Team Climate Assessment - Case Study Example

Human resources Human Resources Teamwork Instead of individual work, team work is encouraged in majority of the modern organizations 1 = 2, in Mathematics, whereas in the case of teamwork 1+1 > 2. In other words, the productivity of a team is greater than the sum total of the productivity of its individual members. That is why modern organizations prefer team work more than individual work. I have the experience of working as part of a sales team for two years in the past, while working in one of the fast moving consumer goods companies (FMCG) in America. Our team consist of 12 sales executives who were working under a sales manager. In other words, our team was a manager led team. Our team leader or the manager was responsible for determining the duties and responsibilities of each team member. He advised or instructed us on various things such as the goals of our team, methods needed to adopt in the market to execute the sales, and how these methods needed to be implemented in the market. He has given a specific target for our team as well as for each team member. In this paper, I describe my experience while working as part of the above mentioned team. In my opinion, manager led teams have many advantages as well as disadvantages. It is possible for the team members to concentrate only on the execution while working in manager led teams. According to Hackman (2002), in manager led teams, the team members have authority only for actually executing the task. In such teams, the duty of the managers is to manage whereas the duty of the team members is to work or execute the instructions or strategies developed by the manager or team leader. In other words, the functions such as management and execution will be kept apart in manager led teams. Therefore, the team members get their workloads cut out while working in manager led teams. It should be noted that while working as part of self-managing and self-governing teams, team members will be forced to manage as well as execute various job functions. In other words, the workloads of team members will be more in such teams. At the same time there are some disadvantages also while working as part of a manager led team. The major disadvantage associated with this type of team is lack of democracy or lack of participatory management strategies. In other words, a manger dictates the overall functioning of a team in a manager led team whereas the team members forced to obey the instructions even if the instructions are against their interests. Team members do not have any role in the strategy making or decision making in manager led teams. On the other hand, in other types of teams, team members get more roles in strategy making as well as decision making. Increased role in management decision making would help sales employees to increase their attachment towards the organization as well as to their duties and responsibilities. “Findings from NHS National Staff Surveys in 2003, 2004 and 2005 indicated that working in teams appears to increase the number of errors or incidents witnessed by team members” (NHS, 2006). It should be noted that the outcome of a team project depends on the performances of the team members. It is not necessary that all the team members perform equally well. When one or more team members perform poorly, the workloads and the stress levels of the other team members will be increased. It is necessary for the other team members to work hard and compensate for the losses suffered from the poor performances of some of their team members. According to Payne (1999, p.5) “the ability to communicate effectively, to relate to others and to co-operate with others, and the knowledge and self-confidence to cope with the practical business of day today living etc are the major requirements for the members of a team”. My team was extremely diverse. Some of my team members were expatriates from countries such as India and Pakistan. As a result of that, we faced a lot of problems related to communication. Verbal and nonverbal communication means of my expatriate team mates were extremely different from that of mine and we faced a lot of problems in making our communication effective and useful. I found Tuckman’s team work theory extremely useful in explaining my experience in my team. According to Tuckman, forming, storming, norming and performing are the four stages of team development (The happy manager, 2014). During the forming and storming period, I found extreme difficulties in working with my team. However, during the norming and performing stages, my difficulties were eased out and I started to like my team more and more. Belbin’s team role theory also helped me a lot while working as part of the above mentioned sales team. According to Belbin (2014), “a team is not a bunch of people with job titles, but a congregation of individuals, each of whom has a role which is understood by other members”. While working as part of a manager led team, each team member gets a specified job. It is the duty of each team member to perform well in their assigned duties to make the entire project a success. To conclude, teamwork has many merits as well as demerits. The success and failure of team work depends on the abilities of the team leader in managing the team successfully. Based on the nature of the project, the manager should decide whether the team members should be given autonomy and freedom or not in decision making and strategy