Category: Teamwork

The article written by Andrea Walker, Randall Olson, and Suzanne Tytler (2013) is aimed at examining the collaboration between registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) in Providence Health Care.

This medical institution helps patients who have the following health problems: 1) AIDS; 2) cardiopulmonary risks; 3) mental health problems; and 4) specialized needs related to aging (Walker et al., 2013, p. 25). This organization had to struggle with the shortage of medical professionals. Therefore, this institution had to implement a set of policies that could address this problem. First of all, one should speak about the role of most responsible nurses who had to care about a set of patients (Walker et al., 2013, p. p. 25).

These healthcare professionals had to carry out assessment and implement interventions. However, these individual could also consult other members of the healthcare team if it was necessary. Furthermore, the new approach implied that nurses had to work together if they needed to support a patient with complex needs. LPNs and RNs were asked to align their skills since in this way, they could effectively share workload and support patients.

Additionally, it is possible to speak about the existence of unit advisory groups which included both RNs and LPNs. The authors demonstrate that the partnership of nurses is critical for improving the quality of patient care. Their collaboration enables them to identify various needs of people who required medical assistance.

This article indicates that a team of healthcare professionals, who align their skills, can better share workload. Moreover, this goal cannot be affectively achieved by separate nurses. To a great extent, teamwork is important for implementing a holistic approach to medicine. Nurses should know how various biological, social, and psychological factors affect the experiences of patient.

By working together, nurses can identify these factors and mitigate their influence. This argument is relevant to such organizations as Providence Health Care in which patients can be affected by various health problems. Moreover, the findings of researchers suggest that collaborative approach can be of great use to organizations that struggle with staff shortages.

This article can be used to identify a set of behaviors that can promote collaboration among nurses. For instance, one can speak about the need to find a balance between unity and autonomy (Gardner, 2005). For instance, the authors show that unit advisory groups were relatively independent while designing and implementing patient care. However, at the same time, they could consult other healthcare professionals, especially their supervisors. Furthermore, researchers emphasize the need to conduct interdisciplinary forums (Gardner, 2005).

In turn, Andrea Walker et al. (2013) discuss the importance of aligning the skills of LPNs and RNs. Furthermore, they lay stress on the importance of regular discussions during which they can identify the most effective methods of patient care. Furthermore, scholars recognize the importance of conflict resolution techniques which are critical for cooperation (Gardner, 2005).

In their turn, Andrea Walker et al. (2005) speak about the so-called team sustainment sessions during which nurses can identify a shared vision and resolve their conflicts. Overall, this article can be useful for improving workplace interactions among nurses. However, the arguments of researchers cannot be generalized because their study was conducted only in one medical organization. This is the main limitation that should be considered by healthcare administrators who may review this article.

Reference List

Gardner, D. (2005). Ten Lessons in Collaboration. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 10(1), 1-10.

Walker, A., Olson, R., & Tytler, S. (2013). Collaborative Nursing Practice: RNs and LPNs Working Together. Canadian Nurse, 109(6), 24-28.

The case of Bell ExpressVu and the two former employees shows the importance of an effective team building in developing a successful business organization. In team building, the participants learn the spirit of teamwork and collaboration to accomplish effectively a given task.

To establish an effective team, an organization should maintain a clear communication among team members regularly regarding their tasks in a team-building event. In Bell ExpressVu case, the two women Fran Boutilier and Alison Green, were uninformed of the details of the retreat and even showed up in business attire. Members of a team must possess a shared purpose with specific goals to achieve in a team-building event.

The retreat organized by Bell ExpressVu was meant to make the team members interdependent and thus create an effective team. However, in team building, members have to agree on how to work together. A common agreement to collaborate in solving problems and share information helps them to work effectively together as a team.

The two women executives were not involved in team decision-making and this led to the differences with the other male members. Team building aims at promoting teamwork, promotes the performance of the team, and thus must involve all employees and other stakeholders.

The team members should be committed to the team building activities to ensure the teams success. However, &the female executives were apparently not committed to the team-building activities as Green refused to pair off with a man to practice kicks, punches, and chokeholds (Heathfield, 2000).

The management of the executive retreat in the Bell ExpressVu case failed to achieve the expected results because of the poor management decisions. Firstly, the management failed to define limits to employee empowerment activities and this led to the improper treatment of the female executives including sexist, vulgar language and being frozen out of drinking sessions with the boys club.

The management also failed to provide directions regarding the theme of the retreat. The theme of the event was uninspiring particularly to the female participants. The managers failed to provide information to the two female employees and as a result were not well prepared for the team-building event.

The female executives were unaware of what was expected of them in the retreat and that explains why they wore office attire. It is the responsibility of the organization to provide information regarding its organizational practices to new employees. The blocked communication led to misinformation that particularly contributed to the failure of the team building in Bell ExpressVu case.

To organize an effective team-building event, the theme of the event should be exciting and inspiring to the employees. Such a theme helps to motivate and communicate effectively with the participants of team building (Diamond, 2007, p. 159).

In addition, clear communication through memos or posters of the team-building event details stimulates interest leading to full participation of members and enhances adequate preparation for the event. Planning for a team-building event should involve a team so the activities in the event are representative of the team members.

In Bell ExpressVu case, the event activities represented a macho corporate culture and this made the female executives feel excluded. The team-building events can also be incorporated into the company practices to promote the spirit of teamwork and common purpose. However, the events should representative of cultural, gender and religious differences in order to generate interest and collaboration by team members.

Reference List

Diamond, L. (2007). Teambuilding That Gets Results: Essential Plans and Activities for Creating Effective Teams. Naperville: Sourcebooks Inc.

Heathfield, S. (2000). Twelve Tips for Team Building: How to Build Successful Work Teams. Web.

Virtual teams refers to teamwork efforts that are facilitated through information technology medium where individuals get to work together without having to meet physically (Maznevski, 2006). Basically the term virtual team refers to a group of persons that primarily interact through internet connectivity or other electronic media and occasionally get to meet physically in order to achieve certain work objectives.

There are three characteristics that defines a virtual team; members must be separated by geographical features, they must be linked together virtually through a form of an electronic media and they must be engaged in achieving a common objective that is mostly work related (Maznevski, 2006). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the elements of virtual teams as well as evaluation tool of measuring its efficiency for human resource personnel in an organization.

Generally virtual teams can be categorized into four groups; tasks groups, command groups, interest groups and friendship groups (Kruse, 2003). In an organization setting there are several reasons that necessitate the use and set up of virtual teams. In this case the main reasons include low cost of business operations, convenience, outsourcing of scarce human resource and the need to gain a competitive edge (Duarte, 2005).

Regardless of the type of virtual group, a virtual team requires six elements that must be enhanced in order for it to be effective, they include effective communication skills, conflicts management, leadership skills, building of ideal relationship, team empowerment and rhythm building (Gould, 2006). These are the essential elements of a highly efficient virtual team.

One of the articles in the field of virtual team that attempts to comprehensively assess the efficiency of virtual teams in an organizational setting is written by Tricia Steege, the CEO of transformation strategies. In this article the maturity and efficiency of virtual team is measured by a Virtual Team Operation Survey tool that assesses the indicators of virtual team performance (Steege, 2003).

