Characteristics of an Effective Work Group and Retention Strategies for Organizations

This document discusses the characteristics of an effective work group, retention strategies for organizations, the importance of performance appraisals for managing newly recruited employees, and the different types of organizational culture. It also includes a reflection on personal experience and hypothetical business development.

Running head: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Business Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Task 1: What are the characteristics of an effective work group? Explain each one of
them. Reflect on your own experience in working in a group for the group assignment
and evaluate the effectiveness of your group.
Work groups refer to the group of experts who work together for achieving a particular
goal. There are several characteristics of an effective work group. Kroll (2017) have claimed
that effective work groups are the ones that focus on the accomplishment and development of
the common purposes and goals. With the same, every individuals in the work group provide
equal, expected and exact participation, which is almost consciously inclusive in nature.
According to Lisak and Erez (2015), every team members in an effective work group are
focused on the behavioural rather than on the changes of personality. Furthermore, an
effective work group also ensure that there is open and honest communication among the
group members in the group. It is to note that communication is always the key to success. In
each and every team, whether it is big or small, communication is very important for building
a sense of camaraderie in between the team members (Zawawi and Nasurdin 2017). The
manner in which communication take place within the team members- how frequently and
freely the team members communicate with each other- determines the team effectiveness.
They avoid the authority or power as the means of resolving the group issues and realise that
the square pegs can fit into the round holes.
However, it is to state that in the group on which I was working for my group assignment
was not at all an effective work group. I was basically working alone just with another guy
even though we were a group of four individual. Also, there was communication gap among
us. Although the overall project on which we were working went good, still, not everyone
contributed as expected. I and one of the team members were the only two who were focused
on the accomplishment of our objective. It is to mention that the main aim of ours was to
prepare and submitted a relevant assignment prior to the set deadline. However, due to

2BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
callousness of the remaining two individuals, it could not happen as effectively as it was
decided. Although being the team leader, I distributed the responsibility of everyone equally
at the initial stage only. Still, no one did their job within the set time frame and failed to
handover the assigned task to us. This made the entire thing very difficult to process.
However, I must say that each and every one supported the efforts of ours for establishing
reasonable boundaries. They the remaining two team members supported us at the end of the
assignment by making the overall presentation of the assignment look good. Also, one of
them gone through the whole assignment and found out two mistakes that would have been
the reason of losing marks. With his help we successfully amended the assignment as per the
requirement of the assignment. However, we still got relatively less marks which could have
been much improved if each of us participated in the group work effectively.
Task 2: Which retention strategies can organisations use? Thinking about retaining
your newly recruited employee, discuss the retention strategies you can use. Justify your
answer making reference to academic sources.
Firstly, it is to note that to ensure success in the process of employee retention efforts,
one must think about all the things from the view point of the team. It should be understood
that every employee is different in his or her own ways and everyone has their own unique
goals and desires (Cohen 2017). However, the common thing among them is that everyone
want to know that they are paid at and above the rates of market and that they have good
benefits. Everyone want to feel appreciated and wanted by their employers. All of them want
to be treated fairly. These are what makes the employees challenged and excited for the job
that they do or are asked to do. However, according to me, the most effective retention
strategies that organisations can make use of are bringing in place mentorship programs and
the rewards and recognition systems. Rewarding the employees with some benefits or by
providing them an extra day off. It is very necessary that the employers ensure showing their

3BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
employees that they do appreciate them and respect their contribution to the organisational
productivity. It is an effective way of improving the performance of the employees and
increasing their engagement. This ultimately results in the creation of a strong culture. Both
the rewards and recognitions of the employees have the possibility of leading to the desired
performance as what gets rewarded is what gets repeated again.
I think pairing a new employee hired in the organisation with a mentor is a good idea
for the on boarding as in this way, the new employee will get the scope of learning the ropes
from a veteran with a wealth of resources. According to what is claimed by Sloane (2017),
new hire offers fresh point of view to the experienced staffs. Mentors should not be working
supervisors but they can provide the new employees with guidance and support. Secondly
rewards and recognition play a significant role in the overall work of the employees (Khan,
Waqas and Muneer 2017). Not only employees, in fact, every person wants to feel
appreciated for what they do. It is necessary for the employers to make it a habit to thank you
the direct reports when they go the extra mile. It can be done through a sincere mail, giving a
gift card, announcing the name of the employees for his contribution in front of the entire
staff, rewarding the employees with some benefits or by providing them an extra day off. It is
very necessary for the employers to show their employees that they do appreciate them and
respect their contribution. They must share how their hard work and skills have helped the
company in achieving its objective. The organisations can also set up some reward system
that would incentivize some great innovation and ideas. Incentives help the employees to get
motivation and encouragement for continuing with their work and giving their best at the
workplace (Cook 2016). According to Lambert et al. (2016), incentives are morale boosters
for the employees and they have the potential of raising the morale and increasing the level of
job satisfaction in an organisation.

4BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Task 3: Discuss the importance of performance appraisals for managing the
performance of your newly recruited employee.
According to Nica (2016), performance appraisals are widely regarded as performance
boosters for the employees. They are great means of challenging the employees to improve
their job performance and increase their respective team’s productivity. The goals that are set
by the appraiser of the organisation in the employee appraisals do not just have to be
regarding the development of the staff. One can also make use of these appraisal system to
challenge the new recruited employees in the workplace to improve their performance in their
work. It is to note that the new employees always seek for appreciation and positive feedback
in order to stay motivated and determined. The performance appraisal systems help the
companies in providing positive feedbacks to the new employees and at the same time, to
identify the areas for further improvement (Armstrong 2014). New employees can even
discuss about the things that are restricting them from give their best in the organisation or
the things that are not allowing them to work as other good employees. With the same, they
can also even create a development plan for themselves discussing about the same with the
appraiser in the process so that he or she can improve his or her skills to prove themselves in
the organisation. According to Campion, Campion and Campion (2017), performance
appraisals also motivate the employees when it is supported by good merit bases system of
compensation. After all, each and every employee’s individual performance influences the
overall performance of the team and the organisation as a whole. Performance appraisals help
in clarifying all the status and roles of the employees who are newly hired in the organisation
(Mullins 2016). There might be some of them who are well aware of the position where they
stand in the organisation in terms of their job performance and at the same time, they want to
see what else can be done to prove themselves better. All these can be done by means of an
effective performance appraisal systems. Furthermore, it is also to note that performance

5BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
appraisal provides a well-structured process for the employees for approaching the
management for the discussions and identifying the problems along with clarifying the plan
and expectations for the future. It helps both the new employees and the manager to set up
both long and short term goals. Notwithstanding this fact, it is also to mention in this context
that if one make use of the system of performance appraisal in correct and smart way, the
results would not leave him indifferent. It provide a lot of useful details and information
about a company and an employee itself that could not been otherwise possibly acquired from
any other sources. It helps the companies in providing positive feedbacks to the new
employees and at the same time and in identifying the areas for further improvement. With
the same, it has the potential of motivating the newly hired employees when it is supported
by good merit bases system of compensation. At the same time, the appraiser here can clarify
all the status and roles of the new employee in this process and could discuss the areas where
he or she is finding difficultly to manage or adapt
Task 4: What are the different types of organisational culture? Explain them. Reflect on
your own hypothetical business which you used for the group work. Which type of
organisational culture would you like to develop in your business and why?
According to Naranjo-Valencia, Jimenez-Jimenez and Sanz-Valle (2016), there are a
total of four types of organisational culture and they are bureaucratic culture, competitive
culture, entrepreneurial culture and community culture. It is to note that in a bureaucratic
organisational culture, there is a well-defined, structured and formal working environment
that depends on the hierarchy, procedures and authority for keeping the organisation run
smooth. The main focus is on the reliability, efficiency and on the smooth execution. The
goal of this type of organisation is predictability and here leaders follow authority leadership
style (Leatherbarrow and Fletcher 2014). Also, each and every employees in such an
organisational culture do things right. Secondly, in a competitive organisational culture, there

6BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
is a goal oriented attitude, pervasive customer focused attitude among the employees
(Cavaliere and Lombardi 2015). They lay a strong emphasis on the successful delivery of the
results. The top performers of the company are rewarded and are highly regarded. The goal of
these organisations is to win and they follow coaching style of leadership. The next type of
organisational culture is entrepreneurial culture. In this type of working environment,
creativity, risk taking and experimentation are more important that the policies and
procedures. The individual freedom and initiative are also encouraged in these innovative and
entrepreneurial organisational culture. The leaders here also follow emergent leadership style
and their approach to their work is doing things differently. Lastly, in a community type
organisational culture, there is a very friendly environment for working in. The employees
working in this culture are mostly relationship oriented and they seek to express themselves
in open manner (Spigel 2017). With the same, it is also to note that in this type of culture,
there is a high degree of teamwork and involvement. The goal of such organisations is
synergy. They follow mentoring leadership style and their approach towards their work is
doing things together.
For my company, I would like to develop a performance driven culture, which is
competitive organisational culture. It is due to the fact that having this culture in place would
help me in setting some specific goals for each and every-one and expect them to exceed their
targets and performance in consistent manner. This culture also tend to focus on measuring
what the CEO of the company believes to matter the most. There is a goal oriented attitude,
pervasive customer focused attitude among the employees as the atmosphere here is very
challenging. Also, they lay a strong emphasis on the successful delivery of the results. With
the same, all the policies, measures and procedures are aligned for responding to the demands
of the market and for meeting the needs of the customers. I think this can contribute to a
notable degree in the overall organisational success as well. The top performers of the

7BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
company are rewarded and are highly regarded in this type of culture. The main aim of my
company would be to win and we will follow coaching style of leadership. Also, I believe
that each and every employees in such an organisational culture can do things best.

8BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
References:
Armstrong, M., 2014. A handbook of human resource management practice. 13th ed., Kogan
Page.
Campion, E.D., Campion, M.C. and Campion, M.A., 2017. Best practices in incentive
compensation bonus administration based on research and professional
advice. Compensation & Benefits Review, 49(3), pp.123-134.
Cavaliere, V. and Lombardi, S., 2015. Exploring different cultural configurations: how do
they affect subsidiaries’ knowledge sharing behaviors?. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 19(2), pp.141-163.
Cohen, E., 2017. Employee training and development. In CSR for HR (pp. 153-162).
Routledge.
Cook, M., 2016. Personnel Selection: Adding Value through People, 6th ed., Wiley
Blackwell.
Khan, N., Waqas, H., and Muneer, R., 2017. Impact of Rewards (Intrinsic and extrinsic) on
Employee Performance: With Special Reference to Courier Companies of City Faisalabad,
Pakistan. International Journal of Management Excellence, 8(2), 937-945.
Kroll, J., 2017. Requisite participant characteristics for effective peer group
mentoring. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 25(1), pp.78-96.
Lambert, E.G., Minor, K.I., Wells, J.B. and Hogan, N.L., 2016. Social support's relationship
to correctional staff job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational
commitment. The Social Science Journal, 53(1), pp.22-32.

9BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Leatherbarrow, C. and Fletcher, J., 2014. Introduction to Human Resource Management: A
Guide to HR in Practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Lisak, Alon, and Miriam Erez. "Leadership emergence in multicultural teams: The power of
global characteristics." Journal of World Business 50.1 (2015): 3-14.
Mullins, L.J., 2016. Management & Organisational Behaviour, 11th ed., Pearson.
Naranjo-Valencia, J.C., Jiménez-Jiménez, D. and Sanz-Valle, R., 2016. Studying the links
between organizational culture, innovation, and performance in Spanish companies. Revista
Latinoamericana de Psicología, 48(1), pp.30-41.
Nica, E., 2016. The effect of perceived organizational support on organizational commitment
and employee performance. Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, 4(4),
pp.34-40.
Sloane, P., 2017. The Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills: Unlock the Creativity and
Innovation in You and Your Team. Kogan Page Publishers.
Spigel, B., 2017. The relational organization of entrepreneurial
ecosystems. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(1), pp.49-72.
Zawawi, A. A., and Nasurdin, A. M., 2017. The impact of task characteristics on the
performance of nursing teams. International journal of nursing sciences, 4(3), 285-290.