Can Knowledge-Intensive Teamwork Be Managed?

Discussion

Practical or constructive teamwork primarily serves a crucial role in the implementation and accomplishment of common objectives in an improved manner in team projects. In contemporary era, teamwork has been considered as an effective approach for the accomplishment of the goals as well as objectives in a highly constructive and successful manner (Chiu, Owens and Tesluk 2016). Proper delegation of responsibility and the advancement of correct strategies and approaches for the completion of any goal are identified as the key objective of a team (Goetsch and Davis 2014). In a context a reflective essay has been essentially developed that intense to signify my experience while working in a team of six members for a development of a presentation.

The group which was formed for the accomplishment of the presentation comprised of 6 members who belong from diverse cultural backgrounds and thus I have observed a greater degree of multiplicity among the members in my group. Though being one of the vital team members, I demonstrated utmost openness and consideration but have evaluated that such range of diversity lead to an extent of variations in ethical values related to the work which was being proposed along with effective forms of communication, sense of liability and assigned roles. However at the initial stage of the presentation, certain critical intricacies and challenges encountered by our team in regards to the inefficacy in the process of communication and diversity among the team members. Regardless to the reactions of few team members of our team in relation to the form of diversity which existed within the team performance, I developed an assertive perception towards the diversity as individuals from varied intellectual backgrounds tends to provide varied forms of perspectives which can further contribute in enhancing the competence level of the task which is being performed and thus time and again results to the successful completion.

However forms of diversity in a team has been identified to be critical in the proper communication among team members which eventually exhibit a propensity to impact the performance of all the individual team members (Jiang et al. 2016). However in order to circumvent these areas of concern within a team, it is essential important for all the individual members of the team to develop a sense of importance and value among themselves while performing as a vital part of the team (Chiu, Owens and Tesluk 2016). At this juncture I would like to shed light on certain theoretical aspects which would have served a significant role in successful teamwork. By delving into the theoretical understanding of Tuckman’s stages of group development I have attained adequate knowledge about effective team or group building. Tuckman’s Model of Team Building has been essentially significant as it distinguishes the areas whereby teams or groups do not have the tendency to commence as a fully formed association (Chuang, Jackson and Jiang 2016). However, Tuckman proposed that any team or group while aiming for a particular purpose must develop through distinctively definite stages from their creation as groups of individuals to the highly unified and consistent goal focused teams.

Reflection on Leadership

Raes et al. (2015)observed that any association fundamentally evolves into successful teams through four common stages whereby and orientation testing phase which primarily results to period signified by the extent of negotiation which then gets resolved resulting to a socially cohesive phase. Goetsch and Davis (2014) reveal that communication for the required to be highly effective among all members of the group, digression to this approach might lead to an unconstructive objective and unaccomplished team goal. Thus Tuckman’s third stage of team building theory signifies that team members aim to focus on progressing everyone to the same direction (Jiang et al. 2016). However in such a stage effective communication along with constructive opinions will facilitate the team members to attain such a strategy and further help the team members to sustain the team building efforts by effectively organising social events with the team and further ensuring to provide a certain value and recognition to all the team members (Chiu, Owens and Tesluk 2016). As there was a high deficit of communication among all the group members in my group, due to the absence of two members during the process of an important decision-making a wide gap between the team members have been observed. In such a scenario Tuckman’s Stage of Norming must be taken into consideration in order to advance towards the performing stage where areas related to interpersonal or structural issues can be negotiated among members which can align the task performance of other team associates (Goetsch and Davis 2014).

From my experience with this team I have obtained the sense of value of teamwork and the level of accomplishment it invites towards excellence of task completion along with successful attainment of objectives. My team performance has not only helped me to develop the understanding of coordination and collaboration but also enhanced my strengths and helped me to consider other team members’ perspectives and opinions to have a better place within the prospective teams I will be associated with in the future.

The development of leadership abilities is recognised as highly important factor as it facilitates individuals to acquire both personal as well as professional achievements. It has further been observed that individuals at certain times encounter intricacies with the development of their leadership abilities (Hoch and Kozlowski 2014). As a result, it is immensely crucial for individuals to address effective leadership techniques which can further support individuals in the arena of their personal and professional advancement (Boies, Fiset and Gill 2015). Having attained knowledge from various theoretical frameworks, I have developed a reflective analysis of my understanding in regards to leadership skills.

In the globalised era, the role of leaders has been regarded as extensively important for the effectual performance of various organisations. It has been observed that the effective relevance of leadership competence fundamentally relies on the strategies and approaches employed by leaders towards their team members and subordinates (Dong et al. 2017). However among the diverse range of strategies which are existent in the contemporary business domain, I believe that the form of transformational leadership is considered to be one of the most prominent and widely recognised approaches by various specialists. While performing as a team leader for a specific project I have observed that the progress of assertive interpersonal associations with the members, I had to employ full potential of my leadership abilities in order to attain greater degree of confidence and value from team associates and develop a sense of accountability among their for their own performance. Through the comprehensive exploration of leadership theoretical conceptualizations I have obtained the understanding that fundamental determinant of transformational approach tends to make any organisation highly successful by signifying the associates of the leader. Thus through the approaches of transformational leadership techniques, my leadership ideas will be enabled to develop assertive associations with my team members and further help me to enhance the organisational culture to a greater extent.

Furthermore Boies, Fiset and Gill (2015) observed that the value of positive interpersonal relations existing between a contemporary leader and his associates fail to exhibit any tendency to disregard as the role of human has elevated consistently in the modern business domain and in recent times human resource practices typically comprise significant asset of any organisation. Performing a role of a leader is a highly critical task as along with the increasing level of accountability of the team members their level of efficacy and productivity tend to develop as well and for the generates a positive effect on the development as well as performance of the team (Saeed et al. 2014). This has led me to believe that the role of a transformational leader can be implemented efficiently to enhance the association of the leader within subordinates and accomplish the set target. Furthermore it is important for a leader to sustain distance with the subordinates to maintain amicable relationship and developing a perception of superiority within the team (Boies, Fiset and Gill 2015).

However regardless to all my efforts to employ transformational leadership techniques with my team, I have encountered certain level of intricacies while using this form of leadership technique. However I must agree to the fact that I have at some point of time being inclined towards authoritarian leadership techniques and as a result need to contest with my internal inclinations to develop improved and more effective leadership abilities. However considering the complexities and challenges I have faced while leading a team I have developed a strategy in order to mitigate any forms of complexities in my prospective leadership techniques. It has been observed that proper implementation of conflict management strategies facilitate leaders to successfully circumvent conflicting situations in their professional relations (Saeed et al. 2014). Furthermore eradicating authoritarian assets from the leadership techniques would enhance the ability of a leader and advanced him towards greater level of success (Leffel, Hallam and Darling 2016).

Conclusion

However I have observed that regardless to a high deficit of formal infrastructure in order to foster leaders in the customary sense, several learners have been forging their individual approaches of making any form of impact within a team or an organisation. This can be perceived as a contemporary form of leadership technique which modern individuals are applying to gain a competitive advantages position in the organisation. Thus leadership can be identified as a phenomenal initiative that has been underlining the dreams of million learners and opening avenues and providing opportunities for several prospective entrepreneurs to become successful leaders.

References

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Raes, E., Kyndt, E., Decuyper, S., Van den Bossche, P. and Dochy, F., 2015. An exploratory study of group development and team learning. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 26(1), pp.5-30.

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