Effective Team and Performance Management - Assignment Example

?Effective Team and Performance Management Reflect on what you learned from the group exercise in weeks one - three (Learning outcomes 3 and 4) I did learn a lot from the team exercise conducted on week1 and 3. It was a great experience for me as a learner. I have learned about the organizational behavior, and the factors that are likely to influence the individual behavior in a team, and also about management practice efficiency, and behavioral skills, to generate impact on the performance of the team. “Teams are composed of people who have a variety of emotional and social needs which the team can either frustrate or help to meet” (West 2012, p. 6). The team has become more effective, in norming stage. Each individual began to focus on the possible ways to improve their team. Due to this, more group effort and unity has increased within the team. At this stage, the team is focusing on collaboration or cooperation. The task of the group is to interact, and to ensure the flow of data. It is my duty to support the members and group as a whole. “During the norming stage of team development, team members will begin to solve discrepancy they felt between their individual expectations and the reality of the team experience” (Parcon 2007, p. 33). I have been a part of the best team, and that worked out very well, for the reason that all of us, as a team loved the work we were doing. So the teams are ready to set aside their differences, and we truly move forward for attainment of team goals. In norming stage, leaders “help the team take responsibility for progress towards the goal. This is a good time to arrange a social or a team-building event” (Gears off a Leader Seriies (GOALS) 2011, p. 2) team interacted well each other. This means that we worked together efficiently, and are well with conscious of our goals, and the ways to accomplish those goals. There is no teamwork, devoid of regular communication. “Teamwork accomplishes a task more effectively and efficiently than individual efforts. Every team member should contribute equally toward accomplishing the task” (Gibson et al. 1980, p. 6). The “individual behavior” (Gupta 2010) is influenced by factors like abilities, gender, race and culture, perception, attributes, and attitude of the individuals. Behavior and Expectation for the Team in Each Area of Norms: Meeting: All team members should be attending at the meeting, so that they can own group norms resulting from the meeting. In the meeting, only one person at a time is supposed to speak. The opinion of each member is to be placed during the meeting time itself. If a member is found to be late, the member is not supposed to interrupt in between the meeting. A member, if always comes late for the meeting, should be asked to depart the group. All members are asked to get involved in the meeting, and the silent members are encouraged to speak and place their opinion. Specific time is also alloted for each member to speak. “Meeting norms set ground rules or expectations on how people treat each other at a meeting” (Meeting Process Recommendations n.d.). Decisions: Decision is made by the consensus of the team members. Consensus means the voluntary support from the group. It is difficult to obtain complete consent for a team decision, but the members have to support the decisions, whatever it might be. All members are supposed to contribute their views and opinions regarding the issues. If they remain silent in the group means they too support the decisions. This is applicable for those who abstain from the meeting, as their opinions in absentia have no value. Communication and Co-ordination: Every member should participate, speak on one’s burn behalf, and also give chance for others to speak. Each person will be held responsible for their own actions. There are three choices left before every member: to accept the decisions, or to try to work to make it superior, or leave it. But they are not expected to complain about it, if one is not ready to work on it. Communication should be in an honest way, and every member should speak openly by protecting the other member’s self-esteem. One should be open while communicating one’s disapproval regarding the decision, without any fear, and is expected to avoid the use of aggressive language. Commitment and Follow-Up: The members should be encouraged to participate actively in the decision making process, all through the life span of the team. Active and regular participation help a lot in developing commitment among the team members. The activity of survival task has helped a lot in learning the ways to get adopted with the tough situation. The role of the leader is vital in managing the team through the situation, in moulding their behavior within the organization, and in motivating the co-members to withstand when precarious situations arise within the organization. “One of the key elements of team learning is the willingness to deeply explore a problem” (Dumbrajs 2007). 