Effective Team Building and Performance in Nando - Case Study Example

Effective Team and Performance Management Introduction. Since many organizations are increasingly facing both internal and external problems, team effectiveness to achieve the high performance on organizational goals differentiates successful organizations from those who lag behind the competition. Critical to the effectiveness of the team is the ability of every member of the team to communicate to one another and the entire organization. One of the greatest aspects of team performance is the feedback. Organizational change and learning are some of the aspects that organizational leadership is tasked in executing and driving the feedback process in an organization. It is necessary to understand the benefits and problems associated with teams and groups along with identifying successful criteria for introducing family culture within the organization. This report will explore ways on how team performance and ‘family culture’ can be achieved in this organisation. The report will also highlight the recommendations on how to improve the organizational performance amid the expansion and growth of the organization Organizational Culture Organizational culture is the shared beliefs, values or perceptions held by employees for a long time. Since organizational culture shows the beliefs, values and behavioral norms used by employees to give meaning to situations they encounter within the organization, it can have some impacts on the behavior of the employees. Understanding the core values of the organization can reduce the potential internal conflicts. In other fields of management, study of organizational culture has comprised functionalist perspective, which provides impressive evidence on the role of organizational culture in enhancing organizational performance. The extensiveness of organizational culture requires that the top leadership of the organization recognize its underpinning the dimensions and its effects on factors relating to employees, i.e. commitment to organizational goals, job satisfaction and performance. The organization comprises of the staff, with the behavior of the employees affecting the results. Good organizational culture is characterized by values and norms that support teamwork, excellence, honesty, profitability, customer service orientation, commitment to organizational goals and pride in one’s work. Above all, it supports adaptability- i.e. the ability to succeed over the long run irrespective of the competition, new technological advancement, new regulations and strains of growth. Good cultures incorporate all good things into co-existence. As it can be seen, effective organizational culture has a positive effect on the organization when it is headed to the right direction. On the other hand, culture has some negative effect when it points a behavior on the wrong side. The best culture is seen by a clear sense of collective competence, a perfect assumption of equity and the ability to apply continually to collective competence to new circumstances and also make necessary changes when needed. Improving organizational culture Culture in a place of work can hinder or enhance the success. Leadership of the organization can have an impact on the alignment of the culture with the mission and the strategies of the company. How? Culture is constructed socially and leaders have to initiate great conversations that bring together cultural norms and the goals of the organization. If the present culture is not in line with the new reality, leaders have to be bridges, or catalysts, who designs new understanding and assist individuals select new behaviors, and finally beliefs. Organizational leaders should also define, clarify and support understanding of beliefs and actions that build the required culture. Organizational culture is very important when implementing change within the organization. Several organizations are struggling to keep up, they lay new procedures into working processes before taking previous initiatives on hold. An organizational culture can either be a barrier or enable nonstop changes. If the culture is quick, change will be very effective, several large-scale changes have to be supported by corresponding changes in the culture of the organization. Change plan, after which should address the present and the future cultural elements. Leadership can play an important role in in enabling change by supporting projects and development efforts to strengthen the desired culture. In order to assess and improve the alignment of programs and projects to achieve the desired culture, Nando’s leadership should ask themselves the following questions. 1. What are the anticipated elements of culture within their organization? How are they presented, explained and strengthened in communication and actions? 2. In what ways should they change their managerial messages and regiments to enhance the current, explain, and strengthen the desired cultures? 3. In what ways do their communication tools and practices assist in building the skills of their team for taking part in conversation pertaining goals, changes and challenges they face? 4. How well does the entire look and feel i.e. the experience of their department or function create desired cultural elements? 5. What developments could they make to their immediate workplace to enhance the required organizational culture? 6. How present are their messages and departmental metrics- do they depict the upcoming changes and assist in preparing their team for new styles of working? 7. What can it be done to stay in touch with major change initiatives and assist in preparing their teams for these changes? 8. What are some of the developmental conversations existing in their organizations? How can they come up with a culture of learning that supersedes traditional classroom training? Team Building within the organization Teamwork is mostly common in animal protection work- partially since shortages of resources and staff necessitates interdepartmental and inter-organizational cooperation, and partially as a result of the shift towards a collective mentality, instead of hierarchical one. There much of effective team-building rather than coming together to organize around a common work. Dynamics of working in teams has to be understood so as to maximize the use of teams within the organization. In simple definition, a team is a group of people who work together for a particular goal. Effective Team Building in Nando Team building involves providing an enabling environment for the team to achieve a common purpose. Stages involved in team building includes clarifying the goals, identifying the barriers and eliminating them Teamwork can make use of diverse talents and skills within a given group to unlock diversity Teamwork can successfully achieve effective delegation in empowering members Understanding various growth stages of teams can greatly help Understanding various team roles, and the importance of diversity can assist a lot Teamwork can be used in resolving conflicts arising within the organization, or to form trusting and strong relationships, if undertaken sensitively Likewise, an inquiry or investigation into the past, or an assessment, can be carried out effectively by teamwork. The nature of team building differs in terms of scale and what is to be achieved. Leadership and Motivation Visionary leaders increase the level of efficiency by moving the responsibility of decision making to the frontline. In order to make the frontline responsibility be effective, leadership must offer their followers the opportunity to create quality decision-making skills and be able to trust them. Staff are more motivated when given the outcome for tasks, and when left alone to