MGMT1002 Leading and Managing an Effective Team Assignment Sample

• Subject Code : MGMT1002
• University : Macquarie University My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : Management

Principles Of Management

Contents

Introduction.

Teamwork.

Team members.

Team leader.

Conflicts and challenges.

Motivation.

Conclusion.

Reference.

Introduction to Principles Of Management

The leading and managing effective teams for an organisation requires a whole set of knowledge and skills. This essay states the method to lead a team, the behaviour of the team members, dealing with the conflicts, and motivating the team members for the higher efficiency of the team. The team leader and member plays an important part in keeping up the reputation and productivity of the company. Many studies were conducted to demonstrate the correct way to increase the efficiency. A well balanced combination of their outputs, according to the work requirement can be implemented in acquiring greater efficiency. By going through real life examples, one can see the practical implementation and faced challenged.

Teamwork

The team is the basic structure through which work is done in any organisation. A team is a group of people with similar skills and goal, but that can be called a group. But there is a difference between a group and a team. A group in an informal collection of two or more individuals, who shares collective norms, goals and common identity. Whereas, a team is a small group of people with complementary skills, common goal, and mutual accountability of their action. The effect of team managing and leadership is the deciding factor in determining the efficiency of the team. The team leadership and its effect differ according to company’s control structure or hierarchical structure. The main advantages of a team are better decision making, sharing of thoughts and increased motivation and engagement. While on the other hand there are some disadvantages like slow individual working speed, social loafing and process losses. Along with corporation within team members, corporation between teams is also required for smooth functioning of the process. An effective communication channel is set up between the team for this.

Team can be of three types:

1) Fixed position team- People play on a fixed position, task is done by same person.

2) Parallel team- People play as a team, like sports and orchestra.

3) Innovative team- People play as ‘doubles’, covering and backing up for each other.

An effective team is based on:

• Corporation
• Trust
• Cohesiveness
• Performance goal and feedback
• Size
• Motivation
• Roles
• Norms
• Awareness of group thinking

Team Members

An organisation is the setup of multiple individuals working alone or as a part of a team. It is really important to establish a well communicated and cooperated network amongst all the teams. The individuals forming up the teams have the common goal and interest which abide them into team. An effective management system further adds up into the higher productivity of the team. Some of the methods for an effective team management are as below:

1) Manager makes team member accountable for their action, providing liberty to set their own goals and aim.

2) Team members are cross trained on jobs within their teams, perform own hiring, firing, training and evaluation.

3) Team members have access to important information and resources inside and outside the organisation.

4) Teams are free to draft their own policies and rules and to communicate to other teams for support.

Team Leader

A team cannot be called as the efficient team, until and unless the lead in in the hand of someone who have all the qualities of an efficient leader. To further describe the leadership, a concept of charismatic leadership was introduced. A charismatic leader have the trait of an extremely dynamic leader, who have the ability to rise up again after a crisis, narcissist traits and consider as saviour by his/her followers. A study conducted upon 315 employees in Turkey (Ekmekcioglu, Aydintan and Celebi, 2018), which results into the impact of charismatic leadership. The sensitivity towards environment and member’s had a significant positive effect on coordinated teamwork and charismatic leadership. While personal risk and unconventional behaviour do not have any significant effect on charismatic leadership. Some of the points that a team leader must carry in his/her mind are:

• Bonding people into cooperative groups.

• Handling conflicts within the group to ensure smooth functioning of the team.

• Coordinating activities that requires human intervention and stepping beyond authority or controlling to handle situation.

• Appreciating the hard work of the employees. Leader should be encouraging.
• Setup a feedback system so that even the team leader may be checked time to time.

Conflicts and Challenges

Apart from an ideal team leader and team members, there arouse situation of conflicts. Where there are humans, there will be conflicts. In organization these conflicts may result into profit or loss. But, with and effective management these conflicts can be avoided. A team of effective managements creatively uses this conflicts to turn it into profitable outcome. Conflicts are majorly divided into three parts:

1) Personality conflicts, based on personal opinion, interest, coping capability etc.

2) Intergroup conflicts, inconsistent goal, status difference etc.

