Team building is an essential part of the sufficient functioning of the organization (Dyer, Dyer and Dyer 232). Various types of team building exist such as building the team from the beginning and inspiring the team spirit in the existing team (“Community Tool Box. Section 4: Building Teams: Broadening the Base for Leadership” par. 12). In this instance, volunteering contributes to the advancement of the dynamics of the already existing team. However, it contributes to the engagement in the activity with the local communities to create the interest in the company and support its corporate values. It is evident that volunteering starts gaining popularity in the world, as a social phenomenon, which contributes to the development of the positive attitudes in the society.
Corporate social responsibility is an important element, which helps build a positive image of the company (Mullerat and Brennam 123). In the context of the case study, it is evident that the involvement in volunteering activities contributes to building a sufficient corporate image. While organizing the volunteering activities companies has a strong integration with the community and assure that they do not cause any damage to the society or environment. In this instance, volunteering not only contributes to the improvement of the team dynamics within the organization but also to the integration with the community and development of the positive brand image by taking responsibilities for the actions.
Volunteering activities are not only advantageous for the enhancement of team spirit and improvement of team dynamics, but they also affect other activities in the organization a positive way. For example, UPS mentions that volunteering assists in the development of the leadership skills among the employees. Moreover, as it was mentioned earlier, volunteering helps build the positive brand image of the company, as this activity shows that the enterprise is interested in the local communities. Furthermore, various volunteering experiences teach the employees various skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking as surroundings have a tendency to change (Thomas-Baily par.1). In the end, the companies have qualified personnel and a positive corporate image.
It could be said that UEA provides a variety of the volunteering activities, which are available for employees (“Volunteering in UAE” par. 1). It could be said that it is widely spread, as it starts to gain the popularity in the world. For instance, Dubai actively launches the volunteering activities, and EnerPlastics LLC sponsors it (“Dubai Cares” par. 12). It could be said that the organizations and employees have a positive attitude regarding volunteering, as it contributes to the team building and positive perceptions of the company among the society members. It is evident that volunteering is beneficial for the businesses and society, as it contributes to finding the solutions to the critical issues and cultivating an understanding of the necessity of the volunteering as a social action. However, the volunteering starts to gain popularity, but not many companies participate in it.
Seagate’s Morale-Athon
Team building is an essentiality, and it contributes to the understanding of the goals of various team members (Topchik 55). It could be said that in this case, the Seagate uses the activities to enhance the team dynamics within the organization. In my opinion, all of the events are sufficient for the team building, as they are aimed at taking the employees out of their comfort zones. Nonetheless, Tuesday Testing the Limits is one of the possible events for enhancing the team spirit since each of the team members has to contribute to keeping the stuffed animal with him/her all the time. This exercise teaches that people have to take into account small tasks seriously, as they are the part of their daily routine and affect the job performance dramatically.
As for being cohesive, it could be said that all of the activities except the tasks during the first day are aimed at building the team spirit and discovering new opportunities. It could be said that the event of the last day tests the ability of the team to act as a sophisticated mechanism. In this instance, the level of competition increases, and the members of the teams have to be as cohesive as possible to perform successfully. Moreover, as it was mentioned earlier, taking care of the stuffed animal also contributed to building a sufficient communication within the team since the toy requires a high level of attention.
Lastly, it could be said that UAE provides various team-building activities, which are necessary to enhance the development of the organization. It could be said that this type of activities is more popular that volunteering since the tasks are easy to implements and do not involve additional resources. It could be said that a particular organization exists to improve the structures of the teams in the companies. For instance, Turn Around offers such activities as All Hands, Rock My Boat, and Photoshoot (“Turn Around” par. 1). All of the activities remain exciting and challenging and contribute to the effective team building.
Dyer, Gibb, Jeffrey Dyer, William Dyer. Team Building: Proven Strategies for Improving Team Performance. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013. Print.
Mullerat, Ramon, and Brennam, Daniel. Corporate Social Responsibility of the 21st century. Bedfordshire: Kluwer Law International, 2011. Print.
Thomas-Baily, Carlene. “The Benefits of Volunteering.” The Guardian. 2010. Web.
Topchik, Gary. The First-time Manager’s Guide to Team Building. Caribou: Silverstar Enterprises, 2007. Print.
Over the last years, there is an urgent need for any organization in cooperation and collaboration within its staff. Many organizations expand the scope of their activities, trying to be competitive of the world market. The rapid growth of digital technologies and technological processes demand integration. Nowadays, the information sharing acquires global character.
