Effective Teamwork and Communication: A Reflective Essay

This reflective essay delves into the complexities of teamwork and communication, particularly within a diverse team comprised of members from various cultural backgrounds. The essay highlights the communication gaps arising from accents and cultural differences, and how these were addressed through structured weekly meetings designed to facilitate understanding and collaboration. It discusses the interpersonal and intrapersonal challenges that emerged, such as misunderstandings and conflicts, and the strategies employed to mitigate these issues, including time management and fostering open communication. The essay further examines the stages of team formation (forming, storming, norming, and performing) and how the team's performance was influenced by factors like team structure, management roles, and effective meeting practices. The analysis includes the use of Facebook Messenger for communication, the selection of peer-reviewed articles for presentations, and the overall impact of these strategies on improving team cohesion and achieving project goals. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of communication, team structure, and management in fostering a positive and productive team environment.

Reflective essay
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Introduction
The essay provides information on my views on working under a team. The problem has been
occur due to the communication gap in a team. My group consists of 2 Australians, 1 German
and 1 African member so an accent problem is always present. To diminish this, meetings are
arranged on a particular day in a weak where each individual shares their thoughts and ideas
about the project. Along with this, the intrapersonal issues are also discussed in this paper. The
paper also provides information about the role of each team member in the project. Furthermore,
the paper also gives an idea of the success of the meeting campaign and some idea are also
shared for the better improvement of the team.
Part 1
Interpersonal Dynamics
This is a method by which the group member can understand the language and needs of another
member who is belonging to other country. In my group 2 Australians, 1 German and 1 African
members are present so the group member cannot understand the language of other member and
hence issues will always take place. In a group, if all the team member work together then an
effective result will occur but due to the communication issue, a huge problem has been created
in between the members. Since the member are of different nation so diversity contrast is
present, and thus it is difficult to understand all the ascent of the member properly (Cannella et
al., 2008). Due to the presence of such diversity contrast misunderstandings has been created in
terms of knowledge and skills between each team members and if the team has diminished
communicating issue then no one can beat them to achieve their goals (Naranjo-Gil, 2009).
The main problem in my team arises due to the non-verbal communication. Due to this problem
the team member does not understand the needs, ideas and opinion of other teammates. As the
accent of the every member is different so it makes a huge problem to understand everyone's
language. Due to this communication problem, it is very difficult to run a team and hence it is
not possible to complete the work within the certain period of time (Beauregard, 2010). As the
culture of the different member are different so we will do meetings to understand their language
so that our team cannot suffer from such problems. The main objectives of the meeting are to
understand the accent of the language of our team members. One of the motive is to identify the
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positive and negative role of each member and how this effect on the group is also been
discussed in this meetings. Apart from this the ability to listen to other opinions and ideas also
become helpful for making a good team. In this meetings after understanding each of their
language the team member decides about their particular roles and responsibility and after that
the communication problem should reduce.
Intrapersonal issues
Intrapersonal issues occur in a single individual due to the different language of each individual
(Fiore, 2008). As per author Larsen, et al., (2008) the intrapersonal conflicts exist in a group as
the member present in that team are from different countries and they have different language for
their mode of communication. There are some sources that can possess this interpersonal
conflict. One is the miscommunication and the divergence factor that makes them frustrated for
talking to other people (Klein et al., 2009). Another source is the presence of arrogant attitude
that makes interpersonal issues. In a team different person with different personalities are present
and their point of view will be different in the same cases and hence a conflict is always present
in the team (Bonebright, 2010). On the other hand, less communication within the team member
also makes a huge intrapersonal issue.
The conflict can be reduced by the time management factor (Passos, et al., 2011). To diminish
the intrapersonal issue a time management course has been done where every member will meet
their team member once in a week. If we make a plan to meet with all the team members of our
group only of one hour in a weak then the communication problem between our group members
will also reduce. In that meeting, we will discuss what sort of problem we are facing and how we
can improve our communication skills to understand their language. Apart from this, we will also
try to understand their ascent so that no problems of miscommunication will arise in the future.
Along with this ensuring the feelings of the team member are also an important factor for
reducing the intrapersonal issues.
