The Process of Event Management - Case Study Example

THE APPLICATION OF THEORETICAL MODELS RELATING TO TEAM BUILDING AND MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS TO THE PROCESS OF EVENT MANAGEMENT Introduction Rapidly changing environments demand organizations to generate speedy responses in order to survive and prosper in the globalised market. Generally, accepted and unified theories of organizations and organizational change must guide planned change, making organisations become more responsive to environmental shifts (Porras and Silvers 1991). A study conducted by Janz, et al (2006) shows how autonomy, interdependence, and team development along with process and contextual variables were interlinked to the effectiveness of teams of knowledge workers, indicating a close connection among the mentioned elements in order for workers’ productivity to take place. In the study, effectiveness measures include team performance by multiple evaluations of key stakeholders. Team effectiveness is found to be a result of the interactions among design, process, and contextual support factors. It was suggested that as teams work under interdependent conditions, the positive relationship between team job motivation and team autonomy was reduced (Janz et al. 2006). It is also stressed that teams that have developmental maturity have a more positive demonstration of the relationship between job motivation and team process behaviors such as sharing and innovating, than those that do not. There is a positive relationship between process behaviours and effectiveness, a more positive relationship is recorded in the presence of certain contextual factors such as high-quality goals and efficient information transmission. The presence of other contextual factors, such as feedback and time pressure allows process behaviours and effectiveness for a less positive result (Janz et al. 2006). The Functions of Team Building Strategies In order for an organisation to achieve maximum returns on investment, teams and leaders need to achieve peak performances – team process skills, leadership, and management development, mind mapping techniques, stress management, and personal and team coaching. Teamwork is important in carrying out a task and spells the difference between group efficiency and lack of it. Teamwork is enhanced in team building activities as it pertains to people working together cooperatively as a tam in pursuit for accomplishing the same goals/objectives. A team building-based approach is fundamental to many organisations, which is proved by reliance upon project teams in driving change and innovation. A so-called ‘teamship skills’ that are on par with employees’ and workers’ functional and technical skill sets is what is required of people in order to work in a team dimension. Upon achieving the fundamental outcomes of team building, the team’s journey will be accelerated by the second phase of team development toward peak performance. A team development program provided by the organisation will give way for teamship skills and operational framework in order for teams and individuals achieve their full potential (Bowdin et al. 2001). The first step in achieving teamwork and high performance team building is by building strong interpersonal relationships and alignment to team goals, which must be undertaken in the initial building of the team. Trust and rapport can be easily established by a shared experience that involves working together on tasks that are unfamiliar and require a high degree of interdependence. Improved and measurable team building outcomes are sought by modern organisations, in which a team-based approach is fundamental. A clear example of this is the reliance upon project teams in order to drive change and innovation. There is now a necessity for people to possess teamship skills, which are aligned to their functional and technical skills sets. There is also a growing trend of using project teams to drive organisational improvement, which is one consideration in the fast-paced dimension of business. An employee can be a member of several teams, which is not uncommon, and teams can have a short to medium lifespan period of existence. This may result to having different leaders for employees and there may occur a shortage of leaders who can manage the number of improvement projects identified by the organisation. It is hence better to equip employees with core team-building skills, which they can use for any team, instead of relying on a small number of leaders to deliver projects while patching any deficiencies in the team (Bowdin et al. 2001). Teams can undertake team process skills, which involve a process for problem solving and decision making in managing projects. Interpersonal skills are skills that employees and workers can enhance; involving the understanding of one’s own preferred working style and the ability to complement people of contrasting style. Team buildings also promote behaviour that is consistent with company values (Bowdin et al. 2001, p. 263) Theoretical Models Organisational teamwork can be likened to a mountaineering expedition whose success or failure relies not only on their technical competence but also on theory teamwork and leadership. This is how important teamwork is for organisations. Applied to work places, it aligns employee mindsets in a manner that is both cooperative and selfless, geared towards a specific organisational purpose. There is no denying of the value of teamwork, and hence, teambuilding in the workplace, as shown by the outcomes it produces, such as high productivity, quality, and efficiency. There