In the era of the strongest world competition, teamwork is the factor that predetermines the success of any organization. Teamwork plays an important role in the achievement of the positive results of the organization and promotes the maintenance of the competitive strengths of the company. Teamwork is that tool that reduces the level of hostility between people.
For the contemporary economy, changes are the natural occurrence. Simultaneously with organizational changes, there is a need for adaptation for those people who have to work in the newly formed groups and to interact under new conditions. That is why the building of the effective team to a large extent predetermines the success of the organizations activity.
Team building is the intense process aiming the improvement and the increasing of the effectiveness of a team (Types of Interventions, n.d.). The priority areas of team building are “diagnosis, task accomplishments, team relationships, team and organization processes” (Types of Interventions, n.d.,p.2).
Apart from the recognition of the benefits of teamwork, their potential opportunities are not used to the full extent. One of the reasons of this phenomenon is the fact that managers neglect the role of a team and do not realize how to use it effectively.
The notion team may be defined as a group of several persons acting together during a work performance or any activity. In other words, it is a group of individuals who split working functions among each other, and who are responsible for the achievement of specific results. The members of the team are interdependent in their activity. It is possible to distinguish several important features that are adherent to teams. The first one is interdependence, which implies that every member of a team makes a contribution to work. All the members depend upon each other and share information with each other. Moreover, a team is characterized with sharing responsibility and outcome orientation.
It is possible to distinguish between two main types of teams such as cross-functional and intact teams. A cross-functional team consists of the representatives of different departments of the same organization. They may be professionals who specialize in various spheres of activity. “Personnel from different areas such as engineering, marketing, logistics, and production unite during product design and development to form cross functional teams” (Deshpande, 2013, p.28).
The existence of the teams of this type is stipulated by the presence of one concrete task. The team exists until this task is completed. For the members of this team the work over this task is of secondary importance relatively to their main activity.
The intact team is a production department or a long-term working group that produces a definite product or renders various services. Some developed intact teams may function as small enterprises. Each team establishes its own goals.
The contemporary business environment is characterized with the limitations of resources and the budget curtailment. Under such circumstances, the effective teams are the key factor for the transitional difficulties reduction and for the achievement of the organizational success. The use of teamwork leads to the significant quality improvement of the labor force.
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.
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 region’s most prestigious accounts (Wetlaufer 30). However, in1980 Randy’s 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 director’s 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 randy’s 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 Randy’s 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 organization’s 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 organization’s 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 customer’s trust. Efforts should be made to ensure that company’s secrets are not exposed to the outside community. Erick, must take up his position as the company’s 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 Wasn’t.” Harvard Business Review (1994):22-38. Web.
I would talk to my team members about the habit, and if there are no changes I would report the conflict to our tutor. However, I would attempt to encourage my team members to abide by the norms of the group. If norms were not established for the group, I would facilitate members to formulate them and identify the goals and purpose of the team. This would ensure that team members are focused on their activities and that they do not spend time doing things that are not related to the activities of the group (De Janasz, Dowd & Schneider, 2012).
My immediate reaction would be initiating a talk with the team leader to request him or her to solve the conflict. As a team member writing about this situation, I would feel embarrassed that we have performed poorly in our assigned tasks as a result of team members spending time doing things that are not part of the assigned group tasks. Prioritizing tasks could have helped avoid this situation. An accommodating approach would be used to solve the conflict by encouraging cooperation among teammates.
De Janasz and colleagues (2012) say that persons using this approach to solve conflicts should allow other people to express their views. Some things should be avoided when solving the conflict because they would lead to poor results. For example, the person leading the team should not be biased in his or her interaction with the teammates. Offending teammates and not being conciliatory would also be avoided (De Janasz et al., 2012).
Formation of a working group
Thank you for your good post on the group case study. Your post has focused on the requirements for forming a group and its main stages. However, you have not provided your immediate action to the scenario in the case study. If you gave the immediate action, it could have provided a clear answer to the second question in the case study. Although you have explained the advantages of working in groups, you have not stated the disadvantages.
You have clearly stated the things that should be adopted in each stage to ensure that the group succeeds in achieving its goals. You have not provided the things that should be avoided when using your approaches to solve the conflict in the scenario. This could be important because different approaches specify some things that should not be done by teammates to increase the chances of group success. This is a good post that could have been made better by incorporating the parts that I have mentioned.
