Necessary Condition in Contemporary Organisations - Essay Example

 «Necessary Condition in Contemporary Organisations» A crucial aspect of a modern day corporate organization is to work in teams as the team environment helps in improved productivity and enhanced quality of work. Be it a huge corporate or a small firm, the scope of working in a group is unavoidable. One critical question that comes along with the increased expectations of teamwork is whether teamwork is effective and if it provides the desired results. Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith (1993) have defined a team as “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually account table". According to Harris & Harris (1996), a team has a common goal where the members develop effective relationships to achieve the goals. Everyone recognizes that it is necessary to have a cohesive team where individuals work towards the same goals while demonstrating individual accountability. For example, Katzenbach and Smith attribute the success of the Medical Products Group at Hewlett Packard to small group less than 10 people who revived a key health care business that was considered written off by others. On the other hand, in a scenario where there is a lack of cohesiveness, openness, flexibility and different individual goals, working in a team becomes ineffective (Luca & Tarricone, 2001). An ineffective team can be catastrophic to an organization as the quality as well as the quantity of the work is often compromised. The consequences can be varied – right from the company missing out an agreed deadline to the company losing its credibility in the market. Apart from that, there are chances that the relationships between the individuals also turn sour, which again is not a chance of a healthy corporate firm. Building a team that is effective and delivers good performance is not an easy task. As Melissa Vokoun, a successful Business Advisor and trainer mentions that putting together a winning team is like orchestrating a piece of music and it doesn't happen by chance. It requires a great deal of information, careful thought, and sound resource management. There are many things at stake while working in a team and these include maintaining credibility of the company, keeping up the commitment, catering to the service level agreements, as well as ensuring that there are no monetary consequences for the company. Therefore, it is crucial to define the elements that go into building an effective team so that the team members understand the various aspects of being involved in team. Numerous factors help in making a ‘team’ a ‘successful and effective team’. Building an effective and successful team is not easy. First, it is extremely important that the team members share a strong common goal (Vries, 1999). According to Francis and Young (1979), the participants should understand their purpose and share their goals – the combination achieves the mission, the team should be highly focused on delivering quality results together, and should not divert their energy to outshining other members of the team. A team in a corporate environment invariably has a defined goal as well as time line to achieve the goal. Focusing on delivering their goal in the best possible way can also help the team improve the working relationship, as was all a positive environment. However, the critical element here is to foster the sense of commitment towards the goal. Even if a few members do not co-operate over working towards the common end, the entire team activity would be ineffective. If the team members do not work towards a common goal, it is difficult to cultivate a sense of accountability and responsibility. Therefore, it is critical that the team works towards a collective goal and not individual goals Here, the goal of the team also plays an important role in binding the team together. All the aspects of the goal should be well defined and not vague. For example, if a particular service team is aiming to reduce the average issue resolution time by 20%, it is important to define which members of the team would focus on which aspect of the issue resolution process. This gives clarity on the process and defines a certain task for the individuals, which in turn contributes towards the larger goal of the organization. Another aspect that should be considered in an effective team is a mechanism for open communication and feedback. For a team to perform optimally there should be a team spirit of constructive criticism and authentic non-evaluative feedback (Harris & Harris, 1996). As the scope for improvement never ends, it is important that the team members develop the maturity to take feedback. The feedback system should be in such a way that it is constructive and not offensive to anyone. Here, the team leader has a crucial role to play. Similarly, the team should also be prepped up to receive feedback from their peers. Regular peer-to-peer feedback is an effective way of building an open communication system in the team. In the absence of a clear feedback mechanism, conflicts could arise and render the entire team framework ineffective. Feedback conflicts often result in unpleasant situations and can lead to turmoil in the personal relationships too. Interdependence is an aspect of teamwork that cannot be ignored. Each member of the team typically has a crucial and indispensable responsibility and for the fulfilment of the larger goal, interdependence is crucial. Francis and Young mention that a group can always deliver more than the individuals who comprise it could do in isolation (Francis & Young, 1979). There may be people with different skills on the same team and each skill is necessary to give the project its desired end goal. In such cases, the output of one individual may serve as the input for another person. Interdependence among the team members is a very important because if a proper system is not set up, it can render the entire set up of working in a team ineffective (Johnson, Heimann, & O'Neill, 2000). Here, the importance of timelines and commitment again comes into place and it is the job of the team along with its leader to define these aspects. Appropriate team composition is essential to set up and develop an effective team. It is said that successful teams are a product of appropriate team composition (Bradley & Frederic, 1997). Here, the higher management should step and do a needs assessment exercise to figure out what the composition of the team should be. Based on the goal and the requirement, it is necessary to define the size of the teams, the skills necessary among the team members, the role that each member should play and the responsibilities that are involved in the project. If the team composition is not logically thought about and random members are picked to consolidate the team, there are high chances that the responsibilities will not be fulfilled. For example, if the project undertaken revolves around data analysis, there should be enough people on the team who are skilled at analyzing and interpreting data in an effective manner. If the team does not consist of enough number of people who are skilled enough to handle this work, there are chances that only a few people end up working more and thereby, increasing the chances of data inaccuracy as well as stress. Apart from that, there would be some people who would not be able to contribute at all because of the lack of skills and that would result in wastage of important resources. Therefore, it is clear that the composition of the team plays a key part in building an effective team. A very critical aspect of teamwork is the equality and camaraderie between