Formation of Working Groups - Essay Example

Running head: Project Staff Project Staff Formation of working groups is one of the new trends in organizations in order to increase the productivity, performance and efficiency of the workers. Groups should be formed based on certain criteria in order to achieve the objectives easily and quickly. A poorly organized or work group may achieve process losses rather than process gains. As a member of the newly formed project staff team, I want to help my team members for the progress of the team and for that purpose I did some research upfront and the outcomes of my research with respect to team functioning is explained in this paper with special emphasize to functioning of effective work groups, elements of group effectiveness, process gains and process losses. Introduction Many of the current organizations are encouraging group work or team work because of the immense advantage team work have on individual work. In fact most of the project works need team performances rather than the individual performances in order to execute it successfully. Individual brilliance may not reflect in a team work. For example, if one out of the 10 members of a team performs badly, the entire mission could be failed even if the all the rest nine members perform excellently. For the effective functioning of the team, the entire team members need to identify the various processes involved in the project for the team’s progress. Process gains and process losses are the part of a project team functioning. Identification of these characteristics will help the team to perform well. Effective workgroups A winning team is like orchestrating a piece of music and it doesnt happen by chance. It requires a great deal of information, careful thought, and sound resource management (Vokoun, 2009). It is not necessary that all the workgroups function well. The characteristics of the work group members are important in making the group work effective. Each member of a group is just like the links in chain. Even a single weak link can spoil or break the chain. Same way even single member of the group can spoil the entire objectives of the group work. In other words, a group work will be effective when all the group members combine well and complement each other. The first step in constructing a productive and goal-oriented work group is to gather information (Vokoun, 2009). Information about the project, its objectives and the skills required to complete the project are important for forming the work group. It is not necessary that an effective and efficient member in a group would be effective in another group. Cohesion within the group is an important aspect of effective group functioning. If two group members have conflicts between them within the group, the effectiveness of the group will be considerably reduced. “Choosing someone who is more of an independent thinker can stimulate a group to reach its full potential. A concept called "group think" can occur when members are reluctant to question group ideas and methods” (Vokoun, 2009). Even though a group work as a team, the contributions of the individuals are important. Those who think independently and speaks out his ideas (even if it is irrelevant) within the group would be more effective than a passive group member with lot of ideas and keeping silence within the group. Elements of group effectiveness Interpersonal communication, negotiation, and teamwork are some of the essential elements of group effectiveness. Interpersonal communication skills are essential for most of the organizational functions, especially for group works. If a group member fails to communicate properly with others in the group, his effectiveness and the entire group’s effectiveness will be considerably reduced. Negotiation skills are another important requirement for the group work. For example, marketing executives working in the marketing team or group may often required to negotiate with others. In the absence of good negotiating skills a marketing executive would be a weak link in the marketing team. Team work is essential for the effectiveness of the group functioning. If one of the group members has some problem in doing certain task, other team members should help him for completing the task. Clear goals, increased focus on the objectives other requirements for group effectiveness. The objectives or the goals of the group must be clearly defined and it should be informed to all the group members well before the group starts functioning. Strategies for increasing process gains More information, synergy, More Objective Evaluation, Stimulation, Learning etc are some of the strategies for increasing process gains (Nunamaker, 1991). A group as a whole can have more information than a group member. Each group member may engage in different tasks and each of them may have more information about the task they are performing. When all the individual information brought together under the group’s banner, we can safely say that group information is more compared to individual information. It is not necessary that all the group members visualize an information in the same way because of the difference in individual perception levels and skills. For example, some of the economists argue that the spending should be decreased by the American public to escape from the current recession whereas the Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman like economists argue that the spending should be increased during recession times in order to exercise more economic activities across the country. If Krugman and other economists are working in a group, the different views about the same topic recession can be discussed within the group and the group can arrive at a conclusion after analyzing all the opinions of the group members. In the above example, the discussion within the group can eliminate the chances of errors and more sound judgments or conclusions can be reached. Working as part of a group or team may encourage the group members to perform well. The performances of each group member will affect others in the group as well and hence all the group members will try to improve their performances. The chances of learning are more in a group because of the assistance each group member may receive from other members. Kinds of work group - task force, command group, or friendship group Informal work groups are groups more of hobbies or friendship groups. The project staff team is not this. Formal workgroup are command groups, task forces, teams and self managed work teams. Command groups are defined as a collection of subordinates who report to the same supervisor. A Task force is a collection of people who come together to accomplish a specific goal. After the goal is completed, the group is disbanded (Taylor, 2007) A project staff team cannot function as an informal or friendship group because such groups may destroy the seriousness of the project and the team members may not focus seriously on the objectives of the project. Since the project of our concern only realizes process gains within the three months, I believe our group should be a Task Force. After three months The different types of characteristics that would most likely contribute to success of our work group might be trust and identification with the group. These characteristics can enable confidence and trust within the group needed for better performance. Moreover, the expectation of trustworthy behavior ensure cohesion within the group (Taylor, 2007) Sources of potential process losses Incomplete Task Analysis and use of information, Coordination Problems, Information Overload, Domination, Socializing, Cognitive Inertia, Conformance Pressure, Attention Blocking, Failure To Remember, Attenuation Blocking etc are some of the major sources of process losses (Nunamaker, 1991). The task must be analyzed completely using all the information available in order to avoid process losses. Incomplete information or analysis may lead to false interpretations. Coordination problems can also result in process losses. For example, if a marketing manager fails to allocate different regions for each marketing executives, it is quite possible that two or more marketing executives of the same group operate in same regions unknowingly which may result in process losses. Information overload can cause slow processing rates which may finally result in process losses. Some of the group members may try to dominate others which may create conflicts within the group and the outcomes may not be healthy. If the socializing abilities of a group member were less, he may not participate in active discussions which may also result in process losses. Cognitive inertia or the habit of not contributing anything to the discussion by the group members may lead the discussion in a single direction which may not be a good sign for process gains. Conclusions Effective works groups are necessary for executing a project successfully. Group effectiveness depends on different factors like interpersonal communication, negotiation, teamwork, clear goals increased focus etc. More information, synergy, more objective evaluation, stimulation and learning can increase process gains whereas incomplete task analysis and use of information, coordination problems, information overload, domination, socializing, cognitive Inertia, conformance pressure, attention blocking, failure to remember, attenuation blocking etc can cause process losses. A work group of the caliber of a task force is suitable for executing a short term project. References 1. Nunamaker, J. F, (1991), Sources of Group Process Gains and Losses, Retrieved on 10 December 2009 from http://web.utk.edu/~glenn/Nunamaker.html 2. Taylor Sheri, (2007), Project Staff Team, Retrieved on 10 December 2009 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/143332/project_staff_team.html?cat=3 3. Vokoun Melissa, (2009, Constructing Effective Work Groups, Retrieved on 10 December 2009 from http://ezinearticles.com/?Constructing-Effective-Work-Groups&id=618926 Read More