Reflective Case Study: Key Components of an Effective Team

This case study provides a reflective analysis of the key components of an effective team within an organizational context. The author explores their personal experiences with teamwork, defining its importance and contrasting teams with groups. The study delves into different types of teams,...Read More

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
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Organizational Behavior
Reflective Case Study
(Student details :)
5/19/2019

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Contents
An effective teamwork: Hitting a performance target together.................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
My effective team......................................................................................................................2
What is teamwork to me........................................................................................................2
My analysis about growing popularity of teamwork in organizations...................................2
Contrast teams and groups.....................................................................................................3
Types of teams in organizations.............................................................................................4
Self-managed work teams..................................................................................................4
Problem-solving teams.......................................................................................................4
Virtual teams......................................................................................................................4
Cross-functional teams.......................................................................................................5
Periodic reflection for understanding workplace behaviour......................................................5
Case study questions..................................................................................................................5
Example answers........................................................................................................................5
Summary....................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................6

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An effective teamwork: Hitting a performance target together
Introduction
This discussion is focused on writing a reflective case study on the topic of key components
of my effective team in the context of organizational behaviour. Moreover, the purpose of
this reflective case study is to emphasize on the problems which can be faced by the
employees of the organizational teams for a successful completion of any project. In this
context, firstly, I will develop my awareness about the way in which organizational teamwork
occurs within organisations as well as its associated benefits. Furthermore, I will demonstrate
understanding over workplace behaviour, which can be greatly informed through periodic
‘reflection’ (Hirsch & McKenna, 2008). In this way, with the help of writing this case study
on teamwork I will identify the value of reflect upon and analyse, issues which considerably
influence the behaviour of employees within the workplace.
My effective team
What is teamwork to me
In my opinion, teamwork is the most essential skill, which modern employers seek into their
employees. During my experiences, I realized that without teamwork no skills gain could be
possible as it is the opportunity of learning different things on different topics from different
people. In the beginning, working in a team within an organization setting was a real puzzle
to me. I learnt that team building is all about how a leader create great levels of team efforts
when they he or she also telling everyone in their team that their jobs and roles are
disappearing at times (Bevacqua, 2018). In addition, my observation during my past
teamwork events suggests that an individual like me is capable to celebrate our successes as
well as provide a positive mindset for the future to all.
My analysis about growing popularity of teamwork in organizations
While working in teams, I have understood why teamwork has become popular in these days.
If we look back then few decades ago, when organizations like Volvo, W. L. Gore, and
General Electrics introduced teamwork into their organizational functioning, it has created
news for all because no other company was doing it. Now, the case is just opposite and any

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organization, which is not using teams for achieving their vision, and mission is becoming
newsworthy. Hence, working in teams is getting popular everywhere (Markovich, 2018).
Contrast teams and groups
According to me, my effective team as well as my active participation made me learn the
differences amid organizational teams and groups. My personal experience of working in my
team at my previous organization suggests that groups and teams are not at all the same thing.
In this context, I would like to express my knowledge on group work. To me, a group work is
one in which a group of people interacts majorly to share info as well as take decisions for
helping each group member while performing within their area of organizational
responsibility (Hirsch & McKenna, 2008). In this way, whenever I worked in-group work
tasks, then i did not get an opportunity of engaging in a collective work, which needs joint
efforts. On the other hand, I also learnt a lot over teamwork while working in teams at
organization. In my opinion, teamwork really generates a positive synergy while providing
co-ordinated efforts. I observed that I my team all individual efforts resulted in a level of
performance larger than the total of our individual inputs (Belbin, 2012). Therefore, below
figure is effectively showing the comparison between work groups and work teams within an
organizational context.
Source: (Quain, 2019)
In this way, I learnt that how teamwork occurs in an organization for the success and growth.

