Team Building - The Psychology of Work and Human Performance - Coursework Example

Introduction In this world success comes with effort. Efforts need not be individual. It requires a collective effort. Even companies which have succeeded have been because of the efforts of all the departments. To do so it is important to understand the behaviour. This helps to react in a proper way. Team building exercise is a way which ensures that the different employees in the organization are able to come to a common platform by having mutual understanding which is based on trust and same vision for the future. The paper looks into the manner team building has evolved and the importance being laid on it. The paper examines the manner team building ensure to fill the future vacancies by stating the advantages and disadvantages that accrue due to team building measures. The paper also presents the different research and view carried out on team building and the manner it helps to improve the effectiveness of the working enviornment. Team Building Team building is a process which involves people from various backgrounds, culture, religion, and caste to come together and discuss upon something thereby arriving at a consensus. Organization need to hire the correct talent. For this special efforts should be made to ensure that the correct person is hired as a team evolves around people. We need to train and motivate the employee by keeping an eye on the future. (Burger & Jerry, 2000) This will help to fill the gaps which will arise in the future. Training will provide the skills and motivating will keep him part of the organization. (Burger & Jerry, 2000) During training the employees should be allowed to work in different areas to broaden their horizon and increase efficiency. (Janet, Donald & Beverly, 2003) It will make him prepare for uncertain things to come. This will help to develop a team with a vision in mind. The formulation of a team based on it will ensure that the employees fit well within the job thereby enuring a positive spirit to flow in the work culture. Research Studies A research shows that when hiring is properly structured with the requirements and skills to ensure efficent work the communication process passes without any barrier and information flows freely through the organisation as the employee feels a part of the organisation and share the same common goal. (Alexander, Page & Wentling, 2003) This helps to develop trust and guide the employees to take responsibilities with a clear vision in mind. A research shows that people from different countries have different culture as a result of which their pattern of influencing other is also different there by suggesting that culture brings about a change in the way person behaves and this gets moulded by the group he belongs to. (Ralston, Hallinger, Egri & Naothinsuhk, 2005) Thus culture has a huge role which shapes the manner in which one performs in a team. The management while building a team should ensure that the cultural factors are considered and based on it effective team is developed. Qualities for team building Team building helps to identify different traits and qualities the group members possess and the manner it shapes the working of the organisation. This can be seen in the example where James Strong, chairman of Woolworths who was able to make his subordinates realize the importance of working in a group, design a compensation package which helped to motivate them and ensured that development was on the personal front also. (Woolworth, 2010) This has been inferred on the fact that Woolworth is looking to enter into China and India and this has been possible because the workforce has been able to deliver on the promises made. Organisation needs to make use of an employee’s intensity in the right direction. This should be a continuous process so that a feeling of trust develops which helps to ensure efficency in operations. Organization form different groups like formal, informal and study groups to understand the work enviornment and ensure trust through different mechanism. (Mcmillan & Weyers, 2006) A research conducted shows that team building helps to improve interpersonal and team work skills. (Hick & Andrew, 1995) This enables to understand human behaviour better and build trust among the group members. Team building helps an organization to prepare for the future as vacancies can be filled in house. Team building has made organisation strengthen their bench (Dumas, 2010) so that vacancies can be filled in house. This is making organisations look forward to succession planning for all positions in the organisation instead of the top positions which was there previously. (Dumas, 2010) A study in this direction supports that organisations through team building measure ensures that the vacancies matches the unique requirements of the organisation to ensure that the changes are easily acceptable and helps to yield positive results. (Clunies, 2007) Team building thereby acts as a guiding force to plan for the future in advance. Growth in team building The importance of team building has magnified in the last 10 years as the business has evolved and finding the correct talent has become difficult. (Messick, 2010) This makes it imperative that organization use team building mthods to identify the correct match and develop them in a manner which ensures that problem of filling the vacancies gets reduced to a large extent. The thinking behind team building this has undergone changes. Organisations previously believed team building as an event. Organisation hired people for important positions when the need arises. But things have evolved. Today, team building is considered as a continuous process where organisations start preparing the time they hire a new employee. This makes them start early and look foe employees. The HR department ensures that while hiring this factor is considered. Team building today looks at employees not only performing their task but ensuring that proper training is provided to the subordinates. This was lacking previously. Managers used to concentrate on their jobs. This has changed and their area of horizon has broadened. This has made managers put more efforts so that when they retire a person for that position is already there. The manner of promotion and training for vacancies of job has changed. Organisations have developed different rating manner to examine the talent and qualities of the employees so that the team building exercise can be developed accordingly. Previously, this was done at the whims of an individual. This has changed tremendously and people are evaluated to fit in. This change has given room for the right person to fit in the job. Person not performing are left and the others based on performance are considered for promotion. An important factor also seen forward that 1/3 of the business units suffers due to improper hiring which affects their team building. This is putting additional pressure. Companies are trying to keep themselves away from this ratio. This has made them work hard and transform the way team