2. Describe and Reflect on Your Experience of the Practical Seminar Activities (Learning outcomes 1 and 3) The overall experiences of the seminar activities are so exciting and great. I have experienced the effect of interpersonal relationship in the organization. Interrelationship at work comprises of day to day communication between managers and the workforce. The interpersonal relationship has created a pleasant and creative atmosphere in the organization. “Interpersonal relationship is the social link between two or more persons” (Ejifugha 2011, p. 6). Interpersonal relationship is formed in an organization by going through four stages, and they are: Contact Involvement Intimacy Deterioration I also had the experience that the positive interpersonal relations formed during the seminar, had paved way for the development and continuance of faith and positive feelings in the group. Even though the excellence of interpersonal relationships alone is not adequate to generate productivity, it can considerably contribute for the same. Poor skills in conversation may obstruct interpersonal relationship and also the working relations. Equally significant are the factors that affect interpersonal relations like participating personally in decision making, efficient style of communication, listening to the employees, and keeping away from one-way communication. I can very well understand that good interpersonal relationship has made the following changes within the team: it has promoted team work, and helped in the co-ordination of group activities far better than it were earlier. It has helped to reduce time in solving the issues, and to complete the work qualitatively. “Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior in organizational settings, how human behavior interacts with the organization, and the organization itself” (Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior 2006, p. 4). It is performed by accepting a system approach. It means, it interprets organization and individual relationships, keeping in view of the whole society, the whole organization, the whole group, and individual in entirely. Its intention is to create better relationships, by accomplishing objectives in terms of humanity, organization, and society. The organization's foundation remains on the values, vision, philosophy, and goals of the management. The organization culture decides the kind of communication, leadership, and the dynamics of the organization. The workforce perceives this as a quality of their work life. This in turn, directs the degree of motivation of the workforce. The ultimate outcomes are individual satisfaction, performance, personal development, and growth. All these factors are combined to develop the framework within which the organization operates. I have an intimate knowledge of how the different factors affect individual behavior in the organization. “Managers in the organizations train their subordinates continuously; aim being development of skills, promotion of productivity and improvement of individual behavior” (Part One: Introduction to Organizational Behaviour n.d., p. 7). Individual characteristics had influence on organizational behavior either in a large or small scale and it consists of values, attitudes, personality, cultural differences and ethics of individual. Even though each one of these factors influences the individuals with top status in the organization, these factors may make a little difference, especially in the individual team’s performance in the organization. 3. Write about an example of your own group experiences from the point of view of one of your fellow group members imagining their experience of your work with her / him (based on the work in weeks 5, 7, 8) (Learning Outcomes 1- 4). My experience with my team members was very remarkable one. In working in a team I have learned many things that are beneficial for me and for the future. This has lead to the improvement of the various skills in me and also in achieving the goals. Certain real life situations have leaded me and my co-workers to find the solution for various problems which will guide us in the future also. “On a self managed team, interpersonal feedback sessions can help clarify which communication and behavior patterns are beneficial and which harmful to the mood and productivity of the team. (Halverson & Tirmizi 2008, p. 214). One of the most important improvements in us is that our interpersonal skills have developed. One of my group members has appreciated me for my active involvement in the team. All the group members gave me respect and recognition after I handled the situation nicely when we were lost in the moon. It was a very terrible experience we had in our team work. There had a situation of even losing our lives in the middle of the moon. But we have escaped from it through our good approach and positive attitude to face the situations. In this situation, the main qualities my group member liked from me are the integrated care and the emotional aspects of safety. When we are moved away from the family and once step on to the job, there are only limited chances of considering the family values and emotions while working. All the managers cannot show emotional consideration to his members. But what my group member has said about his feelings is that, “he felt as if he is in a family” after the occurrence and recovery from the crash on the moon. Some times “good decision making is a conscious process that involves the consequences of the options in choosing a course of action.” (Martin et al. 2006 p. 16) .As a leader of the team, I consider my team members as my family members. After working in a team what I felt is that our aim to achievement of the goal will be easily attained when working as a team. Other than fearing the group members, interacting in a friendly manner will help a lot. It is not essentially that the disaster would be of advantage to your leadership, but somewhat the chance to “respond quickly and effectively to an emergency, disaster” (Zschau & Kuppers 2003, p.22). This gave me a chance to face the challenges, problems and obstacles very easily. It is potentially unsafe to group members who are stressed to be truthful with themselves and with the other group members. The group members want to feel safe not including guilt on an individual member. The entire situation should be deal with a fresh mind, particularly in case of critical condition. A leader should not drop his