Teams

Teamwork is the key factor that makes human work together to achieve common goals.

Q: contribute to the effectiveness of a team? A: team goals linked to organizational goals

Teamwork is the effort of group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose and hold themselves mutually accountable for its achievement. Ideally, the team develops a distinct identity and work together in a co-ordinated and mutually supportive way to fulfil their goal or purpose.

Task effectiveness is the extent to which the team is successful in achieving its task-related objectives. Shared goals are most likely to be achieved through working together and pooling experience and expertise.

Each team member is hired to perform a certain skill set, which contributes to a single department, and the department functions interact with the operations of other departments to provide quality service.

In contrast with a group that shares a common profile, a team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable (see Tab. 2-1a)

Team Member Roles

Types of Team in the Organizational Workplace. All workplace teams have the common element of people working together cooperatively and members possessing a mix of skills.

1. Self-Managing Work Teams

This is sometimes referred to as the self-directed team.

A self-managing work team is a small group of employees responsible for managing and performing technical tasks to deliver a product or service to an external or internal customer.

Such teams perform a wide variety of manufacturing and service activities and work in an extremely integrated and collaborative way because they don’t have a formal leader. Members define the division of labor, responsibilities and the distribution of tasks, as well as make decisions and even control and supervise themselves.

2. Cross/Multi-Functional Teams

A cross-functional team is a work group composed of workers from different specialties, at about the same organizational level, who come together to accomplish a task. The people from different specialties are supposed to blend their talents. This type of work team is usually formed to develop work with a multidisciplinary view, in which each area represented by team members complements the knowledge of others, bringing more creative and comprehensive results.

3. Task Force team

This is sometimes referred to as special purpose team. They form only when emergency situations emerge which the organization needs to solve. Its members are usually the best of the company in the area. During the resolution of the emergency, they will dedicate themselves exclusively to this task. Their goal is to do this in the best way and in the shortest possible time.

4. Project team

These are work groups an organization creates to implement a specific project until completion. Afterward, the group dissolves as it achieved its objectives. Typically, members come from different areas of the company and perform other tasks related to their home department. But, as far as the project is concerned, they answer to the project leader.

5. Virtual Teams

Some teams conduct most of their work by sending electronic messages to each other rather than conducting face-to-face meetings. A virtual team is a small group of people who conduct almost all of their collaborative work by electronic communication rather than face-to-face meetings.

Different Team Roles

It’s important to define a role for each member of a team, based on her personal strengths and preferences. According to MindTools, Dr. Belbin, a prominent researcher, identified nine different roles that members of a team will naturally adopt. If you are aware of these roles, you can work to create more balanced teams with a broad range of talent and fewer weaknesses. By being aware and respectful of different styles, team members can also work together more sympathetically.

Researcher R. Meredith Belbin came up with nine team roles through a study conducted at Henley Management College. He identified the team roles after observing the behavioral tendencies of individuals within a group (see Fig. 2b). Belbin describes a team role as “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way.” The team roles consist of three categories: action-oriented roles, people-oriented roles and thought-oriented roles. Teams formed on the basis of Belbin’s categories are effective in achieving their objectives because there are no overlapping roles or missing qualities in the team.

1. Action-oriented Role - focus on improving team’s performance, putting ideas into action, and meeting deadlines

a. Shaper

In a team, the shaper role is performed by people who are dynamic and relish challenges. Rather than quit when faced with challenges, shapers maintain a positive mental attitude and strive to find the best ways to overcome challenges facing the team. Shapers are extroverts and possess great interpersonal communication skills and work toward motivating other team members.

b. Implementer

People who play the implementer role in a team are those who actually get things done in the team. They are practical, efficient and well-organized. Implementers turn the team’s ideas and thoughts into actual plans. Because of their conservative nature, implementers are rather rigid and slow to accept change in a team.

c. Completer/ Finisher

Finishers have an eye for detail. In a team, they’re regarded as perfectionists because they’re the ones who detect errors or omissions and strive to ensure that the team adheres to deadlines. They’re neat and self-conscious and worry at the slightest sign of a problem. Finishers also have a problem with delegation; they would rather be overwhelmed than share their work with others.

2. People-oriented Role - bring people and ideas together

a. Coordinator

Coordinators are seen as possessing the traditional team role. They’re mature and confident in nature and possess great listening skill. They guide the activities of the team to what they identify to be the team’s obligations. Coordinators are good at delegating duties, but they may be manipulative when it comes to directing the team toward what they perceive to be its goals.

b. Team Worker

Team workers are the people who ensure the team remains united. They work toward resolving conflict or issues affecting the team’s dynamics. Team workers are very supportive of other team members and are thus popular within the team. Team workers are known to be non-committal during decision making because they don’t want to be seen as taking sides: they put team cohesion ahead of their decision-making abilities.

c. Resource Investigator

Resource investigators are inquisitive and enthusiastic in nature and possess great negotiating and networking skills. They are extroverts, which makes it easy for others to relate to them. Through their networking skills, resource investigators develop external contacts and negotiate for the team’s resources. They are quick thinkers and good at getting information from other people.

3. Thought-oriented Role -analyze options and provide technical expertise.

a. Monitor-Evaluator

These are the critical thinkers in a team. They’re serious minded and cautious in nature. Rather than rush into decision making, they prefer to critically analyze information before making any conclusions. Monitor-evaluators lack the energy to motivate other team members and are deemed to be slow in decision making.

b. Specialist

Workers with expert knowledge in a particular area comprise the specialist role. Their contribution to the team is limited only to their area of expertise. Their priority is in maintaining their professional standards. Though they show great pride in their area of expertise, they show little or no interest in the expertise of others. Because of their expert knowledge, they’re indispensable members of a team.

c. Plants

Plants are innovative members of the team. They come up with original approaches and ideas that help the team in solving problems or overcoming challenges. Plants are introverts in nature and possess poor communication skills. Plants prefer to work alone. They react well to praise but are greatly affected by negative criticism.

Stages of Team Growth

Groups go through a set of predictable stages of development. In 1965, Bruce Tuckman, who carried out research on group dynamics, identified the four stages (see Fig. 2a) as forming (getting to know each other); storming (initial confrontation as group members identify their differences); norming (coming together to work for the benefit of the team); and performing (working well together with a process to deal with any differences of opinion and reassessing to look for opportunities for improvement)

Team development

Teams don’t just form and immediately start working together to accomplish great things. It undergoes stages of team growth; and teams must be given time to work through the stages and become effective.

Stage 1: Forming

When a team is forming, members cautiously explore the boundaries of acceptable group behavior. They search for their position within the group and test the leader’s guidance. It is normal for little team progress to occur during this stage.

Stage 2: Storming.

This is probably the most difficult stage for the group. Members often become impatient about the lack of progress, but are still inexperienced with working as a team. Members may argue about the actions they should take because they faced with ideas that are unfamiliar to them and put them outside their comfort zones. Much of their energy is focused on each other instead of achieving the goal.

Stage 3. Norming.

During this stage team members accept the team and begin to reconcile differences. Emotional conflict is reduced as relationships become more cooperative. The team is able to concentrate more on their work and start to make significant progress.

Stage 4. Performing.

By this stage the team members have discovered and accepted each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and learned what their roles are.

Members are open and trusting and many good ideas are produced because they are not afraid to offer ideas and suggestions. They are comfortable using decision making tools to evaluate the ideas, prioritize tasks and solve problems. Much is accomplished and team satisfaction and loyalty is high.