The survey tool developed for assessing the effectiveness of virtual teams in organization focuses on a total of five indicators that include; trust, leadership, communication, technology and learning that are rated based on four criterias (Steege, 2003).

The possible cumulative scores when using this survey tool is 100 points that are disaggregated by 20 marks in each category. Based on the points obtained during the evaluation of the team efficiency, a human resource specialist can identify areas of weaknesses and strengths of the virtual team under evaluation.

The interpretation of the survey tool scorecard is pretty straight forward since the indicators that have the lowest points are the weakest links that are used to identify areas of weaknesses while areas that score highly indicate areas of strengths. The specific interpretation and analysis of the Virtual Team Operation Survey tool score is indicated in the following table.

Table 1: Virtual Team Operation Survey Tool Analysis

References

Duarte, K. (2005). How to tell Virtual Team Effectiveness. Web.

Gould, David. (2006). Fifth Generation Work-Virtual Organization. Web.

Kruse, Kevin. (2003). Creating Conditions for Virtual Team Effectiveness. Web.

Maznevski, Martha. (2006). Creating Effective Virtual Teams. Web.

Steege, Tricia. (2003). How Mature are your Virtual Team Work Processes. Web.

Increased global competition, changing work realities, mergers and acquisitions and decline in middle management besides benefits of teams in leveraging organizational strengths and offsetting new challenges has resulted to the rise in prominence of teams in organizations (Gordon, 2002).

However, while use of teams is ever becoming more common, the success of teams in any organization is not guaranteed. Recent literature on the effectiveness of teams has resulted to myriad of strategies that firms may adopt in ensuring that teams are successful (Mealia et al, 2005).

While some of the strategies have proven to be effective in enhancing the success of teams, others have been wrought with challenges that have rendered teams less effective.

One current strategy that is effective in corporate team building is deciding on the type of team design to adopt in an organization. The choice of team designs range from self-directed teams, problem-solving teams, cross-functional teams and virtual teams (Bass, 2007).

Use of different team designs is influenced by literature on behavioral science, which suggests that successful team building is dependent on various desirable characteristics which can be built in the work environment (Mealia et al, 2005).

The mix of factors depends on the type of team, organizations characteristics, nature of power relations, number of team members, and the type of organization among other factors. The type of design that firms adopt impact on the effectiveness of the teams and thus team building must take into consideration these factors.

Problem-solving teams are important in solving various problems that organizations face. Problem solving teams often consist of a few individuals who are crucial in decision making in various spheres of the organization.

The effectiveness of problem-solving teams stems from the opportunity for sharing ideas, and offering suggestions thus resulting to better output of solutions. Problem-solving teams may use such strategies as quality circles.

Self-management team strategy on the other hand is a team building strategy that involves teams that perform related and interdependent tasks. Self-management teams often take the responsibilities that were being handled by supervisors.

The advantage of self-management team building strategy includes reduced middle level management and supervisors and consequently enhancing savings by the organization. The disadvantage attributed to this team strategy includes lack of involvement of some of the team members in work-related processes and decisions (Bass, 2007).

The evident failures of self-managed teams have contributed to growth of fully self-managed teams. These teams plan for work, assign roles to each member, select members and besides evaluating how each person in the team performs (Bass, 2007).

This model has been mores successful in improving productivity and quality in manufacturing companies.

Despite the success of self-managed teams, various studies have indicated that self-managed teams are not effective during downsizing and may also not be effective in certain cultures that have strong respect for hierarchical authority and high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty as evidenced in the failure of self-managed teams in Mexico (Bass 2007).

Another team building strategy is use of cross-functional design in team building. Cross-functional teams aim at enhancing the firms ability to meet clients changing needs by ensuring that all clients issues are handled within one team instead of being handled by different departments.

Such teams may be composed of persons within the same work positions but from diverse work areas (Bass 2007).

The advantage of such teams is evident speed in actualization of projects. Major challenges include building trust amongst the team members especially early in the formation of the team and difficulties in working in diverse and complex settings from their normal areas of specialization (Bass 2007).

Virtual teams is also another strategy in team building, which uses virtual world of technology to bring together dispersed members in order to achieve various goals (Gordon, 2002).

Virtual teams are marked by limited social contact, absence of verbal and non-verbal cues, and constraints of space and time. This results to less interaction, less social rapport, and are marked by decreased group satisfaction compared to face-to-face teams (Bass 2007).

However, it has the advantage of allowing people who may not have ordinarily worked together to come together and work together.

References

Bass, J. (2007). Team Building: Strategies for improving team performance. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons.

Gordon, J. (2002). Team building. Journal of American Academy of Business, 2(1), 185-189.

Mealiea, L., Laird, N., Baltazar, R., & Ramon, L. (2005). A strategic guide for building effective teams. Public Personnel Management, 34 (2), 215-224.

The success of any organization relies a lot on teamwork. Consequently, almost all employees within an organization look forward to joining a properly functioning team. However, this is not always the case and at times, we may find ourselves in dysfunctional teams (Biech, 2007). The current essay aims to examine the experiences of the writer with a dysfunctional team and the factors that might have contributed to this. Also, the essay shall endeavor to explore the experiences of the writer with a highly effective team, along with the associated factors.

In dysfunctional team participants lack focus and as such, it becomes difficult for them to achieve a common goal (Lencioni, 2002). A dysfunctional team could also be due to failure by team members to contribute to the common goal. I was at one time part of a dysfunctional team and my experience with the group is that we did not support one another in our endeavor to achieve the goal at hand. Some of the members did not even realize that we needed to work as a team to achieve the set goal.

It is important for team members to feel committed to one another. Also, team members should feel interdependent. I believe one of the main reasons why we ended up with a dysfunctional team is because some of the team members were intent on dominating the group. This resulted in personal attacks on some of the members. On the other hand, some of the members were unwilling to compromise and as such, we lacked a common direction. As such, most of the time meant for discussing serious issues was spent settling personal scores. Eventually, we ended up not achieving our goal.

On the other hand, my experience with a highly effective team was quite different. Unlike the dysfunctional team, this team consisted of members who were willing to compromise on issues that affected the group. The main driving force for this group was our able leader who also led by example.

He was fully aware that the only way we were going to achieve our goal is if we consolidated our efforts. To start with, he ensured that all our team assignments were planned and that duties were allocated to the different team members. When assigning duties and responsibilities to team members, the leader fairly did this taking into consideration individual competencies and skills. We also did not set unrealistic expectations, as this was bound to demoralize us if we failed to achieve the goal.

Besides, our leader encouraged us to cooperate as this was the only way we were going to succeed. Whenever conflict s erupts in a successful team, a conflict management system helps to settle such differences amicably (Oakley et al, 2004). In our case, we did not let our differences get in the way of the team. We normally held brainstorming sessions where we anticipated possible dysfunctional behaviors in the team, and the right strategies to adopt to avoid them. Our team leaders would also monitor the group progress periodically, not to mention that we had in place feedback systems once the team had been assessed.

Reference List

Biech, E. (2007). The Pfeiffer Book of Successful Team-Building Tools: Best of the Annuals. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Oakley, B., Felder, R. M., Brent, R. & Elhajj, I. (2004). Turning Student Groups into Effective Teams. Journal of Student Centered Learning, 2(1), 9-33.

