Examining the Effectiveness of Self Directed Work Teams - Assignment Example

Examining the effectiveness of Self Directed Work Teams In our day to day life, we undergo several tasks. We plan our task and try to implement it inan efficient manner. Thus we take several important decisions everyday. But, what about our status while at our work place? Do we have enough freedom to take our own decision there? Such questions have paved way for the development of “Self directed work teams”. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we do in team. Working in a team is basically built in with us. But still there are certain important strategies which influence the rise or fall of a team. The power of teams Team, by itself is a powerful force. A team behaves in a peculiar manner which moves toward a specific goal. The performance output given by a team is always ahead of that given by an individual. Generally a team comprises of many people focussing on a specified target. The individuals in a team will be having individual skills. Thus a team is a collection of strengths and good range of abilities. Because of this reason, in a team, for every situation there will be at least a person who can deal with it. Also in a team flaws or pitfalls can easily be spotted and corrected. As there are many persons focussing on a same target they will be very cautious about every move and hence the mistake done by an individual will be easily found by another one. (Scholtes et al. 2003, 1) In an efficient team, the ultimate responsibility is rested on everyone’s shoulder. And the team is structured in such a way that whoever having strength in a specified area takes more responsibility in that area. One more interesting fact about a team is “Motivation”. A powerful motivating force is created amidst a good team. It never let its team mates to go down. Also it makes the team members feel proud to be a part of such a team. (West 2002, 9) Teams, also have another face for it. That is “Team conflict”. Conflicts are often mistaken within a team which is a bitter fact to be accepted. But conflicts too could turn desirable, provided the team members look into a conflict as an outcome of indifference in their thoughts or views. And after that they have to take relevant actions on how to overcome that indifference. When such kind of attitude started developing amidst the team members, conflicts even turn to be a positive factor in a team work. (West 2002, 9) What are self directed work teams? Self directed work teams are empowered teams, which could act by itself, which means they could take decisions on their own to resolve their day to day job related problems. In short, the employees manage themselves, which mean they don’t need any person to manage or supervise them. Thus the self directed work teams are also called as “self management teams”. (Fisher 1999,16) As there is no person or the so called boss to lead them, it becomes important for them to have certain rules and deadlines. They need to rely upon those rules to accomplish their purpose successfully. Actually what happens is, the company distribute the authority and power. So that even the people till the bottom level in an organisation acquires decision making capability. Thus the person who is closest to the customer or client could easily satisfy them and thus the self directed teams brings out 30 to 50 percent more efficiency than its conventional counterparts. (Fisher 1999,16) Moreover a self directed work team can react immediately by itself in case of any threat, without waiting for instruction to travel through long way. Thus it could put a stop to the destructive consequences of certain dangerous threats. Empowering a team – Not an easy task!! To develop and empower a team is not an easy task. All the members to be formed as a team must be aligned towards a common vision and mission, so that the goal could be achieved. Also they must have a clear understanding about their functional guidelines. Upon developing the above said attitude, they need to concentrate on developing skills such as taking appropriate decisions within a group, overcoming indifferences and problem solving abilities. Also they need to develop certain management skills to regulate themselves. (Kelly 2008, 187) Another important thing to be noted while empowering a team is the involvement of the management. Of course the management plays a vital role in this transition process. They don’t directly involve and apply its power upon the work group. But they simply direct the work group during the transition and also support them completely to develop. A team takes roughly three to five years to mature as a self directed work team. (Kelly 2008, 187) It is important to be noted that during the transition period certain mistakes and time delays could occur. Because the employees are allowed to act by themselves, they may take advantage over it and misuse the power. This may lead to bitter consequences. So it is required for the management to remain highly patient and lenient. Also the management must be aware of when to tighten the rope upon the employee and also when to let them free. Only them the expected result would be attained. (Kelly 2008, 187) Virtual Team A virtual team is also referred to as a geographically dispersed team (GDT). This