This paper explores the importance of team work ability for organizations and ways through which it can be improved

This paper explores the importance of team work ability for organizations and ways through which it can be improved. The paper also looks at the various approaches, methods and implementation of team work strategies from the perspective of a business consultant.

Introduction:

What works for a company in attaining its objectives and goals is not individual, but rather a well integrated teamwork. The major reason is that considering the enormity and the ideal nature of the work that a company engages in it not imaginable for any person to even think of shouldering the whole work.

Looking at the immensity of the projects and their sophisticated nature, work essentially has to be broken down first into compartments in a company called the departments. That is not even adequate therefore to ensure handling by individuals it is split into modules and sub-modules, which can be managed by a different employee within every department. The unique characteristic of the modules and the sub-modules is that someone needs to consistently man the performance interfaces between them. Unless these interfaces are appropriately and consistently given proper attention, the possibility of a delayed or a wrong output is conveyed from one module to the other waiting to get the timely and correct input is always there. As a result, the person responsible for one module must at all times be in touch with the other who mans a module that has an interface with it. The work relations between such two persons naturally can impact the general target needed to be attained by an organization, in some cases in a very important manner. When such two persons jell with one another and understand one another’s requirement faultlessly, they will partake adequate care that the transmission of not just the exact output takes place from one to the other, but also happens in a timely manner. That kind of work interaction factors in the requirements and the sensitivities of various interfacing work modules and the persons responsible for them commonly referred to as real teamwork.It calls for a couple of factors to be simultaneously established. They comprise consistent pledge to the overall goal of the company. A critical element is relationship management. The other two elements are perseverance and talent of the team members. A lot of the developments of the teamwork needs working together experience for a significant duration to iron out all the concerns various employees from diverse backgrounds and their varied work ethics. Concerted harmonization among team members builds the watchword in the establishment of team work in a company and hence the role of the coordinator turns out to be paramount. With no teamwork and mutual among the teams of workers, the juggernaut of the organization cannot grid its wheels.

How to improve team work

Teamwork is the supportive endeavor by a group of people to attain a common goal. Attainment is normally quantified by certain kind of performance indicator, for example, sales growth and customer satisfaction. The teamwork can be improved when the group changes their actions so that the performance can be improved.

Performance management- best teamwork doesn’t essentially need perfect interpersonal relationships but rather actions that results in best team performance. The key assured ways of improving teamwork is to utilize the fundamentals of performance management to the group’s actions. This entails these principal steps.

Identifying the actions the team will need to result into better performance (for example the Target actions).

Examining which team actions are currently being applied (for example the current behaviours).

Commissioning a gap analysis between the current and the target teamwork actions (behaviours), and taking actions to develop the current teamwork actions closer to the target.

The target actions differ from one team to the other. For instance, the actions that yield success for the Advertising or Public Relations are completely different to those of a operation workshop of a nuclear power station, the former requires to be continually innovative while the latter requires to ‘go by the book’.

A single way to establish teamwork actions is by completing the Ideal Team Profile Questionnaire Instrument ITPQ (™). It can be completed by peer groups, the team, customers, staff, others and senior management to provide a broad range of opinions of what can make the team be successful. The information will enable them to:

Spot and manage disagreeing expectations from them, for example, the customer and the management.

Take a broad view when setting behavioral goals that is targeted to improve the quality of such set goals.

Make easy dialogue within the team and among others outside the team on how they can enhance performance.

Current behaviors- the current behaviors can be affected by elements such as:

The team member’s preference, the organizational culture, current situation, views of the people outside the team among other factors.

A single way to identify the current behavior is to complete the Management Team Roles-Indicator (MTR-it (TM) instrument. It is completed by the team members, and it outlines the roles that they are performing currently that may be aggregated to indicate the collective team behaviors.

The Gap Analysis- formerly the current and the target behaviors have been outlined, the team should define how they can change their present behaviors to be much more in line with their target. It entails examining the behavioral gap and developing an action plan for them to adopt.

Different approaches, methods, and their implementation from the perspective of a business consultant:

Case study: the company hired consultants to try and analyze and find a solution to the problems of on the Keaadvertising. The management indicated that the team is devoid of creativity, productivity and in addition having gone passed the task deadline on numerous occasions. Most of the duties within the advertising organizations only require individual contribution, which apparently every member of the team excels. Hence, the management hired the consultancy to tackle the issue of team-dynamics. Analyzing what elements that enhance creativity the teams can assist facilitate the actions required to attain it.

Teams in accordance to (Cambell, Judge & Robbin 2010) establishing effective teams are impacted by the composition, context, processes and work designs of the teams. Companies can adopt a bottom up framework or a up down framework. Very precisely it is significant to analyze all the aspects of the organization structure. Whether the management is not providing clear directives concerning the tasks or may be the team is lacking the administrative and encouragement support.

The constants applied a variety of methods to analyze the concerns in the company. The most applied theory for team-examination functions is the one for Belbin Team Roles:

After several years of study on teams, Meradith Belbin found out that most productive and successful teams have a diversity of personality and character kinds. The major presumption of this theory is that individuals add value to the team by either contributing to the people, tasks and ideas.

It was established that four in five members are planters, which studies have confirmed to be both good problem solvers and creative, on contrary, they are poor communicators, and this could provide an explanation why the team had difficulty and making decision and getting to a conclusion, which results into un-productivity and deadline delays. Apparently the team lacked a coordinator.

The team management by objectives (TMBO)-It is a contemporary approach which was suggested by (Fulk, Bell & Bodie 2011). The core objective of MBO is decision making, participative goal setting and choosing course of action. Here, the performance of the team can be enhanced by manager’s selective participation in the establishment of the team at every stage, guided by the fundamentals including the management by objective.

Implementation:

The TMBO is the most appropriate for this case study. The recommendation is that the team recruits two new members and they require a fresh beginning. So as they go through the stages step by step, they will ensure that all the stages are completed successfully after having recognized the significance of team work. Finally, since the task was not clear, the team requires more communication and supervision from the management.

Conclusion

Transformational leadership can stimulate team motivation and enable the organization attain its goals it is submitted that the most appropriate type to implement is change.