Teamwork in CommuniCo - Essay Example

? Team work in CommuniCo Teamwork in CommuniCo Introduction This is an advice paper on the various techniques used to improve performance of team work in the various international corporate of the CommuniCO mobile manufacturing company. It is to highlight on various techniques used by other studies on improving team work that can be employed in the organization. To show this is a comparison between Katzenbach and Smiths study on the generic model of effective team working and Belbins generic management team role theory. The choice of the use of these studies is due to the diversity in dealing with team components. Katzenbach and Smiths (1999, p. 13) study mainly deals with the establishment of the members as one single unit, while Belbins study mainly deals with dealing on improving the performance of the individuals within the team. Individuals develop on their own towards the makeup of the whole team’s improvement in performance and achievement of goals. The two studies both lead to the effective improvement in performance within the team. I aim at proving them through a combination of the two techniques. This would lead to the best team improvement method both in performance and achievement. This would create a state where the technique is improving the state of the individuals within the team each as a, separate, independent person. This brings out their abilities while, at the same time, it brings about a way in which the team improves as a whole. This is in terms of their strengths and abilities as a team working together towards that goal. Katzenbach and Smith (1999: p. 32) define team work as the performance of an action by a team towards the achievement of a common purpose. A team comprises of more than one person of whom each ideally holds different responsibilities in the performance of the action. The comprise of a team work holds the element of interdependence, common purpose, empowerment, realization of synergies, mutual and individual accountability, clarity of roles and responsibilities and satisfaction from mutual working for the same purpose (Barry, 1991:p. 15). Team work use is as a better means of achievement of purpose in most fields due to its maximization of quality and quantity providence. The use of team work has various advantages to firms such as, the quick completion of tasks or problems. Here, challenges get exposed to a wide variety of knowledge. Morale and ownership among the different individuals in different tasks boosts through participative decision making and, as a result, effective results got from this. According to Belbin a team refers to a group of individuals, in which each has a role understood by other partners. The different individuals in a team locate various positions within the team and perform exceptionally effectively in those that are natural or that are common (Herbert, 1994: p. 13). He further defined as the term team role as the tendency to contribute, interrelate and treat with others in a way. He mentions nine such team roles that underlie team success. Belbins team roles implies in the identification of different people’s behavioral strengths and weaknesses in the performance of certain tasks in the achievement of certain goals. Such identification of these strengths and weaknesses is useful in the aid recruitment process, mutual trust and understanding, to build productive working relationships and the selection and development of high performing teams. It is these nine roles that Belbin establishes as the best modes of improving team work within firms and organizations. This ensures the achievement of set goals in the best mode possible. According to Katzenbach and Smith (1999) study on teamwork focuses on various aspects such as the sense of purpose within the team members. There should be a deeper sense of purpose for the achievement of the desired results. This implies that all members feel individual responsible and accountable for the failure or the success of the whole team as a whole in the achievement of the set goals. The nature of the performance goals is another crucial aspect in Katzenbach and smiths study on teams and team works performance. They state that relatively more ambiguous goals should be set to enhance and facilitate the nature of team works. This involves the establishment of the main point of purpose within the team and all letting for the achievement of the same in more diverse means just as long as the main objectives. The development or having of better work approaches or complete approaches within the team is another extremely crucial aspect within their study. Work approaches comprise of various activities within the team such as decision making procedures within the team, application of individual creativity in facing challenges, team meeting procedures, team work process of completing a given task from the beginning to end and the incorporation of team working standards that conform with the accepted industry norms and practices within the state laws among other team work activities. When a team is able to produce and utilize a working approach that integrates all of these activities, it paves way for improved team work performance and accomplishment of goals (Hare, 1976: p 23). For instance, rapid response to customer queries, quicker decision making choices, better planning, scheduling, and finally, completion of team activities. The other aspect incorporated in their study is the aspect of mutual accountability. This entails the team member’s acknowledgement of their joint responsibility towards the attainment of a common goal as well as their individual obligation to the tasks they handle towards the attainment of this common goal. This establishes a conducive and supportive environment within the team individuals making the team performance improve in such conditions and hence better quality and quantity results. The incorporation of complimentary skill sets and at other times, the use of interchangeable skills is also a fundamental aspect considered in their study. Complimentary skills are a must in any team work exercise. Most team work exercises require the incorporation of various, multiple skills. When the team members have relatively well balanced complimentary skills, the overall performance of the team bound to rise. The use of interchangeable skills can be incorporated in a firm as the individual, team members can support each another to complete their different tasks effectively. Katzenbach and Smith have recently focused on the aspect of shared leadership within the team to improve standards in the accomplishment of results. The concept is gaining broad recognition in many firms’ team work exercises, and it involves an immense