Conflict avoidance scenario
I think that you have provided an answer to the first question in the scenario. However, you have not highlighted your immediate action to the conflict highlighted in the case study. I think that you have concentrated too much on describing your roles in the different stages of a group and skipped some questions. For example, there is no answer provided to the question of how you would feel if you were a member of the team writing about the situation.
Also, you have not provided some of the things that could have been done to avoid conflict in the case study. Also, the last question, which asked for specific things to avoid when applying a particular approach, has not been answered. I think it would be better if you organized the post to better respond to all the questions. This could be achieved by answering the questions in the order they were asked.
Problems that negatively affect the group
I have learned about problems that might negatively impact a group. From my classmates, I have understood that there are several approaches to solve the conflict in the case study. There are two key things that I would take away from this discussion. First, it is important to identify the goals and purpose of any group. Second, clear stages should be followed in forming and working in a group.
Reference
De Janasz, S. C., Dowd, K. O., & Schneider, B. Z. (2012). Interpersonal skills in organizations. (4th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
A high-performance team has a shared vision, clear goals, and expectations, effective communication, trust, and ownership (Horine, 2009).
Shared Vision
Each individual in the team is aware of their leader’s vision, is devoted to this vision, and considers the vision to belong to him/her. When all individuals in the team know the direction of the team and how they support the objective and target of the team, productivity improves. Successful teams honor and encompass diverse opinions.
Clear Goals and Expectations
Clear goals and expectations together with recognition of skillful hopes propel these teams. For the team members to work for a common goal each individual must recognize the objectives conclusively and know their roles about the overall project objective. The status of the advancement of the objective requires regular observations to ensure all components of the project are moving concurrently.
Effective Communication
Communication among the team members is important for pooling workforces together. Each team member should speak freely on his or her opinions to ensure discussion on the expressions of different ideas and concerns raised to avoid making mistakes during implementation. Continuous meetings and emails should keep all members updated on team strides and any new areas of interest. These meetings also focus on the percentage of the overall completion of the entire project. As such, the stakeholders can measure the duration required for the project to be completed to come up with necessary actions.
Trust
Members of high-performance teams must have faith in each other to have the ability to get their work done perfectly while observing their timetable. When the members do not have faith in one another to accomplish their assignments, a lot of time is lost supervising each other, which can result in friction in the place of work and close supervision by others.
Ownership
The motivation of high-performance team members is the fact that they own the teams’ goals and that they are part of the prosperity of their team’s project. Each team member is supposed to be involved during decision-making processes. This means that clear goals have been set and the members have expectations, which turns to be the shared vision. Once there is a shared vision, all the team members need to own this vision make putting up clear objectives in terms of achieving their goals.
As a project manager of a project that involved fixed assets management and inventory for a particular local bank. The project was very successful as the completion was on time due to various elements of working as a team. First, there was frequent communication between the team members and the project manager on any issues that arose. The issues were discussed conclusively, each member contributed by giving their opinions which had to be considered before conclusions were made.
Before the start of the project, the project manager identified the project deliverables and then discussed the deliverables with stakeholders including the client and the others who were involved in the contract write-up. The project manager then shared the project deliverables with his team and through discussions came up with the project goals and expectations. The project manager developed a project plan while considering both financial and human resources. The project manager also shared the plan with the client to ensure that the client also made his or her preparations.
There was the delivery of project progress reports to the client every week. Discussions on these progress reports took place weekly by the project steering committee of the project to review the progress of the project. All the above ensured the smooth running of the project at all stages. The timelines were met, all deliverables completed on time, and the client was happy.
References
Gourvish, T (2006). Official History of Britain and Channel Tunnel (1st ed.). London, United Kingdom: Roultedge publishers.
Horine, G. (2009). Absolute beginner’s guide to project management (2nd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing.
Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2012). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.
Every individual possesses a unique set of psychological characteristics, and this is why the existence of all teams is associated with diversity. Leading a team is a practice that is inextricably connected with leadership challenges, especially when it comes to the necessity to empower team members. Finding the right way to empower people in a team is extremely important as the opportunity to make decisions on their own has a positive impact on many individuals, making them more creative and immune to stress.
