Managing People And Organisation - Essay Example

?Managing People and Organisation Table of Contents Managing People and Organisation Table of Contents 2 Formation of Group 3 Forming Of Group in FOODCO 4 Managing a Group 8 The Way to Become Effective Group Worker 11 The Effective Group in FOODCO 14 References 16 Formation of Group The formation of a group is an effective and slow process. In a group all people are associated with each other. According to Bruce Tuckman, there are five phases in formation of a group. They are as follows: Forming Forming is the preliminary phase where group comes as one and the members start to build up bonding with each other. In this phase the members find out what the organisation expects from the group. This phase is the first step towards developing the group. The members develop trust and set up limits on tolerable activities by experimentation. In case of any misconduct, the reaction of the group members decides if the conduct will be repeated in future or not. In this phase, the job of the members is allotted. Storming The second phase is called storming. In this phase the interpersonal disagreement takes place. In case the group is not capable to form the objectives and goals or the members differ on mutual objectives it can cause collision in the entire group. Thus, for a group to be successful the members must develop a common and precise objective and work towards it. A conversation is useful to reach a mutual agreement where everyone can freely share their views. Norming The third phase of group formation is norming where the members can successfully work out the disagreement. In this phase, it is important to judge about how to accomplish the objectives. Everyone becomes clear about their roles and assigned tasks expected from them. By formal and informal process the roles of members can be assigned. The course of action by which group will perform for fulfilling the objectives are decided. In this phase, the members can realise the operation of the group (Institute for Extended Learning, 2009). Performing In the phase of performing, the roles, expectations and customs are not significant. The group formation is complete in this phase after resolving the inside disagreements of recognition and allotment of tasks and initiating responsibilities. Members provide their full effort to accomplish the group objectives (Management Consulting Courses, n.d.). Adjourning Adjourning is the final stage of group development. In the year 1977, Bruce Tuckman had further improved the group formation phase and included the ‘Adjourning’ phase. In this stage, the group members begin to gradually disband the group as the objectives are completed. They identify their tasks in the group and move ahead (Funch, 2007). Forming Of Group in FOODCO FOODCO is known as one of the biggest food service distributor corporations of the USA. FOODCO had developed six project groups for dealing with business issues that was important for ELI (Executive Leadership Institute). There were 4–5 members to each project group ensuring at least one member has proficiency which is related to the topic under examination. The project was designed in such a way that it permitted group members to perform momentarily during each period of the project management. FOODCO had allocated a senior supporter to the group who helped in the project. The supporters are the company executives who have good curiosity in watching the success of the group and were ready to assist with the necessary resources, resolve organisational difficulties and offer supervision on how to advance and accomplish the group objective. The groups were given order to get in touch with the senior supporters when needed during the project phase. A survey had been conducted in each time phase to reach a conclusion (Furst, 2004). Fig 1: FOODCO Groups and Objectives Group Objectives of the Group 1 To develop an integration strategy for acquirement 2 To determine the method of efficient transfer of information technology from one ancillary firm to other firm 3 To determine the way to transfer best practices from one section of the company to another 4 To simplify the accounts payable procedure 5 To conduct a business communication assessment 6 To develop career path for specific job Source: (Furst, 2004). Forming In the phase of forming, the group members start to build up bond withing each other. Every group had started on an equivalent balance. With regard to technology and confidence there was no difference among the group members. The meaningfulness of the tasks, the assistance from supporters and accessibility of resources are same for each group. The group members are self-assured to fulfil the expectations that are needed from them. Storming In the phase of storming, the groups spent a certain amount of time for knowing each other. It has been seen that there were many differences between the group members regarding the opinions, task assignments, participation of senior supporters and performances. In this phase, many groups had not decided their leader and a few groups had neglected the order to keep informing the supporters about any difficulties or improvement of strategies. Thus, many were unable to acquire requisite resources to complete the tasks. Many group members specified that their groups had faced problems in performing tasks in the forming and storming phase. There was limited loyalty among group members and there was problem regarding unfair share. The groups had faced four kinds of difficulties which are: to ascertain a leader, to set way towards objectives, managing task and generating loyalty. The groups are allowed to cooperate openly with each other to remove any differences in members’ behaviours. In each group, there was need to set up a group rule, for instance ‘punctuation’ and work procedures. Norming In the third phase of the group life cycle, the members had realised the need for a harmony regarding how the group will function and progress towards goal. The groups had reformed the existing rules and initiated new rules regarding the communication with group members. The group realised that there is need to develop a greater urgency about their project and has to accelerate their performance as well as share their tasks clearly. Performing In this phase, the results of the groups appeared by the means of group loyalty, involvement of supporter, coordination between group members and inner trust between members. Each group had submitted their projects and their projects were evaluated by non-members against the