Is Establishing Teamwork Difficult in Organisations - Coursework Example

Name Class Unit Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Introduction 3 Success and failures in establishing teamwork 4 Challenges 4 Establishing successful team 6 Tuckman model 7 Management and leadership in effective team building 8 Leaders 9 Role of structure in team effectiveness 10 Conclusion 10 References 11 Executive summary This report analyses the statement “Is establishing teamwork difficult in organisations?” The report starts by looking at both virtual and actual teams. It’s established that building effective teams are not easy in all organisation. The report asserts that while some organisations can come up with effective teams easily, other faces challenges. The report points out that based on Lencioni model, all teams have capabilities of being dysfunctional. The dysfunctions faced by teams are; absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment and inattention to results. The paper looks at team management as a change process. The main challenges are resistance and limitations in decision-making leading to the ineffective team. For an effective team building process in an organisation, the report proposes Tuckman’s and Hackman’s models. Organisation management should be involved in team building to enhance its effectiveness. Managers help to create a team climate. Leadership in a team is also required in making it more effective. Team leaders facilitate understanding within a team through team mental models. Leaders motivate team members and also raise efficacy. The report asserts that the team requires a structure that enhances communication and free flow of information. Finally, GPRI is another model that can be used for team effectiveness. The report concludes that establishing teamwork can be difficult or easy based on team building approach used by the organisation. Introduction A team is composed of number of people who are committed to a common purpose and approach. Team members hold themselves mutually accountable for the achievement of their goal and outcomes (Turaga, 2013). There are high cooperation and coordination among the team members. Organisations have been working hard to establish teams to enhance production. Teams have been associated with increased organisation innovation. Establishing a good team is an organisation change and development process. This means that teams are exposed to all challenges that occur during an organisation change process. There are two types of teams, virtual team and actual team. A virtual team is made up of individuals located in diverse geographical regions and collaborating for a common goal (Hertel, Kondradt & Voss, 2006). An actual team involves members in an organisation workplace working collaboratively for a common goal. This report will determine whether establishing teamwork is difficult in organisations. This will be carried out based on theoretical perspectives on teamwork. Success and failures in establishing teamwork Most organisations understand that teamwork is essential for their performance. This has made a lot of organisations to work hard in enhancing teamwork in their organisations. In most of the Fortune 500 companies, they declare teamwork as part of their core values. Despite the success of teamwork in some organisations, it has not worked in others. Some of the organisations have tried to come up with teams but have failed. Instead, their efforts to come up with teams have led to infighting and departmental silos. Some of the organisation leaders fail in coming up with cohesive teams in their organisations. Building a team in an organisation requires behaviour change and strong leadership. Challenges According to Lencioni model, all teams have the potential of becoming dysfunctional (Lencioni, 2006). This makes it crucial to understand the type and level of dysfunction in order to enhance team functioning. Lencioni model is based on five potential dysfunctions in a team (Lencioni, 2006). These dysfunctions are; absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment and inattention to results. Foundation of trust is based on members being able to admit their mistakes and weaknesses. They are supposed to be ready to show their valuables to team members and seek help (Meade & Iles, 2013). When these fail to happen, the outcome is a lack of trust. When there is no trust, teams cannot be able to engage in effective debates. Team conflicts at this point become veiled discussions. Team members in these cases are unable to give their views leading to poor decisions. When there is no conflict, it becomes hard to commit decisions. Ambiguity prevails in these situations, and workers lack clear direction (Lencioni, 2006). There is no clear plan and employees become hesitant to take accountability. This becomes counterproductive for the team (Meade & Iles, 2013). When egos drive team members or seeking recognition, they become inattentive to results. This hurts the business in great way. Both virtual teams and actual teams pose challenges to organisations. Coming up with a high performing virtual team have been a challenge for most managers. It’s vital to look at building team as a change process. Change processes involve resistance. There is resistance as the employees are made to work in a team. This can occur in a team as the employees resist working with members who they are unfamiliar with. Teamwork may also involve an increase in workload. This occurs where team members are forced to do extra for their teams on top of conventional roles. With teamwork, there is empowerment. Employees are given additional responsibilities such as decision-making. Though some of the employees may prefer this, not all will like it. This may lead to some of the employees losing morale and alienation (Meade & Iles, 2013). When this happens in a team, there is poor job satisfaction and reduction in performance. Lastly, a challenge may occur when teams are limited in their decision-making capabilities. This is as a result of management having low trust in team decision-making abilities. This makes the team not to utilise their full potential in the organisation. For example, teams may be required to seek permission before implementing their ideas. The teams thus have reduced ownership that leads to low level of innovation since not all ideas suggested are implemented. In some cases, team decision-making takes long time than in the system that they replaced (Gallie, Zhou, Felstead & Green, 2012). Organisations that face the above challenges have implemented teamwork in the wrong way. Establishing successful team For the virtual team, managers’ faces challenge in enhancing effective communication, relationship and conflict resolution (Horwitz, Bravington & Silvis, 2006). Knowledge management is very vital in modern organisations to ensure they have a competitive advantage (Berry, 2011). Based on Hackman’s model, team effectiveness is made up of five categories. These are organisation context, group synergy, group process, material resources and the group design. This model can be applied to the virtual team to enhance their effectives. Tuckman model Teams in an organisation are composed of members new to each other or those who have worked together before. Bringing new members into a team have always been carried out through socialisation (Randall, Resick & DeChurch, 2011). For a new team in an organisation, they have to undergo the process as described by the Tuckman’s model. Tuckman model uses four stages in which teams are developed. The stages are; forming, storming, norming and performing (Turaga, 