Are Teams The Effective in Contemporary Organisations - Essay Example

Teams Organizations are physical and hierarchical ‘structures’, where employees from different backgrounds will do their allocated work under a leader, for the success of the organization as well as them. Employees will normally be distributed or ‘structurized’ into various departments and under various wings for better work distribution and streamlining of work. Better distribution and streamlining in the sense, employees under each department can coordinate and cooperate while carrying out their given tasks, giving rising teams. Team, by itself is a powerful force. A team behaves in a peculiar manner which moves toward a specific goal. The performance output given by a team is always ahead of that given by an individual. Generally a team comprises of many people focusing on a specified target. The individuals in a team will be having individual skills. Thus a team is a collection of strengths and good range of abilities. Because of this reason, in a team, for every situation there will be at least a person who can deal with it. Also in a team flaws or pitfalls can easily be spotted and corrected. As there are many persons focusing on a same target they will be very cautious about every move and hence the mistake done by an individual will be easily found by another one. (Scholtes et al. 2003). So, this paper will discuss how teams are seen as a necessary condition in contemporary organizations and how they are effective for organizational process, and how effectiveness can be further optimized. In an efficient team, the ultimate responsibility is rested on everyone’s shoulder. And the team is structured in such a way that whoever having strength in a specified area takes more responsibility in that area. One more interesting fact about a team is “Motivation”. A powerful motivating force is created amidst a good team. It never let its team mates to go down. Also it makes the team members feel proud to be a part of such a team. (West 2002, 9). Teams, also have another face for it. That is “Team conflict”. Conflicts are often mistaken within a team which is a bitter fact to be accepted. But conflicts too could turn desirable, provided the team members look into a conflict as an outcome of indifference in their thoughts or views. And after that they have to take relevant actions on how to overcome that indifference. When such kind of attitude started developing amidst the team members, conflicts even turn to be a positive factor in a team work. (West 2002, 9) Role of self directed work teams and virtual teams in promoting teamwork Self directed work teams are empowered teams, which could act by itself, which means they could take decisions on their own to resolve their day to day job related problems. In short, the employees manage themselves, which mean they do not need any person to manage or supervise them. Thus the self directed work teams are also called as “self management teams”. (Fisher 1999,16) . As there is no person or the so called boss to lead them, it becomes important for them to have certain rules and deadlines. They need to rely upon those rules to accomplish their purpose successfully. Actually what happens is, the company distribute the authority and power. So that even the people till the bottom level in an organisation acquires decision making capability. Thus the person who is closest to the customer or client could easily satisfy them and thus the self directed teams brings out 30 to 50 percent more efficiency than its conventional counterparts. (Fisher 1999, 16) . Moreover a self directed work team can react immediately by itself in case of any threat, without waiting for instruction to travel through long way. Thus it could put a stop to the destructive consequences of certain dangerous threats. A virtual team is also referred to as a geographically dispersed team (GDT). This by itself defines a virtual team. It is a collection of individuals working not at the same location but they got scattered all over the world. Never mind whichever organisation they work at, whichever community they belong to or whichever location in this world they live at, but they work for the same purpose. (Raisinghani 2001, 2) The amazing fact about this virtual team is that, a best employee located any where in this world is effectively identified and utilized. Thus, a virtual team builds up into a unique collection of experts. They communicate among themselves through highly developed information technology tools. Information nowadays could travel faster than air. The experts use recent technologies like web chatting, instant messaging, video conferencing and electronic mailing to keep in touch with each other and exchange their ideas. (Raisinghani 2001, 2) There are ample benefits of these virtual teams in an organisational view and also from the employee’s point of approach. First of all an organisation could include more people in its labour pool, irrespective of its geographical constraints. These factors reduce congestion in work place. The organisation need not take care of employee concerns regarding the comforts in working place or about the parking space. The employees too could be more flexible within the organisation. Being physically handicapped is not at all a matter of concern in case of a virtual team. Employees get rid of their travelling expenses and also office pressures. There are certain strategies, a virtual team members have to follow. They need to adopt and stick on to the currently existing technologies always. They must keep themselves updated. Also they must act more dynamic. (Duarte 2009) Empowering a team during time of transition To develop and empower a team is not an easy task. All the members to be formed as a team must be aligned towards a common vision and mission, so that the goal could be achieved. Also they must have a clear understanding about their functional guidelines. Upon developing the above said attitude, they need to concentrate on developing skills such as taking appropriate decisions within a group, overcoming indifferences and problem solving abilities. Also they need to develop certain management skills to regulate themselves. (Kelly 2008, 187) Another important thing to be noted while empowering a team is the involvement of the management. Of course the management plays a vital role in this transition process. They do not directly involve and apply its power upon the work group. But they simply direct the work group during the transition and also support them completely to develop. A team takes roughly three to five years to mature as a self directed work team. (Kelly 2008, 187) It is important to be noted that during the transition period certain mistakes and time delays could occur. Because the employees are allowed to act by themselves, they may take advantage over it and misuse the power. This may lead to bitter consequences. So it is required for the management to remain highly patient and lenient. Also the management must be aware of when to tighten the rope upon the employee and also when to let them free. Only them the expected result would be attained. (Kelly 2008, 187). Building Team Trust Trust is an inevitable requirement while building a team. Each one in a team must communicate honestly and openly at any time he or she had got an idea. They must speak out without distortions in their information. Even there may be some hard facts to share at times. Without any hesitation one must be in a position to speak out. Only then