Team-working as the Way of Organising People - Essay Example

One of the most important characteristics of today’s business environment is the fast pace of change both in terms of technological and managerial developments. As a result, the definition of high performance is also changing. In order to remain competitive in this environment, organizations need to create flexible organizational structures that can continuously improve performance. This objective is met by the application of team-working. Team-working is defined as a form of organizational culture which capitalizes upon the use of teams with common objectives and goals to which each member of the team makes a positive contribution. Because each member of the team has the opportunity to make a significant contribution to enhancing the collective performance, it has a positive impact on employee motivation. Team-working also leads to greater diversity of ideas strengthening the problem-solving process. For this reason it can be argued that team-working is a powerful organizational tool which enables the management to organize human resources in such a manner as to maximize its value to organizational performance. Because the external environment is characterized by a fast pace of change, an organization has to change accordingly in order to remain competitive. This objective can be achieved by incorporating the notion of team dynamics. Team dynamics are defined as interpersonal forces which affect team performance. Therefore the top management can make use of team dynamics to organize their people in the most effective manner. The team dynamics determine how the communication process takes place. Communicating in teams and organization is one of the critical success factors in building high-performance teams, defined as those teams which are characterized by superior performance management systems. Because the performance in these teams is measured continuously, the organization can continue to deliver superior business results in an ever-changing external environment. For this reason, team-working is an effective means of organizing people according to the prescribed deliverables. Because of the continuous process of change occurring in the external business environment, an organization cannot afford to remain still. In that case it will not be able to sustain its competitive advantage. According to the strategy formulation framework developed by Michael Porter, a business organization can implement the strategies of cost minimization, focus and differentiation to develop a competitive advantage. However this advantage is only temporary because the competitors can also implement the same strategies to attain an identical level of performance. Thus the original organization does not have a competitive edge any more. However, if the competitive edge is based upon organizing people, then it can be sustainable because this is related to the organizational culture and the culture of each organization is unique. For this reason team-working is one of the critical success factors in the present day business environment. Team-working enables the management to organize the people in such a manner that the organizational culture becomes the source of the organization’s competitive advantage. When the organizational culture is based upon team-working, it focuses the management’s attention on creating an effective communications structure. Creating a well-functioning communications structure is the key to creating high-performance teams. Unless there is a free flow of ideas between the team members, the performance of the team will be affected negatively. Communicating in teams and organization ensures that each team member fully believes in the team behaviors and values. Only then can the teams reach their goals of high performance. However team-working provides a framework for organizing people in the most effective manner. If the management wants to implement the continuous improvement process, then organizing people into high-performance teams is the best solution. It creates a flexible organizational structure by maintaining an effective communications structure which allows each employee to make a significant contribution to the organizational outcome (Aronson, Reilly & Lynn, 2008). Team-working points the way to creating a performance management system which can align organizational goals to theories of motivation. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, an employee’s motivation depends upon five levels of needs. All five levels of needs can be addressed according to team dynamics. Maslow’s five levels of needs are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs (Williams, Parker & Turner, 2010). This structure of employee motivation is incorporated in team dynamics. Team dynamics provide the comprehensive framework which addresses all five levels of needs, thus creating a motivated work force. In the present-day knowledge economy, higher-order needs such as self-actualization needs are more important. Therefore knowledge workers need to be given high flexibility in their job descriptions. An organization can most effectively create this flexible structure within the team-working format. Within high-performance teams, duties and responsibilities are rotated between team members so that they can apply their skills to diverse areas and in the process develop their own expertise in a wide range of areas. Because of the intensely competitive nature of the external environment, an organization needs to maintain the employees’ skills sets at the most up-to-date levels. Therefore the management has to invest in training and development programs. However the ultimate objective of all organizational functions is wealth maximization which is not feasible without cost minimization. Therefore the management cannot afford to sink too much resource into training programs. At any rate, it is difficult to quantify the return on investment in training programs. However the management can reduce expenditures in this area by making use of team-working. In high-performance teams, the team members are expected to perform a wide range of jobs. As a result, team-working enables the employees to develop their skills sets on their own without any extra training expenses incurred by the organization. This also means that the employees develop their skills according to business needs. Therefore the process is more strategically aligned. As mentioned before, an organization in the present day business environment has to maintain a flexible organizational structure. This facilitates the process of managing change. The process of