication which involves telling someone
    about their good performance. Make this feedback timely, specific,
    and frequent.
65. **Primacy.** Primacy is the tendency to form judgements and images
    of people based solely on the first impression and interaction.
66. **Process Loss.**
67. **Projection.** Process where we see our own psychology reflected in
    others. You assume that others have the same motivations and
    responses as you do.
68. **Project Team.** Are individuals working together who share a
    common goal that is achieved through the application of various
    combined skills. Common goals are essential to success, but the team
    unity should not be taken for granted.
69. **Race.**Race is defined as a group of people, often of a common
    geographic origin, that share genetically transmitted physical
    characteristics. Racism is the belief that these inherited
    characteristics affect an individual's behavior or abilities.
70. Risky Shift A special case of group
    polarization, also rooted in groupthink, in which group discussions
    lead members to adjust their positions to a more cautious or more
    risky position from the one they held in advance of the discussion.
    For instance, in a group of individuals that are cautious, a group
    decision is likely to be even more cautious than the individual
    positions would suggest once risky shift takes place.
71. **Self-corrective.** This is a term used in relationships in which
    all parties involved commit to making changes that will improve the
    relationship.
72. **Self-directed teams** It is the team that is responsible for
    supervisory responsibilities.
73. **Self-motivated individual.** An person who requires little
    external motivation from the team leader.
74. **Self-Serving Bias.** When people are more likely to claim
    responsibility for successes than failures. Manifests itself as a
    tendency for people to evaluate ambiguous information in a way
    beneficial to their interests. Self-serving bias also results in a
    statistical bias resulting from people thinking that they perform
    better than average in areas important to their self esteem.3
75. **Social biases.** Social biases are "shortcuts" that we, as
    individuals, use to make sense of the world. As people, we make
    systematic mistakes in the way we see the world. Social Psychology
    and other disciplines have worked to identify those biases and to
    understand how they can affect our behavior in social situations.
    Social biases are always related to the way in which we see and/or
    understand other people and their actions. They are broad, involving
    everything from how we form and use first impressions of others, to
    how we construct histories and motivations for the actions of
    others.
76. **Social Loafing.**The tendency of individual group members to
    reduce their work effort as groups increase in size as displayed by
    the inclination to \"goof off\" when performance is needed in a
    group, miss meetings, show up late, or fail to start or complete
    individual tasks.
77. **Social processes.** A social process is present in any situation
    where an individual is relating him- or herself to others. Social
    cognition, for instance, is present when an individual makes
    decisions on the basis of thinking of social categories or social
    interactions. Another type of social process is social interaction,
    where an individual actively interacts with one or more other
    individuals. Conversations and meetings are both examples of social
    interactions.
78. **Soft Skills.** A set of skills that influence how we interact with
    each other. It includes such abilities as effective communication,
    creativity, analytical thinking, diplomacy, flexibility,
    change-readiness, and problem solving, leadership, team building,
    and listening skills.
79. **Stagnate.** When something stops improving. Also used when a plan
    is not developing anymore.
80. Stereotype (from Wikipedia). We build
    stereotypes to simplify the world by putting people into categories,
    and then fitting individuals into the stereotype of that category.
    For example, if doctors are all X, and you are a doctor, then you
    must also be X. Stereotypes are beliefs that all members of specific
    groups share similar traits and are likely to behave in the same
    way. In most cases, the characteristics described by a stereotype
    tend to be negative (e.g., all engineers are eggheads who can't
    relate to people), although occasionally stereotypes involve
    positive attributes (e.g., accountants are very careful and
    precise). The problem is that individuals never conform to an exact
    stereotype, given that individual differences outweigh similarities
    with others in a group.
81. **Strategy.** A plan of action resulting from strategy or intended
    to accomplish a specific goal. The art or skill of using stratagems
    in endeavors such as politics and business.
82. **Superordinate Goal.** Goal for the team, that takes precedence
    over each team member's individual goal.
83. **Supportive.** Used specially in teams. Be a good member of the
    team, help each other and always looking for ways to help other
    members of the team to succeed.
84. **Synergy.**
85. **Tangled.** When a situation, problem or issue is confusing or
    complicated.
86. **Team Contract.** A team document that clearly and specifically
    outlines the expectations for performance, productivity, quality and
    quantity of work, and efficiency for each team member.
87. Team (from Wikipedia)
88. **teamwork** When two or more people get together to achieve a
    specific goal. The succeed of the team is responsibility of all
    members.
89. **Veteran.** A veteran in a group is an individual who has longer
    tenure within the group, who has a history with other members in the
    group context.
90. Virtual Team (from Wikipedia). A
    Virtual Team is a group of individuals who work across time, space,
    and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of
    communication technology. Like other teams, they have complementary
    skills and are committed to a common purpose, have interdependent
    performance goals, and share an approach to work for which they hold
    themselves mutually accountable. Geographically dispersed teams
    allow organizations to hire and retain the best people regardless of
    location.

**References**

1.      Foland, Jeremy. May 4, 2006. MGP-295.1 Managing Teams and
    Technology. UC Davis, Graduate School of Management.

2.      Okhuysen, G.A., in \"A desperate attempt at referencing,\" *Journal
    of Unmemorable Quotes*, 2006.

