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please conclude this: Introduction In today's firms, managers must be able to develop successful teams and nurture teamwork. Teams that cooperate well and work well

please conclude this:

Introduction

In today's firms, managers must be able to develop successful teams and nurture teamwork. Teams that cooperate well and work well together can reach better levels of productivity, creativity, and innovation. Since the moment we understood that unity is strength, a vast number of professionals started to study the field of teamwork in organizations. The difficult part in this particular field, is the understanding of qualitative data. Indeed, studying how people interact between each other in a professional context has to do with social sciences. Therefore, the challenge of those conducting studies on teamwork was and still is to transform this qualitative data in quantitative data. The Harvard Business Review (HBR) has succeeded in doing so. For example, HBR found in a 2012 study that "35% of the variation in a team's performance can be accounted for simply by the number of face-to-face exchanges" (Pentland, 2012). This citation is just one of the many research conclusion examples one could find on the subject. As this field of study is inexhaustive, we decided to develop and further our research initiated in the course "Developing Management Skills" on the subject of teamwork in companies. In this final team project paper, we will assess the efficiency of team building and teamwork by developing on the aspects of developing effective teams and teamwork. The goal of this project is to provide an understanding and practical strategies for building effective teams and teamwork, which can help managers develop their organizational management skills. The angle undertook for this project is practical and actionable, focusing on developing management skills. The academic work is based on four primary themes:

  1. Understanding the basics of teamwork and how they contribute to the success of an organization.
  2. Identifying the important characteristics of effective teams, such as communication, collaboration, trust, and leadership.
  3. Developing practical strategies for building and leading effective teams, including team selection, goal setting, team building activities, and team communication.
  4. Addressing common challenges in team building, like conflict resolution, managing diversity, and managing virtual teams.

Development

Understanding the basics of teamwork and how they contribute to the success of an organization:

For an organization to succeed, teamwork is essential. It entails people cooperating and collaborating with one another to achieve a common objective. Some fundamentals of teamwork and how they help an organization succeed include the following:

Firstly, collaboration among team members can boost output. When people cooperate, they can more effectively use the sum of their abilities to accomplish a shared objective. This is especially true when team members collaborate well to complete tasks and have clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

Secondly, teamwork can raise the calibre of output. Team members can spot mistakes or problems more quickly when they work together and exchange ideas. Additionally, they can offer feedback to one another, which helps to raise the calibre of the output. Additionally, team members are more likely to identify and fix errors before they escalate into bigger issues when they collaborate.

Thirdly, working as a team can help you make better decisions. When people with various backgrounds, abilities, and perspectives collaborate, they are more likely to develop original and creative solutions. By, challenging one another's presumptions and biases, they can arrive at more thorough and considerate decisions.

Fourthly, collaboration among employees can boost job satisfaction. Team members experience more incredible support and value when they collaborate successfully. Higher levels of motivation and job satisfaction may result from this. Additionally, staff members are more likely to stick with the company and contribute to its long-term success when they feel like they are part of a team.

Finally, teamwork can contribute to a productive workplace. When people cooperate and work together effectively, they build relationships based on respect and trust. This may result in a more supportive work environment where people feel free to express their opinions, take chances, and be creative.

In general, teamwork fundamentals are crucial to an organization's success. Organizations can experience increased productivity, improved work quality, better decision-making, increased employee satisfaction, and a positive work environment when team members collaborate effectively, trust one another, respect one another's contributions, have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and are accountable for their actions.

Identifying the important characteristics of effective teams:

An effective team is one in which a group of individuals can work together to accomplish goals that have been set for them. Effectiveness does not solely rely on the team's ability to complete tasks quickly, but rather it refers to a team's capacity to consistently increase productivity over an extended period of time (Wool, 2022). There are several essential characteristics of an effective team, including mutual respect, good communication, collaboration, and leadership.

