Challenges of Team Working

This article discusses the challenges faced while working in a team, including indecisiveness, conflicts, poor communication, and lack of participation. It explores the impact of these challenges on stakeholders and provides strategies to overcome them for better teamwork.

What are the challenges of
Team Working?

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Main Body...................................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................5
Appendix.....................................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Team work is defined to be a collaborative effort in which number of people work
together for the accomplishment of common goals and objectives (Lofgren, Leigh and Ramirez,
2019). The individual tasks and responsibility are assigned to each member which ultimately
results in fulfillment of team goals. The synergy which has been formed by group of members
results in fulfillment of tasks in an improved manner. This project focuses on identifying the
challenges which are faced while working in a team and determining the stakeholders who are
influenced the most due to the challenges faced.
Main Body
A business or project is not always able to achieve the ideal state as there is numerous
problem which are to be dealt with in a proper manner. The initial challenge that has been faced
during working in a team is that there is a certain degree of indecisiveness which lead to losing
an opportunity to perform or to achieve better results. This is one of crucial challenges which are
faced by business organisation as team consists of members which carry different set of
knowledge and experience. This situation makes it difficult to achieve an agreement on one
future set of actions. The indecisiveness of a team often results in delaying of tasks and unclear
expectations (Shuffler and Carter, 2018) This further contributes to team members getting
frustrated which further declines effectiveness and efficiency of the team. However, to deal with
such circumstances it is better to propose some idea/suggestion relating to the situation so it
helps in speeding up the process of decision making in the team. This approach will also be
helpful in dealing with different expectation of the stakeholders.
A team involves collaborative efforts of people carrying different personality and
expertise. These circumstances increase the probabilities of conflicts within team members. The
major cause of occurrence of team conflicts is that members are not agreeing to keep aside their
differences relates to tasks, methods or personalities and work together as a team. Team conflicts
can be categorized on various grounds such as task based, leadership based and most importantly
personality based conflicts (Alghamdi and Bach, 2018). Whatever types of conflict arises within
a team it is essential to take assistance of HR or leader to prevent the situation from getting
worse. These inevitable forces are to be dealt in an ideal manner so that they do not erode the
morale of the team and promote efficiency and effectiveness. It is responsibility of mediator to
make sure that conflicts are not suppressed but resolved so that better team relationships are
developed.
Communication stands to be one of the essential concept while working in a team.
Communication involves sending a clear and understandable message from one party to another.
However, this is not the case in all team working as they are to be face a major challenge of
improper or (mis) communication. It is a challenge which involves use of such channels and
language which are understandable by the other party ultimately resulting in poor performance of
the team (Power, 2018). There are certain sub-challenges to miscommunication which are to be
considered first before looking for probable solutions. Firstly, lack of clear message is one the
root cause of this challenge. If the message is tending to be unclear, people often assume things

and does not relate with context of the message. This approach results in relay of incorrect
information to the concerned. Secondly, use of jargon is another approach which results in
improper communication between the team members. A team involves members belonging to
different a different set of knowledge. Therefore, it is essential for a team leader to communicate
message in a simpler way so that it results in achieving positive outcomes.
The final challenge which has been faced by team is that there is a lack of participation
of team members in the work. This is one of the biggest challenge to productivity of the team as
some members are more focused on their personal agendas rather than on team work. During
team meetings, such members often remain silent and does not contribute their views and
opinion which acts as major barrier to team productivity (8 Reasons Why Teams Fail, 2020). The
possible areas through which lower participation of team members is failure to complete the
allotted tasks on time. Poor attendance in team meeting and tiredness of fatigue. Portrayal of
Such behavior by the team leads to poor performance and failure to achieve the determined
targets. Therefore, it is extremely important for management to take into consideration such
behavior and try to include them with some inclusion activities so that they feel part of the team
and contribute accordingly. The approach which can be helpful in dealing with such situation is
that all members of the team should share a coordinal relationship so that they work with each
properly. Another approach which will be helpful in dealing with a challenge of poor
participation is breaking a project into smaller manageable fragments so that progress is
frequently identified and evaluated (Van Vliet, 2017). With appropriate supervision and
guidance such situation can be easily improved with a team.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above report that a team faces numerous challenges named
as indecisiveness, conflicts, poor communication and lack of participation. These challenges
mostly arise due to difference in personality, attitude and knowledge and approach to
communication. Therefore, it is very important to take into consideration the underlying cause to
each of the problem mentioned so that better results could be availed. The involvement of senior
leadership or a human resource executive is a beneficial approach as the circumstances will be
prevented from getting worse and better results could be availed in context of a team.

References
Books and Journal
Lofgren, J., Leigh, E. and Ramirez, A., 2019. Simulating Global Strategic Challenges: A
Teamwork Perspective. In The Palgrave Handbook of Learning and Teaching International
Business and Management (pp. 541-563). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Shuffler, M.L. and Carter, D.R., 2018. Teamwork situated in multiteam systems: Key lessons
learned and future opportunities. American Psychologist, 73(4), p.390.
Alghamdi, A. and Bach, C., 2018. Developing Teamwork at Workplace. International Journal
of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI), 7(2), pp.28-40.
Power, N., 2018. Extreme teams: Toward a greater understanding of multiagency teamwork
during major emergencies and disasters. American Psychologist, 73(4), p.478.
Van Vliet, W.A., 2017. Multinational Teamwork and Nurses: Are Nurses prepared for the
Challenges of Globalisation?.
Online
8 Reasons Why Teams Fail. 2020. [Online]. Available through: <https://leadchangegroup.com/8-
reasons-why-teams-fail/>.

Appendix