Teams Are Critical to Organisational Effectiveness - Coursework Example

Running Head: Teams Are Critical To Organisational Effectiveness Name Course Lecturer Date Teams Are Critical To Organisational Effectiveness Many organizations and many different industries use teams and teamwork to increase their performance, to create organisational culture and also create employee unity. Organisations that keep on developing new ideas, innovations and products assemble teams in order to diffuse responsibility. In such cases, the members in the teams use teamwork to bounce ideas off from each other before settling on a development path for a task or project (Decuyper, Dochy & Van den Bossche, 2010). More than ever before, organizations are more networked, more dynamic and more flexible. Competitive pressures, globalisation and outsourcing are forcing organizations to rely on work teams. With good reason, the teams are fully equipped with experience, skills, reputation and contacts that are needed to get new initiatives up and running. Organizations are very keen on developing team based culture. As Bell & Kozlowski (2002) emphasize, organisations realise that such culture would be used to address everything in the organisation from quality and process improvement initiatives to innovation and product development to corporate celebrations. Hence, teams are very critical in organisational effectiveness. Teams in an organisation play a critical role in organisational effectiveness. They should hold a valuable place in every organisation if they are to achieve effectiveness. Teams make collaboration in an organisation to be essential and this improves organisational effectiveness through delivery of quality work by the teams (Gilson et al., 2005). One of the ways in which teams play a critical role in organisational effectiveness is through communication. Employees who work as teams work well together and they communicate better. Communication helps the members in the teams to recognise variations in communication amongst themselves. Noticing and recognising these variations helps the teams to improve and this improves their efficiency, this in turn improves organisational effectiveness as Schoorman, Mayer & Davis (2007) underscores. Teams enhance communication, improved communication have profound effect on the overall performance of the members, the entire organisation benefits from the improved performance. Teams increase cooperation among the members and consequently to all members of an organisation as Robbins et al., (2013) report. Teams have a higher efficiency than working as an individual. Actually, organizations with individualistic culture have a decrease in efficiency when compared to organizations that encourage teams work. Employees working in organizations with individualistic culture tend to maneuver so that they receive the best possible available resources from the organisation. They involve in unhealthy competition for organisational resources, they block their colleagues from getting resources. Such actions hurt the organisation and reduce its effectiveness. On the other hand, Jones (2010) adds that organizations with team oriented culture encourage cooperation. The members cooperate to further the objectives of the team; they place the team’s objectives ahead of their personal objectives. Pursuing the team’s objectives enhances the performance of the team, this increases the organisational effectiveness. West (2012) specifies that teams encourage work sharing; members in teams know and understand the work and functions of the other members. This proves to be of significance when some employees go on leave, redundancy or an employee is fired indefinitely. Members in a team work very closely, this helps them to know each other’s functions well. Working closely also helps them to absorb each other’s work functions when one or more employee goes on leave, vacation, leaves the organisation or gets sick. This proves to be really important as there is no work function that rags beyond because the particular person responsible is not in the organisation. Importantly, there is no function that can be kept pending because of lack of clarity and understanding. The team members can attend to any question, query and any other matter that arises from the functions. The work flow is not affected either, this proves that teams are critical in organisational effectiveness. Teams prove to be critical to organisational effectiveness through cost savings. Working in teams helps to promote a flatter structure in an organisation as Brown & Harvey (2011) suggests. This type of organisational structure greatly reduces the demand for expensive leadership positions. Teams work, lead and manage themselves without necessarily having a leader for every team. A single manager may be able to provide leadership to teams more effectively as compared to a handful of individuals. This equates to a considerable cost savings, the leaders command higher pay than the individual team members. This indicates that teams, especially to organizations that embrace and rely on teams, have considerable cost savings. There are also other costs that come with the leadership positions that are avoided when teamwork is in play in an organisation; an organisation is able to save on such costs. Instead, an