by itself defines a virtual team. It is a collection of individuals working not at the same location but they got scattered all over the world. Never mind whichever organisation they work at, whichever community they belong to or whichever location in this world they live at, but they work for the same purpose. (Raisinghani 2001, 2) The amazing fact about this virtual team is that, a best employee located any where in this world is effectively identified and utilized. Thus, a virtual team builds up into a unique collection of experts. They communicate among themselves through highly developed information technology. Information nowadays could travel faster than air. The experts use recent technologies like web chatting, instant messaging, video conferencing and electronic mailing to keep in touch with each other and exchange their ideas. (Raisinghani 2001, 2) There are ample benefits of these virtual teams in an organisational view and also from the employee’s point of approach. First of all an organisation could include more people in its labour pool, irrespective of its geographical constraints. These factors reduce congestion in work place. The organisation need not take care of employee concerns regarding the comforts in working place or about the parking space. The employees too could be more flexible within the organisation. Being physically handicapped is not at all a matter of concern in case of a virtual team. Employees get rid of their travelling expenses and also office pressures. There are certain strategies, a virtual team members have to follow. They need to adopt and stick on to the currently existing technologies always. They must keep themselves updated. Also they must act more dynamic. (Duarte 2009, 7-14) The major problem existing or the leading complaint of individuals is misunderstanding during the sharing of information. It is because the virtual team members belong to different parts of world and hence due to certain nuances in their language, communication gap arises. This at limes misleads a team. Also it is little difficult to contact other person at any time. Usually they communicate by means of e-mail or through instant messaging. These are technical difficulties existing. Still these factors could be overcome by frequent video conferencing through which they can have a face to face chat. (Duarte 2009, 7-14) Building Team Trust Trust is an inevitable requirement while building a team. Each one in a team must communicate honestly and openly at any time he or she had got an idea. They must speak out without distortions in their information. Even there may be some hard facts to share at times. Without any hesitation one must be in a position to speak out. Only then trust will build up in a team. Hiding facts and suppressing hard feelings will never help in development of a healthy team. (Costa 2003,605-622) There are some strategies which the individuals in a team must rely upon. Each one must keep their promises at any cost. Once if they got committed with an assignment they have to stick on to it and attain to prove themselves. One must be consistent with their ideas. Also they need to make others understand, accept ant realize the importance of their point. Blindly pushing on others to accept a fact will spoil the harmony of a team also develops enmity. At times due to some inevitable reason one could not be able to keep up with their promises. In such situations it is better to communicate the plain truth to others as early as possible. (Costa 2003,605-622) Whatever we do or whatever we speak is been noticed by our team mates. Keeping this in mind we need to act or react. Likewise we must also be keen at every step taken by our superiors or co workers. Careful attention towards everything around us is mandatory. Also one must be flexible and be willing to change according to the decisions taken by the supervisor or co worker. It is natural for Conflicts and disagreements to rise upon in a team. But the success is with the right approach or attitude of the individuals who build the team. (Costa 2003,605-622) Team constraints So far we discussed ample facts to support team work. But of course there are certain bitter facts to be accepted which are the constraints while working in a team. At times working in a team makes things complex. Every individual may take individual decisions and they themselves may get confused about taking wise decision. Team size may sometime be another constraint for such confusion. So making the team size optimal is mandatory. Simply by bringing individuals together will not mean formation of team. Variety of problems may occur such as lack of coordination between members, inadequate participation, disharmony and enmity. Thus developing a successful team is not an easy task. (Tambe 1997, 92) Constructive conflicts A constructive conflict often becomes important while taking decision. Such conflicts may some time voluntarily started by the team leader. Such conflicts make people to be stern with their ideas and thus it results in powerful implementation of the same. Making people speak out is a clever way of knowing their buried thought. A true leader uses such strategy and finds out whether the people truly agree with the decision that has been made. Conflicts often bring out new perception of