There is a range of ways to empower individuals who form teams at work or educational institutions. Importantly, a thoughtful leader is supposed to choose the empowering strategy based on the key task of a team and its urgency. I believe that the approach to empowering other people should be chosen concerning the context of the situation and my relationships with others. Being a person who sets a high value on diverse social interactions, I have vast experience in leading various teams. However, there is no specific empowering strategy that I use under any circumstances.
When I was a sports team captain a few years ago, I formed my strategy operating on the premise that my teammates and I were in an equal position. Taking into account that we were not professional sporting participants, I thought that all team members were equally responsible for the outcomes and this leadership was rather informal. My approach to empowering others in that team included strengthening emotional links between players and encouraging openness. Thus, in more informal situations, I tend to choose necessary practices proceeding from the fact that emotional cohesiveness helps individuals to enjoy teamwork and get positive emotions (Smith 17). As for me, I am convinced that all people benefit from trust-based relationships with teammates, and this approach helps them to succeed.
The strategy that I prefer to use to empower people in my team is different from the previous one when it comes to all-or-none situations that require taking well-considered decisions. In his book, Lowney defines love as one of the most important qualities of leadership. To him, people who implement a love-driven approach to leadership can see each follower’s talents clearly and find unique ways to elicit their potential (Lowney 170). In my opinion, the combination of this approach and measures helping to create a culture of responsibility acts as the best-empowering strategy to be used in difficult business situations.
Various practices are helping to foster teamwork, but the quality of group working heavily depends on the extent to which people see their efforts as important. To foster teamwork among those whom I lead, I prefer to ensure that all team members are interested in achieving the chosen goal. Also, it is indicated by many authors that proper teamwork is impossible without organizational structures (Marx 82). I agree with Lowney that “using others to achieve a self-interested agenda” is inappropriate and ineffective (178). As opposed to setting a goal that would be helpful to all team members, the above-mentioned approach equates people to material resources and, therefore, makes them work without inspiration.
Overall, the strategy that I use to foster teamwork among the people I lead centers around three main principles. To begin with, I find it important to outline roles based on team members’ competencies and advantages. Apart from that, it is always necessary to develop an organizational structure (sometimes informal) to ensure an effective exchange of relevant information. Finally, I strongly believe that fostering teamwork becomes possible only when a leader demonstrates that the opinion of each team member is valuable.
Works Cited
Lowney, Chris. Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company that Changed the World. Loyola Press, 2010.
Marx, Thomas George. “The Impacts of Company Size on Leadership.” Management and Organizational Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 2017, pp. 82-89.
Smith, Jim L. “Empowering Teams.” Quality, vol. 56, no. 6, 2017, p. 17.
What is the difference, if any, between a group and a team? In what situations would using a team make work more effective, efficient, and productive?
A team refers to a gathering of individuals who depend on one another to achieve specific goals and objectives. Thus, a team is characterized by a common goal and specialized individuals. On the other hand, a group refers to a gathering of people who are out to achieve their own individual goals, and there is no commonality of purpose. Hence, in a group, one individual does not depend on the efforts of others to achieve certain objectives. A team always proves to be more efficient, effective, and productive than a group in cases of handling a long term project. This happens because such a project would need team effort, the commonality of goals and objectives, as well as some aspect of specialization from every member.
What is a distributed team? Describe the pros and cons of working on such a team
A distributed team refers to individuals who have to achieve a common goal but work from different geographical locations during different times without being tied up to the normal conventional office space (Butterfield, 2011). The pros of a distributed team are that it is cheaper since there is no need to have an office space, work is done on a 24 hour basis due to the difference in time zones globally, there is increased diversity because the team is composed of members from different cultural backgrounds and the team is likely to have the best employees as it is not limited to recruiting from a single locality.
The cons of this team are that work progress is hard to track and only depends on the honesty of team members, it is difficult to create a team culture since members are not close to one another, and there is a minimal model of communication limited that is limited to telephone calls, video conferencing and instant messages.
What roles can people play on a team?
The roles people can play in a team, depending on their individual strengths and weakness. There are people who can help in achieving the team goals and objectives by being the co-coordinators, while some people can be resourceful by providing ideas for the team, such people are referred to as innovators. More so, a team also needs to plan how it will achieve its objectives and thus the need for planners. Evaluators and specialists are also needed to come up with the right schedule, budget, and path to be followed by the team members. Finally, the work of a team cannot be a success without the individuals who implement the ideas and plans in order to achieve the goals; these people are known as the implementers and project finishers.
What is groupthink; and what can a group do to avoid groupthink?
