Organizational Behavior and How Communication Interacts with Team Work - Essay Example

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND HOW COMMUNICATION INTERACTS WITH TEAM WORK Introduction According to the Alfredo (2008), team formation is very crucial for it helps to develop some skills when interacting with people. In the journal of business and public affairs (2007) a study was conducted so as the team can be investigated for verbal practices and some processes concerning organizational behavior and organizational theory. The study shows that individual characters to work as a team fully determines the group since there is sharing of ideas and team development because there is gaining of some elements that help the individual to grow and be able to develop personal skills. Group help individuals to grow morally as there is interaction of people who are exposed and able to learn even without your knowledge. Leadership, interpersonal skills and communication are very essential as far as group work are concerned for they help in good team formation. The qualities of an individual who is a good team player comes from within and they are expressed to the team. Team formation in an organizational set up involves range of activities for improvement of group performance. It ranges from small groups of individuals coming together and leads to bonding simply or in complex manner. Mostly it lies in an organizational set up but it can be sports team, school groups or any other group. Team recreation is different from team building in that it consists of recreational activities Team building is important in any organizational set up and it focus to come with best team to ensure effective communication, self development leadership and ability to work together as a team and solve problems (Salas and Cannon, 1997). In environment of work, it focuses on personal goals with appreciation of individual employees. In every organization there is a challenge of forming effective and proactive teams. The essay summarizes the importance of having organizational teams and how communication interacts with team work. Team work is very essential in any organization since the organization operates towards same goals and objectives so the individuals commit themselves towards common purpose and performance as they share responsibility and held themselves accountable for accomplishing the predetermined goals of the team. Team members possess some complementally skills which help the organization to enhance performance, reduce costs, and provide employees with a sense of dignity and self fulfillment. The organization should select the individual who are capable to work as a team and shape the individuals through programs and workshops to be effective team players. Total quality management encourages working as a team, removing internal organizational barriers, and sharing of power. Communication and interaction of individuals in the team help promotes high performance. This is because there is a sense of belonging within a team and every individual has a chance of expressing his/herself and come up with new challenges. Some attributes which helps the organization to excel are development of mutual trust, proper responsiveness in the team, good leadership and flexibility of individual workers. Organization is a collection of people working together towards common goals and objectives. It obtains resources from the environment, transforms the inputs and returns them as goods and services. Group is a congregation of people who works towards common goals and have same altitude, it has some features: It must be composed of two or more people, collective identity in which each member must recognize his/her role to play in a group. They should be able to interact and be able to communicate accordingly and be able to share the interests of the team. Groups can be classified in to two: primary group which has intimate, face to face and co-operation and secondary group which don’t have any interest or pleasure of others. For an organization to learn smoothly the management is required which has some roles to play. Planning which includes defining goals, setting the objective and identify actions needed to accomplish the goals, organizing which entails coming up with a structure and systems and the arrangement of resources, leading which requires communicating with others, motivating them to work hard and encouraging them to work as a team. Controlling ensures thing are going well and taking the corrective measures in case of any problem. Individuals should be encouraged to have positive behaviors in the organization and this is what drives them towards their goals relating to integrity, excellence, quality, team work, development of people and open communication. Behaving in line with organizational values perpetuates and promotes all this values which help to move forward along with its strategy. Organizational culture lies in the field of organizational studies and management which entails psychology, altitudes, experiences, beliefs and values of the organization. It considers the collection of values shared in an organization and the stakeholders. This still explains organizational value as believes and ideas the individual worker has in the company, the standard of behavior the members should use to persue the organizational goals and objectives. Corporate culture is what organization ‘is’ rather than what it ‘has’. It is the sum of values, customs and meaning that makes the company unique. It carries the vision of the company. According to Burmans and Evans (2008) it is leadership that affects culture rather than management. It is very hard to change the culture of an organization and one has to take a very long time. Cultures are classified in strong and weak cultures. In strong cultures staff responds to stimulus and in alignment with organizational values. In each culture there is little alignment with organizational goals and values. When working as a team there is a risk of group thinking. According to lrving,L. it is a quick and easy way to refer to mode of thinking that people engage when deeply involved in cohesive group. Culture is classified in to four types (Charles 1985). Power culture which concentrate power among few and has little bureaucracy, role culture where people have clearly delegated authorities within highly defined structure and this form hierarchical bureaucracies. In task culture team are formed to solve particular problem. Person culture all individuals feel superior to the firm hence very hard to rule in that kind of culture. According to Hardy (1932) on how to understand organization, he proposes that organization embraces four basic cultures. Club culture which is represented by Zeus, the strong leader who has likes and uses power, all lines of communication leads formally or informally to the