EMERGENCE OF TEAMS IN REFERENCE TO THE MODERN WORKPLACE
Introduction
A team is a set of people operating collectively to attain their objectives. Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management describes a group as a set of individuals interlinked by capital, proficiency, competency, and data. It creates united bonds of their endeavor to attain a universal objective. Units usually comprise individuals with existing expertise and initiate cooperation by synchronizing efforts that’s enables every individual to exploit their talents and reduce their weak areas. Team members can effectively work together, learn how to assist each other, encourage other subordinates to identify their actual capabilities and develop pleasant working surroundings that sanction all members to work above their challenges.
The team notion came about into businesses in the late twentieth century and after that development of the idea into building teams. Team development brought about different views on its efficiency in administration trends. Some saw teams as a mere word; others identified it as a remedy that recognized the coworkers’ relation associations to incorporate the management and employees’ best wishes. On the other hand, various persons believed in team success as well as their danger in employees’ wringing circumstances. However, Bruce Tuckman and Richard Hackman recognized team power not just for their achievements but for their contribution to the individual welfare and pliable evolution of its subordinate if conclusively established.
For a team to be significant, it requires a powerful consensual devotion to develop unity, consequently producing more significant accomplishments than the collective achievements of individual employees.
Bruce Tuckman’s stages in team developing
In 1965, Bruce Tuckman developed the forming, storming, norming, and performing model, which showed the consecutive steps of team evolutions. He later merged with Mary Ann Jensen and formed the Adjourning step, which takes place after the group finishes its assigned task. Professor Tuckman believed all the stages in his model were essential and predestined for the created unit to mature and attain the best efficacy.
Figure 1: Tuckman’s FSNPA model
Forming Stage
The forming stage is characterized by members who are strangers and involves familiarization and association efforts. Most of the group individuals are anxious, courteous, and open mind. Others are happy to begin working. In this stage, the team is unpredictable, and members have different questions about their involvement (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977). The connection of the individuals is social as they seek to connect. The leader should be more dominating as the group persons’ character and duties are yet to be defined. The leader creates the groups’ objectives, allocates the responsibilities, and controls the team tasks. He/she offers guidelines for the team individuals, and comforting workstation encourages the evolution of the teams’ positive capacity in their potential to achieve collective success (Adair, 2011).
Storming stage
Storming is the second phase of team evolution. The members identify and attain each other’s confidence and begin to share their views. However, the different opinions may lead to disputes emergency among the individuals as authority and ranks are allocated (Tuckman, 1965). As the team begins their task together, they are knowledgeable about their partners’ working methods and the importance of performing as a united group. The environment is characterized by aggressiveness as different members’ personalities arise. Group performance is usually unsatisfactory as most efforts are directed to non-useful actions like arguments on group objectives and criticizing each other’s character(Tuckman & Jensen, 1977). Besides, some members of the group challenge their leader’s methods and choices as their excitements decrease, and committed members end up extremely exhausted for lack of support from other members.
The storming phase is the most challenging step in team evolutions, and the leaders should dedicate their utmost efforts and participation to the team (Stages of Group Development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing & Adjourning, 2012). The team leaders should decrease and solve disputes among the members, control disputes, stay online with the group objectives, and be good emulations for the members. In extreme differences, the leader should arrange group sessions to resolve or invite an external mediator or peacemaker (Adair, 2011). Failure to address issues in this stage, the group may lag and stick behind and might never progress to the next step.
Norming Stage
In the norming phase, there are strong bonds and coordination among the members due to the closeness formed in the storming stage while resolving their conflicts. The group output rises as differences are solved, and every member assumes allocated roles. There is a great understanding among the team and acceptance as they are steered to positively move forward (USA & Chatfield, 2007). Team members in this step recognize each other’s talents, their reliable attributes and fault features, and start acknowledging the elements within them as directors, presenters, planners, to mention a few. The participants concentrate more on utilizing their techniques and combining their expertise to achieve their team obligations (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977). Participants gain a sense of belonging to the team and are completely unified and feel confident in combined effort in exceeding their performance.
The risk that may arise in this phase is members’ unwillingness to air their debatable notions for fear of slacking back into conflicts, which may impact the team’s progress.
During the norming phase process, the leader’s role is to steer the team members towards the formation of group standards. And regularly remind the members of their vital practices among each other, like communication, and resolving disputes, which creates a strong team bond (Stanbrough, 2010). The leader also counter checks and confirms the members’ activity, goals, and objectives of the actual team.it is also the leader’s role in studying the team members and their developing skills to reassign them duties accordingly. The group leader should encourage the team’s feedback and opinions and make the required changes (Adair, 2011).