Groupthink refers to instances when members of a group make irrational decisions that defy logic as well as common sense simply because they lack proper mental judgment. This sort of behavior is common among people who share the same background and is seen to be the root cause of mob justice. Thus, to avoid groupthink, members of a group should be from different diverse backgrounds since in this way there is an opportunity for members to reason and listen to other people’s opinions before making a decision that could have adverse effects on the society (Butterfield, 2011).
What are the advantages/disadvantages associated with both small and large teams?
The advantages of larger groups are that work takes less time, there is a diversity of ideas, and it is fun to work in such a group. Its disadvantages are; a long decision-making process, discrimination among team members, and rowdiness due to many individuals (Butterfield, 2011). On the other hand, small groups offer a more personal touch to members, there is less time consumed in decision making, and every member is guaranteed equal participation in the project. Its disadvantages are that skills are limited to the few members, projects take a long time, and team members may be overworked.
Reference
Butterfield, J. (2011). Illustrated Course Guides: Teamwork & Teambuilding-Soft Skills for a Digital Workplace. Web.
After retirement from professional sports, George Athlete returned to his native Ottawa and started a small pub called Puck Stop with a small capital investment. It easily caught on with the students of University of Ottawa and the venture was making profit. Another Puck Stop was started in a neighbouring area. Sports Action Facilities was established in each Puck Stop. A participating video game system was introduced in the bars using satellite communication and network technology. It was decided to hold a system wide trivia contest in every Puck Stop on Tuesday nights to improve the mid week business.
The main issues in the case are as follows:
In the case, during the Brainiac game, a regular player Hannah suggested the other regulars to play cooperatively to improve the answering. They require more people to participate in the team, as currently there were only four. Another regular is Mike Colangelo, who has answered 45 questions but others contributed only one or two, which shows the weakness of the team in certain areas. The weak areas were arts and sciences. They decided to recruit more players in the team to win the contest. Hannah brought two friends and Mike added an English professor named Bob Carstairs, from the University.
A team of 15 members was developed at the end of fourth week of the contest in which ten were like Hannah and five like Mike. This contributed to the team coming in the top three ranking positions. In the eighth week, Bob introduced a new player called Wombat who usually plays the game in other bars. Along with him, the team was able to move up to the last question where there was a controversy. A conflict arises between Bob and Wombat, which made the situation worse and the team could win only by a narrow margin. (Puck Stop, 214-217).
Problem statement
The main problems identified in the team are as follows:
The team lacks a proper structure and the combined efforts of all the individuals are missing as only some members are participating in the contest and answering the questions.
The team lacks proper communication between the members.
There is a lack of motivation among the team members.
Could Jack Stanley have intervened in any way to prevent the poor sales result that ultimately occurred?
This case study brings out the importance of clear interaction and motivation in any group action. Lack of communication and motivation among its members will end up in failure of the team. Even Jack Stanley, an experienced Puck Stop trouble-shooter from Ottawa who has been sent to a newly opened Puck Stop in forest hill village, was unable to guide the team with relevant information and guideline.
Jack Stanley was brought in order to develop the newly opened Puck Stop and he was supposed to hand his job over to local management once he made the unit profitable. To begin with, he was successful and was able to bring a marginal profit within a year but later he failed, as he was not consistent enough to promote the sale. In this case in order to develop midweek business, management decided to hold a system wide trivia contest (Brainiac) on Tuesday nights. The rules of the game laid great stress on team participation.
Though Jack tried to ensure that the patrons got a clear-cut idea of the contest through displayed posters and promotional texts to conserve TV feed advertising, it was not good enough to communicate and generate publicity about the game. The rules of the game did not specify the structure of participant teams, which caused a big dilemma among participants, and this might be the primary reason for the team failure. Jack, whose physical presence was there through out the event, was unable to identify the problems in the participant teams and to give the solution; instead, he was satisfied with the contest until the final event. Here the problem was poor communication. The downward flow of communication, that is, from top to bottom was not good enough to simplify the game procedure.
“Communication is physically disseminated throughout the pyramid from the top.” (Downward Communication – Communication, Slide. 5). Here, by ‘top’, it is intended to mean the management who made the rules and procedures of the game and sent it across Jack, the next level who is supposed to transfer it to the participants. Jack showed his active presence through out the event. He tried to motivate the participants by reserving a segregated section towards the rear and disconnected the jukebox for the duration of Brainiac and also offered on the house drink to players. But all this was not sufficient to stop the team from loosing and the outcome was a poor sale which was totally unexpected.
