Organization Behavior and Design - Essay Example

TEAM THEORY Introduction Organizational behavior is the study of human behavior in the organization and its impact on the organization. It has several theories of management, which ensure efficient management and increased production. In this paper, Discussion of the team theory that is critical to the organizations success as a part of group behavior element. A team entails individuals or company employees coming together with different skills for specific sub-tasks. Team involves knowledge and skill contribution, unlike individual assignments. Organization teams are related to high performance (Arvinen-Muondo and Perkins, 2013). The main parts of a team are the team design that explains the tasks allocated, team members and the structure of the group. The second part is the team activities that include team development, norms, roles assigned and the cohesiveness. These parts are always related to each other hence their presence as required for team effectiveness. The design is design as per the surrounding business environment; the design then gives a go ahead for the team formation or the group activities in general. The alternative way of teams is groups that differ from teams in a number of ways as groups have complementary skills but for teams, they are varied. Concept of the theory Teams are important to any organization because they present a number of benefits. There is pooling of ideas. Teams are comprised of different members with different skills and ideas. It is always an advantage to the organization when the team members sit down and contribute ideas together. Comprehensive personality is also of importance to the organization. The members have different personalities. A team will be composed of thinkers, problem solvers, workers and leaders hence every ones contribution is a benefit to the organization. Teamwork provides a platform for mentoring support to the overall employees because idea sharing and creativity is sharable among the members (Baldwin et al., 2013). Next time such employees are left for their individual tasks, they perform well than they were performing. When people come together to work, they take risks which person cannot take because of loss fear. The avoidable risks by individuals are put in operation by a team hence assured returns. Team working is a self-motivation program where team members are self-motivated by their contributions to the team (Deeprose, 2001). That comes from the confidence of the members. Adopting a team developing in an organization is a good move but the organization should be careful with the group size for efficiency. Team benefits come up from the members and then for effectiveness, the team should be large but to a limit for the leader to manage. The team can so huge for the leader to coordinate and control hence a challenge and risk to the organizations operations. The right size should be big enough for the organization to benefit from the members’ ideas and small enough for the leader to manage properly (Durham, Knight and Locke, 1997). Application of team theory Teams are useful tools of performance, they are applied in different situations to tackle hard but interdependent tasks, create new ideas and solutions as well, work together through coordination of their efforts hence proving long-term problem solving procedures in the organization. Team theory is divided into different parts, which need to be done to achieve team effectiveness. The first part of team theory, which needs to be considered by the management of people responsible, is the surrounding environment for the team. The elements to be made conducive for the team are the existing reward systems. The system should be fair and motivating. A good communication system, organization structure and leadership should be in support of the team theory for its effectiveness. The second part is team design, which should be well defined in terms of task characteristics, manageable team size and fair team composition that ensures that the required skills are present in the team. The third part of the theory deals with the team activities. These are the processes, which the team should go through for its effectiveness. They may include, team development process, team norm, team roles and its cohesiveness. Mostly the team activities are used to measure the team effectiveness. The next point to note is developing the team. With the right size identified and the team type, the next step is team development. It simply involves four main stages; the first phase is the forming stage, a stage of coming together and laying down the governing rules. Secondly, there should be storming where members start acting, developing and gaining some confidence. Fighting is rampant in this stage. Thirdly, we have norming or the stage at which norms and procedures are developed. Finally, there is the performing stage where team receives its work and with members contributions, the best is expected. This is the last phase and its results determine the team life (Middleton, 2002). At the performing stage, a problem may arise concerning how members will be presenting, organizing and distributing knowledge among them. That is team cognition. Knowledge may be coming from an individual member or among the members. There are two main models to manage such content. We have the task related model taking care of personal knowledge of duties and his or her resources. The second model is the team related model dealing with the member interactions, contributions and interdependence (Deeprose, 2001). A team might come across challenges hence not delivering to the best as expected. Some factors that can contribute to the failure of a team area as discussed. First, lack of trust destroys many teams. When people come together, they need to build trust among themselves. Management can try but cannot help in trust building, but the team members should realize organization expectations and sensitivity of the tasks assigned by their leader. Second, conflicts of interest will hinder the team from performing. Members should try as hard as possible to put aside their individual interest for the sake of the set common objective. Thirdly, some team members may feel not part of the team hence not been committed. Commitment is essential in every operation because no way an employee will deliver what he or she did not commit himself or herself. Lack of commitment can also be related to another challenge of accountability avoidance where team members avoid been accountable for their actions (Deeprose, 2001). Accountability avoidance kills the team, and if not solved early, it can cost an organization a lot. The last challenge can be ego and members full of themselves. Ego and pride cannot be a good input to a team. Members full of ego will tend