Roles of Groups and Teams in a Workplace
Discuss about the Organization Performance and Group Maintenance.
According to Ward (2016), groups and work teams are very essential in ensuring that the goals of organizations are achieved and performance monitored and maintained. Ozcan (2014) defines a group as the collection of people in an organization who work hand in hand to ensure that the objectives of the firm they are working on are met. Groups have many different positive roles in a business organization that ensure that the firm achieves its goals and purposes (Kouzes, 2014). When members of an enterprise work together in a group or as a team, the taken to complete the task will reduce and the firm will get quality work in a short time. However, without managers having knowledge on how to run or manage the groups in the business, the functions of the group will be not effective (Mone & London, 2018). The performance of the groups must be measured and monitored all the time to ensure quality work in the firms (Mackenzie, Golembiewski, & Rahim, 2018). The essay herein discusses the roles of groups and teams in a firm and further outlines the recommendations that explain the strategies that can be used by managers to monitor or manage the performance of groups and teams. The essay also discusses the how to formulate and apply appropriate managerial strategies which can enhance the performance of the organization and its employees.
Groups and teams in a workplace have become very important to businesses in the world today. A good selected team of workers or group of employees can make the production of a firm increase to the highest level (Schön, 2017). When selecting the team, a manager should look at factors like the ability of the members to work, their skills, and knowledge. The following reasons are the roles of the groups in a work place. First, adaptability, the world is changing very fast today because of the drastic change in technology, hence, the organizations are also required to change with technology so that they can match their competitors in the market. The role of a group in this kind of scenario is to help the organization manage its transformations while new inventions and innovations are introduced (Schultz & Schultz, 2015). Second, group work improves the effectiveness of firms in so many ways including the quantity of production (Mone & London, 2018). The effectiveness can be seen in a group by monitoring how the members of the group communicate with customers, stakeholders and within themselves. The mentioned functions may be performed excellently by a group of people who put their heads together and think (Chen, Zhu & Zhou (2015).
How to Manage the Performance of Work Groups and Teams
Single workers in the organization or poor choice of groups can led to organization not meeting their objectives and poor performance. The third role is sharing of knowledge. According to research done by Chen, Zhu and Zhou (2015), if the members of an organization come together and work as a group in pursuit of completing a certain task in the firm, the goals of the enterprise will be met in a successful manner. The project will be successful and the quality of the production will be high because many people have come together and have shared knowledge on how a certain thing can be done in a certain way (Mone & London, 2018). When the different types of strategies, skills, the past work experience and education level of every member in an organization is brought together, the results of their work will be fantastic (Schön, 2017). Therefore, groups increase knowledge sharing and hence, improve learning and experience. The fourth role is improving the time taken to perform a certain task in an organization. When people work in a group or team, they are expected to come up with their results faster that in a situation where one man is working alone. The role of groups is to fasten the production time. Lastly, groups should ensure that every member in it have common purpose (Mone & London, 2018).
Groups are good and important for firms, but if they are not managed well, the can bring loss to the companies (Posavac, 2015). Therefore, managers should have good strategies on how they can manage the performance of the groups in their firms so that the teams may be effective. The strategies in managing performance of groups or teams include one, planning and setting require expectations; all the activities of a group should be planned and expected results set (Mone & London, 2018). Effective managers in any organization should have plans for their employees in the groups to avoid idealness in the organization. For managers to manage and maintain the performance of the groups in their firms, they should come up with work plan which explain the role of every group and role of every person in that specific group to improve the time taken to finish the job (Mackenzie, Golembiewski, & Rahim, 2018). Managers should also provide the groups with goals they are supposed to reach. The second strategy is monitoring the performance regularly (Mone & London, 2018). A manager should monitor the work of group members on regular basis to see the progress of the project and ensure that everything is on course (Chen, Zhu & Zhou 2015).
Effective Practices of an Organization
The manager should also at some point rate the performance of very worker in a group to be able to identify the lazy ones the ones that work very hard. Rating the performance ensure that every person in the team or the group is contributing to the success of the firm (Goleman, 2017). The mangers should also create a capacity that measures the performance of employees in the firm. The manager of a company should also develop the performance of his or her employees. He or she can achieve that by organizing training programs for their workers. The manager can also give time for employees to go for further studies (Mackenzie, Golembiewski, & Rahim, 2018). Training and having the further studies will increase the knowledge of the workers in a group hence, increasing their performance for the organization. The last strategy is acknowledging, rewarding, and appreciating good performance in the organization. When the employees have performed very fine, a manager should organize an event to reward and appreciate them (Posavac, 2015). The act of rewarding and appreciating will motivate the other employees to also work had to earn the rewards. The rewards may be in form of money, vacation treat, promotion and medal.