Certainly, Jack Stanley intervened some how to prevent the poor sales result but it was not at all enough. He could have done better if he had coordinated the sales along with proper communication and motivation process.
Recommendations with learning applications
Organizational Structure
An organization’s working depends mainly on the behaviour of both individuals and groups. However, looking at the organization as a whole, the focus should be on the organizational structure. Success of the organization depends upon the structure it follows. A proper organisational structure is essential for the success of any organisation. If there is no sophisticated and well-designed organisational structure, it will affect the well-being and even the survival of the organisation. Organisational structure is defined as a structure, which lays down, “how organisation’s individuals and groups are put together or organised to accomplish work.” (Organisational Structure – Chapter 14, 482).
A well-structured organization possesses well-motivated employees with proper communication. Division of labour and coordination of the members are the two basic things that an organization should do to achieve the goals. Individuals are different and it is a fact that not everyone can do everything. The physical and intellectual capacities of individuals are different and thus vertical and horizontal dimensions could be used for the division.
Communication
Proper communication is essential for the success of any organisation. “Communication is the process by which information is exchanged between a sender and a receiver.” (Chapter 10: Communication, 338). The case mainly deals with the interpersonal communication in a team. If there is no proper communication among the employees at different levels, it may affect the smooth functioning of the organisation. The communication process has to be liberalised in such a way that all the team members can contact each other. Simple communication process starts with the sender encoding his thoughts and transmitting it to the receiver. The receiver perceives the message, decodes it, and provides feedback to the sender.
A communication is effective only if the right people receive the information in right time. Mainly three forms of communication take place: downward, upward and horizontal. Upward communication is from the bottom to the top. Downward communication takes place when the management passes the information to the bottom level. Communication between departments or functional units is called horizontal communication. In order to be effective, communication should possess some basic qualities as follows: efficient time, giving proper attention to the other person in the communication, avoiding confusion regarding the problem, providing effective feedback to the sender.
Motivation of employees
Motivation is very much related to the performance of the employees. If the employees are not properly motivated, it may adversely affect their performance thereby impacting the overall performance of the organisation. It is natural that the employees will react against any new system if it is introduced all on a sudden. Different methods can be used to motivate the employees. We can have a look at the theories of motivation.
Maslow’s Hierarchy Need theory: this theory says, “Humans have five set of needs that are arranged in a hierarchy, beginning with the most basic and compelling needs.” (Theories of Work Motivation – Chapter 5, 158).
The physiological needs: this theory says that needs that are necessary for survival is physiological needs such as food, water, oxygen, shelter. Organizational factors that satisfy these needs include the minimum pay for survival and working conditions promoting existence. (Theories of Work Motivation – Chapter5).
Harmony at the work place
Organisational structure is the backborn of any organisation. If there is no structure for an organisation, random interaction among resources may happen, which may be without control or guidance. Proper communication or interaction among resources is possible only if there is a solid structure to the organisation. If the structure is weak, then interaction may get interrupted. “The purpose of structure is to facilitate the appropriate interaction among of resources.”
(The Propose of Structure- Organization Structure Chapter 14, slide 3). It may cause high turnover and job dissatisfaction among the employees as well. This situation disables the organization to create a harmonious work group. Only a harmonious work group can bring desired outcome. It is clear from the case that conflict between Bob and Wombat and quitting of Wombat from the team has led the team winning only by a narrow margin.
A comparison between the team of Mike and Hannah and formal organization
Hannah Kurtzman introduced a new system to improve the performance level of a game. She was a regular player who made rounds of the bar and suggested to other players to perform with full cooperation and calculate the overall efficiency of the performance. She divided the members based on mutual agreements and shared their experience regarding the assigned task. Her organization is focused on the mutual understanding of members.
She does not think about a formal structure before making the suggestions and instructions regarding an assigned task. She felt that it is very difficult and complicated task in the practical aspect of an organization. Finally, she found that it must take some more members to form a well-designed and successful form of an organisation.
The following are the important aspects of a formal organisation.
The organisation must have a proper and well-designed structure.
System of division of labour must be implemented for the proper functioning of the organisation.
The organisation should establish an efficient system of payment.
The organisation should avoid favouritism and personal bias.
There should be a proper communication channel to avoid inconvenience in communication.
