Team and Teamwork - Essay Example

Working as part of a team Place Team and teamwork With the appearance of new businesses which activities and thus success depend on the team work, there also appeared a new task for the organizations to think over their old- fashioned strategies that viewed workers only as singular working units. Moreover, many researchers state that team mental models such as team members have formed an understanding and mental representation of their importance within the working environment. In addition, in the recent time, more theorists have started to examine the role of team mental models on the team performance and their effect on the organizational performance (Lim & Klein, 2006). With the suggestions that teamwork increases business activities, there is no clear empirical support as to such evidence. However, according to managers and employees the effectiveness of teamwork is great (Allen & Hecht, 2004). There are numerous articles that state about the term team, which consists of two or more individuals, who are entitled with specific assignments and roles, and whose task is to perform interdependent tasks. However, being adaptable to numerous changes within the organization and outside it, they are able to follow and share a common goal. To work effectively together, team members should have specific knowledge, skills and attitudes, such as ability to monitor performance of others, knowledge of own and teams responsibilities and a certain attitude toward being as part of a team. Such skills are crucial for teamwork. Moreover, according to the extensive research on teamwork showed that along with the skills necessary for the effective teamwork, there also should be a set of interrelated skills that assist performance of all the tasks of the organization. Teamwork differs from task work, for example, a surgical skill. However, teamwork and task work require teams to be effective in complex environments. In addition, knowledge and skill at the task are not enough in health care system for example. Teamwork depends on each team member’s ability to meet the needs of others, to be able to adjust to others actions and have a general realization of how a certain goal should be achieved (Baker, Day & Salas, 2006). It is also important to mention that skills are all individual acquisition of team members and can be opposed to team-level competencies. It means that team members bring personal skills to their teams engaging in the work. Competencies are not unique to the team. Moreover, these competencies are improved in time, creating additional competencies, such as knowledge of teammate characteristics. Beliefs about the teams’ effectiveness Work in team means that each member is assigned by a special role for which each is responsible as an individual, however, with cooperation, collaboration with other members and ability to achieve compromise when necessary. Each member of a team should be held to a standard of how one’s part is done and achieved. If a team member is not interested in keeping and achieving organizational goals, there will be no true contribution to the teamwork and to business entirely. Along with the negative attitude toward assignments and tasks of the team, its members can have negative attitude toward any plans of the team. While teams thrive to communicate, respect each other’s decision and opinion, the negative attitude can damage the reaching of the goals that team and organization set (Bagshaw, 2013). Effective work in a team is important for quality output. It is harder to reach success while working alone since there is less chance to receive proper feedback, thereby, it decreases the quality output. A good feedback is essential for maintaining of employees’ motivation, which ensures higher productivity. It is also important to receive a feedback earlier so to know what can be wrong and how to correct mistakes. In reality, it is easier for someone to review one’s job and give good feedback if employee actually worked on the same team and then it becomes possible to share the same context. Besides, working alone reduces learning (Learning effectively through group work, n.d.). It is because there are fewer people with a shared context at are able to challenge one’s ideas. Working in a team increases the chances to solve problems connected with the sick leaves or maternity leaves, since there will be always employees who are ready to replace the missing colleague. Such factor as teamwork simply reduces risk of failure of certain tasks. Another factor that makes working in teams more effectively is the group responsibility. However, that does not mean that individuals as the smallest units and their personal abilities do not affect outcomes in their teams. It is also proved that peer pressure is the best motivator and powerful force, working with people whom one respects and does not want to get in wrong (Lau, 2013). It is also stated that skills of the team members are more essential than the energy of the employees, their interest in assignments and drive for the tasks. However, each member of a team is a kind of precious talent that is able to share all one’s skills and abilities with the others and at the same time being driven with the accomplishment of the task and achieving of high scores. Teamwork within the workplace benefits employees and also significantly affects business, because it provides employees with an opportunity to cooperate closely with one another, share thoughts and ideas and improve relations between them. Thus, employees who constitute a team working on a task feel valued because they are the part of a chain in successful completion of tasks. Besides, improved relations between employees result increasing of the teamwork cohesion