Building effective teams doesn't just happen; it requires thought, action and perseverance.
This essay is talking about how effective group works in a team and also in an organisation. The report explains the steps of how the groups are made in an organization to have a complete team building exercise where the task is to form a group of 3 to 4 members depending on the work to be done in the team, and to build trust and good relations between the group members by communicating with each other and to avoid conflicts and stay in contact with each other as long as possible.It also reviews different types of frame work within the teams to promote the teams and also the organisation. Harris ; Harris (1996) also explain that a team has a common goal or purpose where team members can develop effective, mutual relationships to achieve team goals. Teams and teamwork help to promote deep learning that occurs through interaction, problem solving, dialogue, cooperation and collaboration (Johnson ; Johnson, 1995).
What is a team? Team work has become an important part of the working culture and many organisations now look at team work skills when evaluating a person for employment.Most organisations realise the team work is important because either the product is sufficiently complex that it requires a team with multiple skills to produce, and / or a better product will result when a team approach is taken. Therefore, it is important that people learn the function in a team environment so that they will have team work skills when they enter the work place. A work team is an interdependent collection of individuals who share responsibility for specific outcomes for their organisations. Not everyone who works together or is in proximity belongs to a team.A team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources and skills and who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal.
Types of Team Teams can do a variety of things. They can make products, provide services, negotiate deals, coordinate projects, offer advice, and make decisions. In this section we'll describe the four most common types of teams you're likely to find in an organization: problem-solving teams, self-managed work teams, cross-functional teams, and virtual teams. In problem-solving teams, members share ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved.
Rarely, however, are these teams given the authority to individually implement any of their suggested actions. These are work teams of eight to ten employees and supervisors who have a shared area of responsibility and meet regularly to discuss their quality problems, investigate causes of the problems, recommend solutions, and take corrective actions. Self-managed work teams are groups of employees (typically 10 to 15 in number) who perform highly related or interdependent jobs and take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors.Typically, this includes planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work, making operating decisions, taking action on problems, and working with suppliers and customers.
Fully self-managed work teams even select their own members and have the members evaluate each other's performance. Cross functional teams are made up of employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.The entire major auto mobile manufacturers-including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW, GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler currently use this form of team to coordinate complex projects. Cross-functional teams are an effective means for allowing people from diverse areas within an organization or even between organizations to exchange information, develop new ideas and solve problems, and coordinate complex projects.
The previous types of teams do their work face-to-face. Virtual teams use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.They allow people to collaborate online-using communication links like wide-area networks, video conferencing, or e-mail-whether they're only a room away or continents apart. Virtual teams can do all the things that other team’s do- share information, make decisions, and complete tasks. Building an effective team At least four challenges suggest that building and maintaining effective teams is vital.
These are: * Customer service focus Organisations all over the world have moved from an economic view of customers and clients to a relational view of customers.To the extent that teams are positioned to care about the customers from a relational perspective, this can add tremendous value for the organisation. * Competition A few large companies often emerge as the dominant players in the biggest markets and therefore these industry leaders often enjoy vast economies of scale and earn tremendous profits. People can be expected to specialize more, and these areas of expertise will get even more narrow and interdependent. Therefore both companies and people have to increasingly rely on others to get access to their expertise.This is the core structure of a team based approach to work.
* Information age One of the challenges of the information era is in finding the information that is located within the company. Surveys of people in organisations reveal that the following is what they look for in experts; extent of expertise, trustworthiness, communication skills, willingness to help, experience and awareness of other resources. Companies such as Warner Brothers and General Motors have used software programs such as Crowdcast which is used to predict revenue, ship dates, or new products from competitors using their own employee knowledge base.They can enormously explain their reasoning and if they are right, they get more money and a louder voice in the future, (Thompson, L, L 2011). * Globalisation The fourth and final challenge is the globalisation.
An increasingly global and fast paced economy requires people with specialised expertise, yet the specialist within a company need to work together. Team members must integrate through coordination and synchronization with suppliers, managers and customers. With the ability to communicate with others anywhere, people and the resources that were once remote can now be reached quickly and inexpensively.