Background/situation

This case study is about teamwork management issues. The main challenge in the study faces Erick Holt who is a new director at FireArts, a company specializing in beer steins, wine goblets, and other glass novelties production. Before getting a job with FireArts as a director, Erick previously worked as a vice president in a consulting firm, where he had been charged with the responsibility of leading three manufacturing specialist teams.

Under his leadership, the teams had worked very well and everybody was enthusiastic and committed to achieving success (Wetlaufer 28). On contrary, upon getting the post of a director at FireArts, he finds a completely different scenario; he is supposed to lead a team of seven top-level managers in initiating change since the company was performing poorly. The department managers show readiness to work hand in hand with the strategy manager but the seventh one seems disinterest in performing as a team. Randy Louderback, sales and marketing director in FireArts is the man behind all the controversies highlighted in this case study.

Despite being very bright and with valuable insights to the company, randy seems determined to undermine all efforts made by the other director towards creating change. The situation in this case study is not clear since Randy does not state exactly what he thinks should be done. He opposes all efforts done by the other company managers without stating the alternative course of action. Although he insists that change is not initiated by a team but a specific individual who comes up with a brilliant idea and inspires others to follow, he fails to aid the strategy director in coming up with the idea.

Key individuals

The key individuals in this case study are Erick Holt, FireArts new director of strategy, charged with the responsibility of putting together a team of top individuals within the organization, and Randy Louderback, the sales, and marketing director in FireArts. Erick Holt has vast experience in leading teams of manufacturing specialists, previously he worked with allnighters where he received a lot of support from the teams he leads.

On the other hand, Randy enjoys a legendary past and close relationship with FireArts CEO. He made his way from being a poor child by working as a short-order cook and security guard and managed to put himself through state college. On his graduation, he received top honors and immediately after started his market research and advertising firm in Indianapolis. He succeeded in building the company to an extent of employing 50 staff members entrusted with the responsibility of servicing the regions most prestigious accounts (Wetlaufer 30). However, in1980 Randys company faced serious challenges and closed down. He then landed the post of a marketing director at FireArts but often bragged of having received dozens of invitations to other jobs.

Erick enjoys a very cordial relationship with all the directors he is in charge of leading apart from one. Although Randy proves to be a challenge in his change initiatives, he does not rebuke him openly. He is constantly looking for the best mechanism of seeking Randy is support although he does not succeed. Randy on the other hand seems to be very proud and a person who does not want to share his success with others.

He does not give the other group members a chance to air their views, something that makes the other directors hate him. In fact, on one occasion, Ray Lapierre confronted him openly and stated that he did not care about anybody else. I believe Erick can achieve much-needed change. All he needs is to give Randy some promotion so that he can feel at a special rank compared to the others, since; the CEO believes he is important to the company.

Issues/problems

The main issues in this case study revolve around leadership strategies employed in the daily running of FireArts. The company has been enjoying a high degree of success for nearly the last 80 years as one of the high-price producers. Traditionally, FireArts has been doing great business during every football season by selling to the team fans commemorative knickknacks (Wetlaufer 30). In spring, the company has been enjoying a demand rush for senior prom items such as beer mugs and change goblet. However, over the last18 months, the company has undergone a period of serious challenges. Other companies had started to enter the firearms niche; something that facilitated jack Derry, FireArts CEO to hire a new strategy director.

Randy Louderback could be termed as the main cause of all the problems facing Firearms. He seems to have made up his mind, that he should be the strategic direction in the organization and has been working hard in pulling other directors efforts back. He does not cooperate and has taken advantage of his acquired trust from the CEO. The problem created by Randy has cost the company many profits and is likely to cost Erick his job as the director of the strategy. Also, the company is facing other subliminal problems such as losing customers trust because of a decline in production. If the current situation is not carefully put under control, the six directors might decide to resign because of randys intimidation.

Causes

Randy Louderback has caused the problems surrounding teamwork management, in FireArts. Although he posses deep knowledge of the best approaches to improve performance in the company, he opts to lie back and frustrate the others. He openly disagrees with the approach taken by the strategic manager to initiate change. At one instance, he interrupts a presentation made by Carl Simmons, director of distribution by mocking him; that his statement meant that the company should change everything starting with the kitchen sink. On another occasion, Ray confronts him when he comes late for a meeting and interrupts everything until everyone left.

Decisions/alternatives

In a situation such as the one facing FireArts, the new strategy director should report all unprofessional habits and behavior portrayed by randy in the course of the various meetings. Randy should be summoned, given a stern warning on his actions and if he fails to change, he should be dismissed from the company. It is only such serious decisions that can create a working atmosphere within FireArts since the company is only left to choose between Randy and losses.

Conclusion/recommendation

FireArts needs very serious change. The CEO should stop appreciating some directors such as Randy on basis of their previous success. He should focus on pushing all the directors to achieve success without favoring any of them. Because the organization is currently undergoing serious leadership issues that need a quick resolution, the CEO should call for a directors meeting to address arising problems. Randy should be given room to express his grievances and opinions; he should also be allowed to air his strategy on how the company should be improved. However, if Randy is provided with an opportunity to change but still insists on sticking on his old tendencies of pushing aside the other directors, he should be given a warning and possibly suspended from his post as the marketing director.

Case review opinion paper

Should the leadership strategies be changed FireArts? How could one implement such changes? The leadership management techniques employed in FireArts demonstrates that the company operates using the traditional, hierarchical management structure, and not one that supports teamwork. Randy seems resistant to change within the organization since he is used to working alone and receiving most of the credit and honor from the CEO.

The different company directors seem to be ready to embrace changes in working as a team brought about by the new strategy director but lack the correct channel to voice their concerns. The only open communication channel involves holding meetings, which are constantly hindered by Randys resistance.

As far as I am concerned, the strategies directors seem to be ignorant of the fact that; real teams do not get along. They have to get things accomplished. He is passionately looking for a mechanism of ensuring that all the seven directors work as a common team. In contrast, he should leave Randy out of the team; let him be responsible in all the matters concerning his department while ensuring that he provides high-quality results.

To link randy to the other group members the strategy manager should come up with a different communication channel that does not involve facial encounters. He could make use of available organizations internal communication technologies, such as internal memos, faxes, and mails.

In my view, every organization has some members who make their contributions as solo performers. FireArts should understand this clearly and allow randy to go solo. As a solo performer, Randy will be under a pressure to achieve great heights of success to prove his worth. In return, the company will benefit because of the increased production and will have an opportunity to motivate the other directors to work as hard as the marketing director does.

In cases where the marketing director is provided with all the chances and opportunities to change but fails to follow the rules, either the team or he must go. Sometimes organizations are forced to take the hard stand of dismissing individuals who do not perform or disrupt the organizations goals. Individuals such as randy should be avoided through all possible means for an organization to succeed effectively.

In my own opinion, FireArts has been performing very well and efforts should be put into place to ensure that the company does not lose its customers trust. Efforts should be made to ensure that companys secrets are not exposed to the outside community. Erick, must take up his position as the companys strategic direction and stop following directions from the CEO on seeking support from Randy. He should understand that he was hired to solve challenges that were facing the company and Randy is one of the challenges.

In conclusion, the CEO of FireArts should give his staff members room to perform their tasks. He should stop showing direct favors to some of his employees at the expense of the others. Lastly, all efforts done by any staff member within the organization should be recognized effectively as recommended by Maureen Turner.