Performing Stage
The team members are more objective oriented and usually attain unpredicted high performance. The achievements result from defined and stable team formations, and the group is significantly involved with the mission. When disputes and issues arise, they are resolved accordingly. The team is dedicated to finishing its task and achieves its objectives. The resolution process is simple for the group as they are proficient and useless guidance from their leader (Stanbrough, 2010). The leader participates with the team members as he can entrust his work to the team. The performing stage also allows the team leader to advance his talent evolution, guiding, and training competency as the team no longer requires any immediate intervention.
Adjourning stage
Adjourning is the last stage of team development. Many group objectives are already achieved in this group, and what is left is summarizing final duties and recording their commitments involved and performance. The group is finally getting dissolved as their work is completed and members assigned to other teams or work. The adjourning phase can be emotional for the members as they break their bonds. The organization should offer some recognition of a great job’s accomplished and successful performance (Adair, 2011). As the group is dismissed, the team leader should recommend methods of the group being in contact after the project, as strong bonds were formed in their adventure of working together. The leader should also enable moral resuscitation and experience contemplation.
Managerial Decision Making Insights on Teams Decision Making
High resolutions are formed when there are various options to consider. According to Dr. Therese Houston, who is an opinion resolution intelligent, states that people frequently create one notion on how to resolve issues, assuming there are two options: yes or no. More than two possibilities should be defined to make a better decision. While team groups are making a decision, they should adopt the idea of having more than two opinions or solutions (Huston, 2016). Multiple viewpoints allow the team to brainstorm beyond their comfort. With the different competence composition in the group, they can arrive at a better decision, which contributes to their tasks.
While making a decision, managers alienate themselves from the issue at hand and think independently. Consequently, team members should adopt the same practice while reaching their conclusions. Solomon’s Paradox hypothesis is proved accurate: better resolutions are formed when the decision-makers think of the problem rather than how it affects them (Silver, 2013). While team members are making a decision, they should be steered towards achieving their primary goals. The capability of the team members ignoring their attitudes and consider their subordinate perspectives and acknowledge their competences may result in better solutions improving their decisions. Thus, the teams should adopt self-distancing for better decision resolution.
Before making a decision, the teams should pause and contemplate first on the essential factors. According to Dr. Jack Grinband, taking time off to think allows the brain to be alert on the crucial details and ignore the unnecessary obstacles. Focusing on the most critical issues and the actual goals give room for better decision-making by the team’s focus (Silver, 2013). The Six Seconds Model of Emotional Intelligence states that when one intertwines their daily options to their overall goals, more excellent and robust decisions resulted in future objectives.
Before making a decision, the team’s emotional status before making a decision is vital as it can impact the decision made. Team members should adopt the managers’ insight on identifying their feelings towards the issue at hand before giving resolutions and recognize their effects on the decision at hand (Silver, 2013). For instance, anger brings strong feelings and makes a person more anxious. Being overconfident can result in teams making haste decisions without rethinking their possible outcomes and may lead to regretting later. On the other hand, being sad encourages a wide range of comparisons of all reasonable opinions and can be very taxing. Making decisions driven by fear denies the possibilities of more possible solutions and dwells on the 0one solution in mind. However, the decision made when people are happy to turn to be more gullible. Happiness prevents the decision-maker from analyzing the quality of the resolution. Thus, teams must understand their emotions and the effects they hold on their decision-making process (Huston, 2016).
Acknowledging the mental states helps make a better decision. Teams should analyze their feeling towards a problem and genuinely consider their opinions. Some may be discriminative or biased, but by identifying them, they become in a better position to make fair decisions.
Design of Physical Structures in Teamwork Facilitation
The state of physical organization structure is tangible. A person can feel, see, smell, or even taste (Hernes, 2014). Suitable physical structures should be welcoming and comforting to their employees to motivate them to produce better results.
The physical composition of an organization to support its team groups is very vital for their overall performance. The groups’ requirements should be present in the organization. The organization should ensure a supportive environment for their team’s operation to motivate significant interactions, availability to proficient moderators, and temporary work stations for team tasks (Fineman et al., 2009). Work stations should be furnished with advanced equipment for conferencing and benching space where the team members can brainstorm and, at the same time, confide in each other’s competence. Many of the team members rarely operate from their desks, and as a result, the organization should redesign their physical structures to incorporate the members. Besides, the organizations should ensure the working environments are well light, suitable temperature and even the staff working information are readily available any time needed (Fineman et al., 2009). It is said that an organization where the work station has good lighting, the team members finished their tasks on time and performed better than in areas with poor lightening.
