Teams and Team work
- Teams can be defined as a distinguishable set comprising oftwo or even more individuals who interact adaptively, interdependently, and dynamically.
- Teams work towards a common, valued mission, objective, orgoal.
- The effectiveness of teams is highly based on their ability toperform both teamwork and task work successfully.
- Task work comprises the performance or execution of specifictasks which are needed to be completed by the team members in order to attain the team goals (Certo, 2018).
- The tasks are known to represent any work related activitieswhich teams or individuals engage in as being an “essential function” of their respective organizational roles.
- Team work is known to focus on the “shared behaviors”e.g. what is done by the team members, how they believe or feel (attitudes), what they know or think (cognitions) and any other relevant aspects which are required in order to accomplish such tasks.
- Both teamwork and task work are important aspects andare critical to the success of team performance since they facilitate each other.
- This is attributed to the fact that even though task work isknown to be a major focus for the teams as they work towards the achievement of the goals, it is actually teamwork that helps in making sure that the task work is effectively performed
- The importance of teams in contemporary organizationscan never be underscored since they play a crucial role in the success of any firm across the world.
- When faced with different situations that involve teamwork, it is prudent for Human Resource leaders in organizations to consider 9 critical considerations (Luthans & Doh, 2018).
- There are numerous factors that need to be consideredwhen not only selecting but also when developing as well as maintaining teams.
- The practical heuristic design is thus aimed at helpingpeople in practice to easily diagnose any team based problems through provision of clear focus on the essential aspects associated with team work.
- The effectiveness of teams is highly depended on theirability of operating through the “independent actions” of people who are working towards the achievement of a common goal.
- There are different definitions of teamwork and the numerous conditions that surround its failure or success (Bowers et al, 2018).
- The nine critical considerations serve as being a “guidingheuristic” through which people, organizations, people, or even other collaborating entities are capable of determining what is required especially when they are faced with different situations that call for teamwork.
- The article is thus aimed at provision of practical attemptsaimed at consolidation of the key findings emanating from a “vast literature” in order to provide important guidelines to the relevant stakeholders.
- In the issue of teamwork, it is always important to note that eventhough there can exist an “extensive knowledge” of any tasks at hand, teams are bound to terribly fail if their members are not in position of ensuring that there is successful sharing of knowledge, coordination of behaviours, and even enhancement of trust among themselves (Wilson & Fiona, 2018).
- This better explains why people having extensive task relevantknowledge and expertise may become highly vulnerable towards “poor team work outcomes” in circumstances where there is team work inadequacy.
- This therefore implies that teamwork is indeed a dynamic, episodic,and adaptive process that is known to encompass the feelings, behavior, and the thoughts among the given team members as they interact with each other towards the achievement of a common goal.
- Therefore, the effectiveness of team performance is highly based onteam work since it defines the manner in which both tasks as well as the goals are achieved or accomplished in a “team context”.
- There are numerous reviews that are aimed at highlightingthe different processes and conditions that can highly impact team work and some of them include but are not limited to:
- This was aimed at examining the impacts of “socialnetwork structures” on the effectiveness of teams.
- This was done through the illustration that densernetworks as well as those having centralized leaders were actually more effective.
- This was aimed at examining the role of “team cohesion”especially in relation to the performance. It was found out that the “relationship” differed depending in how performance and cohesion were operationalized (Cascio, 2018).
- This presented a comprehensive review of the major teamwork as well as team development theories and even the needs of future “team research”.
- This was known to have examined the “moderating effect” ofthe team setting and team type on the relationship that existed between both performance and cohesion through provision of the relevant support for both of them.
- The above reviews and many others gave significantcontributions to literature on teamwork.
- However, it is prudent for all and sundry to note that eventhough the above reviews presented essential points in regard to the numerous factors which affect team work, they did not present “practitioner friendly insights” about what actually mattered to the team work.
- This implies that at most times some of the attempts thatare aimed at both defining and consolidating the team work research leads to more questions as opposed to answers and thus do not serve as being a guide to the collaborators and organizations in addressing any of the work challenges that prevail in the actual world.
- Factors affecting team work should never be considered inisolation but rather they ought to be considered holistically when making attempts aimed at establishing the effectiveness of the teamwork practices.
- It is important for organizations, teams, and individuals toboth develop as well as sustain effectiveness in team work.
- Nine C words are thus used in encompassing team workand these are Cognition, Conflict, Coaching, Communication, Culture, Composition, Context, Cooperation, and Coordination.
- These are indeed the heuristics of the “criticalconsiderations” associated with team work.
- It is important to note that the six main emergentprocesses and states are Cooperation, Conflict, Coordination, Communication, Coaching, and Cognition while the influencing conditions are Composition, Culture, and Context.
- It is important to note that the influencing conditions are tasked with the responsibility of describing a wide range of factors that affect the manner in which teams operate and also how variability in such factors can directly and indirectly influence the outcomes of teams (Hayes, 2018).
- The considerations have a significant empirical andtheoretical importance through varying contexts and also across tasks.
- Core processes as well as the emergent states that aredescribed in the article as being the critical considerations implied to the primary behaviours, cognitions, and attitudes which occur or happen within a team and which are also known to encompass the major aspects of teamwork.
- These comprise of the motivations and attitudes within a team for the engagement in team work which include among others cooperation, behavioral interactions among the members such as coordination, coaching, communication, and conflict as well as the shared knowledge which emanates from the interactions as a result of cognition.
- It is important to note that cooperation is indeed an overarching“teamwork consideration” which captures the “motivational drivers” which are relevant for the achievement of teamwork (Gagné, 2018). In essence, cooperation involves numerous aspects such as the feelings, beliefs, and attitudes of the team which ultimately drive people’s behavioral actions.
- There are indeed numerous team level indicators associated withcooperation which are critical to the effectiveness of teams.
- It was ascertained that there was a close relationship that existedbetween the cooperative mechanisms as well as the desires “team outcomes”.
- It was proved that teams in which the members were known tocollectively believe that they had the capability of attaining the goals successfully tended to not only exert more effort but they also took more strategic risks and had better performance as well as satisfaction (Northouse, 2018).
- The establishment of trust in the teams is another important aspectthat is associated with cooperation. Trust contributes significantly to the success of teams and more so in the antecedents which result in the formation of teams.
References
Bowers, C.A., Oser, R.L., Salas, E. and Cannon-Bowers, J.A., 2018. 12 Team Performance in Automated Systems. Automation and human performance: Theory and applications, p.145.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Certo, S.C., 2018. Supervision: Concepts and skill-building. McGraw-Hill Education.
Gagné, M., 2018. From strategy to action: transforming organizational goals into organizational behavior. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20 (S1).
Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management. Luthans, F. and Doh, J.P., 2018. International management: Culture, strategy, and behavior. McGraw-Hill.
Northouse, P.G., 2018. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Wilson, F.M. and Fiona, M., 2018. Organizational behaviour and work:a critical introduction. Oxford University Press.
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