Works Cited

Wetlaufer, Suzy. The Team that Wasnt. Harvard Business Review (1994):22-38. Web.

Introduction

Each team is a multi-level system consisting of one or more employees. Teamwork is a process in which each participant has equal rights and responsibilities, which are adjusted depending on the goals and objectives of the company. All employees have equal parts on the team. However, the teamwork experience cannot always be exceptionally positive; for example, the atmosphere was uncoordinated and unhealthy at my last workplace. I want to elaborate on this case further in the essay, analyze the situation in more detail, and give recommendations for the future.

Factors That Ensured a Negative Experience

Last year I managed to work in a branch of a large company that provides cellular services. In the first few months, the situation was stable; I got the managers support and got to know my colleagues. Six months later, however, several shortcomings came to light, which made my experience negative and gave me an excellent opportunity to rethink my own mistakes and those of management. At the beginning of my career in this company, my manager did not set goals to motivate employees to move forward in their work and improve sales figures. Only those that could boost were voiced, but only for a short time.

The next significant shortcoming was the unpreparedness of the branch manager of a company whose profit depended on the number of service sales. The management acted the way they used to manage their daily work; the activity did not contribute to team building and made this process difficult for the most part. This type is commonly referred to as individual leadership, which degrades the team for the sake of profit for one particular person. Other factors that made my experience negative were the execution of work with loss of quality, lack of control over the performance of tasks, lack of analysis of my mistakes, and finding fault among the employees.

The branchs employees strongly believed that all sales are just for show and that this approach leads to a complete loss of quality and excessive workload that is not compensated for in any way. The result of such management was the absence of a team; each employee was interested in their benefit and impact. Insufficient time was allocated for team formation, and the main mistake was the unpreparedness of managers and lack of necessary knowledge for developing tactics and management strategies.

Recommendations

Having told about the negative experience, I would like to give several recommendations to the manager to prevent similar situations in the future. Pay attention to training, motivation, and decision-making that increase the teams effectiveness. The suggestions and methods I will discuss are, in my opinion, the essential things to create an optimal and healthy working environment in which everyone on the team feels good about themselves.

Values are More Important

Employees and managers regularly face different situations: conflicts, difficult choices, promotions, and layoffs. Subordinates can get out of difficult conditions thanks to the values and corporate culture that the manager communicates. Team building and uniting employees through creating shared values is one of the most underestimated management tools (Kodari, 2022). Recently, no effective company can do without it. For example, a formalized culture in the family, cultivated since childhood, guarantees that when children grow up, they will have something to guide them in different life situations and teamwork.

Let People Do What They Do Best

With proper communication in a company, a manager will always know if a person is at the right place within the team. It is essential to determine whether the employee can reach their potential in the business they are engaged. In Hindsight, understanding what kind of skills a person has and what kind of work they are suitable for is a great chance to help them take the right place (Kodari, 2022). The more diverse activities are created within a team, the better the options for a person to find something that fascinates and inspires him. This approach will ensure that the employee is interested in their job and their place within the team. A manager needs to create a mechanism where the focus is not on private profit but overall profit.

Essential Traits and Talents May Not Always Show Up at Work

Employees discover a new side of themselves in a new environment. And we are not talking about corporate parties, after which employees get a negative reputation. It is about social projects, creative challenges, friendships, and attitudes. A manager does not need to hang labels on a person because qualities and attitudes manifest depending on the environment in which the employee is placed (Kodari, 2022). In teamwork, finding the niche in which a particular employee will be most effective and will bring the expected result is essential. The rotation sometimes allows employees to try new roles and acquire the necessary skills. Through such mechanisms, the motivation to work for the companys development increases significantly.

Conclusion

A job is something a person spends a considerable amount of his time on. An actual good fortune for a person and a company is when employees are in their place. Then they can show their best qualities and talents. Both sides of the teamwork should unlock their potential through collaborative communication. Building a healthy and collaborative environment takes a certain amount of time to highlight any deficiencies and correct them promptly. The more developed team communication is, the less likely it will be to have a negative experience on the job.

Reference

Kodari, M. (2022). How companies can boost the bottom line by leveraging the value of teamwork. Forbes.

Teamwork is a very complicated structure that sometimes cannot be fully outlined or explained in case a company is having its employees working united (Werner, 2011). However, there are those peculiar cases when managers need thorough help and guidance with their employees encouragement for better results ultimately. Thus, a trainer is invited in order to bring in more cohesiveness to the working team. This paper will unveil the methods of approaching the problem of dissociation efficiently.

In order to analyze the nature of the problem, it is necessary to inquire on whether the manager did everything possible to make the work knowledge and councils available. Thus, it will become evident if the employees get the necessary attention and hence are motivated to implement their working responsibilities correctly and successfully. Therefore, if all the trainees and employees are provided with substantial knowledge and perfect working conditions, then the reason of their lack of cohesiveness is not a training issue. In this case the further work with the group of employees will be held according to the performance related issues.

If an issue requires training, then it is necessary to incorporate team games into the training program. While the employees learn the basics and peculiarities of sales, the games that encourage team cooperation will be just perfect. There are those training methods that teach workers trust each other. For instance, when you fall back into a persons arms not actually know for sure if he/she will catch you but trust is big deal. This way the actual work knowledge will have the situational implementation that will train both: the ability to cooperate as a union and show the learnt material.

If the issue is performance related, it is essential to understand the surface and deeper reasons for that. There has o be a survey or conversation at hand conducted with the employees. Cohesiveness in a team is frequently associated with performance. That is why the diverse staff needs to be taken into consideration. The trainings on teamwork will be held in order to show the personnel how they succeed together. Frequently, the lack of cohesiveness is derived from the actual society we live in where every person has to be best since primary school. However, mutual efforts are appreciated in a big company (Miller, 2003). Moreover, a human resources development specialist will make it clear that one can achieve his/her goals faster and more efficiently when cooperating as a team. This works as the best motivation in case of poor performance.

The technology is a wonderful helper in determining the reasons why the team is not cohesive. Namely, the cameras could help answering the question why the workers do not want to work together (Rinus, 2002). Some of them just cannot stand each other. Or it will be clearly seen if someone is reluctant to do anything while someone is very active as per achieving the companys goals. Besides, the efficient collaboration and overall performance of the company is affected by what an employee does at his/her workplace. The tracking of Internet sites would be a wonderful outline of the demotivators that influence overall performance of the department. While putting restrictions on sites usage, it is necessary to fill up the gaps in an employees working schedule with working responsibilities. So, here are the foremost rules for making the group work together rather than being responsible for own actions only.

References

Miller, B. C. (2003). Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minute. New York: AMACOM.

Rinus, M. (2002). Teambuilding: The Road to Success. Spring City: Reedswain Publishing.

Werner, J.M. & DeSimone, R.L. (2011). Human Resource Development. Maason: South-Western College Pub.

Technological developments have brought about great impacts on the world evidenced by constant and unexpected changes in the environment. These effects have been felt in the business circles with an increase in competition. Many businesses have found themselves in stiff and breath-taking competition.

On the same note, this kind of environment requires any ambitious business organisation to utilise its resources well so that it can remain productive as well effective. Therefore, in this fast changing world, most organisations have resorted to increase their levels of production especially by team building at workplace.

