What is the Difference between Teams and Groups - Essay Example

Answer Stress refers to any undesirable or unfavorable condition, outcome or result mainly due to an extremely tough or challenging situation thatis beyond one’s control .Stress can be divided into two types known as Eustress (that refers to positive condition / outcome) and Distress (that refers to negative stress and causes depression among managers). Examples of Eustress could be when an employee comes late to an office meeting after his tire got punctured but then comes to know that the meeting is delayed as the guests are yet to arrive. Similarly, Distress could be when an employee is compelled to work for 2 extra hours in an anticipation of pay increase and bonus but does not receive either at the day of disbursement. This reduces a workers job satisfaction, normative commitment, loyalty and dedication to work. It is important for managers to monitor and manage employee stress levels as workers are real assets to any organisation and a group of well-employees showcases their best performance. Work related stress due to hectic schedule and soporific routine, inflexible or rigid working environment (authoritarian organisational culture), work overload etc. leads to higher stress levels among employees that in turn reduces their morale, business productivity, efficiency and contribution towards their employer. Answer 2: Managers have to adjust their management and leadership styles. Indeed, today businesses are facing various issues such as managing diversity, recession, unexpected business environment, threats from competitors, changing lifestyles and perceptions of buyers etc. Therefore, they have to adopt a more flexible democratic style of leadership that aims to encourage and motivate employees. Also, democratic leaders believe in more collaborative and information sharing approach rather than traditional adversarial approach. Managers can have open communication sessions with their subordinates so that they could know about capabilities and traits of their workers and staff. This also builds strong and cordial relationships among employees and employers, which in turn improves morale of employees who then become committed to their jobs and portray their best performance. Answer 3: Motivation is a driving force that aims to bring the best out of employees so that an organisation could accomplish its short and long run goals and objectives. Motivation and encouragement builds trust of an employee over its employers thereby enabling an employer to take bold decisions including business expansion, change initiative, new skill development and training programs so that it could gain competitive edge over its competitors and ensure economic benefits. Also, motivated employees believe in securing organisational interests and are proud to be a part of their company. Answer 4: Assuming myself in a role of manager, i would first discover whether an organisation really needs a change in its working practices, culture and management structure. Once identifying the areas where initiating a change could result in higher efficiency, effectiveness and goal accomplishment, I would then write a report that include all the details about those areas to my top managers. Basically, I would advise my organisation to adopt a matrix approach for management so that employees from different departments could interact with each other. Before that, it should conduct some information sessions and training programs so that employees become aware of any expected organisational change and power structures. Secondly, I could provide examples of competitors that have adjusted their working conditions and practices so that they could meet the demands of new workplace. This in turn would make my organisation realize the fact that old management and leadership techniques plus working practices are no longer useful in an uncertain contemporary business environment. Answer 5: In simple words, power refers to use of authority to manage organisational operations. Different types of power include Coercive (that involves use of punishment and force to run and manage business operations), Legitimate (that arrives from one’s position for example CEO, Department Head, Managing Director etc), Referent (that emerges from attractive and influencing personality), Reward (by offering extrinsic rewards such as financial benefits and motivation) and Expert (that derives from one’s glib expertise and proficiency in one’s area(s) of interest. Business executives use these types of power to maintain internal decorum in a firm, to ensure discrimination free and friendly work environment as well as shared values. For example a middle manager can use coercive or legitimate power to prevent ‘bullying’ (by senior line managers towards new entrants) in an organisation to maintain discipline. Similarly, a General Manager can use its expert power to train and direct new managers, can use reward power to motivate best performers and can use referent power to influence the subordinates. Answer 6: Organisational change refers to modifying organisational working practices, management structures and hierarchy positions so that requirements of new workplace could be met and competitiveness could be restored. The initiators and facilitators of change face resistance from employees mainly because workers fear of losing authority and power they have at present in an enterprise. Also, if workers are not properly trained or informed about proposed change, they resist as they believe this will add to their workload and make their job burdensome. Next, if employees lack required level of skills in a changed working environment, they fear that they are now redundant to their respective company so will be dismissed soon. In short, they resist change so that they could secure their jobs. Japan based Toyota Motors has planned that it would change its organisation culture so that it employees could learn how to manage diversity in Toyota’s worldwide offices and to build effective and robust cross-cultural relationships. In turn, this would be helpful in creating more value to customers after improvements in customer service. Similarly, it will reduce employee turnover rates and improve job satisfaction among employees. Answer 7: Work groups comprise of different members that have their individual goals and ambitions rather than the members of a team that focus on team goals. Hence, Work groups produce individual products whereas teams produce collective work products. Also, members in a work group are held individually accountable whereas team members are both individually and mutually accountable for their actions. In addition, members of a work group often meet to communicate and share information whereas team members are responsible for strategic planning, problem solving and decision making. A team works under the guidance of a leader who considers every member’s ideas, opinions and suggestions whereas a member of work group considers one’s own ideas. (Powers, 2008) Answer 8: Teams and groups perform better because they work under supervision of a democratic style task- and relationship-oriented leader who guides and directs its team members until the goal is successfully accomplished. The leader ensures that its team members participate openly and fearlessly in group meetings and discussions; communicate their knowledge and ideas with their peers, coordinate, cooperate and devote time so that a favorable outcome is achieved. References: Powers, Michelle (2008) “What is the Difference between Teams and Groups?” Associated Content Available at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1157862/what_is_the_difference_between_teams.html?cat=3 Read More