Teams and Team Development in Project Management
A project team can be defined as an organized set of individuals, who are focused on contributing their different expertise towards achieving the common goal of a particular project (Mir and Pinnington 2014). Teamwork is highly important for bringing the success of complex projects in today’s business environment. However, teams can be highly productive once it is formed. Teams need to be developed and matured over time. This study will describe the roles of teams and team development in project management. Moreover, the study will use different theories and model for describing the roles of team and team development in project management. Furthermore, the study will also highlight the relationship between the leader, team and project from project management perspective.
Teams in project management can be defined as a group of individuals, who are assembled for performing activities towards achieving common task of the project goal. Teams can be formed with the employees from same or different functional areas, but their goals are same. According to Aga, Noorderhaven and Vallejo (2016), project team is consisted of both full time and part time employees, who are supposed to work collaboratively on producing project deliverables and moving the deliverables towards successful completion of the project. On the other hand, Bartsch, Ebers and Maurer (2013) opined that a particular group of people can be turned into an effective team, when they are quite capable of understanding the activities in the project and able to plan for the assigned activities.
A project team is usually used for a particular period of time and the team is usually disbanded after the completion of the project. Hsu et al. (2016) pointed out that project team always needs to have perfect combination of knowledge, skills and personality towards achieving collaborative tension. However, project team needs to have right control under an efficient project manager defining and assigning the team roles and monitoring the progress of the project.
Teams are becoming the prime tools for the success of any project in today’s corporate world. Efficient teams have the potential towards immediately amassing, organization, relocating and even dispersing. However, the success of a team is completely dependent upon its proper development and organization. It can be a key constraint for any project manager to develop perfect team. Unproductive team can be a major hindrance towards the success of any project. Hence, it is a quite vital fact that teams are developed and get matured over time.
Roles of Team in Project Management (Belbin Team Role Model)
According to Senaratne and Gunawardane (2015), team development fosters captivating atmosphere through encouraging co-operation, interdependence and teamwork. It also builds trust among each team members, which is quite essential at each step of a project. On the other hand, Too and Weaver (2014) opined that developing project team assists in improving the technical competencies and skills of team members towards achieving the project deliverables at decreased cost, time and improving project quality. For example, the project managers of Dell in USA are always supportive to the team members for developing cross functional team schedules. The project managers also support the teams towards enhancing their ability in using different software tools towards completing any new project.
Roles of Team in Project Management (Belbin Team Role Model)
The role of team is to integrate different project variables towards successful completion of the project. The roles of project team can best be explained through Belbin team role model. This model has classified the team roles based of different categories namely action, thinking and people. Moreover, teams formed on the basis of these roles are quite effective for achieving objective of a particular project. There are no missing qualities and overlapping roles of the team. Following are the various roles of a project team based on Belbin team role model.
Shaper defines an energetic role of team, who is highly motivated and focused towards effective completion of project. Shapers always display courage for handling the pressure and overcome the challenges and complexities of the project. For example, in Bose of USA, the role of shaper is to inspire other in the teams towards accomplishing the project task (Park and Lee 2014). Moreover, in this case, the shapers motivate others through his dynamism.
According to Joslin and Müller (2015), implementers are highly conscientious, disciplined and reliable for fulfilling the team obligations. Moreover, they work relentlessly for implementing ideas within project execution. They put the plans and ideas into executable tasks for effectively achieving the project deliverables. On the other hand, Yang, Huang and Hsu (2014) opined that implementers usually remain conservative and rigid towards accepting changes in project execution.
The role of completer and finisher is quite similar like implementer. According to Le Roy and Fernandez (2015), completer or finisher consistently focuses on the details of the project and takes initiatives for completing the project with stipulated time bound. On the other hand, Aronson (2015) opined that completer or finisher often remains anxious and worried about project execution within its specific deadline. While considering the example of Kingston Technology Company of USA, it can be seen that every team is highly concerned about completing their project task with strict deadline (Cunningham, Salomone and Wielgus 2015). Moreover, it is highly needed for the organization towards dealing with their international customers.
According to Beringer, Jonas and Kock (2013), coordinator performs the role of clarifying the project goals and delegating the project tasks among the team members. Moreover, they promote decision making for proper initiation of the project. On the other hand, Klarner et al. (2013) opined that coordinators also thrives their confidence towards fulfilling project goals and sympathize others work their motivation.