trust will build up in a team. Hiding facts and suppressing hard feelings will never help in development of a healthy team. (Costa 2003) There are some strategies which the individuals in a team must rely upon. Each one must keep their promises at any cost. Once if they got committed with an assignment they have to stick on to it and attain to prove themselves. One must be consistent with their ideas. Also they need to make others understand, accept ant realize the importance of their point. Blindly pushing on others to accept a fact will spoil the harmony of a team also develops enmity. At times due to some inevitable reason one could not be able to keep up with their promises. In such situations it is better to communicate the plain truth to others as early as possible. (Costa 2003) Whatever we do or whatever we speak is been noticed by our team mates. Keeping this in mind we need to act or react. Likewise we must also be keen at every step taken by our superiors or co workers. Careful attention towards everything around us is mandatory. Also one must be flexible and be willing to change according to the decisions taken by the supervisor or co worker. It is natural for Conflicts and disagreements to rise upon in a team. But the success is with the right approach or attitude of the individuals who build the team. (Costa 2003) Lack teamwork and the solutions for it When it comes to team work, communication is the key factor and it plays the vital role in that team. Communication facilitates understanding among the group members and at the same time understanding of the main agenda or objective of the team, which will be related our organizational goals. This is because success of a team is determined by the communication strategies and approaches which are used by the team members. This means that the members of the team are provided with a clear understanding of the mission, objectives and values of the team since they are communicated clearly in the team. (Xyrichis & Emma 2008). Effective communication strategies within the group provide clear and timely information to the members of the group. This enables the working of the group to be effective since every one is communicated to in a timely manner. This enables full participation of all the team members and their contribution towards success of the team. Effective communication strategies among the team members promote and enhance a positive sense of oneness among the team members. Good communication is every ones responsibility including the leader and the employees; this is the fundamental practice in success of a team. The leader should exhibit this quality because according to Weber, leader’s formal authority derives from position in the organization. Position based on competence and performance, not connections and social standing. (winthrop.edu). This is because when each and every member of the team is given the responsibility and empowerment as expected, it would ensure there is good communication within the team then the team stands a better chance of success. In order for communication to be effective in the teams inside my organization, it should be two way. This is because in a team each and every member is important and they all work together towards achieving certain objective. This means that there is no given person who should be the one to communicate while others listen to him or her. All members of the team should have equal opportunities to express their ideas and they all have equal chances of being listened. This is because each and every member is important in the team and his or her contribution is also very important. Each and every member of the team feels confident when addressing and contributing towards certain issues under discussion because they have all information needed. The team members also feel valued and they feel to be part and parcel of the team because they are involved in daily activities of the team. Role of team leader Being a team leader is a critical and also a challenging job. He is the one who effectively brings together all the team members. A leader facilitates cooperation and coordination amidst the team. Such a person makes each one involve and participate in every task. One more significant task is to maintain all issues to be transparent among the team members and it develops hope and security to the employees. A leader always welcomes constructive challenges. He always focuses on a common goal to be achieved and motivate his peers to work towards it. He also develops a supportive environment to them. A leader must also be able to resolve the conflicts arising between the team members. (Dirks 2000, 1004) Brainstorming techniques Brainstorming strategy is a technique through which large number of ideas is generated to solve a problem. Much the number of approaches made, effective the solution becomes. It enables us to look into a problem with different perspectives. The factors which combine while using brain storming techniques in a team are experience, creativity and also unusual innovative ideas. At times people bring out certain crazy ideas which could be funny too. The leader plays here. He looks into those crazy ideas as unusual thoughts and extracts solution from that. Computer and other electronic based instruments are also used to explore a problem. During brainstorming sessions not only new ideas are created but also people develop and refine the existing ideas. (Huitt 1992). In those sessions also and during decision making processes, Constructive conflicts could arise A constructive conflict often becomes important while taking decision. Such conflicts may some time voluntarily started by the team leader. Such conflicts make people to be stern with their ideas and thus it results in powerful implementation of the same. Making people speak out is a clever way of knowing their buried thought. A true leader uses such strategy and finds out whether the people truly agree with the decision that has been made. Conflicts often bring out new perception of the existing problem and thus they become constructive. (Tambe 1997, 92) Conclusion A team by itself is a powerful tool to make miracles, but can be made effective with the evolution of self directed or self managed work teams. These are teams that do not require an external influence to guide them. But it needs certain period of time to mature, in the sense they must be built up in such a way that they can manage themselves. Another kind of teams is virtual team which is a collection of experts located at different parts of the world. Thus without considering the geographical constraints an organisation can expand itself. This does favour both the organisation as well as the employee. But developing a team is not an easy task. Lack of communication may arise as a major problem. Or inadequate participation of one person may irritate another person developing enmity between them. This in turn spoils the harmony of the team as a whole. All these are mended by a person who happened to be the team leader. A leader’s role is replaceable. It is very challenging too. A leader must be able to feel the pulse of his subordinate and act accordingly. He must be a very good motivator and must make his subordinates work voluntarily and not by force. If such a team is developed we can expect wonders. Thus after examining the effectiveness of team working, it is clear that team work improves the efficiency of the output than that of the individual’s performance. 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