Benefits and Problems with Student Teams - Research Paper Example

Benefits and Problems with Student Teams Introduction Modern organizations face array of issues and dilemmas that threaten to ground smooth running of these organizations as well as compromise the organizational culture and leadership. The organization I had previously worked for encountered a myriad of workplace problems and challenges even as it continued on the path of diversification (Hansen, 2006). These problems seem to have escalated largely due to lack of open communication and ineffective organizational structures of teams within the organization. In particular, the organization seems to have overlooked the need to embrace a clear chain of command path with regard to communication. The most common issue within the organization that also significantly affected the organizational culture and ethics is team problems (Hansen, 2006). Although teams within the organization were dedicated to working toward accomplishing an agreed goal and achieving high performance, managers of the organization have encountered numerous challenges in their effort to ensure that teamwork lives to expectation. Some teams became non-functional due to disconnect between supervisors and team members, or communication breakdown among team members themselves. Apparently, management or organizational communication setbacks and breakdowns have significantly hindered efforts to of the members to achieve personal and team goals (Hansen, 2006). Team leaders fell short in their role to foster cohesiveness among members and to offer constant feedback. In addition, managers of the organization failed to diagnose the issue or even to take immediate corrective steps or action to curb more severe team performance breakdowns. Personal Statement Team leaders should find out the primary cause of the team problems, as well as individuals or frameworks that keep fueling rampant team malfunctions. In the event that these leaders find no conclusive factor, specific individual or group hampering teamwork or causing team problems, they should review their communication strategies (Cheung et al., 2012). Apparently, the flow of information from top management to front-line personnel could at times be confusing and insufficient. Accordingly, the upper management should further reexamine existing hierarchies of the organization and try to discover where breakdowns in cooperation might have occurred (Cheung et al., 2012). Some team leaders or supervisors may experience difficulties while answering to multiple managers, especially if the chain of command lacks clear-cut communication. Analysis Team problems significantly interfered with the organizational culture, creating severe challenges that led to internal conflict and loss of productivity. Since the organization did not identify team problem as the major impediment to organizational culture, it could not maintain a strong company network (Paulsen et al., 2013). In addition, team problems contributed to departmental conflicts thus negatively impacting organizational structure. Manufacturing was at odds with logistics because products and services could not be created fast enough to meet the shipping deadlines to various destinations. Poor coordination of employees by their respective team leaders meant that certain departments were no longer at ease with other groups (Paulsen et al., 2013). Incidentally, some departments got competitive and developed a feeling that their tasks were more important and significantly contributed to the success of the organization as opposed to work of other groups. Organizational culture represents organization’s overall lifestyle while incorporating diverse elements, which are essential in enabling the organization to gain competitive advantage among the internal and external collaborators. Organizational culture incorporates beliefs, working style, history, ethics, teamwork, quality of customer service, social engagement, and well-being of the employees in pursuit of competitive edge in the market and industry of operation (Paulsen et al., 2013). Team issues or problems tend to have diverse implications or influences on the organizational culture. Team issues affect the image, reputation, decision-making processes, management mechanisms, beliefs, mission, and evolution of an organization because of the critical implications on the organizational culture (Paulsen et al., 2013). This makes it essential for the business entities or companies to adopt and implement appropriate mechanisms aligned with the organizational culture to address the issues affecting operations of the teams within an organization. The groups encountered many challenges in their attempt to contribute to improved performance and teamwork in all departments and even at the upper management. For instance, some groups lacked team identity (Compton et al., 2010). That is, members did not feel mutual accountability to one another toward attaining team’s objectives. They also lacked effort and commitment towards attaining team goals. Furthermore, conflict between personal goals and team goals as well as poor cooperation seem to have compromised attempts by team leaders to redeem team image and identity. Apart from absence of group/team identity, there was difficulty in making decisions (Compton et al., 2010). Team members rigidly adhered to their hardliner positions particularly at the crucial stages of decision making. In another scenario, team members engaged in repeated arguments instead Meanwhile, effective communication among team members was critical to enhance smooth running of the organizational structure. Team issues compromised implementation of new ideas and processes, forcing a number of managers to redouble their effort to claim parts of the processes on their own (Compton et al., 2010). The organization ran the risk of not realizing its goals because team leaders created goals specific to respective groups without consulting with departmental managers or top management. As a result, mistrust and resentment set in thus compromising collective effort of all supervisors and upper management in creating company goals and ensuring that the organization achieved both the short term and long term objectives. Apart from the team leaders’ role in escalating team problems, individual employees were also to blame for the lack of cooperation and limited group effort (Compton et al., 2010). Apparently, individual employees had personal conflicts and trauma that adversely affected attempts to advance team effort towards attaining goals of the organization both at the departmental and upper management levels. Also, the leadership may have played a role in the dilemma surrounding the organization’s effort to encourage teamwork and cooperation. For instance, the top management might have overstepped their mandate as well as violated powers/responsibilities bestowed upon team leaders and members