To achieve this, they have applied various methods of motivating their workers who are by far and large, are able to use their abilities and work harder and make achieving of high goals in that organization a reality (Gupta & Shaw, 1998, p. 28). Such efforts by employees have also been found to be instrumental towards workers satisfaction at workplace.

In addition to motivation, many organizations have adopted collaborative working patterns whereby various team building exercises have been devised by organisations in order to boost the working morale of employees. The teams come together to perform a specific tasks and responsibilities (Appelbaum, Serena & Shapiro, 2004, p.5). Teams in an organization would include management team, project team, work team and so on.

These teams are motivated in a number of ways to work together and achieve impressive results. Some of the ways include actions to satisfy their needs, monetary incentives, rewards and punitive measures where necessary (Kohn, 1998 p. 30).

Today, many organizations owe their success to teamwork since workers are motivated when they achieve great goals set forth by the organisation over and above some personal rewards and recognition that they may earn.

The practice of team work has been established in several workplaces and has proved to be not only effective in managing organisations but also a prudent measure of assessing the performance of employees and growth of an organisation (Proctor & Currie 2002 p. 306).

This is an indication of its prevalence and its effectiveness in management and successful operations of an organisation. It is important to note that for a business to grow, work performance should be regularly assessed, evaluated and improved where necessary (Findlay et al., 2000, p.1552).

A team is a group of individuals, who share roles and duties towards achieving the same goal while each team member is interdependent in their duties and are embedded in social systems like corporations or business units (McCabe,1990, p.204). In HRM, teamwork has been found to be beneficial due to the myriad gains it brings to the business.

One of the dominant reasons why managers would prefer their employees to work as a team is motivation of group members. According to Wiley (1997), the attitude of employees while performing a particular task is largely influenced by the nature of team work spirit (Wiley, 1997 p.279). Hence, it is important to create an environment that is conducive enough while forming cohesive teams.

For instance, the respective teams constituted by an organisation should be source of motivation for employees rather than just pulling efforts together. In addition, the author argues that most employers may not be keen in finding out other possible employees can be motivated over and above using monetary incentives.

The way employees behave and respond to their various duties depends on the nature of motivation they obtain while working as a team.

The theory of motivation looks into how to motivate an employee, how that motivation will influence how he behaves and the output of work. It tries to describe ways of motivating workers to work harder to satisfy their own needs as well as attain company goals (Wiley, 1997 p.279).

There are numerous ways today of motivating workers in an organization. These ways or methods include ongoing learning, team based rewards, trust, 360-degree feedback, leadership, justice, empowerment, monetary incentives and so on (Herzberg, 1987, p.90).

Teamwork can be understood in several ways. Firstly, it forms the basic unit of an organization and brings about high levels of production. It is therefore important that an organization know how and where to put teams depending on the wide range of responsibilities that the company has (Proctor & Currie, 2002, p.306).

There are various types of teams in an organization such as project teams, work teams, management teams and so on (Findlay et al., 2000 p.1552). Also, there are teams that perform autonomous work like the self managed work teams (SMWT) and the autonomous work group (AWG). In comparison, work teams that have been formed voluntarily perform better and are highly motivated than non voluntary groups.

An employees attitude towards teamwork greatly affects the success of an organization. An organization will fail to realize a certain goal if employees resist teamwork (Proctor & Currie, 2002 p.306).

This will win the attitudes of the employees and as a predictor, will work towards building teamwork in the organisation. Therefore this indicates that organizational outcomes are based on the trust that exists between the management of an organization and the employees (Kirkman, Jones & Shapiro, 2000, p. 74).

The performance of small groups within an organisation is a key ingredient to the overall output of the entire organisation. Hence, the success of any organisation heavily relies on the individual output of small teams that constitute departments or divisions within an organisation. Increased productivity has been directly linked to group efficacy in an organisation.

Besides, there are other group dynamics elated to group efficacy that may also contribute positively to the growth of an organisation (Paterson, 2010 p.10). Most studies have also revealed that group dynamics derive a lot of benefit from efficacy and the overall effectiveness of a group. Although leadership style in an organisation is paramount in driving groups, leadership satisfaction may not necessarily be affected by group efficacy.

One of the most powerful ways through which groups can increase their efficacy and effectiveness is through team building exercises. It is worth noting organisations with high employee base coupled with diverse values may be cumbersome to manage.

In order to improve the productivity of employees working in various departments, team work is indeed paramount. It may not be easy to harmonise different groups to work collectively and still appreciate their contribution and usefulness (Beeson, 2011, p.16). Therefore, team building exercise is duly necessary to improve the efficacy of teams.

Team work is a very important organizational practice and behaviour that is highly recommended for any organisation seeking to boost its performance. The essence behind any team building and team work strategy is that when employees work or pull together towards achieving a common goal, it is more likely that the organisation will realize a much faster growth compared to when they pull in different directions.

Hence, the concept of team building can be described as an organizational behaviour and practice that attempts to bring employees together as one cohesive team that works to achieve a common objective or goal.

Through team work or working in small cohesive groups, an organisation will be in a position to not only advance the leadership skills of its employees, but the morale of its staff will equally be boosted (Casse & Claudel, 2011 p.50). For example, when employees are taken for an outing in form of a retreat to conduct team building exercises, it will assist in breaking some of the barriers that exist among them.

These barriers may be social, political or even personal and can significantly hinder the effectiveness of team work. Hence, team work that has been cultivated through team building for the purpose of creating vibrant working groups can indeed assist in identifying barriers that hinder the ability of members to be creative.

Moreover, the huge number of employees that may be working in one particular organisation can work best if the organisational goals and objectives are clear. In this regard, goal setting theory suggests that employees from all levels of an organisation should participate in the process of goal setting and while they do so, it is upon the senior management to explain to them the importance of setting these goals.

However, this can be achieved with much ease when employees work as small organized teams pursuing a common goal (Kohn, 1998 p.30). Such small harmonized and cohesive teams are capable of giving clear definitions of the expected goals and objectives, set a particular time frame within which to achieve the set goals and objectives and above all, carry out performance appraisal (Kirkman, Jones & Shapiro, 2000 p.74).

In addition, procedures and process within the different departments in an organisation will be improved considerably owing to the fact that there will be a high level of cooperation among workers. In a nutshell, effectiveness of each department in an organisation can only be improved through well defined and constructed groups coined from team building exercises.

An organisation that intends to experience tremendous growth and development in this competitive world must build its foundation for success on the strategy of teamwork. It is the key to the development of the staff as well as the employees.

Organizational objectives and performance results fully depend on the strength and effectiveness of the teamwork (McCabe,1990 p.209). Sequentially, it is through the same that low trust syndrome and the feeling of isolation at the place of work are overcome (Kohn, 1998, p. 30).

Finally, team work enables the management of an organisation to identify, recruit and retain talent (McCabe,1990 p.209). Talent flow within an organisation and the way it is strategically hired, developed, nurtured and retained are all components of talent management.

Although a business organisation or institution may opt to settle for trained professionals, the process of aligning the right personnel with jobs that suits them most demands more than just professionalism and training. Indeed, the availability of sufficient and most productive labour supply requires cross-section of talent management throughout an organisation as per the broad objectives of a business organisation.

