In the business world many corporations and companies work together in groups or teams to accomplish certain goals and needs of the company. A team can be defined as a group of two or more people who work intensely with one another to achieve a specific common goal or objective. A group can be defined as two or more people who interact with each other to accomplish certain goals or meet certain needs. The intensity is how hard the team members work together. Specific is the goal the team is trying to achieve.
Groups and Teams In Valentinas organization at CHX, they work in function oriented teams. These teams are formed for their specific functions. For example, there is a legal department and an analysis department. The legal department works together to develop legal standards for the company while the analysis department works together to analyze information. There is communication between these two functional groups. Sometimes teams are difficult to form and work together. When the workers within a team do not work well together, it may cause problems in achieving the companys goal. Teams and groups are a preferred strategy for many reasons. These reasons help an organization gain an advantage because they enhance its performance, increase its responsiveness to customers, increase innovation, and increase employees motivation and satisfaction.
Groups and Teams as Performance Enhancers One of the main advantages of using groups is the opportunity to obtain higher quality outputs that would have not been produced if each person had worked separately. This can be defined as synergy. Synergy is good to have within a group because it maximizes your resources while trying to produce the best quality product a company can produce. Synergy promotes the ability of group members bouncing ideas off one another, correct ones mistakes, problem solving, diversified thinking and opinions, synergy also helps to accomplish the work that is too large for one individual to complete on his or her own. To have synergy at its upmost potential, managers need to make sure that group members complement one another with skills and knowledge. Managers also need to empower their employees and act like coaches in order to promote effective synergy.
Valentina believes synergy in her organization benefits the group. She believes synergy increases with every completed project and leads to a faster and smoother process for the next project. In her organization individuals are forced to work with others. Some jobs entitle others to build of other group members work. As this goes on one group member would become synchronized with the person in terms of style and the synergy in the group will continue to grow.
Groups, Teams, and Responsiveness to Customers
Customers always continue to desire new and improved products each year. Being responsive to the customers demands are not always easy. From a manufacturing organization perspective, there are some constraints that prevent the organization from properly configuring a new product. Such constraints include: government regulations, production costs, and engineering challenges that all make it difficult for organizations to respond to the customers demands. In general, being responsive to customers comes from the organization hierarchy as a whole. For example, sales representatives are the closest connection from the company to the customer. These low-level sales representatives often lack the technical expertise to effectively promote and configure a new product idea that the customer demands. In an organization, bringing these sales representatives and research development employees together promote a cross-functional team in order to respond to its customers demands. These two groups bounce ideas off one another for new future products that cater to the customers needs and desires.
At CHX, Valentina described how her organization works together to respond to customer demands. At CHX, the various departments with in the company all complete their own set goals and tasks in regards to attaining the request, and planning of a solution. After planning this solution with in the various departments the company then decides how to respond to the customers demands accordingly.
Teams and Innovation
Innovation is the idea of implementing creative and new ideas for future products. Innovation is what drives the forces of the organization. The newest product on the street is often the coolest product that everyone wants. In an organization, an individual working alone does not posses the extensive skills, knowledge, and expertise to promote innovation as compared to a team or a group. The managers of an organization can encourage innovation by creating diverse teams that exchange ideas with one another. Diverse thinking does indeed promote innovation because the more diverse thinking, the more viewpoints and opinions the group has as compared to the similar thinking individuals working in a team. Using teams to innovate has multiple advantages. Advantages such as uncovering one teammates mistakes promotes innovation because one working alone would not be able to catch their own mistake. Also, team members can critique other team members ideas. Critiquing ideas gets team members to build off one anothers ideas and these ideas lead to a new innovative product. Valentina believes working together in a group does promote innovativeness compared to working alone. They work together in a group to come up with solutions. Every group member has a separate component that is put together with other group members components to produce a solution. This solution depends on group members working together rather than working on their own. The separate components for each individual also helps promote innovativeness because it promotes diverse individual thinking that will then contribute to a larger solution.
Groups and Teams as Motivators
Organizing your organization into teams often promote additional benefits. Members of groups and teams often find themselves more satisfied than they would have been if they were working alone on a project. Working alongside with other highly charged individuals can be stimulating and motivating. Team members feel personally responsible for their work, and when working in teams they can see how their efforts and work contribution directly contribute to the teams goal. Working in groups also promotes social interaction. Workers who have highly stressful jobs find that working with group members is important because of the social and moral support. Working in a team can also help relieve the burden of working a highly stressful job. Workers cope better with the stress of the job in teams when they can share the stress with others in the group. This stress idea also creates diverse techniques to relieve that stress, such as talking about the outside world and, or cracking a joke once in a while. Overall, managers promote teamwork in an organization because the teams can help managers achieve their desired company goals. Teams promote high performance, responsiveness to customers, and employee motivation.
