Developments that Affect Team Performance - Literature review Example

Analysis Of The Developments That Are Likely To Affect Project Team Performance Introduction The business environment is increasingly becoming competitive. As such, companies are increasingly relying on high performing teams in order to remain competitive. Having a high performing team is beneficial for a company because it helps bring a diversity of ideas and knowledge in a team project, thereby enhancing the success of a project. At the same time, teams are important in project execution since they encourage cohesiveness of team. Evidence across the globe has shown that companies that perform well are those that promote teamwork among employees. However, there has been many new developments that have been taking place in the business world that are likely to impact hugely on the current project team performance. Therefore, it is important for companies to have a clear understanding of these new developments and how they will impact project team performance so that appropriate measures can be taken to accommodate the changes. Summary of Current Project Team Performance That Will Be Affected By Future Developments Any successful organization in the present day business environment depends greatly on the effectiveness of team performance. Having a high performing team ensures that the project is executed effectively and in a timely manner. Unfortunately, evidence shows that there is a certain aspect of the current project team performance that are likely to be affected by the new developments that occur in the business environment due to globalization and technological advancements. The first area of the current project team performance that will be affected by future developments has to do with communication. Williams (2015) note that, in most organizations, project teams still have the tendency of communicating through traditional methods, such as holding boardroom meetings, where they brainstorm on how a project is supposed to be executed. Additionally, project teams still use other less effective communication tools, such as hard-to-find shared folders, email groups, and large attachments, which leave the project team members inadvertently excluded. However, this is likely to change in the next coming years due to the rapid technological advancements that have resulted in the emergence of new communication tools that project teams can use to enhance their performance. The second project team performance that is likely to experience radical change has to do with autonomy and how employers motivate their teams to enable them become productive. Currently, most organizations attempt to motivate their project teams through salary increments and other tangible benefits. However, this is likely to changing in the coming years. Thirdly, the co-located project teams are expected to be impacted by increased global virtualization of project teams. Fourthly, most project managers are currently made of baby boomers. However, the fact that they are reaching retirement age is likely to impact the project team performance. Lastly, the although most projects teams work in office setup; this is likely to change in the coming years due to increased adoption of telecommuting and freelancing by teams (Doriwala 2014, p. 52). Developments That Will Affect Project Team Performance Communication is among the most important elements in teamwork. In order for a team involves in the execution of a project to succeed, there must be effective communication. Effective communication is important since it ensures that information is relying on through the right channel and that there is understanding among all the members of a team on how to execute a project. Effective communication is also important in teamwork since it minimizes conflicts and disagreements that might affect the successful execution of a project. Effective communication is also important since it ensure that information is transmitted quickly and meaningfully to all the members of the team. Nevertheless, Chiocchio (2007) notes that most project teams still rely on traditional forms of communication such as holding boardroom meetings to brainstorm and receive instruction from project managers on how a project will be executed. However, this form of communication is likely to change in the next few years due to the technological advancements that have occurred over the last few decades. Project management experts believe that the traditional communication methods that project managers have always been using is likely to be replaced by new communication tools, such as social media. Harrin (2010, p. 2) defines social media as an online social platform that provides people with a means to interact and share ideas. Some of the social media networks sites commonly in use include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn among others. It is noted that social media is increasingly finding its way into project management. Jue, Marr and Kassotakis (2009, p. 14) reveal that more and more managers are increasingly finding using social media as a means of communicating with the members of the team. The increased usage of social media in project teams is attributed to the benefits that project managers have found in this communication tool. Firstly, it is noted that social media is increasingly being used as a communication tool because it provides project managers with an easy means with which to relay information faster to the team, solve problems that arise during project implementation faster, as well as a means with which to communicate accomplishments made by the team easily and faster. Therefore, for projects to be successfully executed, project managers will have to implement social media as a communication tool for project teams. In this respect, it would be highly recommended that project managers to ensure that social media is implemented as a communication tool and that all the team members involved in the execution of a project are taught on how to use social media. This is because, as much as social media is popular and is easy to sue, not everybody knows how to use it. Therefore, the only way to ensure its effectiveness is to create awareness of the need to use social media as a communication tool and offer training to all the employees on how to use the popular social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Effective implementation of social media as a communication tool will offer immense benefits to an organization in many ways. Firstly, the use of social media will help project managers create virtual community where all the members of a team can share knowledge and ideas and keep track of all aspect of projects real-time (Portny 2013, p. 29) Accordingly, communicating through social media will enhance the project team performance by helping in building community, morale and trust, which is important, especially when teams are distributed across distances. Secondly, employees are increasingly demanding for autonomy and flexible working schedule. Ouye (2011, p. 6) show that employees are increasingly looking for employers who provide flexible work schedule. As responsibility of having to care for families and the elderly increases, employees are finding it difficult to work for employers who do not provide flexible programs since this makes it difficult for them to find time for their families and self. This trend is likely to impact on project team performance in the sense that it might result in a situation where project team members may have to work at different times that suit their working time. Therefore, it is very