2013). In the forming stage is the first stage and team members are new to each other. They try to know each other and fit into the group. In this stage, there is little work done. At the stage, the group agrees on their goals and comes up with rules that they will abide by (Turaga, 2013). The storming stage is characterised by members arguing with each other. At this stage, if team conflict is not used for organisation gain, there are high chances of disillusionment. There may be forming of cliques which thrive on unhealthy conflict. The conflict that is generated at this stage can be used to enhance creativity and come up with a wide range of views (Wang, Waldman & Zhang, 2014). Team which never solves their differences at this stage remains divisive making them ineffective. In the norming stage, team members can appreciate the existing differences and work together in focusing on their goals. The management has a task at this stage to ensure that group think does not occur. Groupthink occurs when group members decide to maintain harmony and avoid differing opinions (Turaga, 2013). The performing stage is the last one on the Tuckman’s model. At this stage, there is a high level of trust among the members of a group (Meade & Iles, 2013). Teams become highly productive, and they agree on common goals. Management and leadership in effective team building Organisations that use typical team building processes have been very ineffective. This is due to the fact that some of the organisations use an external consultant to help in team building. An external consultant lacks familiarity with the organisation characteristics and its employees. For an organisation, Use of offsite activities based on the artificial setting act as a hindrance to effective teams (Mathieu & Gilson, 2012). These settings cannot be able to reflect the work characteristics fully making it hard to transfer skills learnt in them. Failure to utilise the manager can be a cause of the ineffective team. Managers are a major resource for team building. They play a crucial role in ensuring that there is team climate in the organisation (Bens, 2012). Team building is an ongoing process in an organisation. This makes it a managerial responsibility and cannot be taken by an external consultant. This is a task that cannot be undertaken by the third party. The management must have a framework to use so that they can create an effective team. This is a framework based on team building literature and should be action oriented (Mathieu & Gilson, 2012). Organisation managers’ makes decisions that affect teamwork hence their role in team development is critical. Managers can play a role in team coaching and offering leadership. Team coaching is considered as part of leadership (Hackman & Wageman, 2005). For the team leaders, they have to engage in behaviours that are aimed at fostering effectiveness and structuring in a team. Leadership is the central driver of team processes. Leadership in a team is responsible for solving problems that may impede the organisation from achieving their goals. Leadership acts as a link between the team and broader environment. They have a crucial responsibility of defining events for the team. Leadership thus plays a role in defining the required team responses (Wageman, 2001). Leader performance actions contribute highly to the team performance. Leaders Research has proved that effective team performance and coordination depends on having accurate shared mental models (Zaccaro, Rittman & Marks, 2002). The team models play a major part in ensuring that team members are capable of anticipating other members’ actions. This reduces communication and processing that is required for team performance. Shared mental models imply that team members can share their understanding based on their experience on expected behaviour patterns when in the action. Team leaders have a crucial responsibility in ensuring that they facilitate shared understanding among team members (Zaccaro et al., 2002). Team mental models have an influence on the leadership on coordination and performance of the team. Leaders raise team motivation through different motivational practices. Leaders have a central responsibility of ensuring that they raise the collective efficacy of the team. Efficacy is based on the team history of having effective achievements, modelled behaviours, persuasion and having social influence (Zaccaro et al., 2002). Leaders are thus supposed to use these strategies to come up with effective teams. Effective leaders are expected to model task strategies that will enable enhance confidence in their teams (Day & Antonakis, 2012). They are also expected to model the team into working together. This leads to healthy interactions among team members. Leaders are expected to exhort team members into working hard towards achieving their goals (Hackman & Wageman, 2004). Team effectiveness is based on team capability to coordinate their actions. Role of structure in team effectiveness Organisation structure plays a role in team effectiveness. Teams thrive best in an organisation where the structure allows free flow of information and efficient communication (Senaratne & Samaraweera, 2015). The organisation must ensure that they have a structure that is well understood by teams and their supervisors. Teams also have their hierarchy where they process information. Through an effective team structure, it is possible to have an effective team (Mealiea & Baltazar, 2005). The team must have a leader, distinct roles, quality control and a conflict resolution mechanism. An effective team is a major driver of organisation success. Despite this, effective teams take a time to evolve and become viable. The GPRI model is one of the models that can be used for team effectiveness. This model stands for Goals, Processes, Roles and existing Interpersonal relationships (Meade & Iles 2013). This model claims that a team is supposed to start with a team level goal. When this goal has been defined, team members can have a clear view of their goals and responsibilities. After this, team members redefine their roles and responsibilities that help in adjusting team processes (Belbin, 2012). This is a model that can be utilised in creating an effective team in an organisation. Conclusion Establishing teamwork can be difficult or easy based on an approach used by the organisation. For some organisations, they perceive the task of coming up with an effective team as highly difficult. Despite this, some of the organisations have been able to come up with effective teams without difficulties through utilising the right process. Being an organisation change process, an organisation is expected to face some challenges. Based on Lencioni model, all teams have the potential of becoming dysfunctional. It’s, therefore, the role of the organisation to ensure that they identify team weak points and strengthens them to have a functional team. Understanding team building processes such as Tuckman’s model can help a lot in reducing challenges faced. The role of management and leaders should not be ignored when coming up with effective teams. A team should have a structure that enhances the flow of information and contribute to efficient communication. Teams take time to be effective and utilising the best models in creating teams makes it easy for the organisation. References Bens, I. 2012, Facilitating with ease! Core skills for facilitators, team leaders and members, managers, consultants, and trainers. John Wiley & Sons. Belbin, R. M. 2012, Team roles at work. Routledge. Berry, G. 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