Team Management Plan - Coursework Example

Team Management Plan Name Institution Team Management Plan Introduction Whether an organisation is a single-person operation or a multi-program operation, it requires a team management plan in order to ensure that it operates properly and everything is done smoothly and in order (Cadle and Yeates, 2008). The intent of a team management plan is to achieve the mission and tasks of the team required for the organisation to run effectively. A team management plan is a framework for how an organisation is run and operated in day-to-day and long-term operation (Cadle and Yeates, 2008). It encompasses the standard approach for doing a number of things such as handling money, addressing the way employees do their work, dealing with the operations of the organisation to name a few. Thus, a good team management plan is required to address such issues (Cadle and Yeates, 2008). This paper will highlight risks associated with high performance team drawing from the theories in each risk and will also identify the process of a team management plan High performance team risks Personality Risk Personality can be explained by Type A and Type B personality theory that describes two major contrasting personality types (Widiger, 2006). According to the theory, personalities that are competitive, ambitious, aggressive and more outgoing are considered Type A while those that are relaxed and less outgoing are labelled Type B. Theorist in this field noted that type A personalities were rigidly organised, highly status conscious, want people to get to the point, proactive and time conscious (Widiger, 2006). They are often high-achieving and workaholics. They can be irritated and stressed easily. Type B personalities are linked to less stress levels, when faced with competition they focus less on either winning or losing (Widiger, 2006). Diversity in personality in any team affects performance. In any team, there are different personalities such as silent contributors, devil’s advocates, facilitators etc. Inhibitor personalities in any team can lead to conflicts and other problems and thus personality issues in teams should be addressed. One way of addressing personality issues is self-awareness through recognising one’s emotions and effects (Covey, 2013). Also, according to Goleman’s Emotional Competency Framework, leaders can address personality inhibitors that proscribe teams from achieving their full potential such as aggressive, distractive and passive. Conflict Risk Conflict is often witnessed in the work place (Doherty and Guyler, 2008). According to the organisational conflict theory, there are a number of conflicts within a particular enterprise such as interpersonal conflict. Departments have conflicts, senior management experience power struggle and most importantly teams members experience conflict often. Interpersonal conflicts involve conflicts between individual as a result of not being on the same page. If such people are forced to work together, friction often occur. Such situations require the managers to be mediators in order to diffuse the situation and find solution (Doherty and Guyler, 2008). In contrast with interpersonal conflicts, role conflict come up as a result of roles the parties are expected to perform which lead to overlapping of responsibilities or status issues. In addition, intergroup conflict occurs as a result of unclear goals of teams due to overlap of functions that can cause disputation. There are various choices that can be taken to avoid risk of conflict in teams including avoidance, smoothing, compromise or confrontation (Collins and Rourke, 2009). Avoidance and smoothing strategies depends heavily on time while confrontation and compromise strategies involves directing one party, coming up with exclusive decision to resolve the conflict by favouring one party or forcing mediation between the conflict parties. Interpersonal Communication Barriers According to Shannon and Weaver, any communication model entails a sender, a massage, the medium, interference and the receiver (Hargie and Dickson, 2004). According to this theory, the communicators most of the time blames the audience for not receiving or accepting a massage but in real sense this is to be blamed on the sender who chooses the encoding process and channels. The lack of feedback means that the receiver has not received the massage (Hargie and Dickson, 2004). In addition, according to diffusion theory, communication of new ideas can be adopted or rejected. This can be attributed to the fact that human beings are creatures of habit and do not like change. Diffusion theory helps us understand why individuals cannot achieve major changes through new channels and in brief time and what type of interpersonal communication is effective in attaining major changes in organisational teams. Interpersonal communication barriers take place as a result of inappropriate transaction of information between two or more individuals. Interpersonal communication barriers can be classified into two: inefficiency in communication skills and negative aspects availability in communication climate (Hargie and Dickson, 2004). Examples of interpersonal communication barriers include limited vocabulary, cultural variations, poor listening skills, communication selectivity and poor listening skills. For team performance to be effective, interpersonal communication barriers should be overcome by training of the team members about effective communication skills. Training the team on the ways they can design and deliver message in order to get attention of the audience is also important. Motivation risks Motivation is considered the reason why we do what we do. It is vital for team member’s to be strongly motivated. Motivation theories are classified in two perspectives: Consent and Process theories (Griffins and Moorhead, 2012). Process theories is concerned with “process” of motivation and “how” motivation takes places while content theory is concerned with “what” motivates people in accordance with individual needs and goals. Example of content theory of motivation is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Griffin and Moorhead, 2012). According to the theory, people endeavour to seek a higher need when they fulfil the lower needs. When the lower-level need is fulfilled, it no longer functions as a source of motivation. Thereby, needs are motivators only when they are unsatisfied. Another theory established by Frederic Herzberg is the two factor theory. It suggests that there are two factors that affect motivation: hygiene factors and motivators. The hygiene factors are concerned with determining dissatisfaction while