the existing problem and thus they become constructive. (Tambe 1997, 92) Role of team leader Being a team leader is a critical and also a challenging job. He is the one who effectively brings together all the team members. A leader facilitates cooperation and coordination amidst the team. Such a person makes each one involve and participate in every task. One more significant task is to maintain all issues to be transparent among the team members and it develops hope and security to the employees. A leader always welcomes constructive challenges. He always focuses on a common goal to be achieved and motivate his peers to work towards it. He also develops a supportive environment to them. A leader must also be able to resolve the conflicts arising between the team members. (Dirks 2000, 1004) Brainstorming techniques Brainstorming strategy is a technique through which large number of ideas is generated to solve a problem. Much the number of approaches made, effective the solution becomes. It enables us to look into a problem with different perspectives. The factors which combine while using brain storming techniques in a team are experience, creativity and also unusual innovative ideas. At times people bring out certain crazy ideas which could be funny too. The leader plays here. He looks into those crazy ideas as unusual thoughts and extracts solution from that. Computer and other electronic based instruments are also used to explore a problem. During brainstorming sessions not only new ideas are created but also people develop and refine the existing ideas. (Huitt 1992, 33-44) Conclusion Thus after examining the effectiveness of team working as well as the self directed work groups we do come to a conclusion. The team work improves the efficiency of the output than that of the individual’s performance. As a team is a collection of experts the output obviously becomes efficient and precise. Also we discussed constraints in team working and also approach to get the better off them. Group thinking could be a constraint. Building a team is a long term process. But once healthily developed it could make miracle. Summary The above essay is summarized as below. First we discuss about the power of teams. A team by itself is a powerful tool to make miracles. Then the evolution of self directed or self managed work teams. These are teams that do not require an external influence to guide them. But it needs certain period of time to mature, in the sense they must be built up in such a way that they can manage themselves. Another kind of teams is virtual team which is a collection of experts located at different parts of the world. Thus without considering the geographical constraints an organisation can expand itself. This does favour both the organisation as well as the employee. But developing a team is not an easy task. Lack of communication may arise as a major problem. Or inadequate participation of one person may irritate another person developing enmity between them. This in turn spoils the harmony of the team as a whole. All these are mended by a person who happened to be the team leader. A leader’s role is replaceable. It is very challenging too. A leader must be able to feel the pulse of his subordinate and act accordingly. He must be a very good motivator and must make his subordinates work voluntarily and not by force. If such a team is developed we can expect wonders. References Costa, Christina A.2003. Work team trust and effectiveness. Personnel Review. No.32 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/00483480310488360 (accessed October 1, 2009) Dirks, Kirt T. 2000. Trust in Leadership and Team Performance :Evidence from NCAA BasketBall. Journal of Applied Psychology. No 6. http://www.psychology.uoguelph.ca/coursenotes/gill/7140/WEEK_8_Feb.27/Dirks_JAP2000.pdf (accessed October 1, 2009) Duarte ,Deborah L. and Snyder, Nancy T. 2009. Critical Success Factors. Mastering Virtual Teams. http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/92/07879558/0787955892.pdf (accessed October 1, 2009) Huitt, William G. 1992. Problem Solving and Decision Making: Consideration of Individual Differences Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Journal of Psychological Type, No 24. http://www.tcc.edu/welcome/collegeadmin/OIE/SOA/review/toolkit/documents/Article_Problem_Solving_and_Decision_Making_Journal-Psychological-Type_1992.pdf (accessed October 1, 2009) Fisher, Kimball. 1999. Leading self-directed work teams: a guide to developing new team leadership skills. USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publications. Kelly, Allan. 2008. Changing Software Development: Learning to Become Agile. England: John Wiley and Sons Raisinghani, Mahesh S. Lurey, Jeremy S.2001. An empirical study of best practices in virtual teams. NA. 2-2. Scholtes, Peter R. Joiner, Brian L. and Streibel, Barbara J. 2003. The team handbook. USA: Oriel Incorporated. Tambe, Milind.1997. Towards flexible teamwork. Journal of Artificial Intelligence research. 83 -124. http://reference.kfupm.edu.sa/content/t/o/towards_flexible_teamwork__18957.pdf (accessed October 1, 2009) West, Michael A. 2002.Effective teamwork: practical lessons from organizational research Psychology of Work and Organizations. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. Read More