Both Hannah and Mike put together their efforts to make their team into a formal or well-designed organization. First, they established a proper communication channel to make sufficient interaction with their team. The next priority was allocation of task to the group members. As it is similar to formal organization structure, the team is considered as a major department of an organization.
Reconstructing the team
Team effort is essential to win a game, which involves more than one member. In the case study of the Puck Stop, it is clear that there was no proper and harmonious teamwork within the team. From the analysis of the case, it is clear that the team efforts were absent which caused failure of the team and made the members to be away from the games and Puck Stop itself. The theories of the organizational structure can be applied here. The division of labour is an important aspect of the organizational structure. (The Dividion and Coordination of Labour, 482).
The team led by Mike and Hannah was performing at an average level but frequent failures and lack of co-operation from within resulted in the collapse of the team. Though Hannah and Mike recruited new people to their team, some thing was still lacking. That was the ultimate cause of the collapse of the team and resulted in the team members not coming to Puck Stop itself. One day Mike surprisingly met Hannah in the Puck Stop and discussed the possibility of reconstructing the team.
However, now all the efforts must be made to avoid the reasons for failure as happened the last time. Different problems, which caused the failure, include lack of cooperation, lack of motivation and lack of proper team structure etc. In the new team structure Mike can be the leader of the team as he is having good experience and he is better than other team members. Hannah can be as assistant leader who will assist Mike and will lead the team in the absence of Mike.
Under Hannah Bob and Wombat should be placed in the team structure. Rest of the team members will come under Bob and Wombat. Mike, Hannah, Bob and Wombat are supposed to motivate the team members, as the lack of motivation was one of the chief reasons for failure on the last occasion. The concept of ‘management by objectives’ states that, managers have to motivate the subordinates for achieving the specific objectives. (Introduction to Organizational Behaviour, slide 6).
Here, in this case, the leaders like Mike and Hannah need to motivate the team members to attain the objective of the team, which is winning games. This case mainly deals with motivation and its effects on team members. Motivation is a vital part of any organization. The motivation theories say that only through proper motivation employees will be able to achieve their organizational goals, which, in turn, will result in job satisfaction. Motivation is the extent to which the efforts of the leader or manager are directed towards a goal. (Theories of Work Motivation – Chapter5).
In addition, in the newly constructed team, proper communication should be present to ensure the success of the team. Each team member should be allowed to communicate with each other, so that games can be easily won. The team can follow either of the following communication systems during the contest.
Team members can develop a jargon, which can be used to communicate with each other during the contest. In case of contest, jargon helps to communicate the answers with peers i.e. the team members.
Nonverbal communication through some medium like body language viz. raised eyebrows, smoke screen etc, that is, other than speech or writing. Body language, a form of non-verbal communication through bodily motions and facial expressions can be used for communication.
Works Cited
Chapter 10: Communication. 338. (Provided by the customer).
Downward Communication – Communication: Chapter 10. Slide. 5. (Provided by student).
Introduction to Organizational Behaviour, Motivation: chapter – 6. Slide 6. (Provided by student).
Organisational Structure – Chapter 14. 482. (Provided by student).
Puck Stop. 214-217. (Provided by the customer).
Theories of Work Motivation – Chapter 5. 158. (Provided by the customer).
The Propose of Structure- Organization Structure Chapter 14. slide 3. (Provided by the customer).
The Dividion and Coordination of Labour: Organizational Structure – Chapter 14. 482. (Provided by student).
Theories of Work Motivation – Chapter5: Need Theories of Work Motivation: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. (Provided by student).
Theories of Work Motivation – Chapter5: What is Motivation. (Provided by student).
The name of the company is Lions Share, Inc. To create the name, we sought a title representing power, prestige, and legacy together with experience and skills. We decided that a lion, a strong and gracious animal, would be the best representation of what the company is. Furthermore, among other names that we considered, a lion also seems to be a perfect representation of reliability and excellence, and commitment to products and customers.
Setting Up a Virtual Team
The team’s vision is to create a company that will provide new and unique products to the world, influence technology, and ensures that products’ quality is incomparable to that of other products, which will not be able to compete with our company’s offer. The team’s goals are to provide consumers with high-quality computers to meet their everyday needs and ensure that the company’s products are budget-friendly and have slow but sustained growth. The roles are divided as follows: the President and VP of Marketing are JO, VP of Business Analytics and VP of Manufacturing is NP, VP of Accounting and Finance and VP of Business Analytics is AA, and VP of Manufacturing and VP of Sales Management is BK.
