Teamwork in Organization Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : Management

Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Performance

Contents

Introduction.

Reasons: why some team performs on high-level and others cannot

2.1. Different types of teams.

Self-managed teams.

Cross-Functional Teams.

Problem-solving teams.

Virtual teams.

Contract Teams.

2.2. Characteristics of an effective team..

2.3. Reasons for negative team performances.

Recommendations to the manager for promoting teamwork.

Conclusion.

References.

1. Introduction to Teamwork in Organization

Teamwork refers to the process of working in collaboration with a range of individuals for achieving a common goal. It plays an essential role in fulfilling and implementing common goals more promptly than undergone individually. Furthermore, teaming is necessary for this highly competitive business scenario due to the widespread of companies across the globe (Driskell, Salas & Driskell, 2018). Trust is the most vital element to work in a team else it leads to a conflict of interest between the members of the team. Moreover, teaming has become urgent in every organization as it helps in shared knowledge, the effectiveness of the company, faster outcomes, and innovative notions, fulfilling mutual goals, and more (Ghazinejad, Hussein& Zidane, 2018). This essay is going to discuss the reasons behind the higher performance of the team and the non-performance of the team. It also entails the characteristics of an effective team and the types of diverse teams. Furthermore, it suggests the actions to be taken by managers to promote good teamwork within the organization.

2. Reasons: Why Some Team Performs on High-Level and Others Cannot

2.1. Different Types of Teams

A team refers to a cooperative unit of more than two people who have shared goalmouths and aims. In an organization, a team is created to augment productivity by combined expertise, skills, and competencies of individuals. There are numerous types of the team in the organization that is classified based on the objectives. Certain types of teams are named as self-directed teams, informal teams, cross-functional teams, problem-solving teams, leadership teams, and virtual teams.

Self-managed teams

It is usually consisting of a group of individuals who are accountable to work together to deliver a product. In this team, there is the absence of the manager or any higher authority. The major responsibilities entail determination of work assignments, collective control over the pace of work, organization of breaks, and more. One of the benefits of this team type is that leader is himself a team member and there is a bossy role. Due to this reason, there is open communication among the team members and hence more effectiveness. Furthermore, every member gets the chance to learn from each other, and thereby it enhances the participatory role and cooperation between them. However, the main disadvantage of this type is that it is ineffective in case some members do not possess the necessary competencies to work collectively and productively (Qammach, & Hamoud, 2020).

Cross-Functional Teams

A cross-functional team refers to a team that is composed of workers who are at the identical hierarchical levels but belong to diverse work arenas. These are an effective means of enabling individuals from different fields within a company to share information, establish novel notions, and organize difficult projects. These teams bring individuals with diverse functional specialisms to better create a design or offer a good or service. The major objectives of utilizing these teams entail a certain combination of creativity, quality, and speed that originate from initial harmonization among the numerous domains. The advantages of these teams are in the form of innovative ideas, a wide range of projects at a time, greater speed of completion of activities. Further, the disadvantages are in the form of conflicts of interest due to the diversity of individuals, difficult to develop cohesion initially, challenging management (Laurent & Leicht, 2019).

Problem-solving teams

These refer to the team that brings chief managers collectively to resolve the issues related to projects by the assistance of a facilitator or a leader. Problem-solving teams are made up of 5-12 workers who belong to identical divisions and these people meet each say to discuss methods of improving quality, effectiveness, and the working environment. Further, members of the team exchange ideas and creative suggestions on how the work process and ways can be refined. Companies nowadays are depending on the problem-solving teams to rectify the corporate issues within the organization (Wiltshire, Butner & Fiore, 2018).

Virtual teams

These are composed of individuals who work in diverse physical regions and who depend extremely on teamwork tools to do the things appropriately. These offer members with improved work-life balance and facilitate business proprietors to hire superior specialists in the field irrespective of the fact that they live on different land. These teams generally utilize information and communication technology tools to enable individuals to connect easily with each other to attain a mutual goal. Further, they enable individuals to collaborate online. It can be said that owing to the augmenting competition in the market, globalization, and the advancements in the technologies, companies desire suppleness and flexibility in their offering for products and services. Virtual teams are one way to meet these desires of companies. In contemporary times, almost all the organizations ranging from manufacturing, healthcare, construction, to retail and not-for-profit companies are taking benefits from the virtual teams. Despite numerous benefits of virtual teams, there are certain challenges in the form of conflict to establish collaboration, trust, and pledge among the workers (Ford, Piccolo & Ford, 2017).

