Understanding Process of Working as a Team - Essay Example

Reflective paper for understanding process of working as a team

Table of content

1. Introduction3

2. Dynamics and process of team work3

3. Business issues and group dynamics7

4. Personal learning development7

5. Entrepreneurship learning9

6. Conclusion11

Reference List13

• 1. Introduction

As suggested by Amin-Naseri and Gilbert (2014), team working activities are crucial for any organisation which provides a scope to interact and influence each other for better achievements. According to Sparks et al. (2015), the team members work together with mutual accountability and understanding for achieving a common goal. Through this essay I will try to develop my own understanding for working as a team and cooperate with other members in a team to improve own efficiency. The concept of team dynamics and Belbin’s as well as Tuckman’s theory of team work are effective in this essay to evaluate the process of working as a team. The purpose of this essay is to discuss activities of group members and improve own understanding through evaluating the existing theories and concepts of effective teamwork.

• 2. Dynamics and process of team work

According to Dyer W.G. and Dyer J.H., (2013), team dynamics provides overall activities of the team for understanding and developing an effective team within the organisation through which it is possible to achieve organisational goal and making an effective business plan.

Figure 1: Team dynamics

(Source: Business technology, 2009)

The team dynamics helps me identify the activities of the organisation that influence to build an effective team within the organisation. Akhilesh (2014) described that, in order to build an effective team, the management and leaders need to take initiatives include proper reward system, build effective communication among the team members, make appropriate working environment within the organisation. I will try to follow the strategies to build an efficient team and develop my own understanding in managing a team at workplace and working as a team. The knowledge about managing and building an appropriate team will help me in the future to make an effective decision for my organisation and also help me to cooperate with others, such that our team can make effective business plan and achieve the organisational objectives.

In this regard, Riener and Wiederhold (2016) suggested that, the theories by Tuckman is appropriate for analysing the dynamics of a team which includes five stages named forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

Figure 2: Tuckman’s theory for group development

(Source: CULCokpalad, 2015)

• Forming:

As described by Kozlowski et al. (2016), under the forming stage, the leaders try to develop rules and formalities to work with more collaboration. In this stage, the team members are excited to form a new team where different people exist with their diversified viewpoints and thus, there are several issues during the formation of a new team (Santoro et al., 2015).

• Storming:

Yammarino et al. (2015) opined that, storming stage provides a scope to communicate with other team members and start working as a team. The team members try to set reality and minimise communication gap such that they can cooperatively resolve the issues of adjustment, misunderstanding, anxiety and frustration (Pearce, Manz, and Akanno, 2013).

• Norming:

Under the norming stage, the team members realise that they are part of the team and try to share individual viewpoints for increasing mutual understanding and make an effective plan cooperatively. O’Connor (2015) opined that, under this stage, the team members try to share goals and accept each other’s point of view to get an effective solution for making appropriate business plan.

• Performing:

Gladden (2015) described that, in the performing stage, the organisational leadership plays a crucial role in building a trusting environment and provide flexibility to the workers such that they can work freely. After forming a proper team, under this stage, the team members try to work as a team and improve efficiency of work by improving team cohesiveness, performing value added activities and engaging with organisational decision making behaviour (Meslec and Curşeu, 2015).

• Adjourning:

According to Eubanks et al. (2016), under the stage of adjourning, the team member together are efficient for implementing a business plan and working efficiently with each other after recognising individual contribution of the team members. After performing as a team, the tea members may be unhappy and this will raise dissatisfaction and frustration among the team members which may lead to separation of a team (Gold et al., 2013).

In this context, I understand that in the forming stage, there are lots of confusion, conflicts, difficulties and unclear organisational goals where the team members face issues related to their own job role. In order to resolve misunderstanding, I will try to utilise further stages which provides me to resolve criticism, conflicts and improve own understanding through team cohesiveness, building more communication and cooperation. The theory is effective for evaluating organisational process for building an effective team. I will try to develop my own understanding step by step as it will be beneficial for me in near future to make and lead an effective team for making appropriate business planning. That is why, proper improvement through maintaining proper stages help me to perform efficiently with more satisfaction, communication and cooperation to achieve success.

• 3. Business issues and group dynamics

There are certain business issues and challenges which adversely affect the group building activities and dynamics of an effective team. Absence of team identification is the main issue in the business where the members cannot find accountability within a team and this will further affect communication, trust and cooperation among the team members (Batenburg, van Walbeek, and Maur, 2013). Lack of participation and negative attitude of an individual within a team can hamper the whole team and the negative attitude of an individual lacks to cooperate with others for making an effective team (Kempster and Parry, 2014). Difficulties in decision making behaviour and inability to resolve the organisational conflicts are also other business issues that can hamper the group dynamics where due to lack of knowledge sharing activities, the team members fail to make effective business planning (Pearce, Manz, and Akanno, 2013). Lack of creativity of the team members is also important issues that fail to achieve the organisational goal in more efficient ways which can further adversely affect group dynamics (Smith et al., 2016).