motivators determine satisfaction. According to the theory, a satisfied employee often work for a long time in the same organisation but this satisfaction does not lead to better performance (Griffin and Moorhead, 2012. Performance is a function of ability and motivation. Lack of motivation can lead to poor team performance. There are some ways that can improve employees’ motivation. They include setting of performance goals, provision of performance help and performance feedback. Employees should understand what is expected of them and establish what they should improve on, they should be assisted in improving performance by assessment, provision of training and resources and encouraging cooperation. Leadership Risk Effective team performance is attributed to many factors including leadership (Owen, 2014). Individuals in a team have specific roles and each contribution leads to collective success. Team leadership represents a characteristic of effective and efficient team performance. Leaders in a team have the duties of defining team goals and structure of the team for accomplishment of objectives. The STAR leadership model entails strength, teamwork, alignment and results as characteristics that leaders should have for effective team performance (Gibson and Cohen, 2003). The STAR model establishes what leaders are required to do and helps in choosing the appropriate leadership style to use for different situations. Issues in leadership can result as a result of not knowing which leadership to use in a given situation. In order to offer effective leadership, team leaders should develop ways to motivate the employees and at the sometime establish the best leadership style for specific situations. Leaders should also communicate transparently, break down silos and come up with open-minded culture for the team. Process of team management plan A lot of work is invested in keeping an organisation going. The process of team management plan starts with establishment of goals and management model (Daft and Marcic, 2009). This involves identifying specific team goals including a detailed overview of each goal, the reason for its selection and intended results of the goal-related projects. Such objects and goals should be described and established in qualitative and qualitative terms. The next step involves the identification of resources. Each set goal and objective should have financial and human resource projections necessary for its completion. Also, team management plan should include the establishment of goal-oriented tasks. Every team goal should have resources associated with its achievement. Examples of objectives might include developing team training techniques, or increasing staff. Following this is prioritizing the set goals and tasks. Prioritizing team goals and tasks involves ordering objectives on the basis of their importance. Team tasks and goals deemed important are theoretically approached and completed first. Once goals have been prioritized, assignments and timelines are created. Just as an organisation prioritizes projects, it should create timelines for the completion of associated team goals and assign team members to complete them. This step of team management process should put into consideration the abilities of team members and the time required to realistically complete assignment (Druskat and Wolff, 2001). This is followed by establishment of evaluation methods. One way of doing this is through monitoring. The monitoring process requires measurement and assessment tables such as communication. Effective communication leads to effective delivery of the team management plan (Lussier and Achua, 2010). The satisfaction level of a team can be low, medium or high with regards to communication. Monitoring the team satisfaction determines the success of a management plan. For instance, high level of satisfaction may be attributed to availability of information, effective leadership and high level of consulting and response. Conclusion Before a team is established, a team management plan is necessary for effective team performance. Lack of a team management plan may lead to failure of every task. Effective process for team management plan entails identification of goals, identification of resources, establishment of goal-related tasks, prioritization of goals and tasks, creation of assignments and timelines, and establishment of evaluation methods. However, there are some risks that affect high performance teams and they include personality risk, interpersonal communication barriers, motivation risks, and conflict and leadership risks. For effective performance of teams in any organisation, an effective team management plan must be established to support the mission and the vision of an organisation. A team management plan is a framework that determines how team is run, standard methods for carrying out different work in a team and is the blueprint of how operations take place. References Cadle, J. & Yeates, D. (2008). Project management for information systems. Harlow: Pearson Prentice Hall. Collins, S. & Rourke, J. (2009). Managing conflict and workplace relationships. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Covey, S. (2013). The 7 habits of highly effective people : powerful lessons in personal change. New York: Simon & Schuster. Daft, R., & Marcic, D. (2009). Understanding Management (6th ed). Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning Doherty, N. & Guyler, M. (2008). The essential guide to workplace mediation & conflict resolution rebuilding working relationships. London Philadelphia: Kogan Page. Druskat, V. and Wolff, S (2001). “Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups,” Harvard Business Review, pages 82, 83 and 85. Gibson, C. & Cohen, S. (2003). Virtual teams that work creating conditions for virtual team effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Griffin, R. & Moorhead, G. (2012). Organizational behavior : managing people and organizations. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning. Hargie, O. & Dickson, D. (2004). Skilled interpersonal communication research, theory, and practice. London: New York Routledge. Lussier, R., and Achua, C., (2010). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development (4th ed.). Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Owen, C. (2014). Human factors challenges in emergency management : enhancing individual and team performance in fire and emergency services. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Limited. Widiger, T. (2006). Dimensional models of personality disorders refining the research agenda for DSM-V. Washington, D.C: American Psychiatric Association. Read More