Individual Essay: Importance of Teamwork in the Workplace for H&M

This essay examines the critical importance of teamwork in the workplace, particularly within the context of H&M, a multinational clothing retail company. The essay begins by defining teamwork and highlighting its role in achieving organizational goals, fostering innovation, and creating a positive work environment. It then delves into two prominent teamwork theories: Tuckman's stages of team development (forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning) and Belbin's team role theory (shaper, implementer, complete finisher, coordinator, team worker, resource investigator, plant, monitor evaluator, and specialist). The essay provides examples of how H&M applies these theories to enhance productivity and achieve its objectives. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of teamwork for improving employee satisfaction and ensuring the completion of business goals. The essay is supported by references to relevant literature and journals.

Individual Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
Theories of Teamwork ............................................................................................................1
Examples for Teamwork Theory ..............................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................5
.........................................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Teamwork in a workplace is an important factor for the attainment of organisational goal
in an effective and efficient manner. It creates human synergy and enable the company to foster
high performance and effective working environment in workplace. Apart from this, it allows an
organisation to gain innovative ideas and thoughts from different individuals which enhance their
business growth and its function (Fall and Hartwig, 2016). In context to H&M, a multinational
clothing retail company which is commenced in the year of 1947 and its headquarter in Sweden.
It mainly known for its working culture which enable them to attain higher level of efficiency
and customer satisfaction. This report include an individual essay on the topic of importance of
teamwork in workplace, for clear understanding of teamwork there is a application of various
theory like Tuck-man theory and so on is also mentioned here.
Theories of Teamwork
Teamwork means working with a group of people in an effective manner to accomplish a
goal or outcome. An effective and good teamwork states listening to others members of team,
taking everyone ideas into consideration and working for the good of group rather than
individual gain. Apart from this, teamwork environment promotes an atmosphere that foster
friendship and loyalty. These close knit relationships motivate employees in parallel and align
them to work harder, cooperate and be supportive of one another (Logan, 2016). Moreover,
good teamwork structure enable the company to adopt diversity of thought, creativity,
opportunity and problem - solving approaches. An effective and productive teamwork allow an
individuals to brainstorm collectively, that enrich H&M success and create healthy working
environment. Moreover, in H&M it is known for its effective teamwork which allow them to
take initiative in adopting innovative ideas, which in turn creating competitive edge to achieve
goals and objectives (Ruch and et. al., 2018). Along with this, sharing differing opinion and
experiences strengthens accountability and enable them to take fair or effective decision. There
are several theories which provides a deep understanding of the concept 'teamwork' such as
Tuckman and Belbin which ensure an organisation to maintain strong and healthy working
environment in order to accomplish business goals and objective. Therefore, in order to attain
high productivity H&M applies theories of teamwork which is described below:
Tuckman Theory of Teamwork

Tuckman theory is considered as a basis for effective team building as it is developed in
1965. This model or theory is significant because it ensure H&M to recognise the fact which
groups do not start off fully formed and functioning. In this theory, it consist various stages i.e.
from their creation as group of individuals, to cohesive, task focused teams. The stages of
Tuckman theory are as follows:
Forming stage: This is the initial stage of development of teamwork during which
individuals have not yelled together but rather its a kind of orientation program. Every
individuals of H&M team introduce themselves to each other and share their objective or
interest.
Storming stage: After introducing with each other individuals begin to see themselves as
part of team (Lyons and Kuron, 2014). However, in this stage they may challenge each other and
the team leader as the team starts to address their task and share within themselves. Different
ideas generate compete for ascendancy and if badly managed, this stage can be destructive for
H&M team and they will be remain stuck in forming stage.
Norming stage: As the team moves out of storming phase they enter into norming stage.
This tends to be a move towards harmonious working practices with team agreeing rules and
values by which they operate. In ideal situation H&M team begins to trust themselves during this
phase as they accept vital contribution of each team member (Odio, 2019).
Performing stage: Not all teams make it to till performing stage, which is essentially an
era of high performance. Performing team are identified by high levels of respect in
communication between team members.
Adjourning stage: This stage is the final phase of teamwork in which their assigned task
get finished and each of them receives their recognition of effort. In this H&M, leaders appraise
their team members work and vice versa which impact their working culture and effect its
productivity. Thus, during this H&M stage team leader should handle the situation very
effectively in order to attain high productivity and profitability.
Belbin Team role theory
Belbin's theory states that there are nine roles which need to be occupied within any team.
Although there are nine team roles, this doesn't mean that a team needs nine people in it to be
effective. An individuals will tend to have more than one preferred team role, so will often

