Challenges of Teamwork: Addressing the Issues and Solutions

This article discusses the challenges faced by organizations in team building and teamwork. It provides solutions to overcome these challenges and improve team performance.

Running head: CHALLENGES OF TEAMWORK
Challenges of teamwork
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Topic: Addressing the challenges of team building and teamwork
Team building or teamwork refers to the process of arranging the individuals within a
group to perform similar kinds of activities for attaining the organizational goal. Individuals of
an organization work in teams in order to meet the specific needs of the customers by working
together with the same purpose. Carter et al. (2015) stated that team building is a collective word
for different kinds of activities for boosting up social relations and assign specific roles to
individual members within the team. Teams are built with the intention of improving the
performance of the organization and maintain good relation among the employees of various
departments.
According to Parker (2011), there are some factors, which might pose to be a problem
within the teams and require instant resolving of the issues. The common challenges within the
team are listed below along with the ways in which they can be addressed.
The purpose or the goals of the team should be explained in the beginning of the activities.
Without a clear objective in the beginning, the team building is not effective as the members are
not aware of the work that they have to do. They lose their focus in the work due to particular
aim behind doing the tasks. Sometimes conflicts arise within the team if the individuals do not
agree with the team leader regarding the goals set for them.
Meetings within the team become formal and create tension. This leads to uneasiness among
the employees as they become unable to work in an uncomfortable environment. The first round
of meetings might make the employees a bit reserves but gradually they start worrying and
become loud if things do not work out in their way (Finkelstein et al., 2015). There might be a

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possibility that a certain individual is trying to weaken the bond among the team members by
instigating one against the other.
There is a lot of participation among the employees but they get little accomplishment in
return of that. There might be some teams, who waste more time in talking to working and it
disrupts the team environment. They might enjoy being an escapist rather than utilizing their
time in some useful work. If there is lack of participation and involvement among the team
members then the works are not achieved easily. A successful team always calls for a responsible
and valuable team member.
Ineffective communication within the team is a big challenge in terms of team building
within an organization. A team might consist of many talented people but their talent is of no use
if they are not ready to listen to the opinion of others. Effective listening is an important part of
team building and the consistency of good work is maintained when one member listen to the
opinion of others. Due to lack of listening among the team members conflicts might arise which
will lead to a disruption in the team and needs to be solved at any cost.
As per Landon, Slack & Barrett, (2018) team discussions are meant to be private and kept
confidential among the team members. However, there might be some individuals in the team,
who can leak the information and it might lead to a chaotic situation. A team becomes inefficient
if the indifferences are brought out in the public, because such matters need to be solved within
closed doors. Frank discussions with everyone over a meeting and putting forward the individual
opinions are the sign of a healthy team.
According to Tucker (2017), a team leader should be responsible for taking the ultimate
decision of any work related to the team. The team leader must be an individual of strong

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personality who needs to take into consideration others’ opinion before taking the final decision.
If the team members are not satisfied with the decision of the team leader or the person is not
widely accepted among the team members, then the team building will not be successful. An
efficient team leader is someone who encourages active participation of the team members by
engaging them in surveys, brainstorming and other such activities (Nariman & Chrispeels, 2016).
Internal conflict among the team members and trust issues are responsible for disruption
within the team. Trust and open communication should be an integral part of teamwork but
sometimes it is not followed. It is accountable for hampering the organizational performance as a
result. A team leader should take the initiative of maintaining the balance among the team
members by taking care of their comfort and asking them about their preferences.
Salas & Iwig (2016) stated that conflicts about the nature of work sometimes become a major
issue within the team. The mentality of the team members should be set in such a manner that
they are ready to accept the failure of others and provide them with the necessary guidance as a
remedy. If failures and wrongdoings are solved in such a manner then there is no necessity for
the external members of the organization to get involved.
According to Neumann et al., (2017) mainstream style of working in the team reduces the
effectiveness of working. Uniqueness and innovation is required among the team members to
maintain creativity in the work so that the team activities lead to a sustainable and competitive
advantage in the organization. Diversity is required while working within the team so that
different inputs from the individual team members can lead to a successful outcome.
If there is no assessment of the team, then the members will never know about the do’s and
don’ts of their behavior. They will not know the works that they are doing are accurate or if it

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needs some correction. It is very important for further progress of the team. Team assessment
must start from individual evaluation so that the team members get a scope to become aware of
their flaws (Stringham, 2012).
According to O’Malley et al., (2015), the most effective teams are formed out of diverse and
vibrant working styles. They not only are concerned about providing superior quality of work on
time and meet the target goals but also maintain an effective team environment and enquire
about the new methods that can be used in work. A team becomes efficient when he has the
concept of balance within the team. It does not refer to diversity in working styles but having the
capability of those styles, which are necessary for the team. The selection of team styles is
dependent on the stages of team building and teamwork. There are other new challenges for the
team, which might result out of the following causes.
Team members might not be placed close to each other
Team members belong to a wide range of functions (Riches, O’brien & CDS, 2017).
There is a cross- cultural communication as the members belong to different countries.
Members have the habit of working in different teams.
There is hardly any interpersonal communication and the meetings are mostly conducted through
teleconferencing.
Role of the leader needs to be specifically set, as it has become the top priority.
The expectation of management is gradually increasing from the team as they have become
stricter with the monitoring process (O'leary & Woods, 2014).

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Reader & Cuthbertson (2014) stated that teamwork does not take place by chance. Any
individual does not deserve to be a team player but they should possess cooperative and
competitive quality. An organization must keep it in mind that building a team is not sufficient
but it requires to develop proper plans for meeting the challenges faced by the organization at
different levels. For instance, the team leaders should have a control over the words that they are
using in front of the team members. The challenges can be overcome by setting a right vision and
important set of corporate values. The vision statements must be aligned with teamwork, quality
of tasksand ways of serving the customer and other similar goals and objectives (Reuter, Berndtt
& Timm, 2017).
Therefore, it can be concluded from this discussion that the challenges might be faced by the
organization in several forms such as executive, management, human resources, learning and
development and personal challenge. The challenges need to be overcome by going into the
grass root level and opening a scope for communication among the employees. Team conflicts
need to be resolved within the team by the team leader and it should not mix with other
organizational issues. The individual members of the team need to be groomed which will lead to
an effective teamwork. The age-old strategies should be modified to pave the way for new
strategies and the members must be accustomed with the same. The issues and challenges of
team building and teamwork can be addressed only by dealing with the matter at the initial
stages.

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