People and Organizations - Assignment Example

?Unit of Study: People and Organizations: Individual reflective paper using Tennenbaum, salas and Beard Model and find practical solutions for it Didmy team work effectively? Yes. This was favored by the high level of preparedness and putting into consideration the importance of the assignment. We started as a group of four people and all the members remained until the end of the assignment. We first set a policy that every member should attend every meeting and the policy worked since every member attended promptly. In case one was planning to miss a meeting, we had advised that the person should communicate in advance to allow adjustments by the team members in dealing with the part the individual was to handle. With the policy working, the team was able to meet its deadlines as well as present high quality job. The level of effectiveness has been favored by the continued attendance of meetings by the team members. Every member has been assigned duties that make him or her available for every meeting. This creates a sense of belonging, which creates a strong bond between members of a group (McMillan & Chavis 1989). The result has been we have become friends to each other hence creating a friendly and conducive environment for us to work in. In our group, we worked to enhance motivation that made the team members place group interest ahead of personal interest. So far, we have been able to have four meetings and the attendance and level of participation have been consistent from the team members. Every member’s participation has been recognized by the continued support from the team members on given group work assignments. The previous assignment had six questions. We divided the questions amongst ourselves in the sub groups where we worked in pairs on every part of the question. Each meeting had a specified task were everybody turned up prepared and ready to work on the day’s part. John and I were working on a set of three questions. To enhance effectiveness and timely delivery of the assignment, exchanging of ideas, and evaluating responses against questions is very essential (Bloom & Loftin 1998). Upon confirming that we had answered all the three questions as per the instructions, we went ahead and asked for suggestions from the other group members while we also helped them evaluate their answers. The results were a well-done assignment where all aspect of the questions had been addresses effectively. Team support to specific individuals is a key success indicator of every team (Brounstein 2011). At the time of presentation, we worked as teams in supporting each other do a thorough presentation. I remember I was very tense when doing my PowerPoint presentation that I needed some back up. Grace came in to provide the needed support when laying up the stage for presentation as well as doing a conclusion for the presentation. The same happened when Bill was doing his presentation. John assisted him in doing the introduction and the first part of the questions presentation. This happened until all the questions had been presented and all upcoming questions had been answered effectively to the satisfaction of the audience. Low opportunity, low morale and high team turnover and wasted time are key ingredients to ineffectiveness (Parker 2011). To avoid such problems, our team applied some important factors for team effectiveness that contributed to our team working successfully. Just to mention a few are cohesiveness and coordination, team training and team building activities. Cohesiveness and coordination defines the level of interaction of the team members to each other (Salas 1992). Our team had the greatest level of interaction, which was highly favored by the friendship that existed between us. Working with each other was much fun that one could not miss a meeting to engage in personal issues. For example, I had to fore go a family shopping day to attend a group discussion meeting. This was possible because the team’s interest came first and I felt it was more important, due to its urgency than the family shopping that could be done any other day. The result was planning the shopping to take place on another day different from the meeting day. This was the case with many other members of the group. Bill had to attend his brother’s birthday party late since it was happening on a day when we had a meeting. All this was possible because of the sense of accountable that made every member plan to be in the meeting even if it coincided with other important personal activities. We also felt the urgency of the assignment since it was time bound and things like family issues could always be handled at any other time. The group had an emphasis on communication incase one was planning to be absent. We experienced a great interconnection between the group roles, which enhanced cohesiveness, and team coordination in the team process. Another thing that enhanced cohesiveness and coordination in our team is that meetings were planned with the conceit of every member. At the end of every meeting, we had an evaluation session where we evaluated whether we had met the meetings objectives as we also planned for the next meeting, which was to fall at a day convenient to all. We also used to set the goal for the next meeting, which made us well prepared and avoided wasting time on setting the goals to achieve the goals. In the process, I learnt that prior preparation is a basic ingredient to team effectiveness. Many issues that face small groups can be addressed at the commencement of the team activities (Roman & Brandler 1999). At the commencement of the team activities, we were quite aware of what issues like time