among members and enhances trust among them. On the contrary, working alone has no pressure on the employee and low morale does not impact individuals as much as if they were in teams. However, in certain situations, working alone decreases productivity which negatively influences the organization. Unlike working alone, teamwork affords people the opportunity to challenge the ideas of each other and make a common decision or a compromise which contributes to the successful completion of the task (Kelly, 2014). Team mental models The teams are able to achieve more within certain organization if they have common purpose, they are open for other colleagues in terms of sharing skills and information, they easy accept new assignments and understand and accept common goals and are able to assess their progress and results (Lim & Klein, 2006). These are the main characteristics for the productive teams. With the common purpose that each member is committed to, each member of organization is involved until the objective is reached. Members of the team care about each other and their actions and attitudes effectiveness on the final result. Members of the team should respect all points-of-view and understand needs of other. With the well-thought leading, members of one team participate in the decisions making. Besides, one of the important features of working in the team should be openness. The more reluctant people can express their feelings and be honest with others, the more they are appreciated within teams. Such openness makes others feel freer in presenting ideas, which positively impacts the overall work of the team. In reality there are few teams that are ready to accept new assignments without arguing their necessity or successful completion. This is unrealistic, however, for those employees who are dedicated with their ability to contribute the common case, they willingly accept assignments. In addition, being motivated by their colleagues, they work harder so their part of the job was done in time and in the proper manner. One of the essential characteristic of the teamwork is that all its members understand and accept goals. There is a vital need for the team to have purpose, direction, and goals. If they are accepted by team members and the tam works collaboratively to achieve such goals, then the team is half way in reaching success in its tasks. Teamwork requires its members to be result-oriented. However, focusing on such objective, it does not guarantee the employees moving in the right direction. That is why assessing of the short-term results is important for achieving best outcome at the end. In healthy teams, their members trust each other. Such cooperation, involvement and participation are important for the team to do its job well. What team members say or do matters to all (Building a Sense of Teamwork among Staff Members, 2014). Teamwork enables its each member to accomplish tasks faster and more efficiently and cooperating together on different tasks reduces workloads for alone employees. Working in teams reduces the work pressure on every contributor, allowing one to be thorough in the completion of the assignments. It is also important so every team member would be assigned with the special role, each of which would have unique responsibilities, however, possible to replace in case of emergency. One should also consider employees levels of interest in the task because it positively influences the efficiency and speed of their final output (Kelly, 2014). Why teamwork is not effective? Team members are committed to the success of the team and their share goals for the certain task. However, a number of different researches have identified that not all tasks are performed equally well by teamr. They are prepared better by the individuals. Thus, the creative writing involves organizing and expressing of thoughts and ideas that are actually formed by the single’s mind. They are suited better for the individual than for team performance who is capable to represent creations on behalf of a group. The other vivid example of where the individuals’ skills are more effective than team work is the technical proficiency of pilots that are the roots of most airline accidents (Hackman, 1998). Commitment to team success and shared goals is the main attribute of an efficient teamwork. Members of teams are motivated, engaged and see their aim in achieving the highest level. However, the exercise of authority within the team creates anxiety and disbalance of some parts of the team, calling for the clarification of who should be in charge for the certain job. This negatively impacts the teamwork and leads to the imappropriate direction. Interdependence of team members means that they need to create an environment which places all team members to contribute more while working as individuals. With such traditional designed teams within organizations, more bureaucratic impediments are functioning. While managers mistakenly empower teams with the authority to perform certain duties, such attempt can be another obstacle in effective group creation and accomplishment of job. With the removing structures, organizations will be able to release the pent-up power of teams in order to direct employees to work for mutual goals achieving. Individuals promote and encourage other team members to receive, contribute and learn within the specific task. Interpersonal skills are also the important features of the successful teamwork. They include the ability to discuss issues with team members openly, be honest, trustworthy and support, showing one’s respect and commitment to the team and its members. Notwithstanding the fact that team work is clear and the direction is engaging, insufficient organizational support will