content, superiority and expected efficiency. The achievement of the groups signified the factors that had affected the group’s success. The group which had perceived larger resource accessibility at the forming phase had performed better subsequently. In the storming phase groups that had established a clear objective had gained more time to evaluate the efficiency of the tasks. In performing phase those groups that had perceived better support from seniors proved to be more successful. The results suggest that the groups had clearly misjudged the challenges related with performing as a group. In the first phase, the groups had predicted that there will be least disagreement between members and few difficulties while accomplishment of the project. However, in the end it was found that in practical situation the communication between group members was much difficult than the prediction (Furst & Et. Al., 2004). Managing a Group The members of the group can be of two types which are ordinary members and executive members. To manage a group effectively, it requires active contribution and coordination of each member. Without proper management the members will consider themselves as outsider from the group and it can result in loss of simplicity. Thus, the group will face inferior level of trust and ultimately it will breakdown. It is the job of a leader to make sure that the members realise themselves as the group belongs to them and the direction of the group is managed by them. Members are the possessor of the group who entrust the managerial authority to the group’s executive. The members provide effort, labour and finance for the group. They prepare policy regarding group activities, allocation of profit among others (Bartle, 2010). Managing a group includes developing a condition where individual starts to recognise the other members as ‘us’ only then the group can probably perform effectively. Developing a Sense of Harmony To manage a group there is need to develop a strong sense of harmony. The most important part of managing a group is to assure that the members think the whole group as distinctive. Besides unity of members, the group also must collaborate with the organisation otherwise the objectives will not be achieved and there will be wastage of time by conciliation with each other. The other characteristic of managing the group is to define the resources of the group clearly to ensure that the resources are not achieved at a cost of certain other groups. Establishing Good Communication The group also requires ensuring that the members have adjusted properly in the group as a whole. Thus, communication is the most efficient issue in managing the group unity. If the group is to perform well than it is important that each member realises the way other members are contributing as a whole. Communicating information about the task, members’ capabilities, skills, information about achievement is vital for group performance. This can help to generate a basis of shared experience, individual friendship, which is helpful for managing the group. Generating a Feeling of Pride within the Group The third characteristic of managing the group is to generate a feeling of pride in the group so that the members can feel satisfied for belonging to it. If the group members do not have belongingness to the group it can cause detachment with members. Thus, besides communicating information about the capability and knowledge of members it is equally important to evaluate the group’s accomplishment. The group leader must make sure that that the others in the organisation are also aware of the group’s performance. The group pride can be established by developing the group members’ feeling of professionalism. In that sense, training is profitable to learn and besides training it is equally important to develop a sense of self-appeal and self-respect because it can help to enhance the sense of proficiency (Hayes, 2002). A good group starts with conversation, debate and sharing of thought, as members begin to communicate their feelings about the task and the mode the group should function. The group vision is mostly important in those conditions where the group work is permanent and will not finish after achievement of a particular task. In case of managing long-term group this approach is quite useful because a high degree of mutual understanding is needed between group members (Hayes, 2002). For the effective performance of the group, there is need to motivate the employees. According to David McClelland there are three kinds of needs which are: Need for Achievement: A number of people prefer to set goals which are quite challenging and practical. These challenging goals help to create a sense of success for those people. They prefer to work without help or perform with high achievers. Need for Affiliation: People of this kind of looks for pleasant relationship. They want to be acknowledged by other group members and obey the regulations and standard of project group. Need for Power: People, who want control or power, search for individual or institutional power. The individual power is the capacity to manage and direct other members and institutional power is the capability to manage the effort of other members for the improvement of organisation and group (Phillips, 2010). Abraham Maslow had identified different phases of motivation. His theory describes an association between the needs. He concluded that once the lower level needs of people are fulfilled, they peruse for higher level needs. The following figure represents the hierarchy of need of Maslow. Source: (Lean Manufacturing Concepts, 2008). The Way to Become Effective Group Worker A group requires strong group workers to achieve the objectives. To become an effective group worker a few qualities are needed which are: Reliability A group worker must be reliable on whom the group can count for accomplish a task. He / she must put strong efforts and meet his / her obligations. A reliable group member is consistent and delivers good performance every time. Constructive Communication An effective group worker speaks and conveys the belief and idea precisely. There is need to communicate with other group members honestly and must respect them for their contribution in the group. An effective group member does not hesitate to express his point of view rather he/ she communicates the best solution in an optimistic, confident and respectful way. Active Listener Good listening is one of the ways of becoming effective group member. A group member must absorb, appreciate, and