Mutual Respect within a team is fundamental for an effective team. Respect has a different meaning for each individual(5 ways to show respect at a workplace,n.d.). Overall, you may follow the formal rules of Respect, which is to treat others as you want to be treated (5 ways to show respect at a workplace,n.d.). Always be polite to one another by not interupting people when they are speaking, which goes with listening to others(10 ways to be respectful,2021). Some people believe that Respect is showing your appreciation to someone by condoning the excellent work. Mutual Respect at work refers to all parties within the group appreciating and listening, taking into account other people's traits, and treating them with appreciation and dignity(Respect in the workplace: How to show respect and promote it,n.d.). It is when everyone understands that people can make mistakes, which doesn't mean a mistake makes you a bad worker. Mutual Respect at work is essential for an effective team because it reduces stress among team members, improves productivity and increases employee satisfaction and happiness as well as trust within the group (5 ways to show respect at a workplace,n.d.). It reduces stress because the work environment is positive due to the mutual Respect which allows people to feel supported during difficult times. They will be less afraid to ask for help, decreasing their stress levels (5 ways to show respect at a workplace,n.d.).There will be increased productivity because the respected environment will motivate individuals to work harder because they feel appreciated (5 ways to show respect at a workplace,n.d.). Mutual respect increases employee satisfaction because they feel respected and trusted, which improves the employee experiences and engagement at work, which decreases employee turnover (5 ways to show respect at a workplace,n.d.).

Good communication is also essential in an effective team. Communication is essential for personal and professional relationships(Team Communication: Effective Group Teamwork,n.d.). It is important to collaborate effectively(Team Communication: Effective Group Teamwork,n.d.).It is essential to how and what you communicate the message because it can affect how the other person receives it and interprets it (Team Communication: Effective Group Teamwork,n.d.).Communication in a team is defined as how the members interact with one another(Team Communication: Effective Group Teamwork,n.d.).. The quality and quantity of communication within a team are essential. Contacting members often one-on-one or for feedback allows the member to stay connected and confirm that they are on the same page(Team Communication: Effective Group Teamwork,n.d.). The quality of communication refers to listening actively and using clarifying words not to confuse one another. As much as verbal communication is essential in using video calls, phone calls, and team meetings, non-verbal communication plays a significant role(Team Communication: Effective Group Teamwork,n.d.). Non-verbal communication refers to eye contact, facial expression and body language(Team Communication: Effective Group Teamwork,n.d.). It is important to note that they can help or ruin the communication flow. In today's world, another form of communication is writing through email or teams. The issue with writing communication is it can be interpreted in different ways .It is imperative to make sure you write correctly. It is always essential to make sure you are clear about the communication. For good communication, you need to encourage openness and transparency, respect all opinions, define each role, practice empathy and promote two-way feedback(Team Communication: Effective Group Teamwork,n.d.). Lastly, Communication is essential for an effective team because it increases employee engagement, fosters a more collaborative and productive workplace, makes it easier to reach the goal and more efficient problem-solving(Team Communication: Effective Group Teamwork,n.d.).

Good Leadership is the last important characteristic of an effective team. The leader of the team must be set as an example(The importance of leadership in the workplace,n.d).The leader needs to bring out the best abilities in their teams and motivate them to work synchronously to achieve the shared goal (The importance of leadership in the workplace,n.d). They keep everything organized and make sure everyone is on track (The importance of leadership in the workplace,n.d). There are many reasons why a leader is essential to have an effective team; they provide focus and drive the team forward, empower teams to work at their full potential, take responsibility for decision-making, volunteer for new tasks, and teach and share information. They understand your strengths and weaknesses (The importance of leadership in the workplace,n.d). More specifically, they manage the work by delegating or arranging resources, coach their team member by advising them and helping them understand how they are doing and giving them feedback, communicate the information and expected goals, they inspire their workers. To be a good leader in a team, you need to have emotional intelligence and self-awareness to develop a good relationship with your team.

Building and leading effective teams is critical to the success of any organization.

  1. Team Selection:

Selecting the right team members is the first step in building an effective team. In addition to considering skills and experience, it is essential to assess individuals' personalities and work styles to ensure that the team is a good fit. This can help ensure that the team members will be able to work well together and complement each other's strengths and weaknesses. To select the right team members, you should define the requirements for the roles and responsibilities of each team member. When building a team, diversity should also be considered. Diversity in terms of cultural, demographic, and cognitive differences can lead to better decision-making and innovation. According to the Belbin team roles theory, team members can be classified into nine roles. Having a diverse mix of roles can help to ensure that the team has a variety of skills and strengths to draw upon.

  1. Goal Setting:

Setting clear and specific goals provides a sense of direction and purpose for the team, which can increase motivation and productivity. When setting goals, it is crucial to ensure that they are aligned with the organization's mission and vision. Effective teams need clear goals and objectives to work towards. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART), goals can help ensure the team is aligned and working towards a common purpose. When setting goals, involve team members to increase buy-in and commitment. Make sure the goals are challenging but attainable, and make sure to establish clear metrics for success.

