Effective Communication and Teamwork at Ca City Retail Group afe - Case Study Example

TEAM EFFECTIVENESS Name Institution Contents Executive Summary Effective communication and teamwork is vital to the performance of an organization in meeting its goals and objectives. We evaluated how a team manager of Ca City Retail Group café who has been frustrated by the team’s poor performance employed different strategies to improve the team’s cohesion and ultimately raise the performance of the team. The creation of the key performance indicators as well as team motivation strategies are used to identify roles of each team member, which are consistently evaluated and improved upon through frequent communication. Furthermore, the setting of short-term goals and long-term goals allow the team to have a clear vision of what is required of the as individuals and as a team. Employment of conflict management and negations strategies to solve arising issues helps in developing a good working relation among the team member. Finally, we conclude that a manager can increase the performance of teams through motivation, monitoring, and evaluation and acting of the feedback obtained as well as ensuring effective communication. Introduction A team can be described as a group of people with a collective responsibility, accountability and work together to in a accomplishing a defined task. Factors that promote team effectiveness include effective communication, monitoring, and evaluation, team goals, support from team leaders (managers), effective ways of handling conflicts, and having good role models. A manager must instill good skills to his team while developing it to ensure high performance. This essay seeks to review that how such strategies are implemented to the increase overall performance of the team in CA Retail cafe that includes the chef customer service (cash register) and customer service (dining areas). 1. Ways of addressing poor performance There are several ways in which the manager of CA City Retail Group Café can use to address the issues poor performance experienced in that the service delivery. These ways include conflict management, negotiation skills, and providing directions advising. Additionally, a manager should guide the team with particular emphasis to their job descriptions and the purpose entailing their job to enable the provision for good service. Each member of the team has particular skills in which he/she can contribute to the team to increase its productivity. a) The chef has the responsibility of ensuring that quality food is delivered which is up to the required standard to the customers. b) Customer service at the cash registry has the role of ensuring that orders are taken promptly and maintaining the timely meal delivery as well as assisting each client in a courteous manner. The employees should also ensure that service delivery should be in line with the organization policy c) The customer service at dining areas should mainly ensure that the cleanliness standards of Ca Retail café are up to standard required. 2. Specific team goals for team members to ensure productivity There are specific goals that each team member should achieve to ensure higher productivity in the retail cafe which include; a) The chef needs to ensure that food quality is of the expected standards and that it is ready on time so that the customers are served efficiently. b) The customer service staff at the cash registry should ensure that orders are taken within the first minute from when a customer walks into the premises and ensure that the order is delivered within 10 minutes as per the policy by informing the team members in the dining area on time. c) The dining area customer service should make sure that the dirty dishes in the dining area are cleared on time as well as delivery of that food within ten minutes as per the customer policy 3. Monitoring and evaluation The manager needs to provide Key performance indicator as well as key result after which the manager offer specific target to each of the team members concerning their job descriptions. Key performance indicators and key results areas have to be assessed individually and as a team. Similarly, individual and group performance needs to be evaluated to evaluate how the team is performing. The KPIs help to reveal the members who are not performing as expected thus the manager can help the sharpen their skills through training. The KPIs used may include the number of customers served by customer service by each member of at the cash registry and the dining area. While chefs’ performance can be measured through, feedback obtained from customers. The overall team performance can be measured by looking at the sales and customer feedback. 4. Policy creation to encourage performance Effective team communication and team’s open communication concerning performance and team cohesion is very vital to improvement the performance in an organization. Effective team communication mainly allows for good and work relations to that help avoid conflict. It is achieved by trusting that other team member will deliver on tier duties, constructively sharing with one another to improve overall performance as well as listening and understanding what other team members are saying. Additionally, it is the role of the team manager to inspire the team members by carefully listening to their needs and being open to new ideas. For instance, the team manager for CA Retail café can initiate a policy that stresses on always counter checking with another team member on what to do in a situation that one is not sure what is supposed to be done. This policy will ensure performance growth among all the employees. 5. Three ways which managers can support team members to achieve goals There are several ways in which a team manager can assist his team members achieve growth. First, the team leader should ensure that every employee is familiar with his or her job description and the task that he/her is supposed to perform. Managers should monitor and evaluate the performance of the team individual and collectively and constantly give feedback, formally or informally to those employees that are underperforming on their duties. It is also necessary for the team manager to follow up on the progress of each employee Thirdly it is the role of a team manager to ensure that the team works cohesively and, therefore, setting policy that allows openness and team communication will allow a team member to share constructive information and trust one another’s performance. 