Companies that have franchised all over a region may take the opportunities of the teams working in a particular branch where all their tasks are controlled collectively. In a big organization, standard physical divisions present difficulties in internal control (Hernes, 2014). For instance, creating a team to market a product in Sidney, the team may demand contrasting conditions that advertising the same commodity in India.
Methods in which Managers Encourages Team Work
Managers need to practice efficacy and comprehension to coordinate team members’ cooperation under their administration. With proper procedures, managers can sprout the best team performance in their care. For better performance, managers need to create a trust worth environment and synergy, and this can be achieved through:
Clarity: Managers to establish defined roles for their team members to avoid disputes. Every member needs to have a clear picture of the team’s objectives and their particular task in achieving them (Rosenorn-Lanng, 2015). The manager should ensure the members understand their expected functions and methods to perform them. To effectively avoid conflicts among the group members’ the manager should delegate each responsibility accordingly and certify all roles in the teamwork have adhered to.
Communication: Poor information disclosure to the team will cause members exasperation and annoyance, which eventually results in poor performance (Rosenorn-Lanng, 2015). Managers should create distinct channels of transmitting information and receiving feedback from the team members to have active groups. Both positive and negative opinions should be encouraged, and in case of any disputes, the manager should be alert to act as a peacemaker.
Trust: There should be confidence between the manager and the team members, and also among the members, for them to work along. A manager should express allegiance to his team members and show appreciation for their accomplishments (Shin, 2014). They should indulge in the team activities and encourage them to perform better but not to exceed his team relationship boundaries. This action shows the team of their manager’s loyalty with them to achieve their task accordingly.
Conflict resolution: Managers should solve issues as they emerge in an unbiased manner.it would be better for managers to forecast possible disputes occurrences and define strategies to resolve them before they escalate (Rosenorn-Lanng, 2015). However, the managers should not lose focus on the main objective of the team, and their decision should be steered toward goal achievement.
Introduction of team-building workshops: Workshops encourage team members to interact with each other in a personal and professional manner, thus understanding each other better. Workshops can include different activities that would result in the group members bonding. These exercises aid the manager in identifying the members’ talents and weakness and consequently guide them in exploiting their full potential and improve on their weak areas (Shin, 2014). The workshop results can also guide the managers inappropriately allocating the right responsibilities to the correct member as they know of their strengths.
Acknowledge excellent performance: Managers should recognize the team efforts at the termination of the team. Acknowledgment of a superb task achievement develops grounds for long term group achievements and dispenses more inspiration for united group participants. Appreciation of employees’ work results in contented members, and this inspires them to even perform better on their next task (Shin, 2014).
Conclusion
Team building practices in the organization are essential as they ensure collective bond among workers by promoting synergies and teamwork. For a capable team to put in place, they face various stages, namely; formation, storming, norming, performing, and finally adjourning. During these stages, they are guided and coordinated by selected leaders. The leaders help the members exploit their full potential and improve their weaknesses in performing their responsibilities to achieve the main objectives. For the team’s efficient performance, members’ organizations need to have supportive and conducive environments for the members to work from at any time. Organizations should venture into developing physical work areas that workers are inspired to come every day for work. The team members’ welfare is related to their out and achievements, and their discomfort can significantly affect their effectiveness. Team members working under suitable physical structures are more united, thankful, and performing.
In an organization’s manager’s role of day to day activities, they need to define methods like transparency in their roles and responsibility establishments for the employees. The clarity helps the team members to stay coordinated and avoid conflicts while performing their tasks. Loyalty from the team managers also goes a long way in building the team confidence in their managers. Team building activities are also encouraged as they help build better relationships among the group members supporting their collective energies in completing their objectives. Team members should also emulate their managers’ insight in making resolutions to gain the desired performance successfully. Decision making can be affected by various factors like misplaced emotions, were for teams to find solutions; they need to truly analyze their feeling and be open to different member’s perceptions. It is also advisable for the team to have different opinions before they resolve, as they help them think out of their comfort zones, arriving at better decisions.
To sum it up, teams are essential in an organization as they help them achieve performances that would have long been realized in individual work. Teams improve employee bonds and communication within an organization, and it creates cooperation and encourages the creativity of different competencies in the company. Team building also promotes the realization of employees’ achievements through compensation, rewards, and inspiration for great work accomplished. And also, team groups enhance excellent communication and feedback channels within the organization among the employees and their leaders.