develop their own methods and ways, rather than being told on what and how to do things. Nevertheless, employees need overall direction. They have to know where they are going and why. Leaders have to ensure that their employees know exactly what they are trying to achieve, and what is expected of them at the process (Jackson, 2011). Communicating clear objectives will assist to program their own objectives and work towards them, in place of checking e-mail, small talk, and boring paper filing, etc. the can work on the main, instead of being dragged under by the insignificant. In order to motivate the teams and individuals within the organization, a leader should consider the plans of addressing their human desires. This include the desire for: Ownership Activity Affiliation Power Achievement Recognition Meaning Competence The first five minutes every day at the place of work are always very important minutes a leader can have with staff. It determines the tone of the entire day, motivation others to achieve better results or leaving them without energy or direction (Dowling, 2009). The following are some of the tips that managers should be practicing to win employee confidence Arrive early-it is an embarrassment to an employee to see his/her boss arriving late to place of work. It becomes hard to follow and respect a leader who fails to deliver as expected. Managers should arrive at their place of work before their employees and let their actions demonstrate their dedication towards the objectives of the company. Meet and greet-managers should start their day by greeting his/her people, letting them be aware that they are cared and making them feel they are valuable to the organization. If the manager merely runs into the office and failing to recognize others, it will only serve a rift between the manager and employees. Recognition is an essential part of employee motivation. Energy- attitudes and moods are contagious. Managers share a massage with their body language in the morning immediately they walk through the door. They should walk in with a spring in their step and offer smile in their face and that alone will spread enthusiasm required for a fruitful day. Factors affecting motivation Motivation is complicated and highly personal. The motivation to do work can be either physical (food and shelter), psychological (security or social satisfaction) or instinctive and unconscious, which particularly applies to self-fulfillment and altruistic reasons (Hilgerman, 2008). According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, human motivations are categorized as shown below According to this theory, needs are only motivators when they are not satisfied. The lower level needs becomes dominant untill they are met, when the higher needs exist. Very few workers at Nando are motivated by physological or security needs, since wage rates are relativeley low and advantagious and only benefits a few. In real sense, several people have self-actualizing motivations, and are propeled by the mission. Nevertheless, as movement attracts concernened people, it will attract employees who are motivated by social needs. Conclusion In order to improve the team building and family culture within the organization, Nando’s leadership should assist their employees to realize their goals and support them succeed. In order to achieve this, managers should understand four basic development levels of employees (George, 2000) Enthusiastic Beginner-when starting a new work where there was no prior experience or knowledge, several employees, are ready and enthusiastic to learn but at a lower competence level for the work. For this case, the staff member should be led by a directing style. They need to understand how to do a task at hand Disillusioned learner-as the level of development of the employee increases, his/her commitment and competence also fluctuates. When people learn a new task, they find it less interesting or difficult than they expected, therefore, making them disillusioned. In order to address this, coaching has to be given unto them so as to continue building skills as well as addressing their own low level of commitment Capable but cautious-as competence increases, several individuals within the organization question their capabilities as to whether they can handle the task in their own. Managers should depict supporting style since individuals need to be given encouragement since they already have competence to perform a task. Self-reliant achiever- it is the highest level of development where employees demonstrate high competence and commitment level. In such a case, the leader should delegate duties and give employees autonomy to perform the job they have shown to be capable of doing. In order to manage groups effectively, managers should understand group dynamics and should concentrate on building effective teams. A manager should understand various stages of group formation- orientation, dissatisfaction, resolution, production and termination stages. A manager has to anticipate and handle each of the stages effectively. This means that the leader should provide a lot of direction during the early stages of team development and more of delegation as the team is at its mature stage (Kotter, 2011) Recommendations In order to improve the overall performance of the organization and cope up with challenges of expansion, Nando leadership has to learn to adapt their leadership styles to match the level of development of their employees. This approach will assist managers to lead their teams, people and their organization to achieving their goals and best performance all the time. In order to build a family environment and achieve high performance at place of work, managers should give their teams with a sense of ownership. They should make every team member feel as if they are a member of the board in the department. Create boundaries, but raise their sense of purpose. Everybody should protect each other and the leadership should treat their employees as family. Employees should have one another’s back and help each other to improve, talent discovery and utilized in the right situations can grasp right opportunities Values that enhances trusted culture should be installed. When standards based on performance are rightly defined, it becomes much easier to realize the expectations. These expectations have to be based on established values that every employee can embrace so as to build a trusted culture that is fair and has no surprises. Everybody on the team should be well informed about their succession plan. Clear roadmap should be established to excite employees about the next stage of their careers. Managers should transparent with everyone’s succession plan and allow others to take part in the plan. With everybody pulling for each one’s success in the family environment, it reduces traps and nurtures of winning References Dowling, P. J., 2009. Human Resource Issues in International Business. Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce, pp. 255-271. Druskat, V. U. &. W. S. B., 2001. Building the emotional intelligence of teams.. Harvard Business Review, , 79,(3), pp. 80-90.. Dweck, C., 2009. Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development. s.l.:Cengage Learning. Dye, D. A., 2012. The changing role of human resources/assessment professionals:. Adding value in the "new" organization., pp. 12-23. George, J. M., 2000. Emotions and leadership. The role of emotional intelligence.. Human Relations, ,53(8), p. 1027–1055.. Hilgerman, R., 2008. Communication satisfaction, goal setting, job satisfaction, concretive control, and effectiveness in self. Ney York: Harper & Row. Huusko, L., 2007. Teams as substitutes for leadership.. 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