believe the ideas, opinions of other group members without negotiating and disagreeing in each point. A member must be disciplined enough to listen before speaking so that the outcome becomes fruitful. Perform As an Active Member An effective group player is an active contributor. He/she participates in group conferences, listens and talks in conversations. A group member who performs as an active member, gets completely involved in the task and helps to accomplish any work in a proper manner. Share Frankly and Enthusiastically It is an important trait of effective group member to share the information, facts and experiences frankly and enthusiastically. It is the duty of the group member to make other members informed about the tasks. The majority of communication that happens in the group is informal. Besides formal meeting and discussion the group member must feel comfortable while talking with other members and share daily news. An effective group member is quite active in unofficial sharing of any information. The effective members keep other group member updated with latest information which assists to get the task done and also avoid revelation. Cooperation Cooperation can be stated as an aspect of performing with others and accomplishing a task and is important nature of a good group member. In spite of differences in the working style and perspective of other group members, an effective member must search a method to perform together to solve problems and accomplish tasks. Effective group member reacts to the demand for support from other members and provide assistance to them. Exhibit Flexibility A group often faces changing circumstances and accordingly change themselves. An effective group member adjusts with the changing situation without protesting or getting worried just because of the changes. Flexibility is an important aspect of effective group member who can adjust when needed. A group member must not dispute when the group needs to progress to acquire any important aspect or to reach a decision. Effective group members are hard in their consideration and also frank to other members’ proposals. Express Gratification to the Group A good group member must care about other’s task and appear each day with expressing care about others and commitment. They want to offer good effort and wish for other group members also to act similarly. Act As a Problem Solver Every group faces difficulties while accomplishing any task. An effective group member is ready to manage every difficulty in a solution oriented approach. These members are not problem creators rather they attempt to find a solution to any problem. A good group member neither blames others for creating problem nor avoids the problem; rather he/ she tries to make a solution by discussing and collaborating with other group members. Respect and Support Other Group Members An effective group member treats associate group members with politeness and kindness. These members demonstrate respect and provide proper support to others in accomplishing the task. They provide no conditions for providing support or sharing any information. A sense of humour is necessary in effective group member and they must not make fun at other members’ faults. An effective group member helps to manage the group in a professional way (Wiley Publishing, 2011). The Effective Group in FOODCO In case of FOODCO’s group development, the most effective group was the group whose members were practical, capable and courageous to request support and leadership as needed. After the evaluation, it has been found that group 6 was most effective and group 4 was ineffective. The reason that group 6 became so effective is good team management. In storming phase, group 6 had successfully developed stronger harmony about the objectives of the group where group 4 was unable to reach harmony on that phase. Group 6 had received larger support from all group members and frequent assessment of group’s progress compared to the Group 4. This differences replicate that the members of Group 6 had spent much time in understanding each other compared to the Group 4. In norming phase, the Group 6 had developed effective working methods for each member. The group members recognised that there is a need to evaluate to make sure that the group is perusing towards its objectives. On the other hand, the Group 4 was unable to find out the methods to accomplish their objectives because of ineffective group members. They have lack of confidence for performing well. In the performing phase, the dissimilarity became quite evident between the two groups. In that phase, Group 6 had clear objective, good communication among members, and they had successfully generated trust among each other. These dissimilarities suggest that the group member needs to be effective to deliver good performance (Furst, 2004). References Bartle, P., 2010. Group Formation and Development. Seattle Community Network. [Online] Available at: http://www.scn.org/cmp/modules/bld-grp.htm [Accessed June 27, 2011]. Furst, S. A. & Et. Al., 2004. Managing the Life Cycle of Virtual Teams. Academy of Management Executive, 2004, Vol. 18, No. 2. [Online] Available at: http://www.imamu.edu.sa/topics/IT/IT%206/Managing%20the%20life%20cycle%20of%20virtual%20teams.pdf [Accessed June 27, 2011]. Funch, F., 2007. Stages of Group Development. Ming the Mechanic. [Online] Available at: http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-001723.htm [Accessed June 27, 2011]. Hayes, N., 2002. Managing Teams: A Strategy for Success. Cengage Learning. Institute for Extended Learning, 2009. Group Formation. Students. [Online] Available at: http://www.iel.spokane.edu/Students/Student-support/Diversity/Workshops/Workshop-docs/GroupFormation.aspx [Accessed June 27, 2011]. Lean Manufacturing Concepts, 2008. Abraham Maslow Theory of Motivation. Articles. [Online] Available at: http://www.leanmanufacturingconcepts.com/Articles/Miscellaneous/AbrahamMaslowTheory.htm [Accessed June 27, 2011]. Management Consulting Courses, No Date. Formation of Groups. Stages of Group Development. [Online] Available at: http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson25StagesOfGroupDevelopment.pdf [Accessed June 27, 2011]. Phillips, J., 2010. All-in-one CAPM/PMP Exam Guide. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Wiley Publishing, 2011. Ten Qualities of an Effective Team Player. Dummies. [Online] Available at: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/ten-qualities-of-an-effective-group-player.html [Accessed June 27, 2011]. Read More