important for project managers to take appropriate measures to accommodate this development that is fast impacting on project management. Certainly, there are quite a number of things that project managers can do to accommodate this development. Firstly, project managers must ensure that members of the team are provided with a flexible work schedule to enable them work and have time for their families and self. This is important because providing employees with a flexible working schedule will motivate employees to work hard, minimize turnover and increases their satisfaction level, which result in greater productivity (Ouye 2011, p. 6). In this respect, the project managers can consider introducing telecommuting work, shift or part-time work schedule to give members of the project team time for their families and self. Although providing flexible working schedule will come with the challenge of coordinating projects, project managers can overcome the challenges by introducing new methods of communication, such as social media networking, which will allow for easy coordination of project team to ensure effective execution of projects. The third development that that project manager needs to be aware that is likely to affect the project team performance is the increased emergence of global virtual teams. As the competition in the business in different industries increasingly become competitive, companies are increasingly finding it prudent to explore market opportunities overseas. Zofi (2011, p. 14) notes that globalization of businesses has resulted in the increased emergence of global virtual teams to help companies enhance their responsiveness to the competitiveness in the present day markets. The members of the project teams from different countries are made to communicate virtually through different communication tools, including e-mails, phone or video conferencing. Lepsinger and DeRosa (2010, p. 33) show that companies are increasingly finding the use of global virtual teams beneficial since it helps save cost and time. In fact, evidence shows that virtual teams have become the trend and is expected to continue in the future. In fact, Erin Meyer (2015) reveals that more and more executives are increasingly seeking advice from experts the skills that they might require in order to accomplish this new project management challenge. However, experts in global virtual team management argue that the skills require in managing global virtual teams are quite different from those required in maintaining co-located teams they are the direct opposite. Therefore, it is very important for project managers to understand and put in place appropriate measures to accommodate this trend that will impact team effectiveness in a big way in the coming years as companies are increasingly going global. Fortunately, there are various measures that a project manager can implement to accommodate this emerging trend. Firstly, in order to accommodate the emerging global virtual teams, project managers will have to ensure that virtual teams are provided with clearly defined guidelines and ensure that all ambiguities are removed from the process (Meyer 2015). Accordingly, the project manager will have to ensure that roles and responsibilities of the team are formalized, including the role of the project manager himself. Secondly, because teams do not work the same in different locations, project managers must ensure that global teams are provided with an explicit description of on how the company intends to make decisions (Meyer 2010). Additionally, a global project team leader must also be one who is willing to experiment different decision-making processes at different locations. Additionally, accommodating the trend will require project managers to ensure that trust is done differently depending on the countries and locations, where the virtual teams are located (Pauleen 2004, p. 21). Above all, project managers will have to ensure that the effective modern communication tools are availed to the teams at different locations to allow ease of communication. The communication tools that project managers can consider introducing in an organization include e-mail service, video conferencing, social media and phone among others. The fourth development that is expected to impact project team performance in the coming years is the aging of the population. Studies conducted in developed countries across the globe shows that the working population is aging very fast (Grisham 2011, p. 17). For instance, the baby boomers in the U.S. are expected to retire in the coming years. This will result in skill and knowledge deficit that will impact greatly on team performance. Currently, a significant number of projects are managed by the aging population. This implies that, as soon as they retire, which is expected anytime from now, most projects will end up having a huge skill and knowledge deficit. Because the retiring of baby boomers is a reality and is expected to happen any time now, companies should find a way of solving the problem of knowledge deficit that will be left when the baby boomers retire. Firstly, the challenge that lay ahead with regards to knowledge deficit can be solved by beginning to offer vigorous training to current students and employees to enable them acquire the right knowledge and skills required to become effective project managers in the future to act as a replacement for the retiring baby boomers (Grisham 2011, p. 187). The fifth development that is expected to affect project team performance is the increased diversification of corporate offices and replacing them with alternatives, such as telecommuting. Doriwala (2014, p. 52) observed that there is an increased trend towards telecommuting and freelancing. More and more workers prefer to freelance and telecommute by doing their work either at home, restaurant or any other place other than the office. This trend is expected to affect project team performance in the sense that coordination of teams challenging to project managers since freelancing will mean that teams members will be scattered at different locations. Nevertheless, project managers can accommodate the emerging trend towards telecommuting and freelancing by introducing new technologies to enable coordination of projects easy. In this respect, the management should consider introducing communication technologies, such as Skype, e-mail, video conferencing, Gtalk or phone to enable easy communication and coordination of projects among teams. Conclusion Effective team management is critical for the effective execution of a project. Unfortunately, there are quite a number of new developments that are fast emerging that are expected to impact the project team performance in the future. Some of these developments included increased adoption of social media in project management, increased demand for flexible work schedule, the emergence of global virtual teams, the aging population and increased telecommuting and freelancing. Therefore, to ensure the performance of project teams are not affected, project managers should ensure that appropriate measures are taken to accommodate these trends. References Chiocchio, F 2007, Project team performance, viewed 9 April 2015 http://www.pmi.org/learning/project-team-electronic-task-communication-2374 DiTullio, L 2010, Project team dynamics: enhancing performance, improving results. Management Concepts Inc., London. Doriwala, J 2014, Freelancing-the future of work: start working from any part of the world with a computer and internet. TenaciousTechies, Los Angeles. Grisham, T. 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