Managing Business Relations - Essay Example

Portfolio and Section # of Portfolio Teamwork is an integral part of Managing Business Relations (MBR) owing to the growing phenomenon of groups of people working together in a union for a specific purpose, to achieve a certain goal, to meet set objectives etc. (Ford et al., 2003). In contemporary times it has become inevitable, as every aspect of life involves some sort of union setup between people to make them deliberately work to attain a common target: trade unions in a corporation, project teams in offices, a convoy on a mission, a team of surgeons in a hospital, and a team of students for group work are common examples of teamwork. Global interaction has increased, and the need has arose to enable people to develop the capability of adapting to different environments comprising of a multitudes of people with varying personalities, where an individual can encounter contradictory, imperfect and inconsistent opinions and views (Tambe, 1997), thus individuals should be willing and capable enough to take charge of situations by initiating in ones self the spirit of leadership and adaptability. This semester has proved worthwhile since it has equipped us with the insight to recognize our own skills as well as our flaws, and has developed in us an urge to polish our strengths and take advantage of the opportunities available to us in order to hone our personalities and unleash our potential to improve, which is innate in every individual. Furthermore, it has enabled us to identify the weaknesses which lead to setbacks in various moments in life and the resulting damage to the self confidence and morale due to these failures, and has given us the timely opportunity to work on this weakness and therefore establish ourselves into dynamic individuals who have the courage to withstand different challenges in life, thus we can apply the marketing management approach of SWOT analysis on our team to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats we face and work upon them specifically to reap maximum advantage (Piercy and Giles, 1989). Throughout this semester we faced teamwork challenges in the form of three mediums: four reading review tests wherein individuals had to ponder over a given set of questions and then collaborate with the team members to agree on an answer which is accepted by all members, essay writing in group was another way to initiate team spirit in all members, and lastly the challenge which was most significant was the presentation in which the entire group had to work as a team in the development of the presentation content and then the final presentation to the class. My team members comprised of Jennifer (who also served as an emerging leader for the team), Kyle, Hin, Stacy, Ying Boo, Kavita and me. As a team we were able to converse interactively, and help each other out in moments of lapse. Since Jennifer was the most hardworking member of the team, it enabled her to rise to the position of a leader almost instantly, while the others followed in her lead. Kyle served as a fruitful member due to his ability to offer comprehensive and relevant views about the specific topic under discussion. Hin had a very introvert personality, and absenteeism was high in his case, his attendance could only be witnessed at time of tests and assessments, in addition his contribution in group discussions was usually low for he seldom spoke. The rest of the four members, with me inclusive, were not very outstanding at work, however we attended every class, were present at group meets, and managed to maintain a healthy and conducive relationship with all other members. However, Jennifer was not selected as a leader by unanimous vote, therefore denying the self sovereignty right every individual has, as proposed by the philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (Rousseau, 1762), therefore she should have been selected through a process of voting, and therefore when she was selected then the team could hold her accountable for the decisions she took, or else she could easily step away from the responsibility of her actions. The mediums used were relevant to the course, and were helpful in understanding the dynamics of working as a team. During the four tests conducted in class, our team worked in coherence with each other, there were no unmanageable conflict problems, however this could be viewed as a problem in itself, for when there are lack of issues and increased unanimity, then it indicates that group members are attempting to attain the situation of adequacy, wherein they evade conflicts by agreeing upon a decision acceptable to all and abstain from voicing opinions which might lead to conflicts, thus putting the satisficing strategy into effect (Simon, 1991, 165), this could be a reason why we stood third in the team tests. If teams were given a legal status, then they can be viewed as contracts between individuals, whether voluntary, or enforced by the instructor, but in the terminology of law, this contract would have bounded every member into the knot of working in cohesion with others for contracts are legal enforcements by law (Sullivan and Sheffrin, 2003, 523). As a team, we managed to meet four times a week for group meetings and discuss plausible solutions to issues at hand; absenteeism was almost negligible since it was only once that Hin was unable to attend a meeting due to ill health. With regards to the essay, we were able