Team workers define sensitive role in the team. According to Kude et al. (2015), team workers remain accommodating, helpful and focused on creating sense of togetherness and pleasant work environment within team. Moreover, they promote cooperation among team members and use their diplomatic skills towards successful completion of projects. On the other hand, Lin et al. (2015) opined that team workers often remain indecisive in a crisis time of project. It can make the progress of the project slower. Moreover, team workers strive to nourish the potentials of the team members. For example, the team workers in SHI International of USA encourage the team members for nurturing their potentials towards successful completion of technological project.
According to Pons and Haefele (2016), resource investigators are highly extroverted and cheerful with lots of contacts both within and outside of the team. They are highly communicative and explore opportunities for the project through developing contacts with the project clients. On the other hand, Kissi, Dainty and Tuuli (2013) opined that the team member having this role is liable to seek information and support for initiating and controlling the project work.
According to Liu and Cross (2016), the role of plant is to solve complex problems in project execution through imaginative, creative and unorthodox approach. They mostly disregard the practical realities of project and remain preoccupied with the tasks for communicating them properly. On the other hand, Mok, Shen and Yang (2015) opined that plants often remain too much imaginative and it hinders their ability to solve complex problems.
According to Abyat, Iranmanesh and Rastegar (2015), monitors remain prudent, judicious and intelligent towards analyzing the details of the project deliverables. They analyze the situations of the project and get the bottom of the project. On the other hand, Zhang and He (2015) opined that monitors are the thoughtful evaluator of the project and consider all perspective of the project for its logical reasoning. For example, the evaluator of project team in Avaya Telecommunication Service always analyzes their projects in an in-depth basis. It helps them towards identifying the critical risk points of the specific project. Hence, it strategic risk management for their critical projects becomes easy.
According to Yang and Huang (2016), the role of specialist is to contribute special skills and knowledge set in the project execution for making the project innovative. On the other hand, Siakas and Siakas (2015) opined that specialists explore the opportunities towards presenting extensive knowledge. For example, in every project of SAS organization, the specialists of the project team contribute special knowledge and skill in their respective projects. It helps in integrating the software into virtually computing environment.
Figure 1: Role of Teams in Bebin Team Role Model
(Source: Liu and Cross 2016)
Teams are very common arrangement in today’s business environment for successfully completing the projects. However, teams are not developed once in a time; rather it is developed and matured over time. Different theories and models have described the development of teams over time. These models and theories also analyze the role of team development. Some of the theories and models of team development have been described below.
There are five stages in this model, which defines the ways in which teams are developed. The stages are described below along with examples of team development:
Forming
This is the initial stage in the development of any team. According to Mok, Shen and Yang (2015), forming stage represents the time, where team members start come together and get to know each other. The behavior of individual team members are driven through the desires to be accepted by the others. Moreover, the team members of the project usually feel anxiety and uncertainty regarding their tasks in the project work. On the other hand, Yang and Huang (2016) opined that in forming stage, the team members of usually avoids conflicts and controversies for creating an impression over each other.
Storming
According to Aronson (2015), storming stage is related to the understanding of project task and the general feelings of team members for each other. Conflicts and controversies are most likely to be arisen in this stage regarding roles, responsibilities, leadership and authority. On the other hand, Park and Lee (2014) opined that in storming stage, dominant team members emerge the most while less confrontational members suppress their feelings. The team leaders are especially responsible for assigning the project tasks and support the team members towards understanding their tasks properly.
Norming
In this stage, the team members receive clarity in their job roles and understand their specific needs for performing their assigned job roles. According to Joslin and Müller (2015), the project leaders in this stage are highly responsible for creating unity within team members. They identify commonality among team members for fostering cohesiveness. On the other hand, Le Roy and Fernandez (2015) opined that in norming stage, a sense of community is created among team members through acknowledging skills, knowledge and expertise of team.
This stage is marked as the high productivity stage in any team development process. The teams members actually start to work on the project deliverable. According to Aronson (2015), in performing stage, the team members remain supportive, loyal and unified towards the success of the project. The project leaders in this stage need to be highly influential and align the competencies of the team members with the project deliverables. On the other hand, Beringer, Jonas and Kock (2013) opined that project leaders also need play the role of problem solver and experimenter for keeping the actual goals of the project intact.
Adjourning
In this stage, the team is disbanded after successful completion of the project. Team members feel proud to on successful completion of the project.
While considering the example of Infor Organization in USA, it can be seen that it usually produces business specific application. Moreover, they are to make different lots of projects for their international customers. In such case, different project leaders are assigned with task of team development for successfully handling the projects (Pons and Haefele 2016). While looking into the team development process of this organization, it can be seen that the project leaders always remain highly communicative to the team members. Moreover, the team leaders assign the role and responsibilities of the team members as per their specification and expertise. It reduces chance of conflict in the storming stage. Furthermore, during the execution of the project, the leaders always maintain supportive and solve the complex issues of the projects for success performance of the team members as well as whole project.