to be inattentive to what they produce as results. Team effectiveness is essential to the success of an organization. In team formation, it is not a guarantee that the team will deliver as expected by the management. Making a team succeed is an action that consideration in the organization because teams are the best in cases of complex, tricky, demanding and important tasks. Success of an organization is attainable through a number of ways. First, the organization has to consider team building because it makes the team active. Management should make sure the team has the necessary resources ready for the tasks. Second, team development requires implementation to the later. Team development should not only exist on paper but also need to be in operation (Deeprose, 2001). Training the team members is also of importance because through training, members will understand the course of action, the time and place to act better. The last critical point of action is support by the organization. Some employees come up with team formation ideas but end up been suppressed by management. The organization management should support the teams fully for their success. Other measures include achieving the general organization goals because they are related to team performance, satisfying the team member’s needs like their salaries since it is motivated. The management should also work towards maintaining the team in operation. That can be done through resource provision. The last thing towards team effectiveness is creation of good relationships within the team by itself and with the external parties. Organizational team need to be clear, not to create confusion with some employee groups. Management can only support a team if it gets the difference between the team and the usual groups around workplaces. Groups will do organizational tasks but unlike a team, they do their tasks fighting, conflict with their leaders and there is a dependency always. A management that differentiates between a group and a team and supports the latter is in a position of getting the team benefits (Goodman and Loh, 2011). The team theory argument Organizations should form teams because teams have a number of advantages. There is increased productivity when an organization makes use of teams. Team members contribute ideas, knowledge hence coming up with the best. The organization employees also grow in value by developing some important skills like communication skills. This growth comes about from the sharing conducted by the team. Team are endowed with diverse skills hence an advantage to the organization. A task is successful when members get that chance of doing their best in the teams. Improved solving skills among the employees are also attainable. Employees with problem-solving skills are an asset to the organization. With team contributions, almost each team member develops the problem-solving skills hence a security to the organization. There is better resource utilization in working with a team (Hiriyappa, 2009). The team members come up with creative ways of putting the resources into use. Such action helps the organization avoid the possible resource underutilization. With the above discussion, the organization can realize some of the teamwork advantages; however, teams come with some disadvantages to the company. They may include; the organization always experiences delays because of the consultation done in the teams. Decisions left for the teams can be the best but they can cause delays since team members have to consult each other. In team development implementation, there is a need for training. Training team members is a cost to the organization (Elsbach, 2003). Training costs are extra costs to the management. The human resource department is also not able to assess performance of the human resource. It is easier to assess person than a team since one might not be sure of each members contribution. Conflicts are rampant among the team. With such conflict, the team cannot perform to its best hence dragging behind organizations performance. Lack of consistency and isolation in the organization can be another challenge. Teams tend to handle the assigned tasks alone without interacting with other teams or organization departments. As an example, this move seems to be risky because it can lead to incomplete decisions. Conclusion Teams are critical for the effectiveness of the organization because team members get to share different knowledge and skills they have while performing the assigned tasks. Effectiveness of teams is achievable through a number of ways discussed here above in the paper. Organization should fully support the team through providing the necessary resources, team member motivation, guidance, well-framed organizational structure, effective communication model and training. With teams in an organization, production is improved but the management should not assume the disadvantages that might come out due to mismanagement of the teams. Management should ensure team activities are done in the implementation process. The organization management should also consider both the benefits a team can bring to the organization as well as the challenges. Team theory advantages outweigh the disadvantages and then if applied; the organization can be effective. If the management decides to form teams, the important considerations should be active in the team formation process as well as its implementation. An effective team is critical to the organizations effectiveness so the organization should do its best to make the team successful. Team is an essential element of organizational behavior hence critical for business effectiveness. References Arvinen-Muondo, R. and Perkins, S. 2013. Organizational behaviour. London: Kogan Page. Baldwin, T., Bommer, W., Rubin, R. and Baldwin, T. 2013. Managing organizational behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Deeprose, D. 2001. Making teams work. New York: American Management Association. DuBrin, A. 2013. Fundamentals of Organizational Behavior. New York: Pergamon Press Inc. Durham, C., Knight, D. and Locke, E. 1997. Effects of Leader Role, Team-Set Goal Difficulty, Efficacy, and Tactics on Team Effectiveness. Human Decision Processes and Organizational Behaviour, 72(2), pp.203-231. Elsbach, K. 2003. ORGANIZATIONAL PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT. Research in Organizational Behavior, 25, pp.297-332. Goodman, E. and Loh, L. 2011. Organizational change: A critical challenge for team effectiveness. Business Information Review, 28(4), pp.242-250. Hiriyappa, B. 2009. Organizational behavior. New Delhi: New Age International. Middleton, J. 2002. Organizational behavior. Oxford, U.K.: Capstone Pub. Redshaw, B. 2001. Evaluating organizational effectiveness. Measuring Business Excellence, 5(1), pp.16-18. Read More