control in such condition, and “psychologically and emotionally prepared to deal with a critical situation” (McKown 1992, p. 52). It is necessary to cautiously supervise the intensity of emotional strength in the group, identifying that this can convey on particularly rough feelings that will obstruct with development for those in the previous phase of improvement. My relationships with the group members became strong. It is best for “having a strong relationship leadership orientation producing the more positive results” (Camilleri 2011, p. 247). Our behavior is inclined in difficult manner by other people and the groups to which they are involved. At times the occurrence of other people can develop our performance and decision, but at times their occurrence deteriorates it. Sometimes other people can give confidence us to get involved and help others, sometimes they restrain us. The result rests on a multifaceted evaluation of costs and profit of overruling and not overruling. And at times they can build we perform in manner of which we would not at all have reflected ourselves proficient. The support of group made a basis of improving personal and interpersonal relationships. It has helped me to oppose force to obey the rules of group norms and give the proper bravery to violate instructions from an authority form. But the social group that is a general result of group membership can also be a basis of unfairness and conflict. The critical situations made me to have a quick, deliberate and goal- oriented thinking. In the lost on moon task, it was difficult to choose a particular solution or items from a group of alternatives and the members had different opinions in selecting the best choice. 4. (Final Synthesis) A retrospective summary of and commentary on your previous writing, indicating what you have learned which seems to you to be important for your own professional understanding (Learning outcomes 1 – 4). As a leader I have learned and experienced many new ideas while working and interacting with my team members. I have understood the real meaning of the profession and the interpersonal skill has improved. Leaders are inclined to recognize interpersonal relationship problems as motivational or personality problems. However, “some personality traits may cause interpersonal problems” (Vries 2011). The group member’s in order to function in the right manner not only need a high level of directive supervision, but also need extensive support. The leader must not only provide as mediator, but also as a guide of group norms and principles. The leader also required to listen to the problems of the group, handle conflicts, support participation, provide acknowledgment, and make coalition. A great deal can be studied by observation and will be capable to see different behavioral model appearing while working in a team. As a Leader, you will have the pleasure of find out the program contents, learning the key aspect of falls anticipation and group leadership and “action learning facilitation skills” (Marquardt & Berger 2000, p. 184) which can be applied in other areas of your life. The experiences I had while working in a team and by completing the task has molded me for my future growth. Applying organizational behavior and learning theories into practice has improved the behavior and attitude to some extent. This knowledge possibly will then assist in controlling those behaviors that are not being suitable for the objectives of the organizations. “Organizational Behavior seeks to emphasize the understanding of behavior in organizations so as to develop competencies in foreseeing how people are likely to behave” (Ashraf n.d., p. 156). By applying management practices in the team, I was able to develop the team to work effectively. Guiding members from “diverse background” require more critical management skills. (Gardenswartz & Rowe 1998, p. 432). I have learned to communicate the organization's task to team members and assist them to appreciate the input that the team create to the company's goals and planned objectives and exhibit interest about the organization's principle and give confidence team members to contribute to thoughts about means to convene business objectives and applying programs and provide suitable credit for team members who attain preferred outcome. “Belonging to a team, in the broadest sense, is a result of feeling part of something larger than your self. It has a lot to do with your understanding of the mission or objectives of your organization” (Kaushal 2008 p. 236). I have learned that more can be achieved when working with team than can be achieved by performance of individuals alone, but to be dynamic a team must stay alert and strong. The experience gave me an interesting learning result which mix together educational and practically established assembly to give members not only with an in-depth knowledge of the idea of professional service organization management and their function, but also with the ability to pretend those idea in the daily work. Reference List Ashraf, T n.d. Organizational Bihavior. Available at [Accessed on 21 April 2012] Camilleri, E 2011. Project Success: Critical Factors and Behaviours. Gower Publishing Limited. Print. Dumbrajs, S 2007. A Learning Community. University of Joensuu Faculty of Education. Available at [Accessed on 21 April 2012] Ejifugha, AU 2011. Teaching and Learning of Social Skills in Schools: Implications to Social Health. Department of Physical and Health Education. Available at [Accessed on 21 April 2012] Gardenswartz, L & Rowe, A 1998. Managing Diversity. McGraw-Hill. Print. Gears off a Leader Seriies (GOALS) 2011. The Source Student Organization Resource Center. 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