Benefits Of Managing An Effective Team

Whether groups are formed for social or task oriented purposes, the ability to produce and maintain a sense of affiliation, peer support and collaboration is important for overall group functioning. The cohesion of a social group is produced through the establishment of a set of group norms, which are later defined as a guide for conduct accepted within a group of individuals. However, in order for a group to perform and produce results, the team leader should guide his/her team through the proper stages of group development, which includes the following steps: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Although teams should follow all these stages of group development, the forming and the norming stages are the most important,

Norming – during this stage the trust and respect is developing amongst the members of the group, since it becomes clear that each member has a role and they are aware of what

The selection of a team leader is of key decision that can have a great impact on the overall success of a team. A good team leader should be able to build and maintain team morale, instilling confidence and trusting in other team members allowing them to work together to achieve the teams goals (Llopis, 2014). The ability to understand the stages of a team and provide the guidance to all members is essential. The stages of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Abudi, 2010) are a helpful framework for recognizing patterns during team conversations and the understanding that team development may not always be linear. The aptitude to walk the team through these stages and ensuring they understand the development of the team and why things are happening in certain ways is an important part of the self evaluation process. Having ways to identify when certain behavioral patterns are occurring and a way to then cause changes to the team behavior can help the team maximize its productivity.

Part of being a manager for a company is managing teams. These teams can be created for many different reasons and can have various goals put upon them. Companies want managers that are capable of constructing teams that can effectively meet goals and set standards. The four types of work teams most commonly found in organizations are: problem-solving, self-managed, cross-functional, and virtual. In completing the simulation for this course, I will use cross-functional work teams as a foundation for my investigation of effective team management.

As a team leader it is the goal to have the group perform well and as quickly as possible and work through their differences. Many studies suggest that interprofessional teams do not perform effectively due to friction, hostility, and barriers to knowledge sharing (Mitchell, Parker, & Giles, 2011). Forming a team usually is recognized by the stages known as forming, storming, norming, and performing (Mind Tools, 2012). Formatting an agenda that includes expectations, rules, and

Bruce Tuckman suggests that there are four stages of team development; Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. At the forming stage, the team needs to mature and allow relationships to establish. Everyone’s position is currently unclear so the leader must be ready to answer questions and give a lot of guidance. The storming stage is where goals need to be set. At this stage each team member is trying to establish themselves within the group however this can cause friction and power struggles. Emotional issues need to be ignored in order to achieve goals. At the norming stage, the team members are clear on what their role within the group contains. They’ve gained respect for their leader and other members in the group and make decisions together.

In this step, the team member can talk openly about their opinions and can adjust their behavior to avoid conflict. The team members agree on the team’s values, rules, and professional behavior and method of work (ARMSTRONG 2006). For example better working relationship, supporting and trusting each other that’s when performing stage come in. (4) Performing stage: performing this is the final step where team fully understand, cooperate and supports one another, thereby working as a single unit rather than individual teams that have reached this step displaying high levels of motivation, knowledge, competence and autonomy (ARMSTRONG 2006) for example the leader should recognize the contribution of the team and give credit when providing reports to the organization.

The article supports the use of self-managed work teams because of increased job satisfaction, improved communication, shorter decision time, and improves employee self-esteem. This author was easy to read and gave good examples of companies that developed work teams.

Many organizations today believe that the use of work teams will allow them to produce better products and provide better services, faster, and at lower costs. Using a work team approach can reinvigorate productivity and service provider motivation, and better position an organization to deal with a rapidly changing environment. However establishing effective work teams is not something that comes easy. Though, the benefits of effective work teams within an organization are very substantial, it takes alot of hard work and dedication on the part of management and team members to develop, implement and maintain effective work teams.

When the team moves into the “norming” stage, they are beginning to work together as a team. The team will start to establish ground rules, clarify who does what, and what will be expected to be done. This stage is characterized by growing sense of “togetherness”

This stage is when the concept of Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing is introduced to the team.

Observing the behavior of small groups in different areas, spanning various phases distinguished groups and said that all groups have to reach these stages before reaching its maximum effectiveness. In 1977 redefined and developed his model along with Mary Ann Jensen who added a 5th stage. From then on, many have adapted this model. The five stages of group development are as follows: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and termination. During the Forming stage of working in teams, team members are usually excited to be part of the team and eager about the work ahead. Members often have high positive expectations for the team experience. At the same time, they may also feel some anxiety, wondering how they will fit into the team and if their performance will measure up. As the team begins to move towards its goals, members discover that the team can't live up to all of their early excitement and expectations. Their focus may shift from the tasks at hand to feelings of frustration or anger with the team's progress or process. Members may express concerns about being unable to meet the team's goals. During the Storming stage, members are trying to see how the team will respond to differences and how it will handle conflict.In the Performing stage of team development, members feel satisfaction in the team's progress. They share insights into personal and group process and are aware of their own (and each other's) strengths and weaknesses. Members feel attached to the team as something "greater than the sum of its parts" and feel satisfaction in the team's effectiveness. Members feel confident in their individual abilities and those of their

This stage is necessary for growth of the team. Tolerance of each member and their differences will be emphasized and can either move the group into success or failure. It is good to note that some groups may never move out of this stage.

The concept of self-managed teams (SMTs) had a great impact on companies with traditional organizational structures where top to bottom authority prevailed and teams were used as basic organizational “tools”. Today, SMTs are “small groups of employees who have day-to-day responsibility for managing themselves and their work. Members of SMTs typically handle job

A team is a group of people who work in tandem to achieve a common outcome (Chatfield, 2011). A common type of team found in the workplace is self-managed teams (SMT). A self-managed team empowers employees to manage the day to day functions, operations, and tasks of a specific job area with little or no supervisory oversight or intervention. In other words, it is a self-contained unit (Williams, 2011). For example, self-managed teams handle work direction, job assignments, trouble-shoot problems, and handle all of the decision making aspects of the job (Silverman,1996). Moreover, companies that have used SMTs report an increase in productivity and quality, increased employee morale, creativity, job satisfaction, and a decrease in