Performance and Operations Management - Coursework Example

Leading and Managing Teams

Introduction

Teamwork is the collaboration of more than two people to complete a task. In a team, individuals work together and aim at particular objectives and goals. Teamwork offers an alternative to the vertical chain of command. The vertical chain of command is the hierarchy of reporting relationships. This is a scenario where the organization establishes a power system from the top to the bottom. The power system states, “who answers to whom”. However, teamwork combines the chain of command and collaboration of individuals. Teams comprise of leaders and a group of members. Teamwork is becoming the most convenient way of accomplishing goals and objectives in enterprises and institutions. Effective team management can lead to work efficiency and students motivation.

Synergy is the concept behind all teams. Synergy states that individuals can significantly achieve in a group than as an individual. People working in a team have more ideas to accomplish a task and for that reason, a team is better and smarter than an individual. Conversely, teams face various challenges that can make them fail to achieve set goals, or even disintegrate. The process of making a team is the initial stage that determines whether a team would succeed or fail. As a result, the team making process should be conscious of purpose, idea size, creativity, and membership. In class work situations group discussions and teamwork is essential to the students in performing given tasks. This essay discusses my personal experience on the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of a teamwork in a school environment.

Question 1

Communication

Basing on my personal experiences in the class groups, I have realized communication in a team is essential. In my class Group, communication has acted as an efficient determinant of success. The element has not only brought cohesiveness in the group, but has also facilitated efficient sharing of ideas among the group members and leadership (Aase 2013 pp. 238). Good communication among team members advocates for the exchange of ideologies and knowing the statuses of one another. In other words, everyone in the team knows how the others perform in class work. My experience in the group has vividly demonstrated how effective communication is a necessity in a progressive class group. During group meeting in different business sessions, our team leadership ensures constant communication and follow-ups by taking each member contacts number. Whenever anyone needed clarification or explanation on tasks assigned, they were free to communicate to any person in the group (Bacon 2013 pp. 682). This was important in meeting class deadline and good performance in class subjects.

Cohesiveness

Cohesiveness means togetherness. Therefore, team cohesiveness is the bond that group members establish among themselves. Since a team is a collaboration of different individuals, it is essential that individuals work together and create a social bond that facilitates group commitment and necessity of collectively achieving group’s objective and goals. Additionally, cohesiveness makes the team intact and reduces any chances of some members separating from the group (Bennett 2015 pp.10). In Elton group, we have a strong cohesive bond among the members. Every individual in the group is responsible to one another. Ideally, team members help each other on the class work and make frequent communication to towards the progress of each member. Colleagues in the group had the preference to interact with each other, and this was evident during the school clubs and game times. My group members walked together in threes discussing and sharing ideas with other groups and students. The team members have the pride with their identity. Evidently, we wear purple t-shirts that have the team logo during school competitions. We feel a sense of identity that improves the group’s commitment and collaboration to achieve the set goal

Adaptability

Adaptability is the process where an individual embraces the changes in the environment or situational changes. Adaptability of a group is the situation where team members are flexible enough to clinch on the changing curriculum and changes to the school programs. The team strategies, workflow, and goals should adapt and align to the changes in the programs. My experience in Elton group has taught me that adaptability is a necessary element in any group. Contemporary issues always arise in any particular tasks taken by the group. The management of the contemporary issues can either make or break a team. As a result, the decision-making processes in our group were collective and considerate to the emerging problems in the team. As part of the decision-making committee in the business group, we value prudence and integrity that bases on the ethical values of the group. We make decisions by taking into account long and short-term goals of the group. However, the group made some amendments to fit the changing environment in the school. For example, we had to develop a community-cleaning program on every Monday that replaced financial management discussions. This was because of the increasingly environmental population caused by polythene papers and other non-biodegradable materials. Adaptability facilitates early and easy task completeness among members (Cater 2014 pp. 176). Noteworthy, the element improves the group interpersonal relationships as members diversifies their roles and understand each other.

