Developing the Work Team

The brewers at Springfield international are a team although this is specifically the original members. The two new members Peter and John are at the forming stage of a team and could be considered to be part of a group due to the fact they are working with different methods but towards the same goals. Dr R.

M Belbin Defined a team as:“A team is not a bunch of people with job titles, but a congregation of individuals, each of whom has a role which is understood by other members. Members of a team seek out certain roles and they perform most effectively in the ones that are most natural to them”While Katzenbach and Smith, 1998, defined the team as “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.The Springfield brewers are set up as team with the 8 original members and the 2 members moved over from the NFB which match a characteristic that Karzenbach and Smith suggested that teams often have between two and twenty five members.They all share a common shared objective to produce large amounts of quality real ales.

Problems do arise within the team as the brewers at Springfield often choose to ignore the knowledge and experience of Peter and John which highlights the need for regular supervision within an organisation and a team.Karzenbach and Smith stated that Team members often hold themselves accountable in the workplace. An argument for this within the case study is that both Peter and John feel out of their depth as they have never worked with a computerised system of that scale before, which results in their resignations. As previously mentioned it is possible to argue that leadership and supervision would have identified training to meet these workplace needs within a team.

Oakley, Fielder , Brent and Elhhajj 2004 state that;“with a group, the whole is often equal to or less than the sum of its parts; with a team , the whole is always greater.”This suggests that the Springfield group employing two of the NFB employees was seen as adding to an already strong team with the emphasis of improving and working together as a team rather than as individuals.Describe any two team roles and responsibilities of the brewers using a recognised model.Dr Meredith Belbin undertook a study which found that individuals in teams could be put into 9 different behavioural categories. Belbin undertook his research in the 1970’s and found that he could identify people into differing team roles, the roles were Plants, Resource Investigators, Monitor Evaluators, Co-Ordinators, Shapers, Implementers, Team Workers, Completer Finishers and Specialists.The role taken on by the Springfield group is of the Implementer.

Implementers are seen as efficient because they have a sense of what is feasible and relevant. The Springfield group use the brewing ingredients of the NFB brewers but increase this ten fold with the larger brewery and an improved computerized system. Belbin also states that Implementers show a strong loyalty to the company while having no personal agenda. The Springfield brewers sole goal is to produce large quantities of the ale that match the breweries objectives while sacrificing the NFB brewers experience and ideas for a method that has already been proven successful.The two brewers from the NFB could be seen as a mix of plants and specialists. Belbin describes a specialist as someone who shows enthusiasm for a particular subject who then tries to encourage fellow team members to trust their knowledge and expertise.

John and Richard both have expertise in the specific ale that the Springfield brewery have taken over, it is clear that they are unsure that the Springfield brewery are able to produce the quality of lager in large quantities that they produced in much smaller batches and so make a number of suggestions. Peter and John haven’t taken into account the need to produce such large quantities which have made them isolated from the Springfield team as they are not up to date with modern methods of brewing to create large amounts of lager.This single mindedness is highlighted by Belbin who notes that the Specialist if often single minded and only contributes on a narrow front of their own expertise. The two brewers were moved to the Springfield plant to implement new ideas and help the 8 brewers to apply them into making the new ale which match Belbin’s idea that Plants are innovators and inventors.

They usually prefer to operate by themselves which may explain the difficulty in communicating with the Springfield brewers while also lacking practical constraint. The two NFB brewers may have been identified to join Springfield as Plants are often needed in the initial stages of a project such as the implementation of a new ale to a brewery.Using a recognised model to illustrate your answer, describe at what stage of team developments the brewers areBruce W Tuckman (1965) developed a model to describe the differing stages of team development. He gave us a way of interpreting the various stages groups pass through into making an effective team. As you can see from the illustration below, teams go through a cycle of 5 stages which can often be recycled and started again.

Tuckman, 1965, Stages of Team Formation.Forming is when a group of people come together they are not yet a team. Forming the team, getting the right people in the team and making sure they have the right roles is really crucial if the group is to become a team that achieves its goal.This is not the only time a team forms. Established teams often go through this stage again when recruiting new staff to already existing staff while working as a team to integrate and explain the team procedures.

At this stage people tend to be courteous and polite, avoiding disagreements in the hope of being accepted into the team.A team would then move onto the Storming stage where they may test the boundaries and ground rules of the team. So you might experience competitiveness among team members and sometimes out and out conflict. Jockeying for position can also accompany this stage in the team development along with game playing and ‘showing off’. At this stage leadership may often be challenged.

The third stage of the model is known as Norming. They’ve worked out how to get along and all know what their role is within the team and know what tasks they’ve got to achieve. Decision making through agreement and discussion is improved but there is a danger that if a team stays too long at the ‘norming’ stage there is a danger that complacency will creep in and motivation will wane.The fourth stage is known as Performing. This is the stage when they have become a real team and relationships are strong.

The challenge at this stage is continuous improvement so that the team can continue to get great results.The final stage is known as the mourning stage where the team has already hti its peak and comes to an end. This was later added to the model as I was recognised that teams don’t last forever. Teams may finish due to the finish of a contract or project. Adjourning is a way of ‘grieving’ the old team and enabling a new journey with the next team. This is an important part of the process and very oftenmissed in organisations.

I would suggest that the team have already gone through a number of stages. Firstly the Springfield brewers are at a far more advanced stage and it could be argued that they were at the performing stage as the team members knew their roles and felt at ease working with each other. When Springfield took over NFB they moved on to the mourning stage as their previous job and roles changed significantly. Once Peter and John joined Springfield the team went through the Forming stage as new members of a team quickly onto the Storming stage as they tried to influence the Springfield brewers with the techniques they have used in their previous role.Tensions have risen with the Springfield brewers as they have challenged the ‘dated’ methods of the former NFB brewers which has resulted in derogatory comments aimed at John and Peter.

It clearly states in the case study that the up scaling of the real ale is not going well which suggests that the team has stalled which has resulted in Peter and John handing in their notices. I would argue that this is the mourning stage. Although the teams long term goal has not changed, the structure of the team has changed significantly which may potentially result in going back to stage one, Forming and employing two new staff members.