I face certain issues in building an effective business plan for the organisation I work, during decision making practices and market analysis such as lack of timing, and organisational movements. Moreover, leadership style is also crucial in influencing the team working approach and thus the leaders need to cooperate with the team members and motivate them such that it is possible to develop an effective team. As market analysis takes long time, we try to develop own understanding timely and operational movements help us to conduct market analysis further and gain more knowledge.

• 4. Personal learning development

Through the team work procedure and cooperative market analysis, I am successful in developing my own skills and knowledge of working efficiently. According to Raes et al. (2015), the organisational activities such as coaching, efficient training programs and counselling process help to gain more knowledge about organisational culture, decision making practices, marketing strategies and also the ways of leading a team. The training program helps me to improve my communication and ways to interact with team members. As communication gap and language barriers are the main issues in monitoring a team efficiently, I try to develop my interactive skills through which it is possible to build proper communication. Training program also helps me to gain more knowledge and technical skills in depth which is required for making an appropriate business plan. Group based activities help further for managing conflict, group facilitating, building and group learning. I will try to utilize group based activities and proper market analysis for developing group learning and conflict management such that in the future I can manage organisational conflict and offer best possible strategies to resolve any organisational issues and challenges by ensuring achievement of organisational goals.

Team working activities have many advantages and the main benefit of working as a team is to get greater variety of complex issues by proper utilisation of organisational expertise and resources. Problems can be solved with greater diversified skills, knowledge and experience of the team members (Pearce, Manz, and Akanno, 2013). This working approach boosts morale and ownership through increasing opportunity of participating in the organisational decision making behaviour. Improved opportunities among cross departmental boundaries helps to address the organisational issues easily and make effective planning cooperatively. Employees are not involved in continuous improvement activities if the upper level leaders and management team fails to manage their commitments (Seck and Helton, 2014). Thus, in this regard, proper cooperation of upper level management is necessary for capturing individual contribution for implementing appropriate strategy effectively (Mulhearn and Vane, 2012).

Figure 3: Development of personal perception

(Source: Seck and Helton, 2014)

Proper management and team work facilitate the process of producing results quickly and economically after conducting the market analysis such that the organisations as well as team members are beneficial for the strategy (Seck and Helton, 2014). The opportunities of sharing ideas, information, knowledge and data, open communication, cooperation and trust help to develop culture of interdependence in decision making behaviour rather than one of independence. Cooperative market analysis will help me to build trust among the team members and it will help to eliminate fear and work freely for achieving more. Exchange of information and knowledge also helps me to share own feelings and understanding about the market after conducting the marketing analysis.

• 5. Entrepreneurship learning

In this context, entrepreneurs play a crucial role in managing effective team work in the organisation and it is the responsibility of the leaders to monitor team progress for achieving the organisational goals efficiently (Pearce, Manz, and Akanno, 2013). In order to develop understanding about the roles of entrepreneurship in team building activities, Belbin’s theory is appropriate for evaluating the entrepreneur’s behaviour at workplace.

Figure 4: Belbin’s theory for improving team work

(Source: Reynolds, 2013)

Belbin’s theory for team dynamics is effective to evaluate the role of entrepreneurs at workplace for motivating team activities and the model includes different roles such as plant, monitor evaluator, coordinator, team workers, resource investigator, shaper, implementer, finisher and specialist (Reynolds, 2013). As per the model, the role of plant helps to solve difficult problems with creative and imaginative strategy. Resource investigator helps to utilise organisational resources and explore opportunities for achieving the organisational goal.

Coordinator is also important for clarifying goal, promoting decision making strategies and influencing more communication and coordination (Reynolds, 2013). Shaper and monitoring evaluation are also effective as the theory stated that performance monitoring helps to manage day to day team work and motivate the team members to work efficiently (Bygrave and Zacharakis, 2010). Team workers and implementers are crucial for managing the team properly and implement the best practice for the organisation. The leaders also need to act as complete finisher and specialist for managing the team and control whole organisational decision making practices efficiently. The theory is effective for evaluating the role of entrepreneurs and it is also useful for me to develop management and leadership skills for future. Monitoring process and role of the entrepreneurs help me to gain more management planning which can help me to manage the team and follow suitable leadership style for influencing more team work.

In higher education, entrepreneurship can be taught through providing proper training and development program to the students and effective training provides a scope to identify talented people as well as helps the people to acknowledge the organisational requirements. After identifying talented people, it is important to make an effective team and address the organisational challenges for making proper planning to resolve the existing issues. In order to teach entrepreneurship, the teachers try to motivate the students for building communication and provide interactive sessions such that the students can interact and share own perspectives with each other (Akhilesh, 2014). The teachers also give different projects to the teams such that the students can handle the project properly. In order to teach entrepreneurship, the teachers also provides the opportunity to make business plan against any organisational issue and the students try to link the study to the business and improve own quality by creating several approaches of resolving the existing issues. Thus, identification of existing issues, resource investigation, communication and adaptation of best practices are effective strategies to teach entrepreneurship in higher education. I try to learn the way to start a business through managing the projects as well as try to improve own knowledge and skills to manage the business and provide effective business plan for resolving the existing challenges.