Goals

Goals are the culmination of the milestone. Goals are used to measure and track progress in any particular group. Goal setting is essential for every team. However, it can be challenging in some situations, especially when the goals are fractions of what is necessary for the group. To avoid such situations, groups and enterprises should strive to identify the ultimate purpose of the projects. Goals make team members committed to the task assigned and meet class work deadlines. In the business group, we have different goals that depend on the type of project and its impact on schoolwork. At the initial stages of the group formation, every group members had a suggestion on the type of goals to be set. The team collectively made prudent decisions to set goals that encouraged team building and team development. The team unanimously settled on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education in business. The goal has facilitated task efficiency, easy work processes, and project productivity. Using the ultimate aims of the group, we created team morale and better ideas to accomplish the class projects. The goals also create a healthy working environment, as every member understands their roles in the group (Doyle 2016 p. 54)

Conflict Resolution

A group may have all the qualitative elements but Conflicts may arise among the group members. Conflicts can occur due to undefined role and responsibilities in the group or feelings that one person’s ideologies are suppressed or overlooked. Additionally, Conflicts can arise as a result of the difference in beliefs (Duus 2014 pp. 244-257).Some members may feel their ideas are superior and more viable than the other members’. In all the cases, a group should develop ways to curb and solve conflicts whenever they arise. My membership in Elton youth group has improved my scope of knowledge on conflict resolution as a vital element in team efficiency. Different experiences in conflict resolution have made the team to thrive and create a healthy working environment for both the management and the group members. Last year the team members had conflicts with the Directorate. The members believed that the team leaders were using their position to creative authoritative and dominant ideas over the standard ideas made by group members. The team solved the conflict by reshuffling and force resignation on some members of the leadership team. After settling the disputes among the members, we created trust, and students were more committed to their work. The team clearly defined the tasks and work productivity was increased.

Question 2

Integrity

Integrity is the moral uprightness. In other words, integrity is the virtue of being honest and upholding ethical codes. Leaders with integrity have sound moral principles that guide them in decision-making and interaction with their group members. Integrity is the utmost leadership skill that leaders should embrace. Integrity entails four sub-elements, namely: doing things the right way, being honest, avoid gossip, doing your best in any situation. The priority of any leader should be to do the right thing at all times. The team should uphold its values against personal interests (Nikolakaki 2012 pp. 247). This means that whenever a leader is challenged with irregularities he or she should overcome using the moral codes. Leaders should stand up for their team at all times. The importance of integrity is that brings cohesiveness and trust among the team members and the authority. As a result, it leads to productivity and growth of both team members and class work performance

Confidence

Confidence is self-assurance in a person. A person believes in one’s ability to do things. Leaders should recognize their ability and weakness. The recognition of abilities and weakness makes a leader confident enough in a particular task. Ideally, when a leader has a weakness in a particular job he or she involves other members to help accomplish the task. Confidence is important because make leaders to be decisive and have no control stress. The virtue helps a leader in planning and sticking onto the plan. Additionally, the leader manages stress because of acknowledgement of weakness where he or she involves other team members to help instead of straining (Molteni 2013 pp. 137-145).

Motivation skills

Motivation means to encourage, inspire, and energize people. A leader should be able to mentors members and bring the best out of them in the projects assigned. Besides, tea leaders should develop talents in students and encourage them to use the skills productively. Motivation skills in leaders entail the followings elements; team leaders should have the virtue of quick praise and appreciation (Epstein 2010 pp. 21-29). Congratulating a colleague or a group member not only brings motivation but also builds talents. An ethical leader should avoid staying quietly upon individual’s success and criticizing people publicly. An ethical leader should back his/her staff. Defending your team interest before personal interests shows commitment in leadership. Essentially, backing your team implies following the collective ideologies that form the team’s backbone. Finally, motivation skills involves helping out others in times of difficulties. Team leaders should provide solutions to challenges facing members with inexperienced skills and poor class performance. Motivation is important as provides courage and improves students’ motivation resulting to improved classroom performance.

Innovative

Innovation is the process of implementing new ideas or concepts in a particular area. An innovative leader should be creative and flexible. An ethical leader always understands that it is not new ideas that hinder the processes of innovation rather it is the team structure. Weak structures in an institution or a group inhibit innovations (Haas 2016 pp. 70). Additionally, a leader should allow creativity among the team members to produce new ideas that are essential to innovation. The importance of innovation is that it creates new ideas that are vital in providing contemporary and long-term solution to issues within a group. Creativity facilitates specialization and talents. When people develop skills in particular subject area, it assures the productivity and growth of the team.

