HI6005: The Importance of Teamwork in Modern Organizations

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HI6005: Research Paper
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Management Summary:
The main purpose of this report study is to understand the importance of "Team". The general
framework is being discussed about the emergence of an effective team as the key feature of the
modern workplace. The complete report includes the individual components, these are the
effective stages of “Outline Tuckman” in the process of team development, application of the
effective decisions in various teams, the efficient physical structure being designed to facilitate
the framework and determining the effective ways in which the managers can promote the
teamwork. Every organization develops the standard guidelines and regulations which are
expected by the members of the organization to be fulfilled by them. None of the organization
can survive in a competitive market without effective and efficient skilled employees (Guchait,
2015). Like these, the organization can achieve the long-term defined goals and objectives with
forming the effective teams at different levels of the department in the organization.
The main responsibilities of the team leaders and the top-level managers in the organization are
to identify the arising issues and conflicts among the team members which are hampering not
only the enhanced growth of the team but also the overall productivity of the organization.
When the resources and skills of team members are utilized and allocated properly, then the
productivity and proficiency can be effectively enhanced in the organization. It is very necessary
to ensure that the aims and goals of respective teams must be in accordance to the common
organizational goal only, aiming towards attaining the benefits for various stakeholders of the
company. A complete well-defined structure must be framed and to implement the different
managerial approaches to achieve the defined goals. The main aim of complete management
summary is to focus on both the identification of increasing problems and determination of the
effective solutions to be implemented on time (Guchait, 2015). All the team members must be
given the effective training with the real-life examples so that they may feel motivation and
encouragement in doing and performing their tasks.
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Table of Contents
Management Summary:...................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................5
1. Outline Tuckman’s stages in team development identifying the leader’s role at each stage
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2. Study of managerial decision making to decision making in teams.....................................8
3. Examples of how the physical structures have been designed to facilitate teamwork.......10
4. Outline the ways in which managers might promote teamwork........................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
The effective groups consisting of the efficient individuals who work together in an organization
to achieve their defined goals and objectives is termed as the "Team". In the words of professor
"Leigh Thompson", "A-Team is that group in which the independent people are being included
in the context of information, available resources, and the efficient skills in order to combine the
multiple efforts of the people to achieve the common strategic goal of the organization." A
framework is being provided so as to increase the efficiency and capability of all the employees
working in an organization, which is the main purpose of building and developing effective
teams. With the help of groups, the employees can participate in the process of planning; give the
possible measure to solve out the major problems and participating in the effective decision-
making process so that the number of customers might increase in the organization (Sanyal and
Hisam, 2018). When the employees share their innovative views and ideas in implementing and
taking the important organizational decisions, not only their participation level get enhanced but
also the better understanding is being developed among the employees and the managers in the
organization.
The complete report includes the conceptual framework and all the determinants in relation to
the emerging effective teams in the organization. There are two main determinants for the
emerging teams in the organizations, these are: "the behavior of engaged team leaders and the
climate of the team." Under the determinant of the behavior of engaged team, leaders include the
sub-factors or sub-elements: "emotional agility, efficient delegation and the quality of the
feedback." Whereas, the determinant of team climate includes the three sub-elements: "the open
communication, fun during the work and the compassion with the complete team." Only those
teams are able to survive under the situations of strong pressure in the organization, which
possess both these factors and behaviors. The complete management and the HR department
need to implement those effective factors so as to enhance the efficient management in the
organizational teams as only then the teams can be able to work and perform properly under the
pressurized situations of the organization (Sanyal and Hisam, 2018). The effective department of
the team management can promote their respective teams with the use of available social
resources which are "team leaders' engaging behaviors and the effects team climate."
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1. Outline Tuckman’s stages in team development identifying the leader’s role at
each stage
The model of team development including the four stages “Forming, Storming, Norming and
Performing” was being published by Dr. Bruce Tuckman in the year 1965. The fifth stage of
“Adjourning” was being established by him in the year 1970. This model/theory is well-designed
and provides very useful information and method to develop the team effectively and improving
its behavior (Holmes, 2016). All these five stages are described below:-
 Forming: It may be said as the “orientation stage”, or that day on which the team is
introduced and the nature of everyone is very “polite & pleasant”. As everything is new
in this stage, so all the members of the team are very excited to meet each other in the
team and to start or establish the new things. Under this stage, the role of the leader is to
discuss plan about the following:-
 The background, interest and the efficient skills of all its team members.
 Determining the goals of the project.
 Setting up the standard time limit.
 Framing all the essential rules & regulations.
 Establishing the different roles & responsibilities of different individual team
members.
 Storming: This stage diminishes the excitement and politeness level of all team members
incurred in forming stage. The different personalities may create the hindrances in
achieving the goals of the project. Sometimes, the members can be against the decisions
implemented by the group leaders in this stage. Skipping out the small conflicts at this
stage will result in higher conflicts in the future. Hence, it is the responsibility of the
team leader to take and implement the necessary measures in order to solve out the
arising conflicts.
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 Norming: After going through the storming stage, the team members starts appreciating
the work performance of their other members of the team and the grooving is enhanced
of different teams in the organization. Everyone in the team started contributing their
effective participation in the group, in order to achieve the common organizational goal
(B.S. and Sumathi, 2016). The arising conflicts in the stage of storming may create the
big hindrances in this stage of norms, which can hamper the effective contribution and
participation of various team members. Therefore, the team leader is necessary to take
the appropriate action for solving the problems at their initial level, or else the goals may
not be achieved.