has been sufficient quality scholarship in the recent decades, providing reflective practitioners with sound theoretical foundations for team building processes. For purposes of this paper, the Experiential Learning Cycle Model and the Play Power Model are utilised to vis-à-vis the process of event management. The Experiential Learning Cycle Model The Experiential Learning Cycle Model is a theoretical model that informs and expresses experiential learning systems. It was designed by David Kolb, who states that learning, change, and growth must be facilitated by an integrated process that presents the here-and-now experience alongside the collection of data and observing such experience. The analysed data are then fed back to the actors for their use in the modification of their behavior and choices. The implications serve as guidelines in creating new experiences (Kolb 1984, p. 21). The Experiential Learning Cycle Model facilitates experimental realizations in obtaining new knowledge that can be applied to address the needs of the organization. The information obtained during the assessment can prove invaluable in structuring teams, which can demonstrate the greatest return from its investment (Snow 1997, p. 11). In team building activities, a skilled trainer usually assists the team into becoming aware of what it does which could work or not, so that a team can pursue useful choices, leading them towards improved performance (Kolb 1984, p. 11). The Experiential Learning Cycle Model can function in the enhancement of communication planning, group problem solving, decision making, motivation, and fostering cohesion, which are important skills that an individual and groups can hold as a privilege, given the opportunity to master them. Hence, models like the Experiential Learning Cycle Model serve as intellectual framework that can help participants put their experiences in perspective. The Play Power Model The Play Power Model is a theoretical model used in actual team building activities that an organisation conducts for its employees. This model is designed out of the concept of putting oneself in the threshold of a powerful force when people lighten up and start enjoying themselves with the activity. It posits that the more a team loosens up through warm-up games and icebreakers at the beginning of a program, the more deeply it is going to involve itself in he problem-solving activities posed by the program. This model indicates never to underestimate the power of play, and there is a notion that at least a third of most teams’ problems would be taken care of if the groups would just lighten up and share fun with one another (Snow 1997). This model suggests the role of enjoyment as teams establish teamwork by themselves, which is a key determinant of the team’s likelihood for success in its workplace pursuits. The Application of the Models to the Process of Event Management Event management is “the process in a supply chain or other system that defines, prevents or detects, identifies, and communicates with partners alongside proposing resolutions and following up situations that threaten to disrupt the flow of data, goods, or services. Event management is considered a proactive approach based on prediction and prevention” (Bridgefield Group 2008). In the execution of the modalities of a proposed event, event management involves identifying the target audience, studying the intricacies of the brand, devising the event concept, planning the finances and logistics, and coordinating the technical aspects. The management of events, which shows recent growth of festivals and events as an industry around the world, proves a long-term and committed planning an involvement that can no longer be ad hoc. Events and festivals such as the Olympic Games and the South East Asian Games produce a huge impact on communities and the whole world, indicating that events must be well planned and coordinated in order for successful outcomes to take place. The events industry currently include events of various sizes ranging from the Olympics down to a luncheon meeting that involve a select number of people. It is already a given knowledge that every industry, society, group, and charity holds events of certain types and sizes in order to market themselves, celebrate, or raise money. The importance of team building in event management is so tremendous that teamwork must always be built and established around the thrust of the organisation sponsoring the event. For most empowerment efforts to succeed, the decision-making influence should be shared among individuals amidst their being hierarchically unequal. As the Experiential Learning Cycle Model is applied to the management of events, the process that involves radical change calls for the application of a second-order change in the decision-making schema after a group has learned an important experiential knowledge (Labianca et al., 2000). It may be inferred that in order for workers to have a greater say in their jobs, empowerment is an important concept that changes the organisational structure towards the direction of sound decision-making, quality, and productivity. The Experiential Learning Cycle Model thus, provides not only an empirical knowledge, which can be applied in workplace dynamism and team involvement strategies, but also in the issues of acquiring empowerment. Recent literature suggests that empowerment is described in terms of motivational processes rather than in terms of relative power or decision-making abilities, motivating employees and workers in the event management process to exhibit their skills