Question 3

Group members have various roles to perform in teamwork depending on whether a member is a leader or follower. In the context below, I assume both a member’s role and leadership role in the Group.

My role as a Follower

Being a member of the group, I facilitated communication in the team. I am the interface editor in the group. Since communication is an imperative aspect of any team. I took communication department of the group to a next level. With a subgroup of 5 other members, we facilitated the group Magazine. The group magazine is 15-paged black and white magazines that state the programs and advertisement of the team. The magazine has gone some extra miles to cover some educational articles that encourage and increases the student’s knowledge on financial, accounting and business management. Additionally, the magazine has the lineup of programs that the team is going to launch. Despite the success of producing the group magazine, I have not been able to create the magazine regularly. The magazine was to be produced after every Saturdays, but due financial constraints, the publication of the magazines is still on a monthly basis.

As the member of the team, I have contributed to the group’s cohesiveness on various occasions. From the description above, we learn that cohesiveness is the bond that binds different group members of the team. Personally, I have created the trust relationship with all members of my team including the team management. I believe the decisions from the team leadership because I believe they come along because of prudence and collective consideration of the team interests (Roark 2014, pp. 82). Evidently, there are many occasions that I initiated or promoted cohesiveness. For example, during the National Business Program (NBP), I was the among the team members that perpetrated for cohesiveness in the team. I encouraged my fellow team members to form smaller groups to discuss with other students. Before the meeting, I had suggested for the print out of team t-shirts that could be used in the event. The facilitation of the t-shirts on time was an evidence of a well-planned and organized program. However, I would have wished that the t-shirts were varying in size as some of the team members could not fit in them. This made them feel outcast during the business-training program. The training was a success as the team shared with other students’ ideologies on business management, financial administration, and accounting. Despite the efforts, we put on training and group works, students’ grades in the business course is still below par.

Being a member of the group, I highly valued adaptability in the group. The group had to be dynamic to the changes of the college management and the increasingly demand of the students in Bruce College. However, the curriculum as a whole also experiences some auto dynamics that prompts the team to change its objectives and goals at some point. In a subgroup of 5 members, we discussed the emerging issues and suggested the solutions of each problem. However, before implementation of the solutions, the subgroups had the mandate to present their ideologies to the whole group for audit (Svanbjörnsdóttir 2016 pp. 109); I vividly remember suggesting a cleaning program on every Monday evening instead of the financial management discussions. I suggested the program because of the observable substantial material pollution all over the environment. The polythene bags had become a disaster in the community. The program comes as a handy solution to the environmental pollution that had become an emerging issue and needed attention more than the financial group discussions. The program had fruitful results as the community environment like a show of a well-thought program and organization of the team. Conversely, I would have involved the community workers and the whole surrounding community in the programs, as they felt left out in the cleaning processes. The program worked miracles for the team, as more people were willing to join and fund our group because of its friendly policies to the environment. The community management failed to advocates and promoted the policies I had presented to them on environmental conservation

I have contributed to the accomplishment of the group’s goals and objective. Last year our group set goals of enlightening the whole Bruce College and the environs about the importance financial managements. The knowledge was to be passed through various training and events that had to plan and fixed in the group’s calendar. As the communication editor, I was responsible for editing and setting events for the group. I drafted a workable and realistic calendar of events. I did well in developing the schedule of events as it saw the group achieve its objective and goals. However, some team programs would occasionally clash with the curriculum programs I could have carefully looked at the civic calendar events before drafting the team events. A few adjustments we made to the schedule as the year progressed made the team to have a fruitful and eventful year. Even though we achieved a lot of objectives and goals last year, we failed in to attain some goals (Siha 2015, pp. 21).

Many team members called me “counselor” because of my capabilities to solve situational conflicts in a prudent and ethical manner. I contributed to the team conflict resolution in various occasion. As a member of the team, I valued peace and expressional freedom in the group. The agencies drove me to arbitrate conflicts among my fellow team members. Because of the experiences of the team, I was chosen to represent the team members' committee during a conflict resolution meeting. The battle involved the management and the whole group. During the meeting, we advocated for the reshuffling of the management team and the resignation of some leaders due to irregularities. However, the resignation of some members from leadership affected the team performance.

