Using Team to Build a Better Workplace - Coursework Example

Using Team to Build a Better Workplace One of the crucial assets of an organization is the employees. Employees are a rich store of skills, abilities, creativity and innovation. It is the ultimate goal of every organization to achieve optimal productivity of its employees. To achieve this, proper harnessing of these resources is required. One of the ways of increasing productivity of employees is by organizing them into groups. These groups are best referred to teams. A team is a collection of individuals who share responsibilities, accountability and targets. Teams can be either informal or formal but the latter is commonly used in the business organizations. Every team selects a team leader who oversees its activities and necessary resources are allocated to it to facilitate smooth running. Each group is then assigned a task or a problem which it is expected to tackle. (1) Organizations use the team work due to the following reasons: team work provides opportunities to share ideas and strengths, improves productivity, helps in keeping high employees’ morale and provides employees with sense of identity and belonging. There reasons have been described below. Organizations prefer using teams in the workplace because they provide an opportunity to share ideas and strengths. Every employee in an organization has different ideas, strengths, talents and experience. Working as a team enables sharing of ideas, opinions and experiences hence having a wider pool of views and experiences. The organization’s management is therefore in a better position to make informed and better decisions that achieve the organization’s goals. The employees are assigned tasks where they can deliver best which leads to improved work performance. The employees are also incorporated into the organization’s decision making process and it becomes easier for the employees to adopt new policies. Team work boosts the morale of the employees. Each employee is provided with the opportunity to participate in the activities of the organization through their teams. The employees participate in the tackling of tasks allocated to their respective teams and this creates a sense of responsibility and accountability. They feel appreciated and this boosts their working spirit. The competition in the teamwork boosts the morale of the employees as they strive to be the best in the team. The end result is that they perform better hence feeling happy. This makes the working place a pleasant and a friendly place. Working through teamwork can also reduce conflicts that may arise in competition of resources. Members working as a team will share the available resources equally hence creating a trust worth working environment. Using teamwork improves the productivity of the employees .Every member of a team is allocated a responsibility in a given task. This reduces the workload and work pressure that would have been tackled by one person. Every team member is given the task depending on his area of specialization, talent and ability. This facilitates faster completion of tasks as well as producing high quality products. Urgent tasks are also effectively tackled in a team as there is sharing of duties and responsibilities. Working as a team also gives the organization employees with identity, sense of belonging and common purpose. Any team is normally formed with and aim of supporting one another to achieve a common goal. Every team member is allocated a duty that they are required to tackle. This gives the feeling that every employee is working for the overall achievement of the organization’s goals. Once the goal is achieved, every member feels that they contributed to that success. This creates a feeling of identity, ownership and a sense of belonging to the organization. (2) An aristocratic manager is one who has the sole control of the organization. Decisions are made without much consultation from the subordinates. Subordinates take decisions from the manager unquestionably. This has the advantage of quick decision making which is necessary some circumstances such as economic recession which a delay may cause a business failure. On the other hand, a democratic manager is the one who incorporates the subordinates in the decision making process. The views and opinions of the subordinates are considered before coming up with a decision and hence the decisions are easily accepted. It best applies in an organization that has highly skilled workforce. This style has the advantage of consuming time during decision making before the best option is arrived at. It is recommendable that the employer adopts the democratic management style. The pool of ideas and experiences from the employees results to informed decisions. The decision arrived at will incorporate the ideas of the majority and hence the likely hood of its success. The employees easily accept the decision as they have incorporated their views. Incorporation of the employees’ views creates a sense of belonging which boosts their working morale. Exchange of opinions and ideas between the employer and employee creates trust and mutual understanding. This develops a communication channel which is crucial in the organization’s success. (3) A formal team is an organized group that has specific objectives. The team is structured. It has a leader who oversees its activities towards achievement of their specific goals. The members are charged with distinct roles in its activities. The members are accountable for the responsibilities assigned to them. An informal team is an unorganized group with no specific leader. The members of the group have equal status therefore has neither formal structure nor a leader. The group meets by chance to provide opportunities for the members to work together. Informal groups offer support to formal groups. Informal groups facilitate communication hence sharing of ideas and opinions among friends. These ideas are applied in the formal groups. 4 (a) Team working increases productivity of employees which in turn increase the performance of the organization. It holds every member accountable for their assigned tasks. The members are therefore motivated to work to offer the best in the assigned task. The team members are also assigned the responsibility that they fit best and have good experience in. The results of this is a high quality product .This coupled with the fact that there is sharing of ideas and experience results to production of high quality products as well as quantity. (b) Team working can also impact negatively on the organization’s performance especially if democratic management system is adopted. This system which best applies in team work requires the manager to consult the employees before making any decision. The decision making can therefore be lengthy and time consuming. This can be dangerous during economic recession as slight delay in decision making could lead to collapsing of the business. The slow decision making can also stop production process when the company wants to shift from one production process to another. This reduces the flexibility of the organization in response to market changes. Teams can either be formal or informal. The formal team has a structure and a definite objective. The informal team is formed by chance and has neither structure nor leadership. Team work has a number of benefits to the organization such as boosting staff morale, creating a sense of belonging and identity to the employees and increasing their productivity. For effective teamwork, proper management system has to be in place. The democratic management system favors team work as it incorporates the ideas and opinions of the employees. This is unlike the aristocratic management where the manager is the sole decision maker. The organization performance is impacted by the team work in a number of ways such as utilizing the skill, abilities and experience of the employees which increases the organization performance. Read More