Types of Groups and Teams
Top Management Team- A group composed of the CEO, the president, and the heads of the most important departments. *Top management teams are responsible for developing the strategies in an organization. Members of this team are composed of managers from different departments to promote more diverse ideas.
Research and Development Teams- A team whose members have the expertise and experience needed to develop new products *Research and development teams are common in the technology industries. Their goal is to develop new products. Top managers select research and development teams on the basis of the individuals specialties. Some research and development teams consult with managers of other departments in order to achieve company goals and get ideas for new products.
Command Groups- A group composed of subordinates who report to the same supervisor; also called department or unit groups. *Command groups establish reporting based on a chain of command. Top managers establish reporting relationships in a hierarchy to solve company goals.
Task Forces- A committee of managers or non-managerial employees from various departments or divisions who meet to solve for a specific, mutual problem; also called the H.O.C. committee. *Task force teams accomplish specific goals based on mutual problems. The task force indentifies a mutual problem and then prepares a report summarizing the pros and cons of the change. They then submit this report to their manager for further problem solving. Task force teams can be a valuable tool for managers because they do not have to personally focus on one issue in-depth, which frees up more of their time to focus on other organizational goals.
Self-Managed Work Teams- A group of employees who supervise their own activities and monitor the quality of the goods and services they provide *Self-Managed work teams work on a day-to-day basis where team members decide what the team will try to accomplish, how will they do it, and how the work is divided among each member. Managers decide the team goals and then let the team figure out how to meet those goals. Each member is assigned a task that best fits the members set of skills. Managers usually use self-managed work teams to improve quality while increasing motivation and lowering the cost.
Virtual Teams- A team whose members rarely or never meet face-to-fact but, rather, interact by using various forms of information technology such as e-mail, computer networks, telephone, fax, and video conferences. *As organizations become increasingly global due to international expansion, and with the help of technology, managers may create virtual groups to solve problems and explore opportunities while not being limited to other members from the same location. Virtual teams provide different ideas from different people around the world. Companies who have operations in multiple countries may find virtual teams more appealing for their organization.
Friendship Groups- An informal group composed of employees who enjoy one anothers company and socialize with each other. * These members may have lunch together and take their breaks together. They may also do outside activities together such as playing sports or sharing meals. Friendship groups help satisfy the need for social support in stressful times.
Interest Groups- An informal group composed of employees seeking to achieve a common goal related to their membership in an organization. * These groups are formed to encourage managers to institute flexible working hours. It also promotes improving working conditions and environmental protections. These groups can give managers valuable opinions on issues regarding companies.
At CHX, Valentina did recall working with other group managers to respond to the customers demands. There have been instances where they have worked together with the research and development to develop a new product but in her organization they do not do that so often. They often do rely on other departments for projects that they do conduct within her own group. At CHX they work in top management and task force teams. They tend to be the most effective at CHX. The managers from different departments meet together and respond to problems that arise in an organization. Top management is used at CHX to establish strategies and roles in the organization. At CHX, there isnt a hierarchy of labor, but instead there are different but equally important jobs that each project depends on. As long as everyone contributes their specific task then the group will effectively achieve its target goal.
Group Size
The number of members in a group can determine how successful the group can be. Small groups are between two and nine members while larger groups have more than nine members. Some organizations prefer smaller groups rather than larger groups. Smaller groups are preferred because they interact more, can be more motivated, find it easier to share information, and are easier to identify group contribution. One disadvantage of small groups is the limited resources they have due to size. Large groups provide more resources to achieve company goals. More knowledge, opinions, skills, and experience are found in larger groups as compared to smaller groups. Managers who manage larger groups may want to incorporate a division of labor. A division of labor splits the work up into specific tasks which are assigned to specific individuals. It is best to assign the tasks to workers who are skilled at those tasks. Some disadvantages to large groups are the lack of communication. Since there are so many people in the group it is hard to communicate with one another. It is much more difficult to plan for 20 members rather than 10. When deciding on group size, managers should have no more members in a group than necessary tasks. In determining whether a group is too large, managers should analyze individual performance. If individual performance is declining then worker productivity is declining because there is not enough work. At CHX, groups work together in teams of 6. In this team there is a division of labor where each member accomplishes an individual task which is then combined with other members individual tasks to achieve a company goal. Each person in the group has different specialties that allow them to handle special jobs and tasks they are assigned.