The team will have the authority to execute all major operations such as choose and implement marketing techniques, ensure that manufacturing is perfect, affect accounting and finance and adjust it to the company’s goals, etc. Each decision regarding a specific process will be made by the appropriate VP. The team is expected to deliver a new line of budget-friendly, quality, and highly competitive products in the market. The exact end of teamwork remains to be unknown, as the team’s responsibility is not only to regulate business processes but also to rule the company, leading to its success. As long as the company exists, so does the team. To measure the team’s success, metrics regarding customer satisfaction, product purchases, the company’s position in the market, and customer retention will be measured. Major milestones include designing, manufacturing, and releasing the product, while major risks are the number of strong rivals in the field, high entrance bar, and the availability of substitute products. To sustain team commitment, we will work on conflicts, expand team-working and social skills, and create an organizational culture where the respectful sharing of feedback is encouraged.
Individual Introductions
My name is JO, and I am currently employed as a materials specialist and also working on an auto detailing business. I have worked as an IMRL Manager (logistics and inventory management). My career goals are to have a few investment properties and grow my detailing business with sustainable success. I am the President and VP of Marketing; the board of directors voted for me to accept this role, which, I believe, fits me perfectly because the assessment shows that my top two traits include being a visionary and an action-taker. The assessment also stressed my skills with technology, tools, or machinery and my people skills. These traits will allow me to help the team produce new and unique products and expand Lions Share Inc.’s influence in the technology world.
I am BK, a U.S. Army veteran who specialized in helicopter repair and eventually worked myself into the role of Crew Chief. I currently work for ASTRA/CFX logistics as a Production Manager; my job duties include the running of a multi-million dollar facility and around 60 employees. My manufacturing background and experience with lean manufacturing techniques will help our company grow at an efficient and sustainable pace and provide customers with quality not present on the market today. I will become the VP of Manufacturing for Lions Share Inc. My experience with manufacturing determined my role in the team. The career discovery assessment demonstrates that I am an active leader who prefers to do something rather than talk and who can work both with technology and people. I plan to use these skills to create sustainable manufacturing and operate teams effectively and respectfully, increasing the engagement of team members.
My name is NP; I work as a Human Resource Adjudicator for a company called Aramark. I am also a sales manager for Best Buy. My career goal is to become a Director for an organization and lead it to greatness. As the VP of Business Analytics, I will utilize my great leadership, verbal and written communication skills, and my acute knowledge of quantitative data analysis to assist the organization in its mission and goal. My assessment results indicate that I am a mentor and a visionary who likes to help and support people and look out for their needs. To ensure high performance, we will build a committed, shared leadership and collaborate and utilize our resources. As a mentor, I will be helpful to the team in work and conflict regulation.
High Performing Teamwork
To ensure high-performing teamwork, Thomas–Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument can be used. The instrument aims to assess the team members’ behavior in conflict situations, consisting of five modes: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating (Trainer, 2010). It will be useful to ask team members to undergo the assessment to not only determine what modes they use to regulate conflict but also to understand how these modes can be adjusted to make teamwork more efficient and conflict less likely or with fewer negative outcomes.
Another step of the effectiveness plan is to utilize Tuckman’s theory of team development. According to this theory, each team undergoes “five stages of team building: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning” (Tuckman & Jensen, 1997, p. 420). The theory emphasizes that teams may fail at the first or, more likely, the second step if the leader is unaware of the processes or cannot handle them. During storming, team members can challenge the leader’s authority or are unable to perform assigned tasks correctly. To overcome this potential problem, team conferences, workshops, and discussions dedicated to conflict resolution will be implemented.
To resolve potential conflicts, four stages of integrative thinking can also be used. The first stage will assist the team in determining the opposing ideas related to the issue (Riel & Martin, 2014). The second stage is to deeply examine the two sides of the problem to understand how they can be used in the future. The third stage is to seek better answers generated by or hidden in the two ideas. At last, the fourth stage is to evaluate the solution and see whether the team is confident in it or not. The advantage of this approach is that it can help address both issues in the team and those related to business processes.
References
Riel, J., & Martin, R. (2014). Integrative thinking 2.0: A user’s guide to your opposable mind. Rotman Management, 1, 4-9.
Trainer, J. (2010). The Thomas–Kilmann conflict mode instrument. Web.
Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group & Organization Studies, 2(4), 419-427.