deal of personal initiative among the different individual members. This entails heightened creativity and responsibility within their individual tasks and the general task in hand of the whole team towards the attainment of the set objectives. The main aspects of study of Katzenbach and Smith as discussed above mainly aim at improving the performance of team work. This is to establish high performance teams through the incorporation of those aspects in team work. This means the establishment of better functioning of the team as a unit and individual members in the best possible ways to make up an improved team performance mechanism. In Belbins study, though, the main aim of achievement in the focus of this study is the development and enhancement of the individual’s performance within the team and to ensure the long run achievement of the team’s objectives. The perfection of the individual in the team context ensures that the combined efforts of these members’ efforts are in the best possible form. This provides room for the achievement of the best results. One role is the role of the plant. The plant is a person who is creative, unorthodox and generators of ideas. If a creative solution to a challenge needed, the plant is the best candidate within the team to consult. The best candidate for the plant position is one who is smart and free thinking. He can be termed as the brains of the team and consultations of crucial issues to him. A plant can tend to ignore incidentals but also often has a hard time communicating his ideas to others in simple to understand mechanisms. A firm should only have one or two plants in their team base because the use of many plants in the team most often than not leads to misunderstandings. This is through the generation of many sound ideas hence disagreement of the best suited to be applied in a situation. The other role is that of the resource investigator within the team. The role of this resource investigator in the team is to give the team members a rush of enthusiasm at the beginning of the project. This is through performing activities such as the pursuing of the required contacts and opportunities aimed at the overall goal of attaining the desired results. The resource investigator focuses mainly from the outside of the firm and has a firm finger on other related issues of the outside world. While the plant develops new ideas, the resource investigator investigates for all the most appropriate methods that can be used in their implementation. He looks for possibilities from without and uses them to create limitless possibilities for application in the achievement of the goals. The main fall back with the resource investigator is the fact that most of them tend to lose momentum towards the completion of the project or the task and forgets some of the most crucial small details. This if not checked cancels all the effect that he has had on the team since the start hence hindering his efforts in ensuring reaching the aimed objectives of the project. The coordinator of the team according to Belbin is the other crucial role in the team. This is a person that has the talent to step back and to see the bigger picture in the progress of the team, in the achievement of the set goals. He is a suitable candidate for the chair person of the team due to this fact (Belbin, 1981: p. 3). The personal attributes in a coordinator are such as stable, confident, and mature, and have the ability to recognize the unique abilities in everyone, in the team. This is advantageous in delegating the right person for the right job. The coordinator defines the decisions helping the other actors of the team to concentrate on other tasks. Never the less many coordinators are manipulative and tend to delegate all physical work to others assuming leadership roles without any tasks to conduct. This most often leads to an upraise and ill feelings within the team reducing the effectiveness of individuals to perform as a team. This impacts on the swift achievement of the set goals also undermines the efforts of all the other eight outstanding team roles players of the team. Again, the shaper of the team is a task focused person who ensures performance of tasks and objectives with positive vigor and by positive energy and the need to achieve. He mainly aims at winning and this entails the achievement of all the set objectives of the project in the correct manner and time frame. In line with this persons aim and commitment to achieving the set tasks and objectives, they influence others into the same line of determination. This person will disagree, challenge, and argue out to attain the best alternative for achievement of tasks, and this aggression influences others into the spirit of achievement. Despite of this, the employment of two or more shapers in the same team would lead to conflicts and aggressions in the manner of conduct of different activities ideas in the achievement of the goals. It may also lead to unhealthy competition within the team. The monitor and evaluator of the team is mainly the observers within the team. They tend to observe the activities and achievement within the team at each step and highlight corrections and recommendations that can be implemented in those cases. They are valid character in detaching themselves from bias hence able to view the options with the greatest clarity and impartiality. They offer a clear, broad view in dealing with issues and challenges, and by slow and careful consideration one will always arise at the correct decision. However, sometimes they may become excessively analytical throwing corrections without logical reasoning. They also face extremely hard times in motivating themselves or inspiring the other team members to be passionate and enthusiastic about their work. A team worker is the other role. In the team, he is the main person who keeps the functional unit running as one in the achievement of its objectives (Resurad, 2005). They are exceptionally talented diplomats hence foster an understanding working relationship among the different individuals within the team. The task of this person is silent and often goes unnoticed until the person is absent and disagreement start arising in the team and some serious things foregone affecting of the overall performance and achievement of the goals of the team in the long run. This person is usually a player between two disagreeing sides and hence does not take sides in such disagreement. This may become a tremendous disadvantage when the person is to make a crucial decision between two conflicting sides. This in the long run affects the normal conduct of activities and achievement of results by the team. When it comes to implementation of decisions within the team