the members of the team. When the roles are defined, it is important to clarify that each aspect of the team is crucial and would go a long way in achieve the goal of the team. To develop a sense of equality as well as mutual respect in the team, interpersonal skills have a very important role to play. According to Kets De Vries, it is necessary that members respect and trust each other (De Vries, 1999). It is important to recognize that the team consists of people who have distinct and different personalities. For example, it is very much possible that there are two very brilliant people on the team who are equally talented in terms of the skills required. However, one among them has an over powering personality and does not give the other person a chance to express their idea and dominates the entire proceedings. It is very difficult to establish a smooth working relationship between two such very different personalities and the scope for developing trust, friendship and mutual understanding narrows down (Critchley & Casey, 1986). This situation can be an example of teamwork not being effective. Members must be respectful and supportive of one another, and realistic in mutual expectations (Harris & Harris, 1996). In a team where there is respect and support, invariably, there would be much higher efficiency and better results. One added advantage would be that the team environment would be very positive and a positive environment goes a long way in working effectively. When there are individuals working together, there are many chances of conflict and even clashes. While setting up a team, it is only fair to ensure that there is a proper conflict resolution mechanism set up. At any point, any individual in the team who feels uncomfortable in the team environment should have a way of addressing as well as resolving it. Common scenarios that result in conflict could be workload, stress as well as the reward mechanism. The team leader or the management has an important role to play here. They should be quick to identify if there are any ‘free-loaders’ on the team or if there are members who dominate each aspect of the team activity. They should also be able to identify if there are individuals who are very submissive and hence do not have much of a say. It is important to strike a balance among the team members. Here, very small things can prove effective. For example, having a fair rewards system that acknowledges the work of even the quite workers can be useful. With a proper conflict resolution system in place, there are very high chances that over a period, the team would ease out and there will not be a lot be many issues or concerns. However, it is a dangerous scenario if the conflicts are not resolved in time. There are chances that the entire cohesiveness of the team could be at threat. It is only fair to imagine that in such situations, the focus towards the goal of the team is lost and a lot of time and energy would be devoted towards the resolution of the conflict. In most scenarios, effective teamwork brings better results than working individually. There are certain key elements that stand out when we look at the benefits of working in a team when compared to working individually. Along with teamwork comes efficiency that is a key factor while working in a corporate environment. If there is no structured environment involved, there are chances that there would be duplicity of work. For example, a certain individual would have put in hours of work to complete a task only to realize the next day that someone else had already completed the task. Such a situation can be avoided while working in a team as better delegation happens in a team environment. Here, it is again important that the work be delegated properly in the team otherwise, the teamwork can be ineffective. A key benefit of working in a team is that team can profit from the thoughts and ideas of numerous people. Brainstorming sessions are very common in today’s organizations, as the process of ‘collective ideation’ has often resulted in invocation and creativity. In a team, there are many brains collectively working towards a common goal. Very often, it is seen that monotony sets in with one person just focusing on one particular kind of work. However, if there is a team environment, team members have the scope to have discussion and come up with innovative and more effective ways of dealing with a particular kind of work (Scarnati, 2001). This can result in process improvements, better quality of deliverables and time saving. Here, the team should work towards developing a maturity to accept others ideas and the doors for effective communication should always be kept open. The team members should also understand that a process improvement because of a discussion can help in achieving the common goal for the team and hence, should be receptive to ideas that arise from the discussions. A successful team should value effective listening and communications that serves group needs (Harris & Harris, 1996). A team that is good at listening and communication not only becomes a better performing and creative team but also has very less chances of facing conflicts and ego clashes between the members of the team. In today’s corporate world, the company operations are not limited to a particular geography or a locale. They are scattered across geographies and sometimes are even in different continents. In such cases, there are teams that work across time zones and across continents. Working as a part of global team has a big advantage for the companies as in numerous cases, there is round-the-clock coverage. If the team is working for a particular client, then it is very reassuring for the client to have a round-the-clock coverage. Here, it is very crucial to have a global collaboration as working across time zone becomes challenging. The team members may not get a lot of face time with each other, therefore aspects like effective email communication are critical. Other key benefits of work in a team are that the individuals develop team spirit and understanding, respecting others. It also reinforces individual capabilities and ensures that each team member has contributed in some way or the other. For the team members, it is an enriching experience because there is better knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer. In a modern day work environment, there could be extremely stressful situations that come along with high-expectations and the dynamism. In such a scenario, it is imperative that the set up of a company or a group is team based as that helps the individuals perform better by easing off unnecessary pressure. Creativity and ideas flow well in a team environment and the individuals develop a strong sense of ownership and belonging. As these work-groups or teams are imperative, it becomes even more important to make sure they are effective. When a team is well defined and the team members work cohesively towards the common goal of the team, teamwork is a blessing and is highly effective References Bradley, J. H., & Frederic, J. H. (1997). 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K. (1993). The Discipline of Teams. Harward Business Review, 83(7), p 162-172. Luca, J., & Tarricone, P. (2001). Does emotional intelligence affect successful teamwork? Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education at the ASCILITE, p. 367 – 376 Scarnati, J. T. (2001). On becoming a team player. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 7(1/2), 5-10. Vokum, Melissa. http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Melissa_Vokoun. Retrieved on 28 October 2010 from ezinearticles.com Read More