lead teamwork to nowhere. Besides, when a team is formed, it still requires managers to think about members of a team to obtain skills and experience for effective teamworl. Lack of proper training and supervising can lead to ineffectiveness of teams and their lower contribution to the organizational operations (Hackman, 1998). Promotion of teamwork On the way to success, organizations should promote teamwork, conducting team building activities, for example. Everybody knows the relevance of such activities when in the informal surrounding people is in discovery of new abilities and skills further necessary in the teamwork. Such activities as scout camps or student leadership trainings were intended to increase relationship and team performance. Sometimes a simple game can be effective that is why in the modern companies there is a wide variety of HR and training and development specialists who conduct sessions with the involvement of simple games that enable organization to explore the hidden abilities of their employees (Magloff, n.d.). Moreover, employees themselves are easier to understand the goals of one’s team, some personalities and experiences of other people necessary for making up the team. They become more aware of the culture and strategy of one’s organization. Another way to promote teams is to recognize teams that perform well together, which means to provide recognition of the achievements and contribution as well. Such organizational activity is able to affect an employee’s sense of purpose. As an executive, a team lead takes an active role in promoting teamwork, paying attention to the fact that teamwork is a positive contributor to productivity of the company. It is also team lead’s responsibility to handle disputes and conflict situation. Whether it is helping in identifying and then managing conflict, the leader should communicate with all team members targeting building of trust and respect between its members. The leader should also be aware of how team functions and find a proper solution to how actively contribute to supporting success. Besides, the leaders should also know that person’s ability to successfully perform as part of a team is influenced by one’s experience, personality traits and choices. It is know that some employees achieve more while being a part of the team; others perform their successful roles solo. However, if the team reaches high performance together, it can produce more solutions that go beyond individual performance and is able to achieve more. Promoting successful team building and team management in the workplace plays a huge role in your business’s success. It may be tough, however, it brings higher results for the team and organization (Span, 2013). Challenges for effective teamwork For the teamwork, it is important that each member will have a clear vision of the needs of the department or organization as a whole. If there is no clear mission or scope statement, creating team values would be complicated task. That is why identification of team mission and selecting the right members is critical. In the perfect scenario, teams should be small so the leader could handle all the positions and assignments and team members could develop a high-level of connection and interdependence between them. Writing and presentation skills are essential for all members and good interpersonal skills are perfect for working in small groups. For teams working on wide organizational projects, diverse membership brings better outcome. The more ideas or innovations, as well as new strategic view the team is able to create and represent, the more successful will be the selection of the task and its successful result for the entire organization. Whether the team is working on completion of certain project, such event as team kick-off is important, as it means the completion of certain stage of a team, certain achievements and ability to assess the contributions of each team member. It also gives the team a perspective to look forward to new stages or new tasks. The other important item that helps teams to function effectively is the identifying of mission, which explains what the work is that team members brought together to do or why this work can best be done by a team. Whether the mission is set, goals are determined, which should reflect the results that the team is able to provide for the organization. The best goals are known as SMART or the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. The leader should cascade the goals of the organization to the department or the team one’s leads and help its members to understand what is expected of each of them. Without these expectations, members will not be able to develop mutual responsibility or trust within the team. When the teams’ and organizational expectations are clear and members meet or even exceed them, trust and an increased sense of feeling to be a team are natural by-products and are able to bring more effect. Teams can have different models for making decisions, however, it should touch every member of the team should realize that decision-making model. Such clear model describes who makes the decision and how others should be involved (Important steps when building a new team, n.d.). How can team work more effectively? To bring up the positive and working environment within the team, there are many ways that leaders and team members can use to increase their contribution. The first and the main factor are to have a responsible and effective leader of the task or the project. The person who is in charge should be not a micromanager and use its excessive power to dominate others. The ability to be tactful and to encourage others is important traits of the effective leader and should be a must. Such leader