management, accounting management and stage presentation could affect our team’s effectiveness. We identified team training on the issues and team-building activities as key to the success of a team. At the commencement of the group, the members came up with a training schedule. The training was internal where each member trained the rest of the team on what they are best at. The trainers were to research on the basics in their area of training, come up with a comprehensive document for training. Bill trained us on principles of accounting management; John trained us on stage presentation and I did train on time management. These trainings played a great role in enhancing knowledge that was important for the rest of meetings. In the course of the meetings, we planned for an ice cream plot as our team building activity still in the early stages of the group commencement. This worked in enhancing friendship, an important ingredient for effective teamwork. Knowledge and motivation are key raw materials for effective regular team interaction (Griffin & Moorhead 2009). The greatest motivating factor for our team was the given responsibilities and the support each one of us received from the team. From the activities undertaken, one was almost certain of success. The level of engagement was so high that one could not afford missing a meeting. Every member worked tirelessly, especially after delegation of duties to meet the deadline. Another thing that enhanced motivation was the conducive friendly environment that was created for every member. Coming for the meeting was more like coming for chitchat. We all enjoyed being in the team hence the reason why everybody would prefer to be in the meeting during the meeting time than anywhere else. Another way was use of incentives to motivate team members (Tannenbaum, Beard, & Salas 1992). My subgroup with John was unable to handle our second question. It was difficult for us and too lengthy that if one missed a step, they could not be able to get the expected results. Bill and Grace came in and assisted us in working on the problem. Out of our own will, John and I offered them coffee as a way of appreciating their support in going an extra mile to help us despite their tight schedules. The above reflection does not mean that we had a perfect team with no issues amongst ourselves. However, we allowed each other to be as candid as they could as we maintained an aspect of mutual respect, while every member tried to give credit where it is due, to enhance team effectiveness (Masters 2009). This was because we were trying to build opportunity from the problem after an early problem diagnosing (Brophy 2010). For example, we discovered that John had a very high attraction to Grace and was even planning to date her. This guided us when planning the small subgroups. We were very careful not to place them in one group since we realized they could change focus of the group and engage in personal issues. The result was that they both had to plan for a day they could meet and talk out there issues outside the team meeting time. However, this worked in creating an opportunity when we realized that Grace could effectively work with Bill. Their two different personalities, melancholic and sanguine, created an aspect of diversity that worked well as they engaged in looking for solutions for the problems. The result was a well-done job that yielded the best response. Managing people in the 21 century who happen to have so much to do is a problem that a group is likely to encounter (Terry & Beach 2005). This was a problem we experienced that could have hindered our success was time constraint. Majority of us are working meaning we have very little time to engage in extra activities. This made us to strain a lot during the meetings to appoint of sometimes living the meetings without having solved the problems completely. However, we allowed group members to continue from where we left at for completing the assignment on time. The allowance allowed us to work on the group assignments even outside the discussion. The result was that everybody had to set their priorities right to be able to be in the same level with the rest of the team. References Bloom, CP & Loftin, RB, 1998, Facilitating the Development and use of Interactive Learning Environment, Maweh, NJ: Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Inc. Brophy, JR, 2010, Leadership Essentials for Emergency Medical Services, Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Publishing Ltd. Brounstein, M, 2011, Managing Teams for Dummies, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Griffin, RW, & Moorhead, G, 2009, Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations, 9th edn, Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning Ltd. Masters, K, 2009, Role Development in Professional Nursing Practice, 2nd edn, Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Publishers Ltd. McMillan, DW & Chavis, DM, 1986, ‘Sense of Community: A Definition and Theory’, Journal of Community Psychology, vol 14, pp. 6-23. Parker, GM, 2011, Team Players and Teamwork: New Strategies for Developing Successful Collaboration, San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons Publishers Ltd. Roman, C & Brandler, S, 1999, Group Work: Skills and Strategies for Effective Interventions, 2nd ed., Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press, Inc. Tannenbaum, SI, Beard, RL, & Salas, E, 1992, Team Building and its Influence on Team Effectiveness: An Examination of Conceptual and Empirical Developments, New York: Elsevier Science Pub. Terry, C & Beach, L, 2005, Psychology of Decision Making: People in Organizations, Thousands Ork, CA, Sage Publication inc. Read More