building was done. The change being witnessed by team building is making organisation change their strategy. It has forced business units to look at new ways to fill the vacancies. This has put extra pressure and business units are searching for options. Team building has made many organisation follow talent acquisition as a strategy. This gives them the time and resource to use it in the other direction. It also ensures that the hiring spree is proper and time is not wasted. Relationship due to team building Team building has thereby resulted in a change in the employer employee relationship. (Katalin, 2004) This is so because there is very rapid change in the work force which is not helping the organization to build lasting relations thus hampering the productivity. Team building is a step which ishelping to ensure that the relationship develops as the behaviour and attitude is directed towards a common goal thereby ensuring longetivity and growth for the organization. Team building thereby helps organizations to develop a pleasant enviornment which reduces the extra cost of hiring labour every time. This would result in the organization earning good profits per shareholder in the short runand long run. This thereby helps to ensure that the cost of hiring also falls and ensures that the efforts of the organization are not wasted. This helps an organization to ensure efficiency in hiring and ensuring trust among the employees. Advantages Working together in a group helps an employee in various ways as it develops him. He is able to understand human behaviour. The ways in which an employee benefit from group work are Firstly, “it teaches group dynamics”. (Kope, 2009) It helps employee to know each other. They are able to understand how to work together. They know to appreciate other. It helps them work with employee whom they are not familiar. This will make him learn how to behave in those places. Thus, it helps to build future team member skills. Secondly, ‘it teaches to deal with conflicts”. (Kope, 2009) There will be situation when employees don’t agree. Employee will have different opinion. To come to a single decision will be tough. It will need brainstorming. This will help to deal with conflicts. It will help the employee to deal with conflicts in case it arises where he works. Thirdly, “it prepares leader”. (Kope, 2009) Working together will require someone to control the proceedings. This will make someone a leader. This will thus help the employee in the future as he can lead the organisation. He can take steps that will help them to brighten their future. Since, there will be an employee in the group who will be helping to handle all problems. This will help him identify his skills. This will prepare him to lead companies in the future. Fourthly, it helps in better learning. Since, employees come with new ideas everyone in the group has to think. This helps to generate ideas. Even working together helps the employee to remember it longer. Fifthly, “it helps to deal with dominating member”. (Kope, 2009) There will be some employees who will be aggressive. They would want everyone to listen to them. They believe that they do everything correctly. It will help employees to deal with those people in such a way that he is not hurt. It will help employees to realise that they need to devise a way to deal with those. Sixthly, “it helps to evaluate peer work”. (Kope, 2009) Since, employee have to provide feedback for other employee it helps them to realize the importance of it. It teaches the employee the important things he has to see while evaluating it. This will help the employee to evaluate his team. Disadvantages Working in a team also brings negativity as it delays the decision making process. Time is consumed to arrive at a decision as different behaviours demonstrated by different employee makes it difficult in situations which require quick decision. (Smith & Robert, 1994) The other problem encountered is conflicts. Different employees think differently. This affects the growth part. It creates conflicts. People belong to different regions, countries and differ in their process of thinking and doing things. (Innah, 2009) So when this people come together it results in difference in opinion and looking at things differently which gives rise to conflicts in the organisation (Innah, 2009) This is a serious problem and as a result it is difficult to integrate the different behaviour of the employees. Conclusion The paper thus presents the manner in which team building has evolved over the years. It also presents the importance being laid on team building and the different ways organization are looking towards team building to fill their future vacancies. This has been supported by many theories and findings which highlight the iportance being laid on team building and the ways organization are looking to integrate it in their planing process. This helps to throw light on the manner team building helps to build a vision and develop trust among the employees. Finally, team building helps to ensure that the organization is able to plan for the future based on the resources and development they see in team development. This helps to ensure that the organization is able to grow and achieve the task with minimum efforts. References Alexander, A., Page, V. & Wentling, T. (2003). Motivation & barriers to participation in virtual knowledge sharing. MCB UP Ltd, 7 (1), 123-127 Burger, T. & Jerry, M. (2000). Personality. 5th edition. Belmont, Thomson Learning Clunies, J. (2007). Benchmarking succession planning and executive development. Academic & Leadership Journal, 2 (4), 23-27 Dumas, A. (2010). Successful Succession Planning. Regent Client Newspaper. Volume 16. Retrieved on March 11, 2011 from http://www.regentrecruitment.com.au/client_newsletter_vol16.htm Innah, A. (2009). The effect of cultural factors in consumer buying behaviour. Business News. Australia Janet, A., Donald, B. & Beverly, A. (2003). The search of understanding: Maslow Hierarch of needs. West Publishing Company. New York Kope, M. (2009). Working in group. University of Guelph Library. Guelph, Ontario Katalin, A. (2004). Outcomes of redundancy: different aspects. Budapest University of Technology and Economics Hicks, R. & Andrew, J. (1995). Developing teamwork skills inside and outside the classroom. Social science monograph, 1 Mcmillan, K. & Weyers, J. (2006). Smarter study skills companion. 2nd edition, Prentice hall Messick, W. (2010). The importance of management succession planning. Ezine Articles. Retrieved on March 11, 2011 from < http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wayne_Messick Ralston, D., Hallinger, P., Egri, C. & Naothinsuhk, S. (2005). The effects of culture on work place strategy of upward influence. University of Bangkok. Elsevier Inc Smith, A. & Robert, D. (1994). The psychology of work and human performance. 2nd edition. New York, Collins Woolworth. (2010). Woolworths consider move into China or India. Retrieved on March 11, 2011, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1523/is_200411/ai_n9683914/ Read More