University Leadership: Knowledge Questions Assignment

This assignment solution addresses key concepts in leadership and teamwork. It defines teams, differentiating between various types, including project, self-managed, virtual, and operational teams. The document identifies crucial group dynamics in the workplace, such as command, task, functional, and interest groups, and their influence on team performance. It outlines strategies for boosting team cohesion, participation, and performance, while also acknowledging and mitigating associated risks. The solution further details actions to achieve team consensus, addressing potential challenges. Finally, it presents logical problem-solving actions in the workplace, providing practical examples applicable to diverse team settings. This assignment is a valuable resource for understanding and improving leadership and team management skills.

Running head: KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS
Knowledge Questions
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS
1. Definition of a team, with explanation of different types of teams external to and
within a workplace.
Team can be defined as a group of individuals, who work together for the purpose of
achieving any specific goal or objective. It is the group of people, who are absolutely
interdependent in respect to resources, skills, knowledge and information and also who seek
to combine their respective efforts for achievement of a common objective (Lockwood,
2015).
There are 4 major types of teams that are external to as well as within any particular
work place, which include project team, self-managed team, virtual team and finally
operational team.
i) The first important and significant type of team is project team. These are present
within the workplace as well as external to and the members collectively work towards
shared objectives and they enable the employees in structuring work within a time
constrained manner.
ii) The members of a self-managed team are the individuals, who are working in the
same company and has the aim to reach to a common goal (Stocker et al., 2016).
iii) The virtual team is made up of members, who are working in separate physical
locations and are dependent on collaboration tools.
iv) An operational team is responsible for supporting any other type of team and these
are being formed for ensuring that the back office processes are operated properly.
2. Identification of different group dynamics that operate within a workplace and
process of supporting or hindering team performance and outputs.

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KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS
Different group dynamics are eventually relevant in both informal and formal groups.
Group dynamics majorly concern about group formation, their process and structure as well
as their functionality. There are different types of group dynamics, which include:
i) Command Groups: These are being specified by the respective organizational chart
and comprise of a supervisor and different subordinates, reporting to the supervisor.
ii) Task Groups: These comprise of different individuals, who are working together
for achievement of a common task and also accomplish the goals (Tsai et al., 2015).
iii) Functional Groups: These are being created by a company for achieving specified
objectives in an unspecified time frame.
iv) Interest Groups: These majorly continue over time and last longer than the
informal groups. The members are not from the same organisation.
These different group dynamics are responsible for supporting or hindering team
performances and overall outputs to a high level and hence better effectiveness and efficiency
is being gained under every circumstance. Few stages of group development include forming,
storming, and norming, performing and adjourning.
3. Different strategies applied for supporting team cohesion, participation and
performance with different risks which can emerge and how these should be managed.
The various strategies that can be applied for supporting maximum team cohesion,
high participation as well as performance are as follows:
i) The first strategy is to communicate with the staff. Being absolutely clear with the
staff regarding purpose of the work and common goals, would help the organization in
increasing their team cohesion (Necşoi, 2015).

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KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS
ii) It would also be beneficial to commit to development of staff and offer feedback to
the employees.
iii) The next strategy is to encourage collaboration amongst the employees and being
consistent.
Different risks that could emerge from the strategies with their mitigation techniques
are as follows:
i) Performance issue is the major risk that can emerge and the most significant method
to mitigate this risk is by improving team collaboration to a high level.
ii) The issue with resistance to change is yet another popular risk that is present in a
team and proper communication can reduce the impact of such risk.
4. Identification of 5 different actions that can be applied for obtaining consensus in a
team with discussion of different situations that might occur and types of challenges
observed.
5 different actions, which could be applied for gaining consensus within any
particular team are as follows:
i) The first action is to ask for their commitment and held up front, so that better
effectiveness is gained without much complexity.
ii) The next action is to communicate with them to make them understand about the
support required from them for making the work a successful one (Amin, Kamal & Sohail,
2016).
iii) Moreover, a meeting should be conducted with them for finding out the major
concerns that are being prepared for the meeting.

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KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS
iv) The fourth action is to interview the team members for ensuring that the
individuals comprise of a full understanding of the concerns.
v) Proper selection of appropriate employees in the team is the next significant action
for this purpose.
Different situations or challenges that might occur in the process of obtaining
consensus in a team include lack of positive vision or support from the team members and
hence issue can arise related to lack of team morale. The other issues include individuals
unable to sharing any type of feedback to the senior management.
5. Logical actions to be undertaken when problem solving in the work place with 3
examples of process to be applied in different teams.
Few relevant as well as logical actions that are required to be undertaken while
solving problems in the work place are as follows:
i) Utilization of a hypothesis driven approach is the most significant logical action
that can be taken for solving any type of problem in a work place.
ii) The second action is to ensure that the solution is absolutely simplified and does
not comprise of any complexity (Sanz Martínez et al., 2016).
iii) Consideration of the time factor is yet another significant action that can be
undertaken for this purpose.
3 examples of processes that are to be applied in different teams in work place are as
follows:
i) Proper analysis of different factors, which contribute to any type of unwanted
situation for evaluation of data.

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KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS
ii) Generation of specific interventions for achievement of a common goal is the
second example for this purpose.
iii) Evaluation of the best solutions after proper analysis of different ideas and
collaboration.

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KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS
References
Amin, S. U., Kamal, Y., & Sohail, A. (2016). The relationship between transformational
leadership and project team performance: Assessing the mediating role of a project
team management education. Apeejay Journal of Management Sciences and
Technology, 3(3), 1-12.
Lockwood, J. (2015). Virtual team management: what is causing communication
breakdown?. Language and Intercultural Communication, 15(1), 125-140.
Necşoi, D. V. (2015). Team and team management-a practical approach. Educația
Plus, 12(1), 317-328.
Sanz Martínez, M. L., Ortega Arranz, A., Dimitriadis Damoulis, I., Cristóbal, M., Juan, A.,
Martínez Monés, A., ... & Rubia Avi, B. (2016). Identifying factors that affect team
formation and management in MOOCS.
Stocker, M., Pilgrim, S. B., Burmester, M., Allen, M. L., & Gijselaers, W. H. (2016).
Interprofessional team management in pediatric critical care: some challenges and
possible solutions. Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 9, 47.
Tsai, W. C., Kung, P. T., Wang, S. T., Huang, K. H., & Liu, S. A. (2015). Beneficial impact
of multidisciplinary team management on the survival in different stages of oral
cavity cancer patients: results of a nationwide cohort study in Taiwan. Oral
oncology, 51(2), 105-111.