Discussion
Formulate a critical and constructive response to this manager in the form of a carefully considered e-mail on one of the following topics (incorporating evidence-based argument to support your views and to advise what it all means):
flexibility and the psychological contract;
team-working;
ethics and social responsibility;
managing organisational change;
managing a diverse workforce.
To the senior manager,
Of XYZ organization
Date: 1/4/2015
Subject: Importance of team working
Respected Sir/ Ma’am,
Hope you are doing well. I had fun meeting you and designing together on Wednesday. Well, I am glad that you have chosen me to understand the concept of team working. I hope that the concepts which I am going to provide will prove to be beneficial and helpful. Firstly, I would like to mention why leading and managing people is important. Managing is associated with leading and a significant part of managing the employees includes guiding them to give their best performances. Leading and managing people are often identified with team work as effectively leading a team can yield better outcomes.
Well an effective team work is both immensely simple and at the same time, difficult. This is the core reason why most of the team members struggle to get the interaction, task execution and relationships right. The overall success is dependent on these specific factors. Have you ever wondered why some of the work groups perform so well and some remain dysfunctional? Each of the team members bring along their baggage, for ill and for good.
Given the complication of team formation, which includes consciously or unconsciously, developing a team interaction procedure can end up having an efficient and effective functioning team. If the teams are provided with appropriate nurture and support, they can succeed to a huge extent. Therefore, a number of diverse people work with different work and life experiences along with varying success degrees, in order to cover a new mission.
Successful team works contributes a lot to the betterment of the organization. Team work plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of a business and it is highly necessary that all the team members are working together and giving their best under any circumstance. Team work means that all the individuals are trying to cooperate, by utilizing their skills and abilities and also providing a constructive feedback despite of any personal conflicts between them. According to Katzenbach and Smith (2015), the team members must have a common mission, which is agreed upon. The team clarity is reinforced at times, when an organization has crystal clear expectations from the particular team’s goals, work, outcomes and accountability. Thetimes.co.uk, (2017) stated that a team creates a particular working environment where the team members are able to take up reasonable risks in advocating positions, taking actions and communicating with other members.
The team members must be able to trust each other. However, Adams (2014) opined that ineffective communication among the team members can lead to the downfall of any organization. The organizational leader needs to take care that all the employees feel free to share their views and opinions among themselves, without any fear. Team members are being regarded as unique people who contribute a lot to the organization with their irreplaceable points of view, opinions, knowledge and experiences. In fact, according to Li and Lam (2013), the purpose of team formation is to take the full advantage of their differences. After all, the more a team can bring out several points, the better it can be supported and presented with facts as well as evidences. In addition to this, Daft (2012) stated that innovation, creativity as well as different points of view are always encouraged and expected.
Advantages of Team Working
Team members at times, comment that “we have already done it in this way”, “what a dumb concept; this will not work, anyway”. Such mindsets need to be changed. Organizational leaders should not encourage or support such statements. In order to improve or motivate team spirit, organizational leaders can create something exciting and innovative. However, a team must be able to constantly examine themselves and continuously improve their practices, processes as well as interactions with other team members. This would help in bringing in diversity among the organizational policies and procedures. Moreover, a team must hold meetings in order to assess its members’ competencies and in-competencies. The organizational leaders should support the team members to work better and give their best to the organization. If the team gets adequate support and commitment from the organizational leaders, the members will have an interest to work for the organization in order to communicate and accomplish the team’s success and progress.
As far as Nytimes.com (2017) is concerned, team members make higher quality decisions together and adequate support from the leaders helps them yield better outcomes. If a team gets all the factors correct, they can achieve success to a huge extent. Therefore, after knowing the ingredients of success, one can incorporate those factors in order to achieve greatness. However, with every advantage there is a probable disadvantage, which needs to be taken under consideration. I would suggest that every organization needs to keep a track of the advantages as well as the disadvantages of team working. Many a times, organizations fail to understand the in-competencies of team work. This needs to be changed. The disadvantages of team work are discussed in this segment of the mail.