Contract Teams

These refer to the outsourced teams that are tied down by an agreement and brought in to accomplish a portion of a project. However, in these teams, the project manager has to play certain roles for its effectiveness. The project manager has to preserve continuous communication between the team members and the client. Further, he has to bear the entire responsibility for the achievement or the failure of the project. Additionally, he is responsible for compensating for the inadequacy of a team’s physical existence. The benefits of contract teams are that there is easy employment of experts, there is no need for client training, and there can be the use of the current management structure. Further, the disadvantages are that client is the sole judge of success. Besides, it is difficult to solve political and corporate issues (Aubert, Kishore & Iriyama, 2015).

2.2. Characteristics of An Effective Team

An effective team is one that is responsible for increasing the motivation of workers along with the productivity of the business. There are numerous characteristics of an effective team like shared leadership, open communication, effective decision-making, mutual trust and support, and clearly defined roles (Hanaysha, 2016). Shared leadership means that leadership is distributed among the team members instead of being held by a sole allocated team leader. This improves the effectiveness of the entire team as in case of any problem everyone shares the accountability to perform (Wang, Waldman & Zhang, 2014). Moreover, another characteristic of an effective team is open communication meaning that everything staring from discussion to feedback is performed openly and directly. Additionally, team members express their viewpoints and perceptions about the team and each other, concentrating on definite work behaviour, rather than characters. Effective teamwork promotes clear communication where all issues are managed via face-to-face communication and all members do not talk behind each one’s back (Butchibabu et al., 2016). A further characteristic is an effective in-built decision-making system that assists teams to react rapidly and successfully to all circumstances. In an effective team, every member is appreciated for the numerous fields of proficiency and the leader gets the attitudes of members to form the group’s response. Apart from these characteristics, mutual trust & support is another trait of an effective team. The members have faith in one another’s character, ability, and honesty. They are always ready to support each other in terms of complexity of tasks, or any other aspects. It is true to say that in an effective team, it is the team’s goals that are of utmost significance. Furthermore, clear direction is also a characteristic of an effective team as every member knows clearly about the goals and they put their efforts according to achieve those goalmouths. Also, they understand how they will work collectively to attain the mutual goal of the team (Yang, 2014).

2.3. Reasons for Negative Team Performances

Teamwork does not always lead to higher performance of the team however; it may result in poor performance also if not undertaken effectively. The poor performance of the team may stem from poor communication, ineffective leadership, unclear roles, lack of resources, and the presence of disruptive personalities (Sonoda, Onozuka & Hagihara, 2018). One of the reasons for the poor performance of the team is poor communication among the members. It is true that without effective communication, it is doubtful that individuals will understand the assignments they are likely to perform. This further leads to delay in the ongoing projects and hence results in workers developing poor attitudes (O'connor et al., 2016). An unclear role is another reason behind the poor performing teams. In the case of unclear roles, people have to struggle a bit more for what to do and what to do next. Due to ambiguity in their roles, they start wasting their time and putting their efforts into unproductive activities (Guchait, Lei & Tews, 2016). Furthermore, the lack of effective leadership is also a cause of negative team performance. Every team indeed requires a leader to direct members and set expectations. When there is no leader for the team, there is no high performing team due to a lack of control over the activities performed by individuals. Furthermore, in a team, there can be certain individuals who are disruptive that may negatively impact the performance of the entire team. Additionally, lack of resources is another reason for the poor performance of the team as the member may lose their morale in the absence of accurate tools, authority, and equipment to accomplish their tasks (Al Khajeh, 2018)

3. Recommendations to The Manager for Promoting Teamwork

To promote good teamwork within the organization, a manager must act in the following manner:

• Reward extraordinary performance: It is recommended that a manager must reward an individual in return to the great performance showcased by an individual. Team-based rewards can indeed nurture the relationship and teamwork, also enables team goalmouths to be openly combined with the corporate objectives and offer enticements for the entire team to improve (Sanyal & Hisam, 2018).
• Develop effective communications: The manager must put his efforts into fostering effective communication in the company so that employees can work effectively. Further, it is suggested to managers that they must build an effective culture in a company that promotes good communication and hence promote good teamwork (James, Page & Sprague, 2016).
• Share clearly defined team goals: The manager must share the defined team goals in a clear and crystal manner. This helps the members to understand the goals and sub-goals to reach success.
• Make individual progress visible to the entire team: The manager must make progress of the individual to be visible for everyone to promote effective teamwork.
• Hire effective leaders: Managers must bring effective leaders to the organization that possesses transformational leadership skills. This can be effective in engaging the workers in the teamwork (Colman, Patera & Hebbar, 2019).