Figure 2: Tuckman’s Theory of Team Development
(Source: Liu and Cross 2016)
Punctuated equilibrium model suggest as organization to enjoy long term equilibrium and stability on the project. This model sets the framework and developmental stages of team towards successful project management. Moreover, this model has described the team development through three phases, which are described below:
Phase One
In this phase, the team members first meet with each others. According to Zhang and He (2015), in the first half of the project, the behavioral pattern of the team members are decided. Moreover, the team members approach differently with the tasks assigned to them. However, project leaders are liable to assign the roles and responsibilities of the team members as per their expertise and specialization. The leaders set an effective plan for initiating the project and communicate the ultimate goals of the project to the team members. On the other hand, Aronson (2015) opined that the team members demonstrate little progress over the project, as they are unable to perceive the use of information available to them.
Transition Point
Transition occurs at the end of the first phase and happens exactly when the team has used up half of the time allotted to them. In this phase, the team members actually starts know about the project projects and get ready to work on the project. According to Beringer, Jonas and Kock (2013), the team members face major changes in this phase. Teams often experience shifts in their work approach. Moreover, this approach assists the team members towards learning what they have done and making changes on the current work approach for successful project execution. On the other hand, Too and Weaver (2014) opined that transition point is extremely critical for team members, as it provides the opportunity to alter the working process towards successful project completion.
Phase Two
It is the second phase of inertia in the team. In this phase actual execution of the project is occurred as per the changed plan of the transition phase. The project leader is to act as an effective project controller for avoiding the deviation in the project goal. In this phase, the team members make actual efforts towards achieving the project goals and after the completion of project the team is disbanded.
While taking the example of Vizio, it can be seen that the organization makes different projects for producing consumer electronics. In case of the project management, the team member initially faces huge issues regarding the requisites of the project and the associated project deliverables (Joslin and Müller 2015). However, the project leaders of the organization plan the project activities effective and assign clear role and necessities to the team members. Due to the changes in consumer demands, the teams are to face frequent changes in their work approach. However, the support and association of the project leader assists the team members to successful embrace the changes for achieving project goals.
Figure 3: Punctuated Equilibrium Model
(Source: Liu and Cross 2016)
According to Beringer, Jonas and Kock (2013), a project is only effective when the leader follows “D-leadership” style of development, which indicates decentralized and distributed style of operation. The team becomes more flexible and less formal, due to which there is less impact of rules, which finally helps in fostering the project completion. However, Kude et al. (2015) argued that relational leadership is the most appropriate style as managers or team leaders guide the team members to illustrate a pattern of interrelation among them, which is quite reciprocal at definite times. Each member contributes ideas with others and finally helps in fostering the project deliverables. Therefore, from the above views of the authors, it can be said that a project can be led through both flexibility and guidance through rules, but definitely there must be a sense of appreciating pattern that will be accepted by all stakeholders. It can be also be said that a project is an outcome of teamwork where all the members must be holistic, reciprocal and establish cognitive relationship so that goals and knowledge can be shared.
While analyzing about the relationship of stakeholders with a project, it must be said that input-feedback-output is the only process that helps in quantifying the project deliverables. Especially when the work breakdown structure is considered it is prominent that critical path method is the most suitable where interrelationship among the team members and team leader is extremely vital (Pons and Haefele 2016). As per Liu and Cross (2016), situational contingency is the leadership approach that tends to develop good relationship with team members for completion of project deliverables. On the other hand, Zhang and He (2015) contradicted that situational contingency approach is the ability of team leader to accomplish task by oneself, which is often referred to as task-oriented. However, such an approach cannot be considered as effective as there is less relationship and coordination with team members. Therefore, it can be said that for successful project completion, there must be concrete relationship between the varying stakeholders.
Conclusion
While concluding the study, it can be said that project team is consisted of team members, who are having different functions and expertise, but they are assigned with activities for the same project. A project team is formed for defined period of time and after completion of the project, the team are disbanded. Team is highly important for bringing success of any project, as it fosters high level of group work and cooperation among the team members. It can easily lead to the success of any project. Moreover, the role of team can best be explained through the nine roles defined in Belbin team role model. However, team is developed and matured over time and it is quite complex job of project leaders. Most important theory of team development is Tuckman’s five stage theory. As per this theory, an effective team is developed through the five stages namely forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. On the other hand, Punctuated Equilibrium Model explains the role of team development through three phases namely Phase one, Transition and Phase two. However, the project leaders are to play important role in maintaining the effectiveness of the team and getting the success of the project.
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