activities, the implementer is of crucial importance on the team. This person takes their colleagues decisions and ideals and converts them to the desired action towards achievement of goals. They are self motivated by their role to the team and the achievement of the overall objectives hence tend to be loyal and can be relied upon to ensure the completion of given tasks. As a result of their loyalty, they will take the tasks that everybody else is avoiding and perform better than everybody else in the tasks that they undertake thus ensuring the wheel of activities keeps rolling and the desired objectives achieved in the required time period. However, their level of flexibility may be hindered since they are close-minded hence difficult to incorporate other people’s ideas into their plans especially if such plans may make the plan and results loose his creative signature. This is to say that they are sometimes showoffs, and this affects their ability to function in the team as a team player. Another role in the team according to Belbin is the finisher or the completer (Belbin, 1983: p. 4). This is the person that is extremely specifically concerned about the final outcome of the process. He or she will go that extra mile to ensure that everything is right according to plan and that the product that they deliver is perfect according to the expected and as promised. This person possesses a strong inward sense of perfection and may check and double check the results if need be to ensure that they are perfect to plan. He sets his performance standards extremely high thus influencing the others to do the same. This perfectionist mode may become a disadvantage through frustrating the other members of the team killing the team spirit. The specialists within the team are extremely crucial in that they are passionate and learned in their fields thus they often produce results that are close to accuracy. They are also passionate in passing this knowledge to others and strive to improve and build upon their expertise. They are out to prove and if there is any issue requiring justification and further clarification they would gladly go out their way to find out (Greenberg, 1996: p. 9). The authors of the two studies have been able to find mechanisms through which different aspects of team work can be improved to enable better achievement of team’s objectives. These findings go in line with the aim of this context because it aims at finding out the various ways in which team work can be improved within the CommuniCo mobile phones manufacturing company. These studies are sure as proven through their application in different organizations within their team work initiative and proven to work though with the provision of the various shortcomings as described. Various key assumptions made in the recommendation of these techniques for use in organizations to improve the nature of team works. These assumptions are such as that the various shortcomings of the two techniques effectively dealt on within the capacity of the organization. This means that the firms that employ these techniques have the capacity and capabilities to deal with the shortcomings and that there is perfect employment of the techniques. Both the literature authors have conducted various studies on the improvement strategies that they have published in the real environment (Dulewicz, 1995: p. 7). This has involved the investigation of various organizations that use such techniques in their completion of activities through team work. The works of Katzenbach, Smith, and Belbin are original works that may have similarities to other studies, and both the two also contain some similarities. I have found no works critiquing their studies and the results that they have established and published. Both the approaches described in the two studies can be well incorporated in the medium sized high tech manufacturing company such as CommuniCo mobile phones manufacturing company due to their ability to enhance team work both at individual and organizational level. Incorporating both the techniques from the two studies enhances the development of individual’s performances through better development of their skills and abilities and in the long run making them ready for team work initiative performance hence ensuring better performance. Subsequently, they would be better guarded by as a team in working together and incorporating their individual abilities to become a single ability to be functioning as one unit towards the achievement of set objectives. It is evident that there are other various techniques used in the improvement of team work so any organization should further critique the various methods and chose one that best fits into the objectives and working techniques of their firms and easy to cope (Belbin, 2007: p. 4). Conclusion To better enhance and to improve the essence and performance of teamwork within a firm such as in CommuniCO mobile phones manufacturing company, it is crucial to incorporate measures that built both the team as a whole and individuals in their lines of work. This entails that a combination of both Belbin and Katzenbach and Smith techniques would do exceptionally well. While Belbins technique of incorporating the nine roles within the teams individuals would go far in exploiting and developing the unique qualities and abilities in the individuals, the Katzenbach and Smith model would go extremely far in developing the team as one unit in ensuring best possible achievement. As such, this would create a situation where individuals personally committed to the achievement of the team but are also proud of the recognized positions that they hold within the team and the recognition of their unique abilities. Everybody is able to own up to the resultant achievement as a team and to also take part of their responsibility in the shortcomings that may be produced (Cloyd, 1964: p.16). This method should be applied carefully and with proper management in that it may cause the fall out of the whole team in that it sort of gives the team members two different tasks and responsibilities to play in the team. This may prove to be tiring and may make the members concentrate more on one task and ignore the other thus affecting the overall performance of the team (Sayder, 1994). Though this is still the best approach to build the team and enhance achievement, the other limitations such as the outburst of individual’s confidence and conflicts within team must not be overlooked. Bibliography Barry, D. 1991. Managing the Boss less Team: manager’s organization. New York: John Wiley and Lessons publishers. Belbin, R. 2007. Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail. 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