organisation uses such resources to increase its competitive edge and market share. This is very important as it plays a critical role in organisational effectiveness through utilising the savings on cost to enrich itself and hence it is able to keep up with the competition, produce competitive brands and earn increasing revenues as Francis & Reddington (2012) adds. All these aspects increase organisational effectiveness. Teams are critical to organisational effectiveness. Through teamwork, members in an organisation get empowered, they get resourced and they expand their critical thinking through brainstorming as Tushman & Romanelli (2008) affirms. Teams support a more empowered way of carrying out tasks. They help to remove constrains that may prevent individuals from doing their work properly. This does not only increase effectiveness but they also increase efficiency. Individual members become more effective as they learn more and valuable ways of working. Evans & Davis (2005) points that improvement on individual performance and team performance translates for better organisational performance through enhanced ways that encourage effectiveness. Similarly, teams encourage members to express and unleash their skills. More importantly, the members get an opportunity to unleash their energy, interest and drive in performing tasks. Every member brings his or her best skills and qualities in accomplishing the objectives of the team. The combination of the skills and qualities of the members produces greater and more refined output, this increase organisational effectiveness. This is because the teams complete their tasks faster and more effectively than when the tasks would have been tackled by individuals. Teams encourage and improve good employee relations as Barki & Pinsonneault (2005) notes. Teams provide the members or the employees with an opportunity to bond with each other; this improves the relation among them. Notably, the employee’s self-esteem and belongingness to an organisation increases when they complete a task successfully as a team. Where every employee is given a chance to contribute towards the tasks the relations between them increases and respect for each other sparks as Schein (2010) echoes. Conversely, improved employee relations result from cohesiveness among the team members and from increased trust amongst them. This increases how tasks are completed and hence the overall organisational effectiveness increases. One of the ways in which an organisation grows is when the employees increase their knowledge through continuous training and learning as Yukl (2008) states. While there are various means of learning, teams provide a very good platform for the employees to learn, the experienced employees provide guidance and skills to the other employees. The employees in a team usually have different skills, knowledge and qualities. By working together, the employees get an opportunity to acquire skills that some never had beforehand. The employees get to challenge the ideas of each other; they come up with compromise solutions that help in achieving objectives. This improves the organisational effectiveness. Teams are critical to organisational effectiveness; this is because they help to accomplish tasks at a faster pace as Jones (2010) observes. Tasks being undertaken by an individual will definitely take more time to accomplish than tasks being undertaken by teams. Teams helps in division of tasks and every member in a team gets involved, individuals are single handedly responsible for everything in accomplishing a task. Teams share work and this reduces the task load as well as task pressure. Members in a team are responsible for sections of task in which they are specialised in, their level of interest and thus the output is much faster and more efficient. This improves the overall organisational effectiveness. Teams play a critical role in organisational effectiveness through problem solving. Teamwork from a team is essential as it helps in problem solving synergy that is gained from the multiple minds working on a solution as Brown & Harvey (2011) asserts. Members in a team pull their minds together; they combine their experiences and skills and hence come up with a refined solution. This is very important as it helps to get ideas and solutions that move organisations to grow. Individuals only draw on their own experiences and skills while working on a problem, this limit an individual because of lack of ideas. As such, the solution that may be given might not be viable. Teams pull their collective ideas together and they generate unique ideas for dealing with challenges affecting the organisation. The problem solving synergy created by teams and the unique ideas developed helps an organisation to be more effective and hereafter improves organisational effectiveness. Teams are critical in organisational effectiveness through increased accountability (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). Teams encourage and increase accountability of members composing a team, this is more so where employees work under persons who command a lot of respect within the organisation or departments. The team members wants to give their best so as not to let the others down, this contributes to the success of the teams. Teams increase morale