managing change is also facilitated through team-working. Because the team-working structure capitalizes upon team dynamics, it paves the way for greater participation in decision-making throughout the organization. Team-working focuses upon communicating in teams and organization and therefore decision-making becomes more effective. Communicating in teams and organization brings more people on board and so the decision-making process becomes more diverse. In the process the people working for the organization also become motivated so that their performance is improved. This organizational outcome is the result of team-working. Therefore by making use of the notion of team-working, the management has a more effective tool with which to get things done. Whether it comes to managing change or any other long-term/short-term goals and objectives, team-working yields the maximum value from the manpower. In the dynamic business environment of today, the importance of managing change cannot be underscored enough. Most projects of managing change fail because of employee resistance (McShane, Olekalns & Travaglione, 2009). Therefore, a key success factor is to motivate the employees to contribute to managing change. If the employees participate more in the process, then the process will be more effective because the employees are directly exposed to the day-to-day operating challenges. Therefore they have the best knowledge about what things should change as a result of business process reengineering. Business process reengineering is defined as the redesign of the existing workflows. If the employees are more involved in the process, then the reengineering process will be enriched. Team-working provides the best tool with which to involve more people in business process reengineering. Because team-working facilitates the communications process, the management has a more effective tool with which to motivate the people to get things done. The team environment provides the platform for creating a flexible organizational structure. Team-working creates performance measures that are continuously updated to reflect the organizational goals. Therefore the organizational structure remains strategically aligned through all the managerial and technological changes that are taking place in the external environment. Team dynamics facilitate the communications process which leads to high performance. Communicating in teams and organization leads to greater participation in the decision making process so that the people within the organization can turn themselves into valuable human resources. As the people in team-working begin to take the initiative for their own skills sets and performances, it reduces organizational costs as a whole. As a result, the organization is in a position to deliver superior business results. This is a continuous process as team members continue to update their own skills sets so as to be able to contribute more and more to the strategic focus of the organization. If the management can continuously cut costs, then it will create a competitive advantage out of this process. One way to cut costs is to develop human capital which is more strategically aligned. This objective can be met through team-working. Team-working leads to the development of performance measures which focus on long-term achievement. In this organizational structure, the team’s performance is continuously measured against the organizational goals. Because the team’s performance is being measured, it leads to team dynamics which focus upon continuously improving performance. For this reason, the team members strive to update their skills sets in a continuous process. As a result, the organizational structure becomes dynamic leading to a sustainable competitive advantage. The organizational culture is the most important source of an organization’s competitive advantage and the cultural orientation of team-working leads to accomplishing this objective. Through team dynamics that emphasize upon high performance and communication, team-working adds value by creating human capital. In the traditional environment, each employee used to perform the same task. In the new economy, each employee is expected to fulfill a variety of roles. The management can meet this objective by making use of team performance management which leads to clearly aligned team roles. There is shared leadership which enables the team members to fill leadership roles as well so that the objective of succession planning is addressed. The popularity of team-working has risen with growing interest in flatter organizational structures. Because the external environment is fast-paced, the management has to speed up the decision making process. For this reason hierarchical levels are being removed so that the decision making process can occur faster. However a flatter organizational structure also means that each employee has to fill a variety of roles. This is facilitated through team-working where team dynamics lead to job rotation enabling employees to apply their skills to a variety of situations. Team-working enables the management of an organization to organize their human resources in the most strategically aligned manner. By applying the notion of team-working, the management can create high-performance teams which implement team performance management. This also leads to communicating in teams and organization so that strategic alignment is increased. Because the external environment is characterized by fast-paced change, the modern organization needs fast decision-making. This is facilitated by team-working. By organizing people through team-working, the management gets things done faster. Team dynamics lead to behaviors and roles which motivate the team members to make the maximum possible contribution to the organizational outcome. In such areas as managing change, team-working provides the most effective means of organizing people in a manner that yields the maximum return. References McShane, S., Olekalns, M., & Travaglione, T. (2009). Organizational behavior on the Pacific Rim. Roseville NSW: Irwin-McGraw Hill. Aronson, Z. H., Reilly, R. R., & Lynn, G. S. (2008). The role of leader personality in new product development success: an examination of teams developing radical and incremental innovations. International Journal of Technology Management, 44, 5-27. Williams, H. M., Parker, S. K., & Turner, K. (2010). Proactively performing teams: The role of work design, transformational leadership, and team composition. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83 (2), 301-324. 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