and enthusiasm (Labianca et al., 2000). Event management schemes normally require creativity, function, and design, enabling employees to conduct and innovative an exploratory stance in order for the task to deliver a good and positive outcome. Normally, event management processes involve a team task rather than an individualized task, indicating the need for participation and cooperation within a group. Hence, teamwork is a highly required element needed in event management. The Experiential Learning Cycle Model provides the notion of schemas, which are generalised cognitive frameworks that give form and meaning to experience, containing general knowledge about a domain. They are described as a collection of related ideas about a domain (Labianca et al., 2000). In much the same way, team building as applied to event management, and can generate this form of schema through the incorporation of the Experiential Learning Cycle Model, which serves as a groundwork in pursuing better goals and outcomes. The Play Power Model is likewise associated with the processes involved in event management in that team cohesion is said to be an important functioning element, which a group must possess in order to effectively function. In an event management process, it is a common knowledge that tasks are highly group-based and not individualised as pointed out, and the application of the Play Power Model would prove to this claim. An Actual Event Carried out An actual event I personally carried out is the holding of a seminar on Total Quality Management, pursued along with others as a team in our department. The Total Quality Management Seminar had outside resource personnel as speakers, in which two persons were identified. The tasks involved in carrying out the event were venue reservation, contacting a flower shop for flower arrangement, designing and distributing the invitations, designing the program, coordinating with the technical support team for technical necessities (i.e. laptops, LCD projector, microphones, etc.), and food preparation. Indeed, the event involved a wide range of internal tasks that must be carried out and worked out effectively in synergy with one another. With teamwork, in which the two models discussed herein are present, these tasks were carried out smoothly and with coordination. Small teams were formed for each committee, overseeing the entire functions of its own domain. The entire ad hoc committee needed to function as a team as well, coordinating with one another from the plans generated and concluded within small teams. From past experiences already gathered by the members, relevant ideas were pushed through, serving as guidelines for present application. This is clearly a concept presented by the Experiential Learning Cycle Model, in which the teams in that Total Quality Management Seminar had only to apply previous knowledge generated and affirmed by experience. Each team had to coordinate and cooperate actively in order to generate a pro-active decision-making stance. This may not be done through a passive and non-committal involvement that relies heavily and primarily on the leader. Rather, the teams functioned in an active manner, each member incorporating his ideas and relevantly suggesting positive and constructive points in order to improve what has been started. With all members cooperating and taking the position of being active participants, they were able to enjoy the activity and learn from it as well. This concept is in synergy with the Play Power model of team building. Conclusion Team building is a necessary element in an organisation’s success and its capability and productivity. Hence, it is important that management give due attention to this aspect of people resource. The fast, efficient, effective, and outcome-oriented results of teamwork prove how important its role is in the different aspects of job designs. In the event management process, teamwork and the application of relevant team building concepts and models are significant stances, without which, organising an event might be perceived as unchallenging and difficult by employees and workers. This unchallenged and difficult perception of the job may probably have generated from the lack of teamwork and focusing instead on individualised plans and implementation, which has proved ineffective in event management process, which requires a high level of teamwork. The models Experiential Learning Cycle and Play Power used in this paper are relevant constructs, proving the importance of teamwork and team building in the many facets of the organisation, such as event management. References Bowdin, G. A. J., Allen, Johnny, O’Tool, William, and Ian, Rob Harris, 2001. Events management. John Wiley and Sons Australia Ltd. Bridgefield Group, 2008. Business planning + execution. Retrieved on September 1, 2008 from http://www.bridgefieldgroup.com/bridgefieldgroup/glos2.htm Janz, Brian D., Colquitt, Jason A., and Noe, Raymond A., 2006. Knowledge worker tam effectiveness: The role of autonomy, interdependence, team development, and contextual support variables. Personnel Psychology. Vol. 50, Issue 4, pp. 877-904. Kolb, David, 1984, Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning. Englewood Cliffs. Labianca, Giuseppe, Gray, Barbara, and Brass, Daniel J., 2000. Organization Science. Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 235-257. Porras, Jerry I and Silvers Robert C., 1991. Organization development and transformation. Annual Psychological Review. Vol. 42, pp. 51-78. Snow, Harrison, 1997. indoor/outdoor team building games for trainers. McGraw Hill. Read More