Such a process may be difficult to accomplish if the management of a company does not work with small harmonised groups. It is only through team work that managers can integrate and incorporate talent in human resource development.

To sum up, managers play an important role in encouraging teamwork and organizing the context in which they work. Team work adds value to the performance of an organization. However, it is important to note that the system of rewarding and appraisals should be given due attention because it affects team working.

Managers need to motivate their workers, empower and address issues affecting them. Besides, teamwork should not be resisted by the employees or the manager because it increases the productivity of an organisation. Its strategic nature is exemplified in the relationship it has with performance.

References

Appelbaum, S. H., Serena, M., & Shapiro, B. T. 2004. Generation X and the Boomers: Organizational Myths and Literary Realities. Management Research News. 27(11), 1-20.

Beeson, J. 2011. Build a Strong Team. Leadership Excellence. 28 no.2: 15-18. Web.

Casse, P., & Claudel, P. 2011. Leadership styles: a powerful model. Training Journal. 46-51.

Findlay, P. et al. 2000. In search of perfect people: Teamwork and team players in the Scottish spirits industry. Human Relations. 53(12), 1549-1574.

Gupta, N. & Shaw, Jason D. 1998. Let the evidence speak: Financial incentives are effective!! Compensation and Benefits Review. 30 (2), 26-32.

Herzberg, F. 1987. One more time: how do you motivate employees. Harvard Business Review. 87- 99.

Kirkman, B. L., Jones, R.G. & Shapiro, D.L. 2000. Why do employees resist teams? Examining the resistance barrier to work team effective. The International Journal of Conflict Management. 11(1), 7492.

Kohn, A. 1998. Challenging behaviorist dogma: Myths about money and motivation Compensation and Benefits Review. 30(2), 27-33.

McCabe, D. 1990. The team dream:the meaning and experience of teamworking for employees in an automobile manufacturing company. The meaning and experience of teamworking for employees. 204-213.

Paterson, J. 2010. Do teams work? Leadership for Student Activities.39 no.4: 9-12. Web.

Proctor, S. & Currie, G. 2002. How team working works in the Inland Revenue: meaning, operation and impact. Personnel Review. 31 (3) 304-319.

Wiley, C. 1997. What motivates employees according to over 40 years of motivation surveys. International Journal of Manpower. 18(3), 263-280.

Abstract

In this report, we present our findings on a group project in Team building with real-world simulation of soft skills necessary to build a high performance winning team. As a core subject of organisational management, any team building effort consists of several success attributes: guidance, collaboration, focussing on the process, network-building, openness, diversity, risk-taking, involvement of people, etc. This paper presents a clear, analytical framework within which we seek to consolidate essential concepts of team work as applied to real-world problems. The problem discussed in this paper is in the format of a case study and encompasses allied themes of risk management and economic analysis. The outcome of this project should be seen as an educational/motivational tool.

Introduction

Aims and objectives

Any team requires its members to display collaborative behaviour towards achieving common goals and vision. This report presents a detailed analysis of a simulated team building exercise with the following aims/objectives in mind:

1. Understanding the common problems which creep up when a team comes together.
2. Finding solutions to such problems using secondary literature.
3. Learning about team building values which aid in the transition from a pseudo-team to a high-performance team.
4. Application of above theories in a real project case study.

Background and Rationale

As undergraduate students at the University of _____, there were numerous occasions when we had to belong to some team or the other. Teamwork has always been an inseparable feature of classroom discussions, laboratory learning and practical training. Unfortunately, its not always possible to have a positive feeling about the way team discussions turn out. Many a times, serious personality differences between diverse members of a team leads to frustrations and hostility which for any team member, culminates in a general dislike for any situation involving team activities. In such occasions, team members do not even see eye to eye which hampers the progress of constructive work, leads to declining productivity and has long-term consequences on student morale.

Unpleasant experiences notwithstanding, all members of our group are knowledgeable about the real-world business scenario which would test our learning skills acquired from academia and look disfavourably upon any inability to successfully engage in team activities. All recruiting organisations today place a high emphasis on the applicants ability to see their role in a team. The very first question posed by an interviewer is, what do you understand by teamwork?

The rationale behind working on this project has a lot to do with the realisation that all of us shortly would find ourselves in various situations of teamwork at corporate level; our jobs, our career and our professional growth is inextricably linked to understanding the salient features of teamwork. This present research gives us a valuable opportunity to develop practical familiarity with different technical terms associated with teamwork.

Outline

This report is divided into the following chapters: Literature Review containing contextual critique of the subject matter at hand; Research Methodology containing relevant discussions on project initials, schedule and resource requirements; Analysis containing different aspects of project such as SWOT analysis, risk management and Occupational Health and Safety Management (OHSM) issues and finally, the Conclusion chapter provides an effective recapitulation of the main points at hand.

To fully illustrate discussions relevant to core topic, every effort has been made to correlate theoretical and practical aspects of this project. The project parameters solely depend on the criterion established in literature review and thus, provide enough opportunity to understand team-building skills from the point of view of a team leader. The concept of team work requires a fair deal of enthusiasm towards the common goal from all team-members (Michaelsen, Knight & Fink, 2002).

Literature Review

Overview

This chapter aims to understand various theoretical aspects of team work which have been used as reference to build various aspects of team-building strategy applied to the experiment design/group activity discussed in following chapters. The literature review section pursues the objective of measuring the authors grasp of curriculum for given academic study (McMaster & Espin, 2007). The literature study aims to deliver precise knowledge inputs using arguments relevant to project proposal.

Theoretical Framework

According to Maddux and Wingfield (2003), the first step towards building a successful team lies in the ability of the team leader to organise and plan stated activities towards an eventual goal. The authors define the fundamental difference between a team and a group which is very important to our understanding of real-world scenarios. Whereas a group merely functions as the basis for family living, protection, work and recreation, a team is formed for a different purpose  to enhance the productivity of the group in terms of measurable impact (Maddux & Wingfield, 2003).

Another difference lies in the fact that a groups functioning may vary anything between chaotic and unorganised whereas a team cannot afford to have such luxuries  a team must always be organised and disciplined to perform its roles as per its full expectations (Maddux & Wingfield, 2003).

The last difference lies in the way the member of a team perceives himself the focus is always on the result and team benefits (Mchugh, 1997). However, in case of a group, the attention is shunted to individual interests only. A team member has to show the inclination to rise above petty self-interests and consider the benefits accrued to the team as a whole (Mchugh, 1997). This is made possible only through a willingness to overlook personality differences and have a clear focus on actions and strategy (Mchugh, 1997). Having understood the core principles of what constitutes a successful team, lets understand a good procedure of building team work which lead to definite success in the aspirations for achievement:

