Communication and Ethics Assignment

Running head: TEAMWORK, COMMUNICATION AND ETHICS
TEAMWORK, COMMUNICATION AND ETHICS
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
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TEAMWORK, COMMUNICATION AND ETHICS
Teamwork is extremely important in present day workplaces as it helps to work in
coordination with colleagues and seniors within a team to achieve common goal at a faster pace.
It provides the company as well as the staff to develop the ability to become more familiar with
each other and also to learn about working together. It not only helps in supporting each other
but also helps in assimilation of ideas that bring creativity and innovations on the work floor
(Weller, Boyd and Cumin 2014). It helps in fostering creativity and learning along with
development of complementary strengths. It has been also helpful in preventing any conflicts
between the team members by building string bonds between them. Besides, helping in
development of conflict resolution skills, it also helps in the development of a wider sense of
ownership among the team members creating a supportive environment (Manley and Martin
2016). Effective communication is often important in order to develop teamwork and to world
successful results. For effective communication, important ethics also need to be followed. This
following assignment will mainly help in establishing the interconnected relationship between
effective teamwork, team performance, team communication and ethics in communication. This
will in turn be helpful in understanding how each of the terms related with team work and
organizational success.
Often individuals in an organization need to align their interest together and work in
coordination with other members in order to achieve common. This is called teamwork. Dochy et
al. (2014) are of the opinion that when colleagues work together, it helps in higher productivity
and improvement in morale and overall quality product or service. If there is any conflict
between the staffers, it can lead to potential negative impacts like inhibition of effective
teamwork, delaying of projects, cost overrun situations along with decrease in effectiveness o the
work. One of the most important attribute for effective teamwork is group dynamic. All the team

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members should understand and comply with the organizational objectives including short terms
as well as long term strategies (Stephens et al. 2016). This would make sure that all the members
are working to meet common goals while performing their everyday tasks. This results in
maintaining strong team dynamics and helps in achieving company’s goals. Another important
attribute that enhances team effectiveness is mutual accountability where team members make
promises to each other along with that of leadership (Salas and Rosen 2013). It is very important
to develop a culture of responsibility, obligation and support from each other and also by
effective leadership to foster accountability. Team performance can be enhanced by individuals
being responsible about own work and duties and tracking individual as well a group progress.
The team should help the struggling individual by providing support and should also create
positive pressure to deliver results without disappointing each other. The third attribute which
enhances team performance and maintain the team environment is giving each other the power to
make decisions. Lowe and Mcinnes (2015) are of the opinion that transparency helps in inviting
more creative suggestions in the team creating a more collaborative environment. Here, everyone
feels respected as they believe that their suggestions are considered important which make them
enthusiastic towards team work. This increases team performance. Collaborative leaderships also
increase team effectiveness by building proper relationships among the team embers helping
them to succeed individually and accomplishing the mutual objectives. Proper motivation can be
given to team members by allowing them to take decisions to bring out radical changes. Another
important aspect for increasing team performance is utilizing the individual strengths of the
members to achieve bigger goal. In any workplace, different individuals come with his their own
set of skills, talents as well as strengths. It is very important for all teams to utilize the unique
skills of each individual by proper planning for the benefit of the entire group to maintain profit

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in the overall effectiveness of the business. An open minded attribute should be possessed by all
team members in order to maintain team communication. Effective feedback giving and
receiving skills are also found to be extremely important to develop the quality of the work of
each individual and also maintain an environment of transparency among the team without
inviting team conflicts (Russ et al. 2013). This had been stated by researchers to break the ice
among team members and prevent them from having negative feelings about each other.
Moreover, the team members should also be aware of the cultural preferences and inhibitions of
their team members an do not indulge in any activities that harm the cultural traditions and
feelings of their fellow members. When all these are maintained effectively, a proper team work
can be ensured which will result in higher team effectiveness and team performance.
Although teamwork acts as an important tool for meeting the organization goals and
developing business skills and function, it can also create several issues. It can result in
development of tensions and anxiety among employees that may act as barriers in achieving
goals. Effective communication in teams can help in eliminating the stress and negative feelings
among team members making them enthusiastic and perform beyond their capabilities (Sacks et
al. 2015). For development of effective communication, team members should first develop an
open mind, a clear understanding of the organizational goal and also developing the habit of
active listening. Active listening is one of the most important aspects of effective communication
which involves proper note taking, asking of relevant questions and then repeating what the
speaker had said to verify it. Effective communication makes the team members succeed in their
projects because it enhances open mindedness giving scopes to individual in asking questions
rather than making assumption about each other (Gausvik et al. 2015). This helps in building
trust and harmony in the working environment. Another important aspect of effective