For an organization to thrive to the next level, manager should apply effective practices that ensure that the production of the firm is profitable (Bolden, 2016). The effective practices that can make organization succeed include one, engaging the workers in every activity in the firm. Employees who are side-lined in the firm do not care about haw the organization performs because they do not feel as part of the organization. The type of workers who do not bother with the performance of the firm jut care about their salaries, therefore, managers should engage their employees to the activities by being loyal, trusting, and honest with them so that they can connect with the firm as if it is their own business (Mackenzie, Golembiewski, & Rahim, 2018). Second, managers should be vulnerable in that they should be able to build a relationship with their workers (Parmenter, 2015). Managers should not be like strangers in the eyes of the employees, they should be friendly. Being vulnerable is one of the ways of engaging with the employees in the firm. When a manager is friendly, a junior staff can have courage to come and share his or her new idea which might help the company grow with the manager.
Third, managers should stay committed to their roles of managing the groups and teams to ensure effectiveness in the company. Lack of commitment in an organization will lead to employees avoiding conflicts which will in turn lead to poor decision making and decrease the productivity of the firm. Therefore, when there is commitment in a firm, both the manager and employees will be ready to welcome conflicts because through these conflicts, the good ideas come. The managers should also ask for clarification where they do not understand (Goleman, 2017). Most managers start working for a firm yet they do not understand the goals of the firm and in the long run the find themselves in the failing end. So the managers should always come forward and ask the owner of the firm what the goals of the particular firm mean. If the managers do not ask, the firm will lack proper goals, direction and purpose of existing. Managers should also work hard to create and improve cultural cohesiveness in the firm for effective practices (Mackenzie, Golembiewski, & Rahim, 2018). The manager should ensure that all the employees in the firm have the shared values. Lastly, the manager should have good communication channels with the employees by having the suggestion boxes and holding regular meetings with the workers.
Leaders must develop the managerial strategies which they can use to ensure that the performance of the organization is at its highest level and that the firm is making profits and competing favourably with its competitors out there (Mackenzie, Golembiewski, & Rahim, 2018). The managerial strategies include one, the managers should define the vision of the firm clearly and communicate it to the employees correctly (Folger, Poole & Stutman, 2017). The vision of the company is the one thing that defines where the future of the firm. If the vision of the company is not set clear, the employees will be working in the dark. When the organization is lacking a well stipulated vision, employees can work tirelessly, but they will be not able to complete and reach the goals for the firm. Therefore, leaders should define and communicate the vision of the firm very competently to the workers (Beare, Caldwell & Millikan, 2018).
Second, the managers should encourage recognition in the firm. Workers in the firm sometimes love if their efforts are appreciated in any way the manager has chosen to appreciate them (Kelly, & Rivenbark, 2014). According to research done by McDonald and Wilson (2016) almost 60% of workers in the workplace love appreciation as part of motivation for them to work harder. The third managerial strategy that can enhance performance in a workplace is speaking from the heart and being honest to the workers. A manager should always speak the truth in the presence of the employees so that they can trust him or her in return and be loyal to him or her (Mackenzie, Golembiewski, & Rahim, 2018). An employer who is loyal and honest is easy to manage and will deliver quality services as asked by the manager. A manager should encourage empowerment among the employees. When the employees feel empowered, they will connect with the firm and ensure that they perform to their level best (Mackenzie, Golembiewski, & Rahim, 2018).
Conclusion
Groups are very vital to every organization as the play role of ensuring that there is knowledge sharing, faster working, good decision making and accepting conflicts in an organization. If the groups are not managed well, they can be catastrophic to the business or the company as discussed in the essay. Mangers should learn on how to motivate their employees whenever they perform well. Another way of managing groups in initiating the best communication between the manager and the employees through vacations at the organization staff, having meetings and including them in decision making processes. The mangers should learn the effective practices that can ensure that the organizations have performed very well in the market. The practices are staying committed, seeking clarifications, and engaging employees in the firm’s functions. The essay herein has looked at what the managers can do to enhance performance and maintain groups.
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