Teams share a common sense of purpose and identity and support each other to achieve goals. (Mullins, L) Each individual has experienced times when working in a great team and other times when struggled along in isolation. The benefits of working in teams are –
- More creativity leading to more ideas and better results [Goals and Achievements Accessed 10th May]
- More opportunity to develop and acquire new skills [Goals and Achievements Accessed 10th May]
- The speed in which things can be achieved [Goals and Achievements Accessed 10th May]
- A sense of security instead of ‘standing alone’ (Robbins, S)
Within my job role at work, it involves me working with my colleagues every day to ensure that we achieve our daily goals. I do this every day when working. I feel by working in a team, it gives you a sense of support, security, (Robbins, S) developing new skills and more creativity leading to more ideas, and better results. [Goals and Achievements Accessed 10th May]
- Phase 1 – Group direction
- Phase 2 – Inertia
- Phase 3 – Transition at half way through allotted time
- Phase 4 – Major change
- Phase 5 – Second phase of inertia
- Phase 6 – Accelerated activity for last meeting
This theory shows how members in a team work use their time and effort to achieve their goal. As I am always working in teams at work, we go through these stages to achieve our goals. If all our goals are achieved, we are rewarded with bonuses at the end of the month. This encourages all staff to work together and achieve their best.
Tuckman’s (1973) theory identified five stages of group development which where - Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. All teams formed go through this process. For my first assignment for people in orgs, we went through the processes of
- Forming – The initial formation of the group and the bringing together of the individuals who identify the purpose of the group (Mullins, L).We were required to select a small group of 3 or 4 people and choose either motivation or culture to base our research on. I chose to work with Belinda and Charlotte. Once that was decided we then went on to decide what topic we were going to study, which was motivation. We started to think of ourselves as a group which helped us to move on to the next stage.
- Storming – As members of the group get to know each other better, they will put forward their views more openly and forcefully (Mullins, L). We didn’t really go through this stage as we knew each other and as we met to complete the assignment, we got to know each other better by talking and giving our own views and opinions. This did cause some conflict but we were able to identify each other’s strengths and weaknesses which did help.
- Norming – As conflict and hostility start to be controlled, members of the group will establish guidelines and standards and develop their own norms of acceptable behaviour (Mullins, L). As a group, we all made sure we co-operated so we could plan, and we combined a common set of expectations of correct member behaviour.
- Performing – When the group has progressed through the three earlier stages of development, it will have created structure and cohesiveness to work effectively as a team (Mullins, L). At this stage of the assignment, we as a team, fully functioned and accepted each other and put together a well written assignment on motivation.
- Adjourning – This refers to the adjourning or disbanding of the group because of completion of the task, members leaving the organisation or moving on to other tasks (Mullins, L). Once we completed the assignment and handed it in, we separated from the team and became individuals.
Looking at ‘’The Times Top 100 companies to work for’’ has shown me some great companies where teamwork has been identified as a major contributory factor to their success. One company – Office Angels are a recruitment consultancy company. In their report it shows says how ‘employees are on cloud nine’. The company got its best results in the ‘My Team category’. Teamwork is encouraged in this company working with groups and competing for rewards that include holidays to Dubai, New York and Barbados. Working for Office Angels, 82% employees say working together gives them a buzz and 89% say that team-mates are fun to work with. This shows how the company have a large part in working in teams. Employees are rewarded for innovation as well as sales performance. Staff say they love working for the company and managers are open and honest, as they care about them as individuals. Office Angels believe in retaining and developing staff is one of the organisations main priority.
Another company are NAPP Pharmaceutical Holdings, saying their ‘’staff are a loyal lot’’. Their workforce are excited about where the organisation is going, giving a positive score of 82% and staff believe it makes a positive difference. They love working for the company and are happy with their pay and benefits. Staff feel they are paid fairly for the work they do relative to others within the organisation and report that their salary reflects their responsibility. Managers regularly express their appreciation when a team member does a good job and employees find their training of great personal benefit. All staff members agree that managers listen to staff and they feel inspired by the leadership. This organisation is run on strong values and a top five score of 87% shows that people are proud to work for the company. A score of 79% shows staff feel they make a difference in the firm and they believe they can make a valuable contribution to its success.
References –
Mullins, L. (2010) Management & Organisational behaviour. 9th ed. Essex: Financial Times Pitman Publishing.
Robbins, S. (2003) Organisational Behaviour. 10th ed. Essex: Pearson Education International
Goals and Achievements Online http://goalsandachievements.com/teams/6-benefits-of-team-working/ [Accessed 10th May]
Wikipedia Online http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_development#Gersick.27s_Punctuated_Equilibrium_model [Accessed 10th May]
The Sunday Times Online http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/best_100_companies/best_100_tables/ [Accessed 15th February]
No comments:
Post a Comment