How Teaming in the Workplace Has Affected the Culture of the Working Person - Essay Example

TEAMWORK AT WORKPLACE “How teaming in the workplace has affected the culture of the working person” Introduction: Man is a social animal. He tends tosocialize with other people and share jobs among them. Although some people manage to accomplish all their tasks alone, i.e. all by themselves, but most people find it easier to work in teams in a workplace. This write-up discusses the effects of teamwork in a work place, their characteristics and their consequences. Group (A Formal Definition): A group may be defined as: “A collection of persons who are perceived to be bounded together in a coherent unit to some degree” Different Types of Groups: There are different types of people in this world and they are somehow related to each other but these relationships are very different in themselves. This makes every kind of group very different from the other depending upon the relationships that the group members have with among themselves. Group formation might be temporary or permanent. Following are some of the main types of groups: Intimacy Groups: It comprises mainly of the family and friends and other closely knitted people. Such groups are usually permanent. Task – Oriented Groups: These groups are formed usually on a temporary basis be it long term or short term. They comprise committees, work and/or associations, etc. Social Categories: They consist of gender based and ethnic groups. They can be either temporary or permanent. Weak Social Relationships: These are weak, temporary social groups like neighbors, people with common hobbies, people taking a course together, etc In this write-up, the Task-oriented groups will be highlighted, in accordance with the topic. Group Functions: Roles: Roles are sets of behaviors that individuals occupying specific positions within a group are expected to perform. These roles might be assigned (e.g. managers or other work related roles) or pre-determined (like father, mother, etc). Roles help in clarifying responsibilities and obligations of the group members. There can be some role internalizations as well, i.e. people mixing up different roles that they play (like a father, who is a teacher as well, acting as a teacher at home too). Then there comes a possibility of role conflicts too (like work and home responsibilities). Status: A status is a position or a rank within a group. People are sensitive to status because it is related to desired outcomes (e.g. salary and perks). High status people have a higher access to key resources relating to survival. Sometimes even physical features play an important role in gaining a certain status (e.g. a beautiful secretary). People can boost their status by behavior (e.g. intimidation, anger and threat) Norms: Norms are the rules within a group indicating how its members should or should not behave. Adherence to norms is a necessary condition for gaining status and other rewards controlled by groups. This forms the basis of organizational behavior. Cohesiveness: It comprises everything that causes the group members to remain in the group. It leads to depersonalized attraction, i.e. liking for other group members stemming from the fact that they belong to the group and embody or represent key features (like hard work or creativity, etc). Factors effecting Cohesiveness: Status: cohesiveness is higher for higher status members because of less competition and a hold and an upper-hand. The effort required to gain entry is into the group: the greater these costs, the higher the cohesiveness. The existence of external threats or server competition: threats increase members’ attraction and commitment to the group. Size: small groups are often more cohesive than larger ones due to more mutual understanding and less competition. Effects of Individual Performance on a Group: Social Facilitation: These include effects upon performance resulting from the presence of others. Increased and positive effects occur due to collaboration, while decreased and negative effects take place due to dependence upon others. Drive Theory: The drive theory of social facilitation suggests that the presence of others can either reduce or increase performance. Distraction Conflict Theory: This theory says that the presence of others induces conflicting tendencies to focus on the task being performed and on the audience. The more the audience, the more the conflicts and thus, the more nervous you get. Co-operation: Working together with others to obtain shared goals is called co-operation. They are achieved by making others feel wanted, needed and important. Sometimes some social dilemmas like individuals trying to increase their own gains by defection hinder co-operation. Factors effecting co-operation: Strong tendencies towards reciprocity Personal orientation towards co-operation Interpersonal communication Mutual understanding Inter-group co-operation is more difficult to attain than Intra-group co-operation, i.e. groups are more likely to compete with one another than are the individuals. Social Loafing: Social loafing is defined as “reductions in motivation and effort when individuals work collectively in a group compared to when they work individually or as independent co-actors”. It happens because people procrastinate and start depending and putting responsibilities off to one another. The Collective Effort Model suggests that such effects occur because when working together with others as compared to working alone, individuals experience weaker links between their efforts