 Performing: This is the second last stage of ensuring the success. Same like the first
stage of “Forming”, in this stage also the team members are very confident and motivated
enough to enhance the execution of the project. Everyone becomes familiar with all the
other team members and perform with their full productivity and standard speed to
achieve the final common goal of the organization. Here, the role of the leader is to
handle those members who are still creating and getting into the conflicts and also who
are not working while coordinating with other team members.
 Adjourning: The fifth stage is an extension of all the above four stages. After the
effective execution of the project, the team moves towards the stage of "Adjourning". But
the permanent groups whose projects are to be executed for the longer period of time do
not come into the fifth stage (Porter and Wimmer, 2012). The effective role of leader
under this stage is to close the project of the team in a positive manner and also to
increase the morale and enhance the sense of loss which is being felt by all the team
members after the ending of the group.
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Figure: showing the Tuckman Theory of Teamwork.
(Source: Paych, 2018).
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2. Study of managerial decision making to decision making in teams
The various decisions which are to be implemented in the organization related to the determining
of the targets, growth rates, recruiting or selecting the efficient personnel and taking important
decisions for marketing or selling of the products and services, is called as the “Managerial
Decision Making”. All these decisions are not only required to be implemented by the top-level
managers for the overall organization, but also for the respective teams. The effective managerial
decisions must need to be taken in order to improve the motivational level and the increased
productivity so that the performance can be improved in an effective manner (Bergman, et. al.
2012). All the team members of the organization possess different complementary skills and
according to those efficient skills only, they must be assigned the tasks to them so that they can
give their 100 %. In order to implement the decision-making process more effective and
efficient, then the following factors are very essential to be considered:-
 Skills & Abilities of Team Members: There are different people in the organization
possessing different personalities and skills. When one person in a team is good in
sharing the innovative ideas, then the other member can be good in analyzing those
ideas and can provide the effective judgment for the project execution.
 The Size of the Group: The team must be filled with only the standard number of
efficient employees in the team as because then, larger the number of members in a
team, larger will be the level of complexities. The large groups must be operated with
the implementation of the formal and well-defined structure so that the responsibilities
and roles of different members must be coordinated efficiently (Bergman, et .al. 2012).
 Undertaking the Tasks: The higher priority tasks must be undertaken and
accomplished first. With the combined efforts and skills, the complexities and
challenges in completing the important tasks on time can be handled in a better way.
The decisions must be taken in a manner so that the matching knowledge and skills can
be combined effectively to overcome the major challenges.
 Communication: Without sharing the proper and complete information to the right
person, it is not possible for the organization to achieve the goals. Unless and until the
assigned responsibilities to each team member are not being shared with them and also
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the important decisions related to the project is not being shared with them, then the
members cannot work effectively and cannot achieve the defined goals. The changing
decisions and the accountability process must be communicated to all the team
members with the effective procedure of conducting the meeting so that they can be
focused on performing their assigned tasks.
Apart from all the above factors, there are various other managerial tactics and strategies with
the help of which the decision-making process in the teams can be enhanced. The managerial
leaders must build up and maintain the strong trust not only between the respective team
managers and their members but also among the different team members in the organization
(Bergman, et. al. 2012).
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3. Examples of how the physical structures have been designed to facilitate
teamwork
The physical structure of the effective teams in an organization includes the factors such as the
size, shape, the location, time limit, emphasis of organization and the limit of risks to be taken.
The small execution is being presented in the formal physical structure of the team. All the tasks
which are to fulfilled by the organization must be described in the organization. The complete
hierarchy is to be shown clearly with the proper delegation of essential tasks to be performed by
the respective team members.
Figure: showing the effectiveness of teamwork.
(Source: Luna, 2015).
With the help of an above diagram, it can be seen that all the necessary managerial activities
such as the leadership, roles, norms, size, the composition, must be framed and implemented in
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the context of the organization. All these activities must be implemented in accordance with the
organizational strategies, structure, resources, culture and the environment of the overall
organization. Also, the effective results must be towards the direction of attaining the
organizational goals (Delaruek, et. al. 2012). The combined efforts of different team members
must be enhanced in satisfying each member working in the organization and all the different
stakeholders of the company.
Figure: showing the model of teamwork.
(Source: Blohowiak, 2018).
The above diagram is the complete musical model of the teamwork, in which the effective
explanation is being given with using of the musical metaphors. The “Soloist” indicates the
individual contribution in the teamwork such as its special experience, the great freedom, putting
the solo/individual efforts, etc. The “Orchestra” includes the control of the organization
indicating the hierarchy, complete process of management, the process of planning, organizing
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and controlling, the defined common goals & objectives and the organizational cultural behavior
affecting the overall operations. That musical form which combines both the individual and
organizational efforts is being indicated by “Jazz”. Under this, all the essential tasks and
assigned responsibilities are cross-functioned, the mutual support by both the individual team
members and managers/owners of the organization are being cooperated and coordinated with
enhancing the complete effective trust among them and also enhancing the efficient sharing of
essential information or the communication process in the organization (Delaruek, et. al. 2012).
With the help of effective implementation of the formal physical structure of the teamwork, all
the team members are clear about their tasks and activities which are to be performed by them,
because of which the wastage of time gets eliminated (which can be utilized to other important
tasks) and the team members do not get confused as they are very clear in the physical models or
the structure.
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