to get together to brainstorm for idea collection, cohesion and integration was ensured throughout the duration of teamwork, furthermore our team never quarreled over petty issues, and instead focused our attention to gathering possible solutions to our dilemmas, this integrity gave us the sense of belonging to the team, and gave us the feeling of working in the best team in the class. However, problems arose as we moved into the latter part of the semester, with the presentation to work on, contradictions begin to surf up. The initial conflict presented itself in the form of a division of the team into two sects, wherein me and Ying Boo stressed upon the condition that each member was only allotted three minutes speech time by the instructor, while others including Jennifer were stern on their opinion that it is three minutes per section, and they finally managed to convince us, and during the presentation when all the members had exceeded time due to the misunderstanding, we scored a C- grade in the team presentation. The presentation gave me a chance to recognize that I lacked the capability to convince others into accepting my opinion, despite being right, my ineffective power of speech undermined the credibility of my views and resulted in ignorance, ultimately leading to my submission to accepting the popular opinion. This ineffectiveness in speech also marked the group meetings, wherein I was unable to optimally participate, despite the presence of opinions which could prove beneficial to our work, I resisted from voicing them, and therefore our team could not be Pareto efficient since all team members were not putting in their maximum effort, this inefficiency could also be the work of imperfect knowledge of members (Greenwald and Stiglitz, 1986). Therefore, indicating that brainstorming in the mind alone is not the correct procedure to work efficiently, every member must contribute to the summit of their capability and wisdom in order to create a fusion of different thoughts to arrive at the best answer. Herein we could consult the IRAC Format to solve our problems, which would give us a standard framework to work upon, and reduce the probability of deviations from the target by identifying the issue, selecting the corrective action tool, analyzing the situation and thus developing a solution (Best, 2010). At reaching the end of the presentation, we did not have spare time for conclusion due to lack of time managements, which should have been planned initially through the step wise Management Development Planning process, this would have enabled us to analyze the marking criteria, and develop our presentation plan accordingly, and thus only the relevant material would have been retained and the rest discarded (McNamara, 2010). This practical application of teamwork dynamics has effectively opened my mind to a wide horizon of perspectives, and enabled me to adapt myself into different environments, and easily relate to people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, and hence developing the multicultural spirit in me (Lerman, 2010). It is essential, as being a member of the contemporary world, that an individual should be equipped with the power of tolerance and patience towards other cultures, for interaction with different people is an indubitable fact in modern times. Teamwork has also developed in me tolerance towards people with differing views, and enabled me to recognize the weaknesses which previously I thought were inherent in me, however now through the IRAC format I will figure out every single weakness and work on it independently to avoid collusion and conflicting aims, furthermore I plan to practice speech on my own and then participate in small level speech competitions to develop self confidence in me, therefore, not eluding the thought of being an effective leader in the future but progressing towards it would be my aim. References Best. C P (2010) Writing and Analysis. Retrieved June 7th 2010 from http://legalresearch.org/docs/process13.html David Ford, Lars-Erik Gadde, Håkan Håkansson, Ivan Snehota (2003) Managing Business Relationships, 2nd Edition. Wiley: Knowledge for Generations. Greenwald. B and Stiglitz. J E. (1986) Externalities in economies with imperfect information and incomplete markets. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 101, 229–264 Lerman. A (2010) In Defense of Multiculturalism. Retrieved June 7th 2010 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/22/multiculturalism-blame-culture-segregation McNamara. C (2010) Management Development Planning. Retrieved June 7th 2010 from http://managementhelp.org/mgmt_dev/mgmt_dev.htm Piercy. N and Giles. W (1989) Making SWOT analysis work. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 7, 5/6, 5-7. Retrieved June 7th 2010 from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=A99EC30E6E86CBD551CBC9175F88E296?contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkpdf&contentId=854075 Rousseau. J J (1762) The Social Contract. Retrieved June 7th 2010 from http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm Simon. H (1991) Models of My Life. Basic Books, New York Sullivan. Arthur O and Sheffrin. Steven M (2003) Economics: Principles in Action. Pearson Prentice Hall. Tambe. M (1997) Towards Flexible Teamwork. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 7, 83-124. Retrieved June 7th 2010 from http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/9709101 Read More