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TEAMWORK, COMMUNICATION AND ETHICS
communication which enhances team effectiveness is marinating a two way feedback. It is very
important for every team member to learn the ways by which detailed and constructive feedback
should be given for increasing team communication. Care should be taken so that the skills of
offering feedback can coach the team members rather than creating extra boundaries for them. A
two way feedback is stated by the researchers to enable team members to self evaluate and
develop skills and features (Martin et al. 2015). Effective communication is also helpful in
prevention of many issues that may arise from unclear instruction and miscommunications.
Effective communication actually helps in clarifying the roles and responsibilities of every team
members that reduces the chance of improper role clarity of members. When there are fewer
misconceptions, the chances of failure of projects reduce. Effective communication helps in
clarifying conception, expectation and also behaviour of each different role of members (Merry,
Weller and Mitchell 2014). Meeting together socially and engaging in both formal and informal
communication gives team members a chance of relaxing together without the boundaries of the
work environment and helps to know each other better. This assures better relationship building
and effective results in teamwork. Moreover, ensuring intercultural communication skills are
also important to overcome language barriers in a multicultural environment. Proper knowledge
about other cultures is extremely important in effective communication as it helps in portraying
certain customs and body language that is respectful to the individuals of other cultures. Having
culturally competent communication skill are indeed very necessary in maintaining effective
communication in global companies. Offering effective training about proper communication
skills and building good team spirits through effective communication can help in reaching the
organizational objectives at a faster pace (Mater and Ibrahim 2015).

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TEAMWORK, COMMUNICATION AND ETHICS
Ethical communication in teamwork mainly refers to the moral aspect of interaction with
a team to ensure proper teamwork. This mainly helps in enhancing of the human worth and
dignity by fostering the main values of human worth and human dignity. These can be achieved
only when the team members have the right values gathering by proper fostering of the
truthfulness, fairness, personal integrity, responsibility and also respect for self and the others
(Carlson et al. 2017). The main attribute requiring for maintain ethical communication in
teamwork is development the feeling of caring and self responsibility not only for oneself but
also for the other group members. Many researchers over the years have provided many
important attributes that they state to be helping in development of ethical communication in
team performance. Truthfulness, accuracy, reason as well as honesty are very important for
maintaining the integrity in the communication which ensures effective relationship development
and trust on each other. Another important principle for communication ethics in workplace in
teamwork is the endorsing of the freedom of expression, diversity of the perspectives as well as
tolerance to dissent for achieving the informed as well as responsible decision making which is
fundamental to proper teamwork to succeed in team efficiency. Another important ethics that
every team members should maintain while working as a team is to understand and respect other
communicators before evaluating and responding to them or before creating any assumption
about them and their working skills. It is very important for the individuals to have complete
access to different communication resources as well as different opportunities which are indeed
necessary to fulfill human potential and also to contribute to the well being of the team and the
team members for effective communication (Thistlethwhaite 2015). As an individual of team, he
should try his best to condemn and disapprove any communication that degrades not only team
members but also humanity through distortion, intimidation, hatred, coercion, intolerance or

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violence. One of the most important ethical principles that every human being should surely
practice while working in a team is committing to oneself about the courageous expression of
personal convictions in order to maintain fairness and justice. One of the most important ethics
that should also be maintained in order to maintain team performance and team effectiveness is
advocating successfully by sharing information as well as opinions and feelings when facing
significant choices. At the same time, the individuals should ensure that they are respecting the
privacy and confidentiality of the other members (Mater et al. 2015). Researchers are of the
opinion that unethical communication threatens the quality of all types of communications. It in
turn hampers the well being of all the individuals of the team members as well as the
organization where all are working. It is very important for all team members to accept the
responsibility for the short term as well as the long term consequences for not only the own
communication but also expect the same from others.
From the entire discussion above, it is seen teamwork is extremely important for
achieving a common goal of an organization. While working in a team, it is extremely important
for members to maintain an effective communication and maintenance of transparency and open
mindedness. Accountability and sharing common set of goals are extremely important for
maintaining proper teamwork. One of the most important aspects of team effectiveness is
effective communication; it reduces the chances of misunderstanding and also helps in
marinating role clarities. Proper communication can be achieved by active listening techniques
and also by development of two way communication methods. Giving and receiving of
feedbacks also ensure that proper communication is maintained. Intercultural communication
skills are also necessary for maintaining global teamwork. Also maintaining of communication
ethics during team work also ensures higher team performance. Maintaining truth and dignity as

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well as responsibility and social justice are essential for communication. Proper information
sharing, opinions and also feelings are necessary as ethical communication strategies.
Disapproving any communication climates that enhance the distortion, intolerance, coercion and
hatred are indeed very important to maintain ethical communication. These are indeed important
to be maintained in workplace so that no ethical conflict arises during communication in
workplace. Team performance and team effectiveness can only be ensured through the above
mentioned strategies and techniques which will help in achieving not only the goals of the team
but also help in aligning with the mission and vision of the organization successfully.

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References:
Bovee, C.L., Thill, J.V. and Raina, R.L., 2016. Business communication today. Pearson
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Carlson, John R., Dawn S. Carlson, Emily M. Hunter, Randal L. Vaughn, and Joey F. George.
2017 "Virtual team effectiveness: Investigating the moderating role of experience with
computer-mediated communication on the impact of team cohesion and openness." In Remote
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Dochy, F., Gijbels, D., Raes, E. and Kyndt, E., 2014. Team learning in education and
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Gausvik, C., Lautar, A., Miller, L., Pallerla, H. and Schlaudecker, J., 2015. Structured nursing
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Manley, K. and Martin, A., 2016. Transforming the workforce through systems leadership and
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