leader. Role culture, it is based on assumption that people are rational and roles can be defined or discharged through defined procedures and they display stability and certainty and has great strength in situations marked with continuity. Task culture is commonly found in organization which solves a series of problems and the structure is represented by a net where resources are being drawn from all parts of the organization to meet the current problems. Existential culture is characterized by cultures where organization exists to serve the individual which are not servant of the organization; they consist of groups of professionals with no boss. Analysis of team experience For there are so many challenges confronting virtual teams the leader has to create a mission, goals, and ground rules which should govern team meetings and projects. The member should have face to face meeting with their team so as not only to acknowledge the purpose of the team but also to get the significance of the team. The team should also comprise of the stakeholders whose their expectations should be identified, this will avoid unnecessary work, confusion and conflict. Their documentation should be made for reference throughout the project. Each member should have roles and responsibility and have full understanding of the capability of individual member of the group. Also should understand his/her role and the role of others and without this knowledge the team will not achieve its objectives. Building relationships and trust can make a team to excel. Building relationships is to spend time together face to face. According to LaFasto and Larson, it is important for Visual teams to connect in person for regular basis. As the team develop trust and relationships so as it extends to the individual member and taking things positively will help in the excellence of the organization. Opportunities are utilized properly since each individual has his/her own capabilities. Virtual teams promise the flexibility, responsiveness, lower costs, and improved resource utilization necessary to meet ever-changing task requirements in highly turbulent and dynamic global business environments, (Jarvenpaa and Leidner 1999:791) Flexibility of the team member is of utmost importance since the worker can be allocated anywhere this allows companies the opportunity to work with team member in geographical areas which are not viable work locations. Virtual teams allow organizations to bring together critical contributors who might not otherwise be able to work together due to time, travel, and cost restrictions (Kerber 2004: 4).Responsiveness of the company to the customer through diversity. Virtual teams may allow organizations to unify the varying perspectives of different cultures and business customs to avoid counterproductive ethno-centric biases (Kayworth 2000:184). Member of a certain team can respond to specific geographical and cultural requirements properly. Solutions for future problems Orientation meeting should be held where each member should participate in team building activities and each team member document his/her own team’s purpose and perceived role. Questionnaires should also be prepared for each stake holder to complete Team members should meet face to face and each member allowed to air his/her views and this helps to build trust and encourage communication. Communication interacts with team work it leads to success which is favorable results, the gaining of wealth, fame (Neufeldt & Sparks 1995:589). Working as a team will help an individual to create skills one don’t have and work on skills he/she already had. Working as a team is very important, most companies are using team of employees to get job done and effectively accomplished. Teamwork has allowed companies to boost productivity and provide development of friendships between coworkers (Chen and Barshes, 2000). Some organizational benefits of working as a team are improved quality of work life for employees, this is done by empowering employees to make decision about how to get work done, this is by reducing the amount of external control and increasing sence of ownership and accountability of the work done. It lowers absenteeism and turnover. Membership gives employees sence of belonging, interaction with others and recognition of achievements which helps to eliminate sense of isolation within the organization. Team members are proud of the work they are doing as team and even some companies evaluate employees on the basis of team’s effort. There is increase in innovation as W.L Gore and associates which utilizes teamwork and has strong record of innovation, it has 250 employees and every body is allowed to experiment with the product and make new uses. Positive organizational behavior is the collective term for all good behavior of individuals in the organization. They can be supported through use of competency models, codes of conduct, role modeling and personal story telling. They come from right motivations hence the importance of development process can not be underestimated. Conclusions In every organization there must be proper leadership which influences people working in an organization. Team work should be encouraged so as there is sharing of ideas. Interactive communication within members of the team and the management helps in smooth learning of the organization. The type of leadership and total quality management facilitate greatly the organizational team work and communications within the team. Specific measures should be taken such as organizing workshops and seminars to educate individuals the importance of teamwork and communication. The management should be able to perform its duties properly which includes proper planning, organization, leading, and controlling. The management should be very careful while when forming teams depending on the range of activities in a business context. This depends on whether he needs simple bonding, complex or even multi-day building retreats. It should focus on personal and individual objectives and it should be able to reward the performing team so as to motivate the teams. List of References Burmans, R. (2008) ‘A culture of safety’. Defence Aviation Safety Centre Journal [online] 3, (1), 22-27. Available from [May 3, 2010] Jarvenpaa, K. and Leidner, L. (1999) Managing groups and teams/ how to manage grobal visual teams. Texa: A and M University Kerber, R (2004) Managing Groups and Teams/How Do You Manage Global Virtual Teams? [online] Available from [May 3, 2010] Chen, N. and Barshes, K (2000) ‘Success of team work’. Journal of applied psychology 33, (12): 2465 - 2492 Charles Handy (1985) Typologies of organizational cultures. London: Sage. Salas, E., & Cannon, J. (1997) Training for a rapidly changing workplace: Applications of psychological research .Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Read More