  1. Team Building Activities:

Team building activities can strengthen the bonds between team members, improve communication, and foster collaboration. These can be broken down into problem-solving exercises,trust-building activities, and social events.

Problem-solving activities can help improve critical thinking skills, communication, and teamwork, while Trust-building activities are designed to build trust, respect, and collaboration among team members. Social events provide an opportunity for team members to socialize and get to know each other on a more personal level. When selecting team building activities, it is essential to consider their needs and goals and ensure that the activities are engaging, challenging, and relevant to the team's work.

  1. Team Communication:

clear and effective communication is essential for effective team functioning. The team should be encouraged to communicate openly and frequently to share ideas, provide feedback, and address concerns. Team leaders should establish regular meetings as a forum for discussing progress towards goals, addressing any issues, and planning for the future. It is also important to establish clear communication protocols for emergencies, conflicts, and decision-making. Active listening and clarifying questions should be encouraged to ensure that team members understand each other. Effective communication should be honest, respectful, and constructive, and team members should be held accountable for their communication behavior.

In conclusion, building and leading an effective team requires careful consideration of team selection, goal setting, team building activities, and team communication. By implementing these strategies, you can help ensure that your team is aligned, motivated, and working effectively towards a common goal.

Addressing common challenges in team building

Building a cohesive team of enthusiastic individuals who work well and harmonized is a challenging task. It is crucial to address all conflicts, obstacles and difficulties even minor ones within a team, because ignoring them is not a viable solution and might lead to some negative issues. The reason is many major problems, particularly those that related to the personal relationships, usually come from minor disagreements. Waiting too long to deal with these issues and resolve them will only make it more difficult to be solved in the future. Although several of these obstacles are universal, they can also vary depending on the size of a team, how experience they are and what level of hierarchy is established in the team.

Some of the challenges and conflicts include:

Lack of trust between teammates, communication barriers and diversity (language, cultural background, education background, gender etc.), time management, lack of motivation and low engagement, leadership, different goals, and role ambiguity.

low engagement in team: teams that are strongly committed often have more efficient productivity in solving complex issues and achieving their goals and desires within a disciplined schedule. "if there is a lack of communication in the team's Slack channels and completing tasks has become struggling, it could be a sign of reduced engagements." Says Sarah Larson, Atlassian's head of talent. Other signs of low engagement are reluctance to embrace changes, inadequate quality or miss the deadlines, and overall indifference. She suggests two approaches to re-engage teams; firstly, to have regular one-on-one meetings individually like coaching meetings, then recognize and celebrate their successes and achievements even small ones. The second tactic is to ensure that all team members comprehend deeply how their efforts are linked to the larger goal, so they would not feel that they are alone or excluded.

Lack of trust:lack of trust would ruin well productivity in teams. Leaders and managers who lack trust in their team tend to closely monitor their members and task progress, which might consider normal initially. So, as the leader will frequently interrupt the members and their progress it will become irritating for members, and they would feel lack of confidence in their team's capabilities. This not only would reduce the efficiency of the leader, but also harm the flow and autonomy of the members who are unable to work continuously without interruptions. Consequently. Team members might believe that they are not capable of fulfilling tasks and projects. To prevent this problem, it is important that before asking questions about the performance of team members, the manager should establish unambiguous expectations about the context and deadline of tasks and how it is important for the organization. Moreover, the manager should let the members to fail and face some obstacles. In other words, if the manager frequently intervenes in their work, it will considerably affect and damage the result, so the manager should be responsible for any negative consequences that will arise as a result. In all, it means that giving team members freedom and an opportunity to succeed should be the manager prioritized.

Ambiguous goals:one of the sings of this is that members often shift their task and jumping from project to project without paying a close attention to the quality and fulfilling them. So, achieving the main goal would be challenging. Tackling this issue requires having a clear plan for future, remain confident and calm, making decisions without depending on all facts, and pay attention to problem solving skill and try to strengthen it. It is advisable to have a broad and detailed plan for team professional future. This could aid in the establishment of specific objectives to help the progress of the team significantly, even if they confront difficult obstacles. Also, maintaining calm is an effective strategy to deal with ambiguous circumstances, because it would aid all members to addressing everything confidently. In terms of problem-solving skill, the thing is that it would assist the members to address uncertain circumstances with a more analytical perspective, even by limited tools and information.

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