3) Multicultural conflicts, based on dealing with cross cultural people, how to act and talk.

 A case study was conducted by Darling and Walker, (2001) to reflect on the conflict behaviour amongst employees. A manager from a particular company, who enjoyed his position, work liberty, responsibility and flexibility. But, somehow he was not very much effective while working with his one of the team member, vice president of a certain department. There was a discussion going on to implement the new training scheme for the employees, suggested by the manager, for which the vice president needs to communicate with the president, and deliver his response to the manager. But due to some conflict, the vice president was avoiding answering to the manager, as he wants to take control of the task. Now, on analysing this scenario, some experts says it is a matter of personal conflicts or lack of sensitivity and responsibility. So, it is important to identify the behavioural conflicts for avoiding the situation. The behavioural styles are further categorised as; realtor, analyser, director and socializer. Each category have their own traits and solutions.

A study was conducted by Keogh, Robinson and Parnell (2019), on nursing staff to determine the behavioural style in nurses. The behaviour was tested on four parameters; dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness. Majority of them (73%) scored highest in dominance while 27% scored in steadiness and influences. The dominance dimension includes quick decision making, great communication skills and dynamic actions. While the conscientiousness includes focus on small details to achieve perfection in output. On the other hand, the dimension of steadiness and influences include focus on positive and energetic working environment. The previous one is important for a hospital environment, as any negative outcome may result into severe loss of human life. Although the number of nurses choosing the later style to lead, was less.

It depends upon the working environment that what kind of behaviour its employees will follow. So, the management must keep that in mind. Some of the methods to handle conflicts are:

• Accommodating (friendly helper)
• Collaborating (problem solver)
• Compromising (maneuvering conciliator)
• Competitive (tough battler)
• Avoiding (impersonal complier)

The last two are when the concern for oneself is high. The best method, well balanced, is compromising.

Motivation

Team motivation is very important aspect in boosting the performance of a team. There are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors affecting performance of the team members (Ferreira, 2017). A study was conducted on 326 sales employees in Portugal, aimed to know the motivational factors whose impact is most on the employees. The intrinsic motivational factors that affect the most was ‘personal goal’ and ‘skill acquired’. The extrinsic motivational factors were ‘transparency and loyalty in interactions with bosses’ and ‘trust in company’.

Here is an example of such balanced motivation. Rachael is the team leader of training and development department in a leading firm. Under her, there are six team members, who help her in setting her training programs. The work load is equally distributed depending upon the skill and interest of the individuals. Every idea is discussed on an open platform and everyone have transparent and direct conversation with each other. Rachael is responsible for keeping harmony and corporation among the team mates. She motivates everyone time to time, by saying words of appreciation and organising recreational group activities to bring everyone closer together. By doing this, she managed to elevate the team efficiency as well as positive ambience in the team.

Conclusion on Principles Of Management

It can be concluded that to achieve the goal of setting an efficient team lead and management, one must consider all the factors involved in the working condition. The team members’ skill can be harnessed only if the management is efficient enough. There will be personality conflicts, different behavioural styles, motivational factors that differ person to person and also area of work. The leader must keep it in mind while dealing with his/her team. The organization must be respectful toward its employees. Only through these ways, the organization may work on its full potential.

Reference for Principles Of Management

Darling J. and Walker W. (2001), Effective conflict management: use of the behavioural style model, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, ISSN: 0143-7739

Ekmekcioglu, E., Aydintan, B. and Celebi, M. (2018), The effect of charismatic leadership on coordinated teamwork: a study in Turkey,

Leadership & Organization Development Journal.

Teresa Santos Ferreira (2017), Motivational factors in sales team management and their influence on individual performance, Tourism & Management Studies, 13(1), 2017 DOI: 10.18089/tms.2017.13108

Timothy J. Keogh, Jennifer C. Robinson and J. Michael Parnell (2019), Assessing Behavioural Styles among Nurse Managers: Implications for Leading Effective Teams, Hospital Topics, DOI: 10.1080/00185868.2018.1563460

Bryant, A., How to Build a Successful Team, New York Times, Available at https://www.nytimes.com/guides/business/manage-a-successful-team

Available at https://www.managementstudyguide.com/team-management.htm

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