by regulating the structure of these groups and activities undertaken by various departments (Hartnell et al., 2011). Similarly, the leadership might have adopted unhelpful steps toward solving recurrent team standoff. In essence, the top managers and other executive members should have devised different plans to solve these problems without overlooking the role of team leaders to end team issues. For instance, the human resources manager took unpopular step of firing three employees who had interpersonal conflict without first examining the fundamental cause of the standoff between them (Hartnell et al., 2011). Incidentally, the hiring authority disregarded remarkable contributions of these employees by unilaterally sending them packing. This decision generally demoralized other members of the logistics team who felt the organization lacked unbiased mechanism to solving day-to-day problems in the workplace. Team leaders, on the other hand, considered such decision as a complete disregard of the laid down procedures when conflict arise in the organization. Potential Solutions/Recommendations The management must invent new leadership or administration strategies to redeem the organization from the brink of collapse and boost employees’ confidence in the manner in which managers and supervisors run the business. Issues that crop up within an organization can adversely impact the ethical climate as well as compromise the workplace culture (Hartnell et al., 2011). As a result, the executive should adopt new strategies to communication and coordination thereby facilitating overall success of the organizational structure. Also, departments and team leaders that are not clear on their responsibilities should recognize the fact that confusion can impede production. Many management consultants argue that organizational culture will only be effective if used by team leaders and members properly (Hartnell et al., 2011). It is high time the management invented mechanisms and frameworks that would enable it discover the key individuals and factors that fundamentally contributed to the team issues and deteriorating teamwork both at the departmental and executive level. The organization has the obligation of making appropriate decisions in the course of addressing team issues or problems. This calls for transformation or changes in the organizational culture with the intention of enhancing effectiveness and efficiency in the operations of the team (Bezrukova et al., 2012). Teams have the tendency of playing critical roles in handling duties and responsibilities within the organization. From this perspective, teams are essential components of the organizational culture aiming at the achievement of the goals and targets of the company at the end of the fiscal period. Team problems/issues might force an organization to adopt and incorporate new approaches to handle these problems. Team problems/issues also affect or influence organizational culture through affecting the image and reputation of the company in the market and industry of operation. For instance, teams might suffer from ethical problems or issues, which have diverse implications on the image and reputation of the organization against its major competitors within the industry (Bezrukova et al., 2012). The eventual outcome of the issue is substantial destruction of the organizational beliefs, styles of transactions, and image, thus the organizational culture. It is the obligation of the teams to adopt and implement appropriate mechanisms in accordance with the culture of the company to tackle such problems or issues (Bezrukova et al., 2012). This is essential in the improvement of the image and reputation of the organization while enhancing its uniqueness and competitive advantage against other players in the market and industry of engagement. Conclusion Leaders exist to solve problems and to minimize future occurrence of other problems. They must be courageous and confident enough to tackle each problem head-on before circumstances force them to act. Team leaders should exercise resilience in their quest create and sustain the much-needed momentum to take the group to a new level and win the members’ trust (Litch, 2005). On the other hand, managers should work closely with various teams towards helping solve frequent dilemmas affecting groups lest they are part of the problem. They should debate issues affecting teams in the organization with open minds and employ transparent communication when expressing their views and concerns about team issues (Litch, 2005). In general, the common team problems include lack of team identify, difficulty in decision making, poor communication, lack of participation, inability to resolve team conflicts, lack of creativity, and ineffective leadership. Problems keep escalating as team leaders and members take short-cuts to tentatively alleviate the tension points. However, things seem to worsen as the team moves onto the next much bigger problem (Cheung et al., 2012). As a result, the team fails to solve the fundamental problems conclusively; thus always getting trapped in an endless cycle that further complicates possibility of finding any workable solution. On the other hand, the upper management should not be an impediment to problem solving but rather contribute toward establishing a common ground and finding specific solutions (Cheung et al., 2012). Overall, employees of an organization should be aware of team directions, roles, and potential problems when forming teams. References Bezrukova, K., Thatcher, S., Jehn, K. A., & Spell, C. S. (2012). The effects of alignments: Examining group faultlines, organizational cultures, and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(1), 77. Cheung, S. O., Wong, P. S., & Lam, A. L. (2012). An investigation of the relationshipbetween organizational culture and the performance of construction organizations. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 13(4), 688-704. Compton, D. W., Baizerman, M., & Roholt, R. V. (2010). Managing evaluation: Responding to common problems with a 10-step process. The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 25(2), 103-123. Hansen, R. S. (2006). Benefits and problems with student teams: Suggestions for improving team projects. Journal of Education for Business, 82(1), 11-19. Hartnell, C. A., Ou, A. Y., & Kinicki, A. (2011). Organizational culture and organizational effectiveness: a meta-analytic investigation of the competing values framework's theoretical suppositions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4), 677. Litch, B. (2005). Facing change in an organization: How to chart your way through the chaos. Healthcare Executive, 20(5), 20-2, 24. Paulsen, N., Callan, V. J., Ayoko, O., & Saunders, D. (2013). Transformational leadership and innovation in an R&D organization experiencing major change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 26(3), 595-610. Read More