Identifying Team Problems and Defining Performance Measures - Assignment Example

Improving the Performance of a Team "Work teams are considered the most effective device today for enhancing organizational efficiency." (Nurick, 2001)Work teams consist of a number of members, including a team leader, who work towards a common goal. The successful working of a team depends on task and relationship factors, and technical factors. Task factors include timely performance within the budget, proper concern for quality and the technical results. Relationship factors include the capacity of members and leader to solve conflicts, on their trust for each other, and communication effectiveness. Technical factors include understanding the mission, spelling out goals, and developing activities critical to success of the goal. To improve the functioning of a particular team, these factors have to be addressed. The following steps go towards improving the performance of a team. Step 1: Identifying team problems and defining performance measures A project team is subject to group dynamics because of an assembly of individuals with diverse talents and commitments. The most common problems faced by work teams arise from: Different points of view, role conflicts, implicit power struggles, and groupthink which compromises decisions in favour of unanimity. (Nurick, 2001) There are many other problems that may arise due to behavioural and skill factors. Performance measures need to be devised taking both performance factors and process factors into account. The performance measures would measure the performance/outcome factors which may be: Team cohesion; Improvement orientation like creativity, forward thinking, proactivity; and Team achievements. Team process factors, which also affect the performance of a team includes factors such as: Team relationships, team focus, approach to performance, leadership style, team discipline, team decision making, team confidence, value of contributions, decision focus, social contact, process focus, and lastly, consistency. Team performance is also related to attractiveness of performance, agreement with team goals, team goal level, and willingness to use cross-training, perceived participation, team efficacy, and team commitment. Some factors which also need to be measured are: 1. Team member dispositions - Studies have indicated that employees' need for achievement, need for affiliation, aggressiveness towards other people and the value placed on autonomy affect the team in a lot of ways. 2. Team process skills - process skills include skills like communication, leadership, goal setting, problem solving, and conflict resolution skills. 3. Employee perceptions about the team - This includes perceptions about team efficacy, and perceived participation. 4. Goals and goal commitments - this includes factors like team goal level, goal commitment, agreement with team goal, and performance expectations. 5. Attractiveness of performance and self efficacy. (Scott and Townsend, 1994) Measures that take the above factors into account can help assess how the team would fare in a task and what is to be done to improve its performance. Step 2: Making the Team and Planning Work Activities The second step to enhancing team performance involves the selection and training of the team and planning the work activities for the team. Selection: To ensure team effectiveness one criterion for selection of members of a team is interpersonal skills. Other criteria would include the member disposition, member skill sets, commitment to goals, and other such factors. This can be done by using the performance measures devised in the first step. Training: The next step would involve training the team in product knowledge, time management; interpersonal skills like listening, assertiveness, and conflict management skills; creativity; meeting deadlines; energy and determination; reporting and administration; personal appearance and image; steadiness under pressure, and such other factors. In addition to receiving training in skills they should be empowered to use the skills. Conducting team building programs which enhance commitment and cohesion helps to improve team performance. Planning work Activities This involves taking several steps like: 1. Calculate the shortest time necessary to complete the project: This would require information about the start of project, duration of each stage, and the deadline. 2. Plan costs like staff time and wages, overheads, raw materials, equipment administration. This should be done while avoiding underestimating the costs. 3. Schedule projects properly. 4. Monitor the progress of the project. This would involve monitoring of in-progress costs, time-scales, and quality. There are several methods of control which can help monitor the implementation of a project. These include control point charts, project control charts, and milestone charts. Contingency plans are also required in this step to cope with movements in goalposts. 5. Team briefing at regular intervals is very important to review the performance and to clarify the steps towards achievement of goals. The team leader has a very important role to play. He organizes the boundaries of the project and the team has the autonomy and freedom to move within those boundaries. The absence of such a structure may lead to power struggles, anxieties, hidden agendas or withdrawal. The leader also sets the tone for the team, establishes attitudes of empathy and acceptance, monitors discussions, and encourages full participation, and motivates performance as a team. The selection of a good leader is one of the most crucial factors in determining performance of a team. Step 3: Help Individual members improve performance The next step would be to assess an individual's past performance, find the reasons for poor performance and help members develop themselves. Poor performance may be caused by lack of knowledge, skills, stress, health issues, poor management etc. these factors need to be dealt separately. The supervisor has the role of assessing a team member's performance, and suggests ways and means to address performance issues and help in improving performance. The supervisor should not be a decision maker but rather a facilitator by listening actively, provide information, and help focus ideas, give feedback on strengths and weaknesses, refer the employee to other sources of information, and assist them in developing proper action plans. He has to decide which are "must" interventions, and which are "can" interventions. (Grimes, n.d.) Feedback is very critical to improving individual performance. Effective and timely feedback to employees improves their performance. Certain elements are needed to ensure its effectiveness: Specificity, Timeliness, and Manner. These three elements need to be handled in a proper manner to maintain the effectiveness of feedback. (Feedback is critical to improving performance, 1994) Step 4: Monitor progress and Address issues This step involves monitoring of the progress of a team using performance measures, and selecting improvement initiatives, and finally assessment of the effectiveness of initiatives undertaken. As a team progresses through different stages of maturity, the type of leadership and organizational support it requires changes. So a team's ability to function should be monitored and the fit of organizational support processes must be monitored and maintained as well. The other factor monitored should be the nature of team processes. As a team develops, it progresses from being a collection of individuals to a collectivity with compatible mental states. These states shape the beliefs and expectations of members about appropriate behaviours with respect to one's teamwork and task work. This needs to be monitored for aberrations. Improvement initiatives would involve addressing gaps in support structure and providing training to address interpersonal problems of a team. (Groesbeck and Aken, 2001) Step 5: Grievance procedures and Disciplinary actions The last step involves contributing effectively to disciplinary and grievance procedure which is in line with company policy and legal requirements. If the team members have any grievances like disciplinary actions related to dismissal. Redundancy, discrimination, abuse, breach of contract etc., they need to be addressed promptly and effectively. This is necessary to enhance the confidence of team members in the redressal of grievances. It goes a long way in improving team performance. In order to promptly address such issues, grievance procedures need to be identified and set in place. Such procedures would also deal with confidentiality issues. Warning processes, redundancy procedures are examples of these procedures. References Grimes, C.F. Individual Employee Training and Development. Retrieved on 23 June 2006 from http/: www.accel_team.com/05_training.pdf Groesbeck R. and Aken, E.M.V. Enabling team wellness: monitoring and maintaining teams after startup. Team performance Management: An International Journal.Vol.7 No.1/2, 2001, pp.11-20. Retrieved on 23 June 2006 from Emerald Database. Nurick, A.T. (2001). Facilitating Effective Work Teams. (Electronic version) Sam Advanced Management Journal. Retrieved 23 June 2006 from Emerald Database. Scott, K.D. and Townsend, A. "Teams." HR Magazine. Aug 9, Vol.39, issue, pp. 62. Retrieved on 23 June 2006 from EBSCO Business premier Database. Read More