Team Effectiveness - Essay Example

Team Effectiveness Team effectiveness is a complex notion which depends upon different strategies including scheduling and decision-making. If a team is to be successful and perform effectively there must be a spirit of unity and co-operation, which can be achieved through scheduling and decision-making. It is important because team members should be aware of the tasks they perform, should be involved in decision-making process and be aware of the terms. Usually, the most consistently successful teams comprise a range of roles undertaken by various members.

Decision-making has a great influence on effective teamwork, because it involves some degree of participation. Firstly, team decision-making uses an overlapping form of structure. Individuals known as 'linking-pins' are members not only of their own team but also of the next superior team and, where appropriate, of peer teams. This enables each team to be linked to the rest of the organization which resulted in high efficiency and effectiveness of a particular team. On the other hand, decision-making relies heavily on group processes (scheduling), and discussions focus on the decisions to be made.

With the team method of decision-making the superior is held responsible for the quality and implementation of decisions. The superior is also responsible for developing subordinates into an effective team (Handy, 1993). The level of interaction among members of a team is influenced by successful or unsuccessful decision-making process, because it involves full discussion and participation. This appears to work best where a high level of interaction is required among all members of the group in order to solve complex problems.

Leadership predictability has less impact on team effectiveness than the process of collective decision-making which proposes a fairly high level of satisfaction for members. In this case, team effectiveness is concerned with doing the right things and relates to what the team actually achievesScheduling has clearly a major influence on the pattern of effective team operation and behavior. This in turn can have possible adverse effects on attitudes to work and the level of job satisfaction. In many assembly-line production systems, for example, relationships between individual workers are determined by the nature of the task, the extent to which individual jobs are specified, and the time cycle of operations.

In general, scheduling is more complex in so-called "function to order" (Senior, 2001) situations where scheduling is required to absorb external fluctuations directly. It what is desired involves clarification of the aims to be achieved by the team. It is important that people will be aware of project stages. This requires that objectives and targets are specified clearly, and given some measurable attribute. Scheduling provides the framework against which the process of further control takes place.

Related to scheduling is the establishment of defined standards of performance against which the level of success can be determined. Also, scheduling involves effective changes to team functions. Low morale and a negative attitude towards scheduling are often associated with a large number of team members undertaking similar work. This requires realistic planning by which the degree and quality of goal achievement can be determined. Scheduling should be stated clearly and communicated to those concerned, and to those who are subject to the operation of the control system.

Scheduling plays a crucial role because it the process in which objectives resource commitments to these team objectives are translated into specific team programs and goals. If a team does not have a clearly defined work scheduling, it can result in incompleteness of the task and low productivity level. So, scheduling and decision-making can increase team effectiveness and raise motivation and participation of team members in task performance. References1. Handy, Ch. (1993). Understanding Organizations.

Penguin Books Ltd2. Senior, B. (2001). Organizational Change. Capstone Publishing.