and their outcomes. Methods to reduce social-loafing: Making the output individually identifiable Increasing commitment to the task and task-importance Reminding that each member’s contribution is unique and important. Conflict: A conflict is a process that begins when individuals or groups perceive that owner’s interests are incompatible with their own. Thus, misunderstandings arise too and people feel less compatible to get along. Reasons for conflicts: Faulty attributions Poor communication Tendency to perceive our own view as objective Personal traits Steps to reduce conflicts: Bargaining Induction of super-ordinate goals (goals that serve the interest of both parties) Listening everyone’s perspective and giving equal importance to everyone Decision Making by Groups: It is one of the most important aspects of teamwork. Here we talk about different processes involved in combining and integrating the available information in order to choose one or several course of action. How group members influence each other: Normative influence: desire to be liked or accepted Informational influence: desire to be right Group polarization: the tendency of the group members, as a result or group discussion, to shift towards more extreme positions than those they initially held. Dangers of Group Decision Making: Groupthink: herd-mentality, i.e. one starts thinking like the group regardless of his/her own thoughts. Biased Processing: one starts favoring the group members just because they are his/her group members. Information Circling: since there are similar people around of one group-think, nothing new comes out and information, thoughts and ideas keep on circling and circulating. Improving Group Decisions: Devil’s Advocate: criticism by one group member over others. He is the one who always sees the negative side and pinpoints all the problems. It helps in fine-tuning the decision. Authentic Dissent: group members keep on disagreeing on the initial ideas that they come up with in order to reach the faultless stage; not making top-of-the-head, quick and rash decisions. Instead, they have a brainstorming session, ruling out the negative aspects and get a more tuned and refined decision. Social Influence: This concept includes efforts by one or more individuals to change the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions or behaviors of one or more of the others. Extreme Forms of Social Influence: Obedience: it happens when one person orders one or more people to do something and they do it without even thinking once about it. It is one of the most direct forms of social influence. Destructive obedience plays a role in many real life atrocities (like militant groups, union unrests, etc) Reducing destructive obedience: Tell people they share equal responsibility of any harm done Remind that beyond a certain point, obedience is inappropriate Call the motives of authorities in question Inform the general public the reasons for such behavior Intense Indoctrination: Extreme groups subject new recruits to intense indoctrination directed towards the goal of inducing recruits to accept the beliefs and rules of the group in a totally unquestioning and highly committed way. Stages of the process: Softening-up: cutting new recruits from their former lives Compliance: following demands of the groups and trying out new roles Internalization: acceptance and belief of group-views Consolidation: solidify membership by engaging in costly acts that makes it very difficult and almost impossible to revert back to the normal life At each of the above levels, the recruit’s attentive capacities decrease and so they are not susceptible to various tactics of social influence. Types of Social Influence: Conformity: It means behaving in ways that are viewed as acceptable or appropriate in a group or society. Pressures to conform stem from explicit or unspoken rules indicating how we should or ought to behave. It can place restrictions on personal freedom. However, without these norms to conform by there would be social chaos. Solomon Asch’s research concluded that many people will yield to social pressure from a unanimous group. The factors affecting conformity are: Cohesiveness: the degree of attraction felt by an individual toward influencing group influences conformity. Group size: the size of the influencing group influences conformity. The larger the size, the lesser the conformity. Social norms: they influence behavior only when are salient to us, i.e. when we focus on them. Social norms may be divided into: Formal and Informal norms Descriptive norms Injunctive norms WHY DO WE WANT TO CONFORM? Two important motives: The desire to be liked by others and the fear of rejection The desire to be right and accurate Social influences: Normative social influence: social influence based on individuals’ desire to be liked or accepted by others. Informational social influence: social influence based on individuals’ desire to have accurate perceptions of the social world The desire to be liked by others or the fear of rejection by them, results in peer pressure, i.e. the desire to avoid rejection by sticking even closer to social norms. RESISTING PRESSURE: WHY WE DON’T WANT TO CONFORM: Pressures towards conformity are so strong that they are mostly impossible to resist but individuals or groups do resist. Following reasons might explain why: The desire to maintain individuality and the need to be distinguishable from others in some respect The degree of cultural diversity The desire to maintain control over the events of one’s own life Compliance: Gaining compliance means getting others to say yes to your requests. It is the art of persuasion. COMPLIANCE PROFESSIONALS: Sales people Advertisers Political lobbyists Negotiators Lawyers, etc COMPLIANCE FOCUSED FIELDS: Door to door sales Advertisings Fund raisings, etc BASIC COMPLIANCE PRINCIPLES: Friendship/liking: getting others to like you so that they are more willing to agree to your request Commitment/consistency: to be consistent with your compliance request till it is achieved Scarcity: making resources or allotted time scarce to make people comply to you Reciprocity: giving extra favors in return for compliance Other tactics While everyone engages in efforts to exert social influence on others, the specific tactics that choose individuals choose are related to their own traits and characteristics. Pro-social Behavior at work: It relates to any good act that is done regardless of absolutely no favor in return. It may or may not be rewarded. For example: helping others who have heavy workload, volunteering to do things that are not required, always being there on time, not taking unnecessary breaks, etc Factors leading to Pro-social Behavior: Loyalty to the organization Perceived justice Extent to which jobs are defined (the more broadly the job is defined, the more pro-social the behavior is). Pro-social behavior may also be performed because employees perceive it as instrumental to obtaining promotions. Leadership: It is the process through which one member of the group influences other group members towards the attainment of shared group goals. Leadership may either be in-born or acquired. Traits of a Leader (Great Person Theory): Great Person Theory: great leaders possess certain traits that set them apart from most human beings. These traits may include the desire for achievement, high energy and resolution, self-confidence and self-assurance, creativity, the desire to be in-charge and exercise authority and high level of flexibility and dependability. Personality Dimensions of a Leader: Following are some important personality traits of a leader: Extraversion: outgoing, assertive and active Agreeableness: kind, gentle, trusting and trustworthy Conscientiousness: organized, dependable and achievement-oriented Stability: calm, not depressed and not moody Contrasting Styles of Leadership: Initiating Structure or Production Orientation: Concentrate on getting the job done. Organize, follow rules, set goals and make roles clear. Consideration or Person Orientation: Establish good relations and want to be liked. Do favors, explain and are concerned about welfare. Autocratic or Participative Orientation: Leaders make decisions but allow participation Directive or Pessimistic Orientation: Leaders run the show by closely directing the activities of group members. Nature of Charismatic Leadership: Exert profound effects on their followers and often change their societies, e.g. Gandhi, Buddha, etc. They state a clear vision, groups to magnify their importance and possess a strong personal style The above actions produce special relationship between charismatic leader’s influence It enhances organization’s performance, but only when organizations face rapidly changing, unpredictable environments. Job satisfaction: It is the employee’s attitude towards their job. Although it is more of an individual factor rather than being related to the teamwork, but it plays a highly important role in making team effoet a success or a failure. The happier the person is with his workplace environment and team efforts, the more satisfied he’ll be with his job. Factors affecting Job Satisfaction: Organizational factors – related to the company’s practices or working conditions: Fair reward systems Relationship with bosses Participative decision making Challenging and interesting tasks Balance between under-loading and over-loading of work Physical working conditions Personal factors – related to the traits of the individual: Seniority and status Proper match between personal interests and the job being done Personal traits – self-esteem, feelings of self efficacy, locus of control and emotional stability Effects of job satisfaction on task performances: Monotonous work e.g. assembly-line workers Positive attitudes e.g. just a little effort e.g. a smile from the boss to an employee for a job well-done. Conclusion: Teamwork at a work place is becoming a more and more important task day by day due to increasing competition and struggle to be the best. It proves to be one of the best tools in the battle for the being and the survival of the fittest. In a modern day business, where the tasks and roles are even narrowly defined, a single person cannot perform each and every task himself. Thus, it is better to have a team perform a job instead of a single person in order to be more efficient and better results are yielded. Teamwork also provides moral support to the team members and makes them feel being fully supported and backed up. Team members can benefit from each other’s thoughts, ideas and experiences as well, which makes the task easier and the end product, more creative, innovative and composed as compared to that yielded by the efforts of a single person. Bibliography: Books: Willard, Bob, The Next Sustainability Wave: Building Boardroom, New society publishers, 2005 Kenneth Kaye, Work Place Wars and How to End Them: Turning Personal Conflicts Into Productive Teamwork, Amacom Publishers, Div American Mgmt Assn, 1994 Bob Rosner, Allan R. Halcrow, Gray Matters: The Workplace Survival Guide, John Wiley and Sons, 2003 Read More