occupy more than one role in team. Thus, H&M implies Belbin team role theory in order to
create effective working culture are as follows:
Shaper: This role provides necessary drive to ensure that the H&M team keeps moving
and does not lose focus or courage to overcome obstacles.
Implementer: In this role, H&M needed to plan a workable strategy and carry it out as
efficiently as possible.
Complete finisher: This role signifies identifying errors and polishes them in order to
attain highest standard of quality control (Massenberg, Spurk and Kauffeld, 2015).
Coordinator: IN this, H&M focus on team's objective, draw out their team members and
delegate work appropriately which enhance business growth.
Team work: Under this role, team members uses their versatility and capability in order
to work cooperatively with each other.
Resource Investigator: In this, H&M team uses their inquisitive nature and finds ideas to
bring effective teamwork.
Plant: IN this, team tends to be highly creative and good at solving problems in
unconventional ways (Mencl and Lester, 2014).
Monitor Evaluator: Under this, it provides a logical eye, making impartial judgement
where required and weighs up team option in dispassionate way.
Specialist: In this role, H&M team brings in depth knowledge of key area to the team.
Examples for Teamwork Theory
In every organisation, teamwork plays a vital role as it enable the company to create an
effective working environment which enhance business growth and improves the morale of
employees in an efficient way. However, H&M applies Tuckman theory which involves several
stages (Mathieu and et. al., 2014). For eg: In H&M, its team leader undergoes all teamwork
stages i.e. forming, storming, performing, norming and adjourning for accomplishing business
objectives. has to identify its members potentiality and interest and provide them a good
working condition in order to improve their morale and increase company's brand image. Apart
from this, they implied Belbin team role theory which contains nine roles which plays a crucial
role in enrich their productivity and profitability. For eg: In H&M, each individuals has unique
characteristics and capability which challenge team leader in managing them. However, H&M
team leader provide better guidance and direction and giving them enough opportunity to

develop their skill or capability. By this, H&M can obtain high level of productivity and
proficiency in an effective manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussed essay, it has been concluded that teamwork is regarded as an
essential element as it motivates unity in workplace as well as it allows the workload to be
shared which reduce the pressure on individuals. Moreover, teamwork theories such as
Tuckman and Belbin team role theory that enable the company to enhance optimization of
performances and improves job satisfaction as well as ensure them to complete their business
goal within a set time frame.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Fall, K. A. and Hartwig, E. K., 2016. USING CHOICE THEORY TO CONCEPTUALIZE CO-
LEADER RELATIONSHIPS IN GROUP WORK. International Journal of Choice
Theory® and Reality Therapy. 36(1). p.81.
Logan, T. R., 2016. Influence of Teamwork Behaviors on Workplace Incivility as It Applies to
Nurses. Creighton Journal of Interdisciplinary Leadership. 2(1). pp.47-53.
Lyons, S. and Kuron, L., 2014. Generational differences in the workplace: A review of the
evidence and directions for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 35(S1).
pp.S139-S157.
Massenberg, A. C., Spurk, D. and Kauffeld, S., 2015. Social support at the workplace,
motivation to transfer and training transfer: a multilevel indirect effects model.
International Journal of Training and Development. 19(3). pp.161-178.
Mathieu, J. E and et. al., 2014. A review and integration of team composition models: Moving
toward a dynamic and temporal framework. Journal of Management. 40(1). pp.130-160.
Mencl, J. and Lester, S. W., 2014. More alike than different: What generations value and how
the values affect employee workplace perceptions. Journal of Leadership &
Organizational Studies. 21(3). pp.257-272.
Odio, M. A., 2019. The Role of Time in Building Sport Management Theory. Journal of Global
Sport Management. pp.1-17.
Ruch, W and et. al., 2018. Team roles: Their relationships to character strengths and job
satisfaction. The Journal of Positive Psychology. 13(2). pp.190-199.