• 6. Conclusion

The team working dynamics and the process help me to gain more knowledge and understanding for working as a team. Sharing of information and open communication help me to develop own understanding for resolving the organisational issues and make effective changes and build proper strategy for achieving the organisational goal more efficiently. The team working activities are also effective for me to improve my communication and cooperation level which will be useful for me in near future. Lack of flexibility may be one weakness that can hamper own satisfaction level of working with others, but team dynamics help to develop alternative solutions to resolve existing issues. Thus, the theories and concepts are effective in this essay to evaluate team working practices and develop own knowledge and skills for achieving more. More communication and sharing information will be effective for me to gain more knowledge and make problem solving strategies.

• Reference List

Akhilesh, K.B., 2014. Interpersonal Relationships, Teams, and Team Building, R&D Management. London: Springer.

Amin-Naseri, M. and Gilbert, S., 2014. A System Dynamics Approach to Building Team Trust Models: Exploring the Challenges. Pedagogy That Makes A Difference: Exploring Domain-Independent Principles across Instructional Management Research within the ITS Community, 2(1), pp.49-65.

Batenburg, R., van Walbeek, W. and Maur, W., 2013. Belbin role diversity and team performance: is there a relationship?. Journal of Management Development, 32(8), pp.901-913.

Business technology, 2009. Team dynamics. [Online] Available at: <http://www.slideshare.net/sushisonai/team-dynamics> [Accessed 29.4.2016].

Bygrave, W., and Zacharakis, A., 2010. Entrepreneurship. London: John Wiley and Sons. 

CULCokpalad, 2015. Managing diverse team. [Online] Available at: <https://okpalad.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/managing-diverse-teams-2/> [Accessed 29.4.2016].

Dyer, W.G. and Dyer, J.H., 2013. Team building: Proven strategies for improving team performance. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Eubanks, D.L., Palanski, M., Olabisi, J., Joinson, A. and Dove, J., 2016. Team dynamics in virtual, partially distributed teams: Optimal role fulfillment. Computers in Human Behavior, 61, pp.556-568.

Gladden, R., 2015. Program Management Leadership: Creating Successful Team Dynamics. Project Management Journal, 46(2), pp.111-136.

Gold, J., Holden, R., Iles, P., Stewart, J. and Beardwell, J., 2013. Human resource development: Theory and practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kempster, S. and Parry, K., 2014. Exploring observational learning in leadership development for managers. Journal of Management Development, 33(3), pp.164-181.

Kozlowski, S.W., Chao, G.T., Chang, C.H. and Fernandez, R., 2016. Team dynamics: Using “big data” to advance the science of team effectiveness. Big data at work: The data science revolution and organizational psychology. New York, NY: Routledge.

Meslec, N. and Curşeu, P.L., 2015. Are balanced groups better? Belbin roles in collaborative learning groups. Learning and Individual Differences, 39, pp.81-88.

Mulhearn, C., and Vane, H., 2012. Economics for Business. London: Palgrave.

O’Connor, R.V., 2015. Towards an Understanding of Team Dynamics in Very Small Enterprises: An Exploratory Study in Software. Quantitative Multidisciplinary Approaches in Human Capital and Asset Management, 1(1), pp.42-69.

Pearce, C.L., Manz, C.C. and Akanno, S., 2013. Searching for the holy grail of management development and sustainability: Is shared leadership development the answer?. Journal of Management Development, 32(3), pp.247-257.

Raes, E., Kyndt, E., Decuyper, S., Van den Bossche, P. and Dochy, F., 2015. An exploratory study of group development and team learning. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 26(1), pp.5-30.

Reynolds, M., 2013. Group Work in Education and Training. London: Routledge.

Riener, G. and Wiederhold, S., 2016. Team building and hidden costs of control. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 2(3), pp.125-148.

Santoro, J.M., Dixon, A.J., Chang, C.H. and Kozlowski, S.W., 2015. Measuring and Monitoring the Dynamics of Team Cohesion: Methods, Emerging Tools, and Advanced Technologies. Team Cohesion: Advances in Psychological Theory, Methods and Practice, 2(1), pp.123-154.

Seck, M.M. and Helton, L., 2014. Faculty Development of a Joint MSW Program Utilizing Tuckman's Model of Stages of Group Development. Social Work with Groups, 37(2), pp.158-168.

Smith, B.P., Mulhern, J., Glenn, K. and Kaplan, L.J., 2016. Critical Incident Team Dynamics and Logistics. In Trauma Team Dynamics. London: Springer International Publishing.

Sparks, G.A., Herman, R., Wolfe, P. and Zurick, A., 2015. Leading through the complexities of team dynamics to achieve and sustain organizational goals. Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business, 8, pp.1-26.

Yammarino, F.J., Mumford, M.D., Connelly, M.S., Day, E.A., Gibson, C., McIntosh, T. and Mulhearn, T., 2015. Leadership Models for Team Dynamics and Cohesion: The Mars Mission. In Team Cohesion: Advances in Psychological Theory, Methods and Practice, 2(1), pp. 213-245.