Part 2
Team performances
A team will run smoothly one when the individual member takes part in every event and after
that, a successful team will form (Mathieu et al., 2014). As per author Tuckman (1965) there are
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four stages of team formation those are- forming, storming, norming and performing. In the
forming stage the team member must be positive and polite. In this stage the leader played the
dominant role as the role and responsibility are not clear to each team member. For this, we have
made our meeting timings on every Thursdays from 10 to 11 am. In this meeting, every member
will present to communicate with each other so thus the intrapersonal, as well as interpersonal
issues, will decrease. If the meetings are continuous and then every individual can understand the
accent then only no conflict will arise within the team (Tenga et al., 2010). In the storming stage
the team member started to work with each other and thus the conflict between them decreases
slowly. For that storming phase we make facebook messenger as our communicating medium.
To communicate with the other five members we make a group in the facebook where we can
collaborate and discuss all sorts of problems related to our work. When the team member started
to work with each other they will then learn about the working styles of individual members. In
the third stage or norming stage team members try to solve their differences between each other,
respect the member as well as appreciate them for their work. Now the team member knows each
member better and help them together to provide a good feedback. Due to the managing
property, our team now has been developed to be a good team and the problem of
misunderstanding are now been decreases day by day. The last stage is the performing stage
where the team members work together to handle the situation without any supervision. All the
team members of our group take responsibility of making critical decisions and now they have
the power of problem-solving capacity. For this effective meeting, a positive work environment
is building up among the team members and the chances of making a good team hence increases.
The topic that is selected for the presentation is the ‘Effective meeting.' We have selected 8 peer-
reviewed articles for our presentation topic of which everyone has to bring a minimum of 2
articles and after that, the presentation articles are breaks into four different part where individual
work of his/ her has been discussed. Communication is the main factor for the growth of a team
which helps to improve the project of what they are working for (Mathieu & Rapp, 2009).
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Part 3
The process of the effective meeting can make a great success to the team member as well as the
group also. The meeting will thus reduce the communication barrier between each individual and
the team now thus make their full effort of making the presentation.
The factor that may improve the team processes are as follows:-
 Team structure: - A team composed of the work of individual members who gives their
appropriate opinions and ideas for the success of the project. So by selecting an
appropriate team leader the success of the project also increases. The dominating person
or who can understand the needs and roles of individual members will make a leader.
 Management role: - The team member will manage the team by setting an objective of
work. Each member of the group has to perform their individual tasks and give the report
to the team leader before submitting the project so no error can arises regarding the topic.
Conclusion
The work concluded that communication issue is the main factor for understanding every
member language. All the members of the group are allocated to meet on every Thursday from
10 am onwards and by doing this now the communication gap between us are reduced and now
slowly we are understanding their ascent. We make a group in facebook messenger where all
members discuss their thoughts and opinion about the project. The topic of our presentation is
‘Effective meeting’ and each individual will submit at least 2 articles related to this topic. Along
with this the meeting of every member once in a weak become very successful and the
communication problem between individual team members are now decreasing day by day.
Apart from this team structure and the role of management also influences to make a good team.
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References
Beauregard, T. A. (2010). Introduction: The import of intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics
in work performance. British Journal of Management, 21(2), 225-261.
Bonebright, D. A. (2010). 40 years of storming: a historical review of Tuckman's model of small
group development. Human Resource Development International, 13(1), 111-120.
Cannella Jr, A. A., Park, J. H., & Lee, H. U. (2008). Top management team functional
background diversity and firm performance: Examining the roles of team member
colocation and environmental uncertainty. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), 768-
784.
Fiore, S. M. (2008). Interdisciplinarity as teamwork: How the science of teams can inform team
science. Small Group Research, 39(3), 251-277.
Klein, C., DiazGranados, D., Salas, E., Le, H., Burke, C. S., Lyons, R., & Goodwin, G. F.
(2009). Does team building work?. Small Group Research, 40(2), 181-222.
Larsen, D., Flesaker, K., & Stege, R. (2008). Qualitative interviewing using interpersonal
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Psychology, 94(1), 90.
Mathieu, J. E., Tannenbaum, S. I., Donsbach, J. S., & Alliger, G. M. (2014). A review and
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Naranjo-Gil, D. (2009). Management information systems and strategic performances: The role
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Passos, P., Milho, J., Fonseca, S., Borges, J., Araujo, D., & Davids, K. (2011). Interpersonal
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motor behavior, 43(2), 155-163.
Tenga, A., Holme, I., Ronglan, L. T., & Bahr, R. (2010). Effect of playing tactics on achieving
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Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological bulletin, 63(6),
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