6. Performance evaluation checklist There is need to gain high-performance output in order for CA Retail Café to achieve high-quality standards of service Long-term target (within one month) To develop a cohesive teamwork that will provide quality services to customers and highly satisfy our clients. Key deliverables for each team member Chef Take stock of the raw ingredients and place order for low run food material. Ensure that cooks are punctual in their work. Ensure food materials used for cooking are fresh and are based on the customer preferences. Ensure that food is cooked on time and meets the required standards. Ensure every order is not overcooked or under cooked before delivery. Communicate effectively with customer service (cash registry to ensure order received promptly Communicate with customer care dining areas to ensure food is delivered promptly Customer service (cash Registry) Welcome the customer politely while taking the order. Ensure that ach customers order is team with the next five minutes of entering the café. Inform the customer knows that his or her order will be available within the next ten minutes. Process payment quickly and give change where needed. Liaising with the chef to ensure that orders are clearly received Customer service (Dining area) Ensure timely cleaning of tables after customers are done taking their meals. Ensure timely clearance of dirty dishes from the dining area. Liaise with the chef to ensure meals are provided within ten minutes of order Monitoring and evaluation Team manager will review the performance of the tasks on a daily basis and offer informal advice and guidance to employees who are not yet clear on tier roles Team meetings will be held every Friday to review the progress of each and the team as a whole. 7. Reward Program. The manager should reward individual team members who meet the required monthly targets. A reward program will lead to health competition, which leads to high productivity in the team. Additionally, the manager should reward the team if they meet the set target to motivate the team. 8. Conflict management Conflict management is vital in conflict resolution among team members. The manager has first to identify the cause of the conflict. Secondly, the manager should ensure that the problem is not taken personally by clearly analyzing all the angles related to the conflict. Thirdly, the manager should allow everyone involved in the conflict to contribute while maintaining neutrality. The manager should ensure that the outcome of this intervention is an agreeable solution to the problem so that the employees can work together in harmony. 9. Role modeling behavior For a manager to become a good role model of organization and staff, he should be strong and supportive. These aspects imply that he believes in his decisions and should be consistent in performance. Additionally the manager needs to have integrity and honest. Furthermore, he should have a high professionalism in his management role 10. How role model affect internal and external stakeholders Internally, a good role model inspires employees to become respectful towards the manager and inspire the employees to work harder. Furthermore, a good role model manager also affects the top management who may offer the manager more responsibility as well as endorsing his conduct to be adopted in other areas of business. Externally a good role model manager can attract potential clients as the café may gain a good reputation in the community .additionally the clientele of the café are also positively inclined to remain loyal the services being offered. 11. Effective communication with stakeholders For a manager to maintain effective communication, he should ensure an open and honest communication chain with all the members. Effective communication ensures that misunderstands are avoided. Secondly, the manager should work to prevent miscommunication by understating the behavior and style thereby allowing the availability of the diversity of persons. The manager should also be able to listen carefully to what others have to offer so that he can enrich his ideas by acting on their feedback. 12. Appropriate types of communications It is crucial that the right type of the communication method is used to efficiently diffuse the information at a different level of authority. For example if a CEO would like to pass along a message to the managers, it is more likely that they will meet face to face or the CEO may send an email detailing he information that the CEO wants to communicate. On the other hand for a manager who is closely linked to the employees the best mode of relaying information would be face to face if such information requires high alertness while a notice or a memo that would be distributed to all the employees. In our case, face to face is the most appropriate method of communicating with the team members. 13. Corrective action When a manager finds out that, a customer is not satisfied with the café’s services or the quality of the food there are several ways in which he can take action to avoid bad publicity. For instance, if a customer is unhappy with his sausages roll, which he finds undercooked on top of having waited for 20minutes, the manager should offer to give the customer a complimentary sausage roll, remove the undercooked ones, and apologize for the long wait. Furthermore, the manager should talk to the chef and ensure that such an incident should not occur again. Conclusion For a manager to have an effective and cohesive team, the manager needs to learn how to empower and motivate the team members by monitoring and evaluating the team while providing constructive feedback. The manager should establish an open communication system that would avoid misunderstanding and improve service delivery. If all the discussed matters are handled excellently, CA City Retail Group Café will achieve the expected results. Read More