1. Building Motivation: Any new project which doesnt have shared enthusiasm by every member of the team is bound to fizzle out in no time. Team-members should agree on the importance of a project for the overall well-being of every individual thereby developing a keen aspiration for results (Quick, 1992).
2. Developing Trust and Collaboration: Team leaders should set an example for the remaining team by inculcating values in them which bespeak of transparency and honesty (Quick, 1992). Team members need to develop full faith and trust in the common pursuits of the team. Collaboration should be the norm instead of competition and team members should support one another in forging closer bonds for the overall benefit of the team (Quick, 1992). Trust and motivation are two indispensable assets of a successful team and should be inspired by the team leader.
3. Conflict Resolution: Conflicts are at the heart and soul of an effective team-building process and should be accepted as a natural way of progressing ahead (Quick, 1992). Talented teams thrive in an atmosphere of participation and consensus which always reflects in their process of decision-making (Sewell, 1998). Most conflict issues in an amateur team arise due to personality/character differences wherein team members resort to personal attacks which vitiate the overall atmosphere of the working team (Mears & Voehl, 1994). To overcome any problems arising due to unavoidable conflicts, it is the team leaders responsibility to assuage acrimonious feelings and nurture positive qualities in the team (Mears & Voehl, 1994).
4. Creativity and Effectiveness in Team Building: No team can develop solutions to difficult problems without a clear focus on nurturing new ideas/decisions and use group problem solving techniques. It consists of the following key steps: keeping the group small, announcing the meeting in advance, using a round robin to collect peoples ideas and encourage people to discuss ideas with the group, not the originator (Quick, 1992). Various diagnostic tools (Figure 1) can be used to keep a tab on team members behaviour concerning each other. The group diagnosticator as shown in Figure 1 can be used by team members to keep a tab on each other primary activities and thus, enable different people to achieve in advance solutions to impending problems.
5. Power base: Many groups fail because of a lack of understanding of proper distribution of power for the effective team building exercise (Fiore, 2008). When the power base erodes, it leads to chaos and confusion hence, successful teams should always allow a clear hierarchy of power to allow decision-makers more freedom in dealing with eventual solutions (Fiore, 2008). It is the responsibility of the decision-maker to consult other members of the team for their inputs/suggestions which enable development of the creative thinking process. To successfully translate power functions of a team, team members should allow greater degrees of freedom for open-ended discussions, free exchange of thoughts and ideas and proper consultation with one and all concerned.

Having discussed the core concepts of team roles as applied to diverse situations, a question arises as to the application of these concepts. The basic strategy of team building activities is to promote team games as a successful way to achieving the major functions of a team. A team game involves a series of activities which allow the use of team attributes among team members and is thus, necessary to build and sustain the team (Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp & Gilson, 2008). Extending the use of necessary team attributes to develop and sustain a positive team requires a clear vision of activities in the know. Here is what a regular team game will consist of:

1. Break-down of all activities into simple, systematic sub-routines: Each complex task can be divided into several sub-routines for the overall benefit of every member of the team (Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp & Gilson, 2008). This simplification can lead to brainstorming for core skills of every member in the team.
2. Assigning role to team-members: The team leader must assign a unique role to every team member based on his/her aptitude and interests (Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp & Gilson, 2008). To ensure team members are satisfied with the pool of choice, the team leader may further choose to describe task functions in an easy-to-understand way. The goal of establishing hierarchical selection early on appeals to every member of the team (Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp & Gilson, 2008). Division of work according to unique human skills is the most fundamental aspect of proper team work management.
3. Develop a learning environment: Its unrealistic to expect team members to be aware of all issues which concern the team its better to develop conditions facilitating a learning environment where every team member gets a unique opportunity to hone his/her skills according to needs and demands specified by the team (Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp & Gilson, 2008). The learning environment should also be a conduit for the exchange of free ideas. Indeed, given the chance to allow people to foster learning habits, many choose to decline the exchange when the environment is not conducive for it. Team leaders should keep the momentum of learning going because its believed a learning team is also a successful team.
4. Performance and Rewards: While collaboration is the watchword here, many successful teams prefer its members to compete against each other in a healthy spirit (Quigley, Tekleab & Tesluk, 2007). Fostering healthy competition between different team members promotes high performance and should be strongly encouraged. It is often seen that competitive tendency brings out the winner in even among the most undervalued teams (Quigley, Tekleab & Tesluk, 2007).

Gaps in Literature

While the research study addresses several major issues connected with team building, a few problems could not be addressed:

1. No description of real sample games: The team game chosen by our group was simplistic and did not require any extensive description.
2. Use of preliminary methods in arriving at final data.
3. The size of the team (4 members) was too small for any significant study of attributes such as power base relationships.

Research Methodology and Design

Overview

In this chapter, we shall discuss various aspects of project initiation, controls and results attributable to detailed project development. To closely understand research design, let us discuss the tasks and sub-routines connected with them. This chapter aims to discuss all relevant research design parameters as applied to our group project as a successful team. The elementary concepts of a high performance team, as discussed in previous chapter have been applied in this experiment to reach a clear conclusion on the points mentioned thus.

Research Design

The team was consisting of four members, all students at the same department in the University of ___. After gathering at a central place, we chose a simple mathematical game based on a Lego house. The task chosen was to assemble various 104 Lego bricks in pre-conceived patterns to complete a missing figure in the shortest possible time. The phenomena was to be observed over some time of 10 days with the hope of recording consisting improvement in performance with each passing day.

As team leader, I took the responsibility of saving daily logs for the activities. The objective was to draw from our experience in the theoretical framework and consistently collaborate to achieve our target of minimising Lego assembly time each day. A stop watch was used to keep track of time being spent on the project. The data was simply recorded using pencil logs and later developed into scalable routines. As described in theory, the task routines were broken down into the following components (refer previous chapter):

1. Each team member was expected to concentrate on only their individual space which meant no pushing, shoving, jostling etc. Team members were advised to stay in control over their excitement and energy.
2. As a thumb-rule, each sample day we built a new Lego-pattern based on common agreement. The idea was to achieve consistently good performance in recorded time without repeating the same pattern over and again.
3. The research activity chosen could be called as research in design because of time-based dependence on various research parameters. The results would justify the means.

Research Schedule and Resource requirements

Continuing from previous section, the research activity chosen was simply based on impromptu collaboration between four members of the team for a common performance act. The resources were minimal and the actual game was played for 10 times at regular intervals for all participants. The following schedule was chosen based on the procedure described in theory:

Day 1: Break-down of all activities into simple, systematic sub-routines and assigning role to team-members:  This was achieved by dividing the entire assembly unit into colour-coded Lego bricks. The bricks were divided into four different colours: red, blue, green and yellow. Each person was assigned his/her unique colour combination. Even though it appeared somewhat difficult, the onus was on team-members to place their bricks in the grid according to their own best judgement and communicate/collaborate with members having bricks of different colours. The overall intention was to avoid time wasting and confusion due to arguments between various members of the same team. Each member was asked to share their information using verbal gestures so as not to disturb the concentration of other players. An outsider was selected to keep a tab on the stop watch for time calculation purposes.

Day 2-10: Developing a learning environment: Since, the Lego-building activity consists of versatile applications in innovative design, the task of team members was further modified into learning from experience. With each passing day, members were expected to be more knowledgeable about their game positions and learning from past mistakes. At the end of each day, we would sit down and discuss our strategies for the next round.

Day 2-10: The Actual Game period

Day 11: Performance and Rewards  The best performer among the group was marked/noted for each days performance and complimented for their resourcefulness. The final day event recognised the importance of star performers and a token cash prize was announced. This building of incentive was seen with active enthusiasm by all members of the team. The complete breakdown of schedule is shown in below figure:

Fig.2: Schedule recorder for various activities in given period.