Group Roles
A group role is a set of behaviors and tasks that a member of a group is expected to perform because of his or her position in the group. Members of a cross-functional team focus on their expected specialty. For example in a cross-functional team you would not see a marketing manager focusing on research and development. Rather, youd see a research and development manager focusing on research and development and a marketing manager focusing on marketing strategies. In order to effectively promote a group role, managers need to express the expectations for each member of the group. Role making is the idea that managers should encourage group members to take initiative on certain responsibilities as they arise over time. At CHX, Valentina stated that the groups implement a self-regulatory compliance system for the entire company. Groups establish roles for individuals who then complete those tasks and check their work accordingly. They also check their work with other group members. Working cross functionally is also promoted at CHX. Managers will work with managers from different functional departments to strategize to meet company goals.
Group Leadership
It is important for all groups to develop leadership. An effective leader is important to a groups success. In some cases a group leader is appointed at random while other times the group leader is voted by team members. Sometimes when no one wants to be a group leader one person steps up and naturally leads the group. In some instances group leadership is transferred among group members. When problems arise in a group and they fail to achieve their goal it can be due to lack of team leadership. Team leadership is a crucial part of a team because a leader sets the standards and guidelines in order for the team to succeed.
Group Leadership At CHX group leadership is very important. Valentina believes a good group leader is one who develops a system of checks and balances in order to get things done. One person will check on the work of another to get approval, once approval is received, the individual can then proceed to the next task. Checks and balances is one of the most effective ways to lead a group and should be promoted by every group leader.
Group Norms
Group norms are shared guidelines or rules for behavior that most group members follow. All groups have group norms. Whether it is top management, self-managed work teams, or command groups, all of these groups set up group norms in order to effectively work and succeed. Assigning roles to each member of a group is one way to control group behavior. Once a person has an assigned role they focus on achieving that goal. Group norms include working hours, sharing information, and communication. Group members either choose to conform to the rules or fail to conform to the rules. Failure to conform to the rules is called deviance. Deviance usually results in punishment such as expulsion from the group.
One rule Valentina likes to enforce is separating business from personal life. When at work one should be working not gossiping about their social life. Also, when someone makes a mistake Valentina likes to talk about that with in a group. Talking about a mistake with a group lets the group know what they are doing wrong and what they can do to fix their problem. If someone makes a mistake never criticize that person. Valentina believes everyone makes mistakes even managers so criticizing someone for their mistakes makes the problem worse.
Group Cohesiveness
Another important performance measure in group work is group cohesiveness. Group cohesiveness is defined as the degree to which members are attached to or loyal to their group. When working in a group, you want group cohesiveness to be high because the members of the group are more loyal to the group and value their group members. They also find the group more appealing and desire to remain in the group. Teams who have low group cohesiveness find their members uninterested and have little desire to be apart of the group. There are three consequences to group cohesiveness: level of participation, level of conformity to group norms, and emphasis on group accomplishment.
Reducing Social Loafing in Groups
Sometimes when individuals are put into groups do not or end up not working as hard as they would have individually. This is called social loafing. People who social loaf would rather distribute the burden of work upon their team members rather than taking control of the work for themselves. Managers need to be aware of this downside to working in groups. Managers can take certain steps to reduce social loafing like making sure that there is enough work for each member of the group to stay busy. Each team should be at the appropriate size level compared to the task that is being accomplished. Managers can assign certain tasks to individuals and then make routine checkups with that individual to make sure they are completing the task assigned.
At CHX, social loafing is kept to a minimum. Valentina said social loafing does not happen at CHX. Everyone has their unique role and responsibility so if someone decides to slack and not do their work it will become clear to the project manager that their part is missing or not working correctly. This goes along with the idea of checks and balances because once someone completes their work it is then checked. If their work is not completed then they have no work to be checked by their other group members.
Image Citations Group Leadership: http://www.brighthubpm.com/resource-management/93232-guidelines-for-picking- small-group-leaders/
Groups and Teams: http://www.staffresources.org/groups-%E2%80%93-organize-for-how-people-think/