making. Employee recruitment, retention and human resource planning Diversification is the core of every business and management activity in this heavily globalized and competitive business world. Even prominent business groups such as Apple Inc. and Microsoft have already diversified their business even though they have monopoly in some sectors of business. Same way, diversification of workforce is extremely popular in the business world at the moment. The core principle behind diversification of workforce is the belief that diversification of workforce helps a company to exploit the capabilities of international workers. Since majority of the business groups are currently operating cross culturally or internationally, diversification of workforce became a must for business groups. For example, it is impossible for Microsoft or Apple Inc. to conduct their business successfully in India or China with the help of Americans alone. Since locals know their market very well, it is necessary for these companies to employ locals as much as possible along with Americans, while operating in overseas countries. In other words, human resource planning is extremely important in the current business world. The discussion below gives an idea about the importance of human resource planning, and assesses the impact of current global trends including growth of the labour force, immigration, and average age/culture/ethnic background of the workforce. Recruitment and retention are two of the core areas of human resource planning. Retention of employees seems to be more difficult than recruitment for HR professionals working in various organizations. According to Paskin (2008) the main reasons for employee dropouts was pay (39%), their employer’s culture and ethics (28%) and lack of training (26%). It is necessary to provide enough salary and suitable working conditions to employees in order to prevent them from thinking about joining other organizations. It is unprofitable for a company when an experienced employee resigns and joins another company. According to Jackson (2011), ‘When all factors are added together, each departing employee that walks out your door has likely cost you between $700 and $1,000’. Unlike fresh employees, experienced employees have a lot of options and opportunities in the employment market. As a result of that, their bargaining power will be more compared to that of the fresh employees. When they better opportunities arrive, they will leave their present organization and join probably the competitor organization. High employee turnover rate destroys the corporate image of a company and therefore, it should be reduced as much as possible. HR professionals play a vital role in this regard. “Since the 1970s, the labour force has continued to grow, but at a slower rates. A substantial slowdown in the pace of labour force growth is projected for the 2015-25 period, as the baby-boom generation retires” (U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2001). In other words, labour shortage is going to be a big problem in future. It should be noted that a substantial portion of American workforce consists of expatriate workers. In fact labour cost in America is extremely high compared to the labour cost in India or China. Since India and China are the most heavily populated countries in the world, it would be difficult for a country like America to avoid the services of workers from these countries. At present many of the American companies are outsourcing or offshoring their business to cheap labour oriented countries because of labour shortage. Outsourcing and offshoring of business from America to overseas countries is not good for the economic growth of America. President Obama is working hard to reduce the outflow of business from America to overseas countries. Under such circumstances, workforce planning and HR planning are extremely important for American organizations. To conclude, the challenges facing by HR professionals with respect to employee recruitment and retention are challenging at the moment. Since America is facing labour shortage in all critical sectors, it is necessary to manage and utilize the available human resources in an efficient manner. HR professionals can play a vital role in this regard. References Belbin (2014). Belbin team roles. Retrieved from http://www.belbin.com/rte.asp?id=8 Hackman, J. R. (2002). Leading teams: Setting the stage for great performances. Boston: Harvard Business Press. Jackson, H., (2011). Strategies to combat employee turnover. Retrieved from http://www.franchise.org/Franchise-News-Detail.aspx?id=53871 NHS (2006). Team Climate Assessment Measure (TCAM) programme. Retrieved from http://www.nrls.npsa.nhs.uk/resources/?entryid45=59884 Payne J. (1999), All things to all people: changing perceptions of skill among Britain’s policy makers since the 1950s and their implications. Retrieved from http://www.skope.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/SKOPEWP01.pdf Paskin, B., (2008). Reduce staff turnover through motivation and training. Retrieved from http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/People/Reduce-staff-turnover-through-motivation-and-training The happy manager, (2014). Team work theory. Retrieved from http://www.the-happy-manager.com/articles/teamwork-theory/ U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, (2001). Working in the 21 st century. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/working/page1b.htm Read More