Team based incentives - Essay Example

1. Do results from the survey illustrate typical complaints about teams and specifically about team incentive rewards Explain. The results from the survey illustrate typical complaints about teams and team incentive rewards. When there are team members who have not bought into the team concept, this may be indicative of several things: insufficient communication with all team members about the purpose of the team, personal differences among team members, lack of team player qualities within the individual characteristics of members, or that the work to be performed does not really necessitate building teams.

A work team is a group of individuals who see themselves as a distinct entity, wherein members perform tasks interdependently (Work Teams, 2008). If tasks can be performed individually as against interdependently, then there is no need for a team. The world is by nature, imperfect and cannot be divided equally. The installation projects assigned may have varying degrees of difficulty which can affect achievement of equal goals. Individuals, too, cannot be equally the same. They can be high performers, average or even poor performers.

Unless they are all sold on the team concept, each individual may primarily look out only for himself and not for the team as a whole. The team incentive reward would be viewed as unfair if those rewarded are not deemed to be deserving of the reward, as when average performers receive exactly the same reward as high performers. This makes the reward unfair and unjust. 2. If appropriate, what changes would you recommend to improve the incentive reward program Be specific. Kuritzkes (2008), outlines a good method for formulating a team incentive reward program.

Using that as guide the following are recommended for Network Cable's program:Determine what work components will be rewarded for each individual member. This may be individual regular installation (IRI), individual difficult installation (IDI), overall regular installations (ORI), overall difficult installations (ODI).Put a percentage weight on each component. For example, IRI - 35%, IDI - 35%, ORI - 15%, ODI - 15%. This way, high performers shall be rewarded more than average performers but each team member knows that all performance contribute to overall achievement of team goals.

Have a team leader chosen by each team and review details of the incentive program with team leaders.Test the revised plan for a few months, make amendments as appropriate.Meet with teams individually to discuss the new plan, or the results of the tested plan.3. Would management have benefited from employee involvement in the initial design and implementation of the program Explain. Management would have benefited from employee involvement in the initial design and implementation of the program.

The teams should have been involved in the definition of each team's purpose and scope, where each member can get a clear and common understanding of the team's objectives, ground rules and operating procedures, defined roles, identification and understanding of the team's interests, a vision of the desired outcome, a mission, and a draft work plan (Free, 2008). During the initial implementation of the program, each team should be able to establish how it will tackle and resolve issues and practice doing so.

These activities build trust, common understanding, and teamwork among the team members.References Free, K. (2008). Team start-up. Retrieved 11 November 2008, from http://www.teambuildinginc.com/article_team_startup.htm Kuritzkes, L. (2008). Team based incentives - Do they work Retrieved 11 November 2008, from http://www.teambuildinginc.com/article_incentives.htm Work teams: Three models of effectiveness. (2008). Retrieved 11 November 2008, from http://www.geocities.com/lazaridous/work_teams.htm