As per Alexander’s (2013) opinion, it is true that team work provides the employees with a huge variety of advantages; however, there are some potential pitfalls, which can mar the progress of the organization. The organization needs to be aware of such drawbacks, while implementing a team working spirit among the members of the workplace. The first and foremost thing is the unequal participation of the team members. There is a tendency of the team members to sit back and rest, while others do the entire work. This may create resentment within the workplace and hamper the progress. In such cases, the business owners recognize the efforts of the overall team and not the team leaders who were responsible for the completion of the task. It results in conflicts among the team members, which can affect the workplace morale. Another important thing, as stated by Belbin (2012), some of the individuals tend to work alone and cannot function well as the part of a team. These individuals can be excellent workers, but when it comes to team work, they are considered as “loners”. As a result, they may face difficulties in fitting into the culture and environment of the workplace, resulting in utmost dissatisfaction.
According to Coghlan and Brannick (2014), team works can also limit the creativity of the thought processes. At times, employees are so focused on team works, that they cannot impose their creative ideas or opinions. They try to fit into the team concept. This may result into the lack of innovative thought processes. As a consequence, it stops the company from moving forward as well as results into stagnation. Moreover, a team can take longer time to produce the desired results. Block (2016) opined that a team generally goes through a huge process, which includes selection of the team members, socialization and organization on the way to complete the task in hand. Formation of a team may also result into added expenses because they tie up huge resources like manpower, equipments and money. In addition to this, Nancarrow et al. (2013) mentioned that at times, when a group of people is selected for achieving a common target, some internal conflicts is likely to occur.
Disadvantages of Team Working
This mainly happens due to the differences in the opinions and views of the team members. Contrasting thought processes and personal styles may clash and few members may have problems in accepting those ideas which differ from theirs. Ego, peer pressure and many other factors comes into play. As a result, it may hamper the progress of the team work. Cummings and Worley (2014) stated that in team work, there is a chance of indulging into the blame game when the things go in a wrong direction. It happens mainly when crisis occurs in a team work and when it gets difficult to identify the in-competencies of the team members. Team members often resort to blame games when they believe that the work has been distributed unequally and unfairly. Such problems can even cause issues among the best of friends. Apart than these factors, DuBrin (2015) opined that on working in a team, it is immensely necessary for each and every team member to equally participate and have a team spirit among them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to suggest that on forming a team, the organizational leaders need to understand the competencies and in-competencies of each and every team member. It is important to gain an understanding of the behaviors and attitudes of the members, as it may lead to severe consequences later. In addition to this, employees must be given proper trainings on team working, so that it yields better outcomes. It is evident that transformational leaders do not let anything hold their teams back and lead to their success. Different teams have some basic needs and expectations, which needs to be acknowledged as well as fulfilled.
It may even occur that one of the team members outshines the rest. This can create a communication gap among the members of the team, which leads to severe consequences. Working in such dysfunctional groups can often become the source of enormous stress. No team will be succeeding if their basic requirements are not met. Therefore, it can be recommended that organizational leaders should implement some strategies and plans. In order to have a successful team in the organization, one should follow these strategies and incorporate those in the work environment. So come, let us all work together and make our organization a better place to work in.
Best regards,
Rachel Green
References
Adams, S., 2014. The 10 skills employers most want in 2015 graduates. LEADERSHIP, 11, pp.43AM-84.
Alexander, K. ed., 2013. Facilities management: theory and practice. Routledge.
Belbin, R.M., 2012. Team roles at work. Routledge.
Block, P., 2016. The empowered manager: Positive political skills at work. John Wiley & Sons.
Coghlan, D. and Brannick, T., 2014. Doing action research in your own organization. Sage.
Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014. Organization development and change. Cengage learning.
Daft, R., 2012. Organization theory and design. Nelson Education.
DuBrin, A.J., 2015. Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education.
Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K., 2015. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.
Li, M.P. and Lam, B.H., 2013. Cooperative learning. The Active Classroom, The Hong Kong Institude of Education.
Nancarrow, S.A., Booth, A., Ariss, S., Smith, T., Enderby, P. and Roots, A., 2013. Ten principles of good interdisciplinary team work. Human resources for Health, 11(1), p.19.
Nytimes.com (2017). How to Build a Successful Team. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/guides/business/manage-a-successful-team [Accessed 29 Dec. 2017].
Thetimes.co.uk, D. (2017). Teamwork is key to triumph. [online] Thetimes.co.uk. Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/teamwork-is-key-to-triumph-70w3x5h38p3 [Accessed 29 Dec. 2017]
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