4. Conclusion on Teamwork in Organization

From the above essay, it can be concluded that teamwork is the need of the hour for all the organizations to attain success in the long-run. There are diverse types of teams like virtual, contract, self-managed, cross-functional, problem-solving, and more, each having its pros and cons. It can be inferred that effective teamwork promotes clear communication where all issues are managed via face-to-face communication and all members do not talk behind each one’s back. Moreover, it concludes that the poor performance of the team may stem from poor communication, ineffective leadership, unclear roles, lack of resources, and the presence of disruptive personalities. The recommendations to managers are rewarding policies; clearly define roles and responsibilities, hiring effective leaders, and more.

References for Teamwork in Organization

Al Khajeh, E. H. (2018). Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of Human Resources Management Research, 2018, 1-10.

Aubert, B. A., Kishore, R., & Iriyama, A. (2015). Exploring and managing the “innovation through outsourcing” paradox. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 24(4), 255-269.

Butchibabu, A., Sparano-Huiban, C., Sonenberg, L., & Shah, J. (2016). Implicit coordination strategies for effective team communication. Human factors, 58(4), 595-610.

Colman, N., Patera, A., & Hebbar, K. B. (2019). Promoting teamwork for rapid response teams through simulation training. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 50(11), 523-528.

Driskell, J. E., Salas, E., & Driskell, T. (2018). Foundations of teamwork and collaboration. American Psychologist, 73(4), 334.

Ford, R. C., Piccolo, R. F., & Ford, L. R. (2017). Strategies for building effective virtual teams: Trust is key. Business Horizons, 60(1), 25-34.

Ghazinejad, M., Hussein, B. A., & Zidane, Y. J. T. (2018). Impact of trust, commitment, and openness on research project performance: A case study in a research institute. Social Sciences, 7(2), 22.

Guchait, P., Lei, P., & Tews, M. J. (2016). Making teamwork work: Team knowledge for team effectiveness. The Journal of Psychology, 150(3), 300-317.

Hanaysha, J. (2016). Examining the effects of employee empowerment, teamwork, and employee training on organizational commitment. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 229(298-306), 298-306.

James, T. A., Page, J. S., & Sprague, J. (2016). Promoting interprofessional collaboration in oncology through a teamwork skills simulation program. Journal of interprofessional care, 30(4), 539-541.

Laurent, J., & Leicht, R. M. (2019). Practices for designing cross-functional teams for integrated project delivery. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 145(3), 05019001.

O'Connor, P., O'Dea, A., Lydon, S., Offiah, G., Scott, J., Flannery, A., ... & Byrne, D. (2016). A mixed-methods study of the causes and impact of poor teamwork between junior doctors and nurses. International journal for quality in health care, 28(3), 339-345.

Qammach, N. I. J., & Hamoud, E. M. (2020). The role of the effectiveness of self-managed teams in improving the quality of services/an applied study in Ramadi municipality. journal of Economics And Administrative Sciences, 26(118), 12-31.

Sanyal, S., & Hisam, M. W. (2018). The impact of teamwork on work performance of employees: A study of faculty members at Dhofar University. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 20(3), 15-22.

Sonoda, Y., Onozuka, D., & Hagihara, A. (2018). Factors related to teamwork performance and stress of operating room nurses. Journal of nursing management, 26(1), 66-73.

Wang, D., Waldman, D. A., & Zhang, Z. (2014). A meta-analysis of shared leadership and team effectiveness. Journal of applied psychology, 99(2), 181.

Wiltshire, T. J., Butner, J. E., & Fiore, S. M. (2018). Problem‐solving phase transitions during team collaboration. Cognitive science, 42(1), 129-167.

Yang, I. (2014). What makes an effective team? The role of trust (dis) confirmation in team development. European Management Journal, 32(6), 858-869.

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