MG 1011 Task 2 Assignment - a Reflection of the work done - Essay Example

and many people already integrated into the workforce sometimes think that they are one player and their contributions in the workplace are a singular action. The business world does not work that way anymore. There not looking to recruit people who want to play one on one without thinking about the rest of the team. Teamwork is a critical success factor for enterprises in the 21st century. This reflection paper describes some of my personal experiences working in team environments and it also provides principles, concepts and theories concerning teamwork.

Team formation is a critical initial step that is necessary to create a team that will work effectively. A team or group is the union of two or more people working together to achieve a common goal (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn, p.172). During the initial formation stage of the team the member have to communicate with each other in various brainstorming and socialization exercises in other to get to know each other to create a bond. During these session the team has to create a detail plan of action of the project the have to perform with a detail work break structure of the specific task each member will perform and various deadlines the work has to delivered.

There is a need for leadership within the group. It is important for someone to take charge and become the team leader that can guide the other members of the team, while at the same listening to the opinion of others to integrate their ideas. According to Belbin’s team role theory the optimum size for a team is eight members (Fisher & Hunter & Macrosson, 2001). If a team is too small the members might get overworked, but a large team can create organizational problems which may result in inefficiencies.

I have worked on various team scenarios some of which were good experiences, while others were horrible endeavors. During my first year in college I worked on a group project for college class. The team was made up to four members. It was disaster from day one. One member barely ever came to any of the team meetings. The other two kept arguing over irrelevant points and could not come to any agreements on how to proceed with the project. I tried to play the role of leader and intermediary between the members.

Since I took the initiative I paid the price of being the member with the highest workload and ended up covering for two of the members who at the end were extremely irresponsible and disappeared on me and decided that their end of the bargain did not have to complied with. I did both their work tasks over a two day period prior to turn in the project. I got two hours of sleep in two days because of them. A second project I worked on was in a part time job a had a few years a ago. My supervisor rounded up seven employees including myself for a special project.

The supervisor was not part of team. He only participated in the initial meeting by providing us with a rough draft of a plan, the deadline, the project objectives and some general advice for us. The team was a great group of people. Everyone did the job that Joe a co-worker and team member who was named the team leader after every voted for him. There was great cohesiveness in this group which led to high levels of performance and great team synergy. Teamwork is about working together to accomplish things that an individual alone could never accomplish.

An effective team forms a collective mind in which the ideas of the different members are blended and incorporated into the project and the collective efforts of the different players lead to successful project completions. When more one person works towards finding it is easier to find answers since ideas can be bounded among each other until the optimum solution is found. Teamwork are an essential work structure that professional in the 21st century must get accustomed to in order to succeed in the workplace.

ReferencesFisher, S.G. and Hunter T.A. and Macrosson, T.D.K. (2001). Belbin’s team role theory for non managers. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 17(1). Schermerhorn, J.R., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.