Managing Effective Work Teams
Abstract
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.
Work Team's Popularity in Organizations
Some twenty
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They can be an excellent source of job satisfaction, inthat team members are frequently empowered to handle many of the things that directly affect their work. In addition, work teams are an effective way for management to enhance employee involvement, increase morale and to promote work force diversity.
Stages of Work Team Development
Work Team development is a dynamic and often difficult process. Most teams find themselves in a continuos state of change and development. Eventhough, most teams never reach full stability, there is a general pattern that describes how most teams evolve. There are five stages of team development, the first stage is forming. In this stage there is a great deal of uncertainty about the teams purpose, structure and leadership. Members are testing the the waters to determine what types of behaviors are acceptable. This stage is complete when members began to think of themselves as part of the team. The second stage is called storming. In this stage there is much intragroup conflict.Team members accept the existence of the team, but there is resistance to the control that the team imposes on individuality. Conflict can arise from numerous sources within the team setting but generally falls into three categories:communication, factors, structural factors and personal factors (Varney, 1989/Townsley). In addition, there is conflict over who will control the team.
Working as a team brings various advantages to the realization of work objectives. Teamwork ensures a maximum involvement of everyone in the team, thereby ensuring all participants to share their strengths and expertise, especially through the distribution of responsibilities among group members. In handling tasks, information is shared while each person can learn from each other. In the essence of productivity, group work increases the likelihood of high level of job performance and effectiveness. When the team is well managed, comparing to a person working by himself/herself, team would be able to come up with more solutions to problem at
Syer and Connolly 1996 believe that team members need to develop awareness of themselves and each other, and of their differences, through giving descriptive feedback. This allows appreciation of differences, good contact and improved communication. Trust, respect, team spirit and synergy may emerge. The notion of a cycle more easily depicts the kind of continuous process that teams go through and need to revisit as members are introduced or move on. The cycle suggests that skill and attention are required from the manager and from team members.
It is essential to have teamwork within a company. Companies who have embraced the concept of teamwork have reported increased performance in work production, problem solving and it has stimulated new growth. This group project approach has improved employee morale and increased input when managed correctly. The benefits of teamwork can make a positive effect in the company that incorporates this type of teamwork approach.
People work in groups or teams everyday whether in their career, education, political organization, church, or any other social setting. Conflict while working in teams or groups is inevitable. When taking people of different backgrounds, personalities, moral, and ethical beliefs and putting them together in a group, conflict will arise. The key to achieving your team goals is to construct and conquer your goals with keeping the greater good of the team in mind. Conflict as it arises should be combated and abated through swift and thorough resolution techniques. When dealt with properly conflict resolution can give rise to a cohesive and productive team.
After seeing what choices my assistant, Sarah, would have made I continued the simulation when I encountered my first obstacle. Harvey, my choice for Assessor and Advisor was running into a conflict with the other team members because he was not available to them as much as they would have liked. I met with the team members and explained that Harvey had been given the technological tools necessary so that web conferencing would be able to take place whenever
Teams are an integral component of organizational success. They take on many forms and functions and can have various structures. Teams also conduct a wide variety of projects with goals of innovation or mitigation. An example, from my experience, of a project that required the execution from a team was the establishment of a finished goods inventory program within a paper manufacturing company. A project of this magnitude required that a diverse and multifaceted team be assembled.
The features of effective team performance are set out in Brian Tuckman’s phases of team development theory, ‘Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing.’ This outlines the phases that a team will go through in order to become effective and reach maturity. At the ‘Forming’ stage of team development individual roles and responsibilities are unclear and each member of the team is concerned to avoid conflict with each other. From this point the team will go through the ‘Storming’ phase which is when they start to conflict as individuals put forward ideas which will be challenged by others in a bid to gain power and position over others. After this the ‘Norming’ phase follows and it is at this point that individual roles are defined and accepted
“To become a high-performing team the team must be competent at goal setting, making assignments and ensuring that team members have the skills to complete them, consensus decision making, setting high standards, holding people accountable, and running effective meetings” (Dyer, Dyer, & Dyer, 2007, p. 74). In the article, “Professionals’ Views on Interprofessional Stroke Team Functioning” Jane Cramm & Anna Nieboer (2011) seek to explain that interprofessional teamwork is considered the core component of integrated care, a complex activity involving many different health care providers that demands effective team functioning (p. 1-2). And in the article, “The Role of Oncologists in Multidisciplinary Cancer Teams in the UK: An Untapped
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.
Executives refer to business as a team sport for a variety of reasons. First, many business organizational structures arrange departments either in cross specialty teams or task oriented teams based on operational design and expected outcomes. These teams are designed with members who are assigned roles that increase overall team productivity. The team members bring talents, knowledge and a skill set that uniquely contributes to collective intelligence and resourcefulness. Through collaboration and team work, Successful teams achieve synergy, or “exceeds the sum of each individual’s contribution”.
In viewing the Manager’s Hot Seat: Working in Teams: Cross-Functional, I was able to distinguish the difference between the words team and teamwork. Team refers to a small group of people with complementary skills, who work together to achieve a shared purpose and hold themselves mutually accountable for performance results ( Schermerhorm,2011). In this video, yes there was team that consisted of Rosa Denson, Cheng Jing, Simon Mahoney and Joe Tanney who plays the role of team leader for an assigned high priority project. Working in teams is essential in this age of rapidly changing technology, market-driven decision making, customer sophistication, and employee
The author examines four stages of group development that allows the emerging member to discern purpose, role, and collective views. In stage one, dependency and inclusion marks a member’s reliance on the leader or other extroverted members. In stage two counter dependency and fighting is expected as members seek liberation from their leader and strive to merge their goals. In stage three, trust and structure begin as clarity of goals and relationship building take root. In stage four, members have surpassed the hindrances of lower team functioning such as dissatisfaction of roles, and have embraced goal achievement and task accomplishment. In this final stage, “teams are highly cohesive and can expect to be successful” (Wheelan, 2016, p. 29). That said, the author informs
The area of team leadership attracts a lot of attention in the modern world because of the need to assemble and deploy diverse teams for the completion of projects. The future of many corporations relies more and more on the kind of team leadership they have for their projects. This paper explores a number of facets that constitute effective team leadership.
In many aspects of our life, it is pervasive to work in a team. No matter in company, school, or another type of team it is necessary to be a part of a team and to achieve a team goal by corporations. People join a team with different personalities, goals, values, beliefs and needs. On the one hand, these differences can be a valuable quality of teams. On the other hand, these same differences inevitably lead to different levels of conflicts as well.
The organisational organ known as the team is becoming more and more apparent in today's dynamic business world. Increasingly managers are searching for a means to improve production and keep their organisation competitive in the global market. A lot of these managers have turned to the team as a means for achieving this improvement. Quality circles were looked at to fulfil this role. However, this form of team is being phased out and may have posed as incubator for the current trend; self - managed work teams (Klein, 1995). These teams are increasingly being looked at today to solve many an organisation's production problems and inefficiencies, and in the process are both badly failing and greatly