Organizational Behavior

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INTRODUCTION

Team development is an essential part of life. Whether you are building a business from scratch, or you are a manager or even doing a community outreach program, it is important to have a working team. It can determine how easily a project or business is successful or fails within the first few weeks or months of takeoff. People rarely work alone but rather work with others. By promoting workplace unity, the organization can steadily improve the degree of cooperation and boost the levels of production. It therefore goes without saying that effort must be spared to make a team successful.

Let’s start by defining a team. According to Bratton J(2010), a team is a group of employees or individuals set out to work to achieve a particular set of objectives. It is the combined action of a group of people, in the interest of a given cause.

STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP EFFECTIVE TEAMS

As a manager, it is important to develop good working teams. Here is a simple strategy that can be used to develop that team.

Selection of members– this is the foundation of a successful team. Managers should take care to pair workers with others who get along well or who have the required set of skills. It can be detrimental to a team if the manager puts incompetent people in a team. The team will be slow, others will be frustrated and most importantly, there is a higher chance of failure.

Let the goal be common– having a common goal ensures that resources are employed towards achieving the same thing. It is pointless for an employer to employ people who work towards different objectives. Failure of teams can be attributed to there being multiple causes.

Clarity– it is important to communicate clearly. Let everyone who is involved know precisely what they are working towards. Ambiguity leads to wastage of organizational resources and ultimately the failure of teams.

Commitment– this is equally an important aspect of successful teams. There should be demonstrated commitment from each member of a particular team.

Encourage feedback- members should be encouraged to communicate their issues to management without fear of retribution. Whether good or bad a good manager accepts and processes feedback from employees assigned to a given task. This will build trust amongst the group members and expose management to potential trouble areas.

Conflict resolution– any group of people working together is bound to be faced with conflict. A good manager should be quick in solving these issues and be as fair as possible. Transparency and a lack of bias will strengthen the team and not hurt the overall team dynamic.

METHODS TO FACILITATE TEAM DEVELOPMENT

Developing a team is a crucial part of ensuring the success of the team. It is important that the team is made properly so as to minimize the resources a company uses and to minimize the conflicts that may arise. Team building requires an understanding of people and their dynamics.

Know your team members– as a team leader, the success or failure of the team will be directly linked to you. So it is imperative that you know your team members. You should know their style of work, their relation to other employees and their motivations to work. It requires time investment so that you know which buttons to push and when to lay off. Management should be able to identify the talents in the group members and utilize them accordingly.

At the beginning of the project, consensus should be built and a set of ground rules established. These are the norms that

Define the roles– this step should be done carefully. Care should be taken when communicating the requirements of each member. Clearly define and communicate the roles and responsibilities of each member. Each member should know their contribution to the overall objective that is being accomplished. The team’s strengths and differences should result in a powerful united force and outcome.

Give timely feedback– timely response ensures that teams stay on track. It also ensures that teams improve regularly. It could be feedback regarding results or requirements of the team members. Whatever the issue management should not waste time to give appropriate response. This goes hand in hand with conflict resolution. As explained above, a team will most likely encounter some conflict in the course of working towards the objectives. Management should clearly set out conflict resolutions mechanisms and communicate such to the team members. In the resolution, management should be fair and just as much as possible. This will encourage openness, fosters the commitment of management and builds trust among the team members.

Reward– management should acknowledge and reward good work. People value recognition. Time should be set aside by management to evaluate the work that has been done. Pay attention to the effort that has been input by management. Most importantly be genuine. This goes to build trust and loyalty and will ignite a desire to do more. Take time to celebrate the milestones. Break down the overall objective into small bits and once these have been achieved, stop and recognize them. This could be done officially or casually.it could also be important when tracing the steps as to what went wrong should the teams fail to achieve their objectives. Make sure that you talk with the group members about the progress of the project, what has been done and what needs to be done.

STRATEGIES A HOSPITAL COULD USE IN CREATING EFFECTIVE TEAMS

The first stage is the formation stage. This is when the team or department first meets. At this stage they learn about the project they will be involved in, discuss some of the requirements, objectives, timelines and possible results. The team members get to know each other, the team leaders, conflict resolution mechanisms, their roles and responsibilities and establish the ground rules. From this point on the team is dependent on the team leader.

The second stage is Storming. At this stage, the members compete to establish some status. It is unavoidable. Every member tries to front their ideas and opinion as to how the project should be done. Here the team leadership has to facilitate effective communication. This will prevent duplication of roles and ensure that the project objectives are being worked on. Once the team has settled into different roles, the team management should then delegate some of the leadership tasks to the other junior members of the group. This stage also goes a long way in establishing the morale of the group members since the real attributes of the members and the leadership come to bare at this point.

The Norming stage is where the team begins working closely as a team. At this point, individual goals are put aside and the whole teams realizes the importance of working together as a unit. They share information and there are fewer conflicts as a results of broader understanding of the project and each other.

Adjourning stage is where the project comes to an end. Here the team members are focused on individual objectives since the projects objectives are no longer in contention. If the project was not successful it is at this stage that the members evaluate what went wrong and prescribe possible remedies to management.

REFERENCES

Bratton, J., Forshaw, C., Callinan, M., Sawchuk, P., & Corbett, M. (2010).Work and Organizational Behaviour 2nd Edition: Understanding the Workplace. Palgrave Macmillan.

French, R., Rayner, C., Rees, G., & Rumbles, S. (2011). Organizational behaviour. John Wiley & Sons.

West, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons.