Group Development Application - Assignment Example

Group Development Application: Introduction This plan shall be used for managing a group of employees in a family building construction company. The plan shall be fundamental in guiding my professional relations with the employees of the company in the future when I take over as manager. It is fundamental to note that it is pertinent to understand the nature of everyday activity of the company. It will also be prudent to analyze the levels of skills the company utilizes to meets its daily operations. To begin with, this is a medium sizes company which employees 430 employees. Amongst the employees in the company, 200 are permanent employees while the rest are usually contracted whenever there is a project. Of the 200 permanent employees, twenty are certified engineers whom the company usually appoints to take charge of projects that the company manages to win. The non-permanent employees have also worked with the company whenever there are projects. Over the years, the number of projects the company has been contracted for has more than doubled. This has made it necessary for the company increase the number of the permanent employees. In terms of machinery, the company has all the modern building construction machinery such as concrete mixer trucks and water lorries that have water meters fixed at the outlets to record the amount of water used. The company is capable of all types of building although it specializes in construction of houses. Sometimes the company has to send workers in neighboring states to undertake construction activities. This is especially so given that the company wants to protect its reputation. While such a move may be in the best interest of the company, sometimes the team members in any project all happen to be new to one another. This is usually a challenge when it comes to consultative decision making. One of the challenges the current manager noted was that during free time, diversity in the company becomes apparent. One may observe employees maintaining ethnic syndicates. Although this trend has never affected team achievement, there was a general concern that some sort of team building is necessary. The justification of utilization of a group of this caliber is that it engages in activities that require maximum cooperation and understanding. From the permanent employees, there are highly skilled professionals and semi-skilled professionals. Teams and groups created within the company usually bring together people from various ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds. All these people must work together as a team. Sometimes the teams have to be mixed when there is a need to respond to certain special projects. As such, there is utmost need for the team to function as one (Coetzer and Bushe 191). However, there are always challenges that come with such a dynamic team. It is possible that sometimes the team will have less resonance with its members. The fact that people are usually product of nurture and nature, getting along may be a distant dream in the group. The team may work together but remain socially isolated from within. Such a scenario will most likely be the genesis of fallout in case of a simple disagreement at work. Such potential team group dynamics have necessitated the need for group development. The plan of action shall be geared towards developing the employees to fit well in the context of the house construction company for improved output (Coetzer and Bushe 194). Human Development and Leadership Plan for Working Groups in House Construction Company One of the most fundamental things that one may observe is that primary leadership tasks are working with people’s emotions. Even so, the leader should know that another primary task is to work with the group’s emotional reality. A workable plan that shall be viable for a long time shall include training the group on appreciating diversity and culture, personal emotional management, self-awareness, and self-management. It also includes social awareness, relationship management, thinking as a team, setting emotional tone especially for the team leader, and setting own norms. It is also vital if it considers how to relate to individuals in the group and to the team as a whole and positive reinforcement for exceptional achievements. Besides, leadership style, structure of the group, size, and developmental phase will also form part of the plan (Work 21). The first thing is to form groups from amongst the employees. After the formation of groups, the next thing will be leadership appointed. Given the nature of the tasks each group will be charged with, members will not be allowed to appoint their group leaders. The top management will appoint all group leaders based on such persons’ qualifications and understanding of the company culture. After this, all group leaders will undergo leadership training during which the facilitators will train them on various leadership approaches and styles as well as motivation strategy. McGregor’s theory Y of motivation is one of the most preferable since it encompasses the aspect of supervision in it. They will also be taught how to apply Hawthorne’s effect to ensure that group members are well motivated (Wheelan 228). The fact that the group leaders shall be the managers of their teams will necessitate the need to train them on Tuckman’s model of group development. This way, they will know that their groups will need to go through stages such as forming, storming, norming, and performing. By having an upper hand on this information, it is expected that they will guide their groups after formation on sharing out roles during project implementation, establishing group norms, and performing the actual task. To give a brief on the possible processes, the plan shall guide the team/group leaders to offer facilitative leadership such as directing in the forming stage. The plan will shall spell out that leaders shall structure their groups and set the right tone. They shall also elucidate to members the aims and expectations in the project they shall be undertaking. The leaders shall also organize other meetings aimed at bonding their team members. It is vital to point out that the faster a team bonds well with its members, the easier it is for the team to progress in the other stages of group development (Wilson et al. 16). The plan shall also state the expected role that the team leader should play in the storming stage. In his/her desired appropriate way, the team leader should establish a way of managing the group in case there is a need to resolve conflict. After the general training on conflict resolution, matters to do with normalizing tension shall be the responsibility of the team leader. The top management shall only come in the event that the matter has reached them. Either the team leader or a dissatisfied group member may forward a complaint (Wheelan 234). In the norming stage of group development, the team leader shall be expected to engage the team in a consultative session to set the norms of the group. It is fundamental that all the teams do this together so that everyone will eventually accept the code of conduct that they have established. Such a consultative discussion gives room for creativity and appreciation of diversity. If the team achieves the above stages successfully, the last stage, which is performing, will have little or no problems at all (Work 23). It is pertinent to note that the formation stage of the group remains the role of the management. In the plan, the management team is the one to assign the right people for various company projects. In doing so, they have to follow the plan which spells out that they must balance the group in terms of cultural diversity, gender parity and fundamental qualifications. Decision-making approaches to be used are that groups have to discuss issues and come up with a decision. Given that the team leaders are highly professional personalities, they shall guide their team members on how to reach a decision. In case of possible alternatives in which member have divided opinion, the decision of the team leader shall be final. The top management reserves the right to overturn team leader’s decision. This may happen if a team member launches a complaint and there is reasonable ground to support such a complaint. However, such decisions must be in the best interest of the project at hand. Leaderships styles that team leaders shall adopt shall be at their discretion as they may find necessary. Even so, team leaders are expected to be particularly reasonable (Coetzer and Bushe 189). On a general note, there shall be general training for everyone on team dynamics such as emotional management, communication skills, diversity and cultural awareness, personality traits amongst others. This should go a long way to prepare employees on how to work together as a team. Working as a team helps in making workplace a warm place socially that employees will always look forward to rather than relate with negatively. The aim of this plan is creating groups where members are free, responsible, and generally approachable. The plan also aims at creating charismatic leaders that understand group dynamics in order to motivate and direct efforts for achievement of set goals (Paulsen 12). From the development of this application document, I have learnt that for teams to function, they need good leadership. I have also learnt that rather than keep on changing team members, team members should be constant. In case the company needs a special team for complex projects, then there is a need to have such as a team on the standby. Bringing in new individuals to form a new group may take time before members adjust to operate as one. This is because people group formation passes through stages that one cannot hasten (Wilson et al 14). Works Cited Coetzer, G.raeme and Bushe, Gervase. Group Development and Team Effectiveness Using Cognitive Representations to Measure Group Development and Predict Task Performance and Group Viability. The Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, Vol. 43 No. 2, 184-212. 2007. Paulsen, Don. Leadership Essentials: Facilitation Skills for Improving Group Effectiveness. SIGUCCS ’04, October 10–13, 2004. Wheelan, Susan A. et al. Group Development Across Time: Reality or Illusion? Small Group Research, Vol. 34 No. 2, 223-245. 2003. Wilson, Mary P. et al. Team Development and Beyond. Journal of Extension Vol. 48 (5) Article No. 5T, 2010. Work, Robertson. Transformative Leadership for Sustainable Human Development: Background Paper for the UN Public Service Awards and Global Forum 2011. Dar-es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, 20-23 June 2011. Read More