As a Leader

I lead the group during Annual Financial Training (SAFT) in London. I assembled all the team members early in the morning to board a bus at the Bruce college gate. I used the follow-up contacts from the team’s register. Previously, I had arranged the trip with the help of the organizing secretary of the team. He had consolidated all names of the team members that were to attend the training. The trip to London was adventurous and fascinating. However, the training had the ultimate impact on the group. As much as the group were actively training the public another community members on financial management the team gain a lot of experience from the training. Students were also able to learn new ideas from other teams and enterprises. I felt happy as the team leader of the group. Increasing the knowledge and experiences of my team members give me a fulfilling experience. I used the authentic leadership qualities that encouraged me to uphold the ethical values and honesty during the training (Hobson 2013, pp. 83)

I lead the team during inter college peer counseling in Bruce college. The guiding and counseling sessions in Bruce College come every Wednesdays. However, the inter-college courses come once every year. I organized the team into sub-groups of 5 individuals. The 5 five persons in each group were responsible for arranging the chairs and materials for the inter-college peer counseling session in St. Peter square hall. I supervised the organized and guided the group members on sitting arrangement and how to welcome the visiting students from the neighboring public. The peer counseling session was very educative to the group and other students of Bruce College. The Students received advises on how to avoid drugs and bad influences in schools (Siha 2015, pp. 21). As a leader during the session, it was wonderful feeling seeing all the students getting advises from drugs as it was a menace in the schools. I used the charismatic leadership qualities to help motivate my team and other college students to reduce performance anxiety that leads them to drugs usage. During the session, I encouraged everybody to realize his potential in sports and class work

I lead the team during environmental cleaning program in the surrounding. I organized the team into various subunits that would distribute posters of the cleaning program in the entire college. I had the responsibility of announcing the cleaning program on the radio and design and print the advertising posters for distribution. My planning and coordination made sure that the poster distribution was on time. Additionally, the program was an environmental conservation program that facilitated a clean and healthy learning environment. Noteworthy, the community benefited from the program as the students cleaned the environment. As the initiator and leader during the program, I felt confident that the program would have positive changes and impact on the community environment (Nikolakaki, 2012 pp. 247-260). I used the situational leadership qualities to solve the emerging issues in the environment. Conversely, the qualities were useful in help my team to address some emerging issues during the cleaning session.

Question 4

I plan to enhance communication by printing and publishing a colored magazine that could have news and other educational articles apart from business courses. The magazine will facilitate adequate communication of the programs and events within the group (Bacon, 2013 pp. 699). The colored magazines will attract more readers and make more people want to join the team.

I am planning to improve team cohesiveness by ordering sizeable t-shirts that would be used during civic competitions (Bennett, 2015 pp.10). Because it was embarrassing when some team members could not fit in the t-shirts, I had brought earlier for the team. The scenario made them feel outcast, and I would not wish that to happen again

I am planning to more innovative by making more study programs and training on the business courses to improve the college’s performance on in this section of the curriculum. Despite earlier team efforts to training and discussion in Bruce College, students’ grades in business course are still below par.

In the future, I will outlay the roles and responsibilities of the team and the society. The cleaning programs will involve the community workers and the whole surrounding community in the environmental cleanup programs (Duus 2014 pp. 244). Leaving the community out in an environmental program does not create the impact it was supposed to create.

In conclusion, teamwork is the collaboration of more than two people that work together to achieve particular objectives and goals. Synergy In team members has facilitated improvement in performance and a significant reduction of performance anxiety as students share and discuss ideologies. However, they several factors that facilitate effective team work. Communication is one of the principal factors that contribute to team effectiveness. Other key factors include cohesiveness, adaptability, goals, and conflict resolution. Additionally, teamwork in a group can be determined by the leadership qualities that the team membership rolls. Team leaders should have charismatic, situational, and authentic leadership qualities to propagate a team to success. Without the vital qualities from the leaders, a team can be at brim of collapse or failure. Team members and the leaders should learn from the experiences and develop comprehensive team goals that facilitate team growth and team productivity.