and members in a team are motivated to work and provide ideas. Where individuals work alone, they are easily demoralized and lack motivation especially when they are handling several overwhelming tasks. In this case, teams increase morale and motivation, this makes members to increase their productivity through efficient work; work is also completed well before deadlines. This increases organisational effectiveness. Teams signify that employees and every other person in an organisation are working towards a shared purpose and towards accomplishing common objectives. Working towards shared goals makes the employees to share their different skills and experiences in complementary roles as well as in cooperation with each other. This makes organisations to perform well when employees work effectively in teams. Besides enhancing the performance of an organisation and creating synergy, teams enable mutual learning and support. This is essential to employees as they generate commitment and sense of belonging in the organisation. Gilson et al., (2005) report that every member of a team feel part of the organisation, they pride in the success of the organisation knowing that their inputs were taken in to consideration. Commitment and sense of belonging is essential in increasing organisational effectiveness. Teams play a vital role in organisational effectiveness; they determine how effective a company can be in its many aspects as Bell & Kozlowski (2002) notes. These aspects include communication with investors, internal communication, customer service, product launches and process improvement. Bell & Kozlowski (2002) add that depending on the nature of business, an organisation may have several teams working to accomplish the organisational objectives; this ensures that the many aspects are conducted successfully. In this way, the teams are able to guarantee organisation effectiveness. One way of ensuring organisational effectiveness is through developing culture and values in an organisation as Decuyper, Dochy & Van den Bossche (2010) asserts. An organisation must have its own set of values, what it believes in and what it is committed to. In the same way, an organisation must have its own way of doing things. This defines an organisation and sets it apart from the competitors. The best way to develop and cultivate culture and values is through teams. Teams put culture and values in to practice and this enhances organisational effectiveness. It is through teams that an organisation practices its set of shared values, how it behaves and it carries out work aligned to business strategy. This enhances organisational effectiveness. Essentially, organisational effectiveness is critical to the well-being and success of an organisation. In order for an organisation to achieve increased and sustainable business results, organizations need to engage their employee and execute strategy. The most valuable way to ensure organisational effectiveness is through forming teams in an organisation. Teams increase productivity and this has direct influence on organisational effectiveness. References Barki, H, & Pinsonneault, A (2005). A model of organizational integration, implementation effort, and performance: Organization Science, 16(2), 165-179. Bell, B. S., & Kozlowski, S, W, (2002). A typology of virtual teams implications for effective leadership. Group & Organization Management, 27(1), 14-49. Brown, D. R., & Harvey, D. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development: Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cameron, K. S., & Quinn, R, E, (2011). Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: Based on the competing values framework: John Wiley & Sons. Decuyper, S., Dochy, F, & Van den Bossche, P, (2010). Grasping the dynamic complexity of team learning: An integrative model for effective team learning in organizations; Educational Research Review, 5 (2), 111-133. Evans, W. R., & Davis, W, D, (2005). High-performance work systems and organizational performance: The mediating role of internal social structure.Journal of Management, 31(5), 758-775. Francis, H., & Reddington, M, (2012). Employer branding and organisational effectiveness; People and Organisational Development: A new Agenda for Organisational Effectiveness, London: CIPD, 260-85. Gilson, L. L., Mathieu, J. E., Shalley, C. E., & Ruddy, T., M., (2005). Creativity and standardization: complementary or conflicting drivers of team effectiveness. Academy of Management Journal, 48(3), 521-531. Jones, G. R. (2010). Organizational theory, design, and change: Pearson. Robbins, S., Judge, T. A., Millett, B., & Boyle, M. (2013). Organisational behaviour: Pearson Higher Education AU. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2): John Wiley & Sons. Schoorman, F. D., Mayer, R. C., & Davis, J., H., (2007). An integrative model of organizational trust: Past, present, and future: Academy of Management review, 32(2), 344-354. Tushman, M. L., & Romanelli, E., (2008). Organizational evolution'; Organization change: A comprehensive reader, 155, 2008174. West, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research: John Wiley & Sons. Yukl, G. (2008). How leaders influence organizational effectiveness: The leadership quarterly, 19(6), 708-722. 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