will be able to values each team member and everyone’s contribution with true consideration. There is also a need to invite a stakeholder in the task or a project, because it will bring the team feeling of meaningfulness toward the people and sides engaged in the process. The other important factor for the team to work efficiently is to praise the team and its individuals as well. Every piece of work and every contribution should be appreciated and recognized in form that each member would consider good for one. Some credit toward teamwork and its members will motivate people to more accomplishments. Enthusiastic and compassionate attitude toward teamwork will create the atmosphere of necessity of each member to do one’s job. Moreover, a leader should understand that each person is bringing one’s own personalities and judgments to the group, which helps to achieve the most challenging tasks. Differences are the best driving force within each team, because a problem shared is a problem halved (Bagshaw, 2013). Team members should be properly selected and their tasks assigned with regard to their natural skills and abilities. The leader should know that not every person is capable to do every task or job. For that purpose the team members should also have the training sessions that would help them to develop necessary skills. These can be cross-trainings that provide team members with a greater awareness of how their jobs should be done interdependent from others. Such cross-training sessions will increase the teams flexibility and improve response time (Musselwhite, n.d.). Whether the teamwork means that different people contribute the completion of work assignments together, they also view various working situations in a different way and act different. That is why it is obvious that conflict situations or disputes may arise during the work process or decision making stage. In spite of your efforts to avoid such conflicts, one may still find some difficulties doing that. If any problems with the team members appear, there should be an immediate reaction with the proper solution of the problematic situation. Team members should not also hesitate to discuss. Depending on the problem that emerges within the team, the solution can also be different. Thus, if one team member is late for a meeting, or does not arrive at all, the best solution can be to talk about the situation at the earliest possible moment. Team leader should find out why a person was not there, because there may be a reasonable explanation of the absentee. The other solution is to proceed with the part of the work as scheduled or reconfirm meetings on the other time or day. Other team members should understand that such behavior is not acceptable. Teams can work more effectively if it understands why a group of people need to be a team. Moreover, it needs to understand its shared goals and what each member is able to bring to the common business. An effective leader should ensure that team has adequate knowledge to accomplish certain task, such as gathering of relevant information to the teams goals. Besides, while facilitating the effective interaction between the team members ensures goals setting, problem solving, decision making and coordination of actions of all team members. To encourage this level of collaboration and interdependency, the effective team leader should provide the team with necessary support, starting sometimes with putting right people together. References Bagshaw, M. 2013, Is There No “I” in “Teamwork”? The Library Journal, Available from http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/03/opinion/backtalk/is-there-no-i-in-teamwork-backtalk/ Baker, D., Day, R. & Salas, E. 2006, Teamwork as an Essential Component of High-Reliability Organizations, Health Serv Res .,US National Library of Medicine,  National Institutes of Health, Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1955345/ Building a Sense of Teamwork among Staff Members, 2014, American Management Association, Available from http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/Building-a-Sense-of-Teamwork-Among-Staff-Members.aspx Hackman, R. 1998, Why teams don’t work, Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts Important Steps when Building a new Team, n.d., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Available from http://hrweb.mit.edu/learning-development/learning-topics/teams/articles/new-team Magloff, L. n.d., What Are the Benefits of Teamwork in Business? Houston Chronicle, Available from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-teamwork-business-3250.html Musselwhite, C. n.d., Building and Leading High Performance Teams, Available from http://www.inc.com/resources/leadership/articles/20070101/musselwhite.html Kelly, B. 2014, Importance of Teamwork in Organizations, The Global Post, Available from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/importance-teamwork-organizations-12033.html Lau, E. 2013, Why And Where Is Teamwork Important? The Forbes, Available from http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/01/23/why-and-where-is-teamwork-important Learning effectively through Group work, n.d., Communicating and Learning in Engineering Online Resources, Available from http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/current-students/download/groupwork.pdf Lim, B. & Klein, K. 2006, Team mental models and team performance: A field study of the effects of team mental model similarity and accuracy, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., DOI: 10.1002/job.387 Span, S. 2013, Promoting Teamwork? It May Be the Key to Your Organization’s Success, The Business of HR, Available from http://www.tlnt.com/2013/10/08/is-it-possible-to-nurture-and-promote-teamwork/ Read More