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Types of teams in organizations
Source: (Colenso, 2012)
In this context, I have compared and contrasted four types of teams while working into teams.
I learnt that teamwork can make products, negotiate deals, offer quality services, offer good
advice, co-ordinate organizational projects as well as make right decisions (Colenso, 2012).
Based on my experience of working in teams I am going to describe four significant types of
teams within an organization. The four types of organizational teams are:
Self-managed work teams
My experiences of working in teams taught me that self-managed teams are the employee
groups who effectively perform highly interrelated organizational tasks as well as take on
most of the responsibilities of the former supervisors. Hence, the tasks of these teams can be
defined as assigning tasks to members, planning and scheduling work, making functioning
decisions, as well as working with both the customers and suppliers (Markovich, 2018).
Problem-solving teams
I observed that problem-solving teams comprise 5 to 12 hourly employees belongs to
common department who work together for few hours each week for discussing different
methods of enhancing efficiency, quality, and the organization environment (Quain, 2019).
Virtual teams
My learning over different types of teams includes an understanding about virtual teams. I
realized that the teams who do not meet with each other frequently but work together comes
under this category. Besides, these teams utilise information technologies such as computer,
laptops, Skype or uniting physically dispersed team members in order to attain a common
goal (Bevacqua, 2018).

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Cross-functional teams
Based on experiences related to teamwork in organizations, cross-functional teams are made
up of employees belong to the similar hierarchical level while own different function areas
and they work together for accomplishing a common organizational task (Bersin, 2016).
Periodic reflection for understanding workplace behaviour
Here, my understanding on workplace behaviour is greatly informed through a periodic
reflection practice. In this context, I have realized the value of reflecting on as well as analyse
issues which impact the workplace behaviour of me and my team-mates within the workplace
(Belbin, 2012). Here, workplace can be an organization, a teamwork or career development
activities and workshop modules. While reflecting upon teamwork in organizations as well as
its benefits I learnt that reflection is a way of learning by doing. My learning over
organizational behaviours occurred from teamwork experiences suggest that periodic
reflection practice should be adopted by everyone so that challenges and weaknesses can be
addressed well during future workplace functions (Hirsch & McKenna, 2008). For an
example, a person is attending a workshop on cross-cultural communication to become a
cultural intelligent personality while working at their organization then they should write a
periodic diary containing reflections. In this way, writing reflection in a diary form
periodically will allow him or her to evolve their personality for the betterment of their
organization.
Case study questions
1. Why cross-functional teams are more complex than virtual teams? Is the response is
having any connection with technology use.
2. How the major functioning factors differ in case of work teams and work groups?
(Goal, skills, synergy and accountability)
Example answers
1. The main difference among cross-functional and virtual teams is of their connectivity
while working into teams. Cross-functional teams are having different responsibilities
and accountabilities related to organizational functions while virtual teams are the

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same department employees connected with the technological means (Markovich,
2018).
2. Factor like synergy, goals, accountability and skills differ when we talk about work
teams and work groups because goal of work groups is sharing info while for work
team’s goal is achieving collective performance of the team. In this way these factors
differ for both the scenarios largely (Hoch & Kozlowski, 2014).
Summary
In whole, I have evaluated the role of team working skills into an organizational context for
evolving my future workplace behaviours. Besides, this case study will also assist readers
include employees, new interns and students to understand the teamwork’s importance into
modern organizational behaviour scenario.
References
Belbin, R.M., 2012. Team roles at work. London: Routledge.
Bersin, J., 2016. New Research Shows Why Focus On Teams, Not Just Leaders, Is Key To
Business Performance. [Online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2016/03/03/why-a-focus-on-teams-not-just-leaders-
is-the-secret-to-business-performance/#6a294dea24d5.
Bevacqua, J., 2018. The Benefits of Team-Based Organizations and Faster Growth. [Online]
Available at: https://risepeople.com/blog/team-based-organizations/.
Colenso, M., 2012. High performing teams in brief. London: Routledge.
Hirsch, P.L. & McKenna, A.F., 2008. Using reflection to promote teamwork understanding in
engineering design education. International Journal of Engineering Education, 24(2), p.377.
Hoch, J.E. & Kozlowski, S.W., 2014. Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership,
structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of applied psychology, 99(3), p.390.
Markovich, , 2018. Introduction to Team-Based Organizations. [Online] Available at:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/introduction-teambased-organizations-15259.html.

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Quain, S., 2019. Advantages & Disadvantages of Team-Based Organizations. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-teambased-
organizations-25370.html.