Analysis

Overview

In this chapter, we shall discuss various aims/objectives findings and discussions derived from previous chapter. The aim of discussing these findings is to understand the role of team-building (and earlier theories) on the goals/research objectives at hand. In trying to understand these goals, our analysis will consist of following discussions: SWOT analysis, economic analysis, risk management issues and conclusions of the team.

SWOT analysis

SWOT is a highly useful methodology used to get a simplistic overview of the strengths and weaknesses of any management exercise (Bloodgood & Bauerschmidt, 2002). After a 10-day trial period, the following SWOT analysis was developed for the 4-member team:

Strengths

1. Effective communication strategy worked. Members listened to each other and positively cared about the other persons opinion. In general, there were no major conflict issues between different members. The team-building focused on a solutions approach to handling various conflicts.
2. Proactive communications between various members of the group. Good compatibility on issues of speed and efficiency. All members understood their roles perfectly and there was little cause for conflict.

Weaknesses

Some members of the team were not skilled enough to understand hand gestures quickly. This cost us considerable time in a few of the observations recorded (see Table 1). This disadvantage was offset by building of positive team values which enabled each member to make extra effort in working out things.

Table 1: Time taken to finish activity (Lego Circles).

Opportunities

As is shown in Table 1, the teams response time to the problem reduced considerably from 42 minutes to 34 minutes, a consistent gain recorded over 5 days.

Threats

No significant threat was conceived in the project activity.

Economic analysis of Project

The following economic analysis has been prepared as part of the projects impact on several economic criteria. It should be known this project did not have any cost bearings on the participating team members. Still, several economic criteria can be used to describe the events:

1. Multi-tasking: The project tested each team members ability to perform more than one task diligently and with effective impact. I, as team member was simultaneously engaged in co-ordinating the exercise and motivating my team to excel. Other members of the team did their part to ensure every step is taken to reduce average time for the game. Taking notes, forming quick mental associations, developing free thinking strategies were part of the ritual.
2. Maximum utilisation of resources in fixed supply: From the very beginning, there was no doubt in the fact that the Lego bricks which came with unique designs were limited in initial supply. Each team member had to use his/her imagination to ensure no mismatch occurred during the assembly and consequent problems generated due to resources in fixed supply (Preston, 2005). With experience (i.e. by 10^th day), all members were able to picturise their optimum path in ensuring all bricks got assembled without causing shortage. There were occasions when these goals could not be met because the bricks were already assembled inside and so, the entire structure had to be dismantled causing considerable time delay. Luckily, it could be compensated by suitable arrangements in project research design.

Risk Management

The following risks were measured as part of the overall project. The fall-out of any of these risk criterion would have only meant an increase in assembly time for the overall Lego structure. Thus, the risk context established is increase in assembly time for overall Lego structure. Most risk sources were internal to the environment (Dorfman, 2007) which refers to any faulty arrangement of Lego building blocks in the assembly line. To mitigate risks, the following criterion were chosen:

1. Mapping out the process (Dorfman, 2007): The process, as discussed earlier was mapped out using the colour code for bricks (each participating member selected their colour). This ensured there was no resulting confusion in the final assembly and each team member could perform his/her job without interference from another member.
2. Scenario analysis (Dorfamn, 2007): Several alternative scenarios were discussed in strategy to ensure no combination of Lego bricks creates a sorting problem. Bricks of similar shape and design were lumped together to achieve a realistic possibility of getting quick and easy brick combinations. In the inevitable scenario the wrong categories of bricks came in view as a result of chance, team members were advised to remember the sequence in which identical shapes appeared. With the end of repetitive experimentation, this concept was memorised in the best possible way, therefore eliminating all possibility of risk. To defeat chances of unfortunate combinations, team members were advised to communicate their intuitive gestures as quickly as possible. The eventual application of scenario analysis allows us to achieve a realistic risk assessment project in this report.

Conclusion

Summary

These are the major highlights of this assignment report corresponding to every aim/objective outlined in the study:

1. Understanding the common problems which creep up when a team comes together. The problems identified in both theory and experiment are: conflict resolution, power distribution (hierarchy), risk management and personality clashes between various team members
2. Finding solutions to such problems using secondary literature. Several literature sources (books and journals) were selected to achieve realistic solutions to the problems raised in the study. The four effective solutions discussed are: break-down of all activities into simple, systematic sub-routines; assigning role to team-members; developing a learning environment and finally, rewards for good performance and active contribution to team efforts
3. Learning about team building values which aid in the transition from a pseudo-team to a high-performance team. Several team building values were discussed chief among them motivation among team members, trust and collaboration, creativity and efficiency etc. The most salient feature of good team-work is the ability of individual member to overcome his/her self interests in favour of teams interests.
4. Application of above theories in a real project case study. All above theories were tested in a real-term team activity (a game which consisted of forming random assemblies using LEGO structures over a period of 10 days). The corresponding experiment results were later analysed for risk management, SWOT analysis and economic analysis in addition to corresponding with team building figures.

Thus, it can be seen every conceivable effort has been made to answer aims/objectives of present research.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are made for further study:

1. Use of critical path method (C.P.M.) which is a very important project management tool in coordinating various aspects of scheduling in the study.
2. Coordination with more game activities since they reinforce essential concepts of team work in a practical, easy-to-understand way.
3. The use of diagnostic tool for log-keeping in complex aspects of studying this report (Figure 1).

References

Bloodgood, J.M. & Bauersmith, A., 2002, Competitive Analysis: Do Managers Actually CompareTheir Firms to Competitors, Journal of Managerial Issues, Vol.14.

Dorfman, M., 2007, Introduction to Risk Management and Insurance, Prentice-Hall.

Fiore, S.M., 2008, Interdisciplinary as Teamwork: How the Science of Teams can Inform Team Science, Small Group Research, 39 (3), 410-476.

Quick, T.L., 1992, Successful Team Building, AMACOM (American Management Committee).

Quigley, N.R., Tekleab, A.G. & Tesluk, P.E., 1^st Oct 2007, Comparing Consensus and Aggregation-based Methods of Measuring Team-level Variables: The Role of Relationship Conflict and Conflict Management Processes, Organizational Research Methods, 10 (4): 589-608.

Maddux, R.B. & Wingfield, B., 2003, Team Building: An Exercise in Leadership, Business and Economics.

Mathieu, J., Maynard, M.T., Rapp, T. & Gilson, L., 2008, Team Effectiveness 1997-2007: A Review of Recent Advancements and a Glimpse into the Future, Journal of Management, 34 (3), 410-476.

Mchugh, P.P., 1997, Team-based Work Systems: Lessons from the Industrial Relations, Human Resource Planning, Vol.20.

McMaster, K. & Espin, C., 2007, Technical Features of Curriculum-Based Measurement in Writing, Journal of Special Education, Vol.41.

Mears, P. & Voehl, F., 1994, Team Building: A Structured Learning Approach, CRC Press.

Michaelsen, L.K., Knight, A.B., & Fink, L.D., 2002, Team-Based Learning, Praeger.

Newstrom, J.W. & Scanell, E.E., 1997, The Big Book of Team Building Games, Mc-Graw Hill Professional.

Preston, M.R., 2005, Introduction to Economic Analysis, Caltech Institute of Technology, Vol.23 (7).

Sewell, G., 1998, The Discipline of Teams: The Control of Team-based Industrial Work Through Electronic and Peer Surveillance, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol.43