Managing virtual project teams

1.3 Group working functions

The skills the project manager needs to consider in the team members are not just the required technical ones, but also the ability to carry out functions supporting group working and the team itself. This (1974) described these team and group working support functions as task and maintenance functions. People usually take on a number of roles during the life of a team and these can be placed under these task and maintenance headings, both of which are necessary for the team to achieve what it sets out to do. Task functions help to get the job done and will have an influence upon product quality by doing such things as initiating action, seeking information and opinions, clarifying and summarising. Maintenance functions hold the team together and keep good relations going between its members by such activities as encouraging, harmonising and setting standards.

Levi (2007) argues that, to function effectively, groups perform two basic types of behaviours: task and social behaviours, with the latter focusing on the social and emotional needs of group members. He cites the work of Benne and Sheets (1948) in a table of types of group behaviours.

Table 2 Types of group behaviours

Behaviour Function
Task behaviours  
Initiator/contributor Proposes new ideas or new ways for the group to act
Information giver Provides data and facts for decision making
Information seeker Requests more information to help in making decisions
Opinion giver Provides opinions, values and feelings
Opinion seeker Requests the opinions of others in making decisions
Coordinator Shows relationships of ideas to organise the discussion
Energiser Stimulates the group to continue working
Evaluator/critic Questions the group’s ideas and procedures
Social behaviours  
Encourager Supports and rewards others
Harmoniser Mediates conflicts among members
Compromiser Shifts their position in order to reduce conflict
Expediter Facilitates communications from others
Standard setter Evaluates the quality of the group’s interactions
Follower Accepts ideas of others
Group process observer Observes and comments on the group’s processes