Good Example Of Report On People And Organizations - Reflection On Team Work

Teamwork is an important feature for the success of any group, organization or project. It is a great way to get things done (West, 2012). There is something very powerful about having a group of people with different skills and expertise and have them work for one ultimate goal. All teams must understand the different theories of teamwork.
Care for Africa is a group made up of different individuals of different skills and abilities but focused toward achieving the same goal. The team works on helping less-privileged children by providing free tuition in order to give them equal opportunities in their studies as everyone else. Our team is made up of individuals with different personalities and levels of expertise. Trisha is our team leader; she is responsible for setting team member’s roles and responsibilities. She has all the good qualities of a leader including knowing each team member’s strengths and weaknesses. Tony is the team’s vice chairman, and his main responsibilities include taking up the roles that the leader should perform when she is not around. Theodore is our financial manager and being a finance student he has all the right skills to do this role. Our operations manager is Sally and being a business management student, she has the right skills to take up this role. I am the technical expert in this group and advice the team on how to maintain its social media status and reach out to more people.
Star team model provides the content to the situation, stages and surroundings mentioned in the teamwork theories (Kates and Galbraith, 2007). It determines the item(s) of focus for the team leader. Good team leadership is all about creating good conditions that allow ideas to flourish and enhance performance. Star team performance model brings teamwork theories with some main principles. Focusing on the individual strengths when pursuing goals that are meaningful to make a difference. It is similar to the relationship with others that are found when strong links are used to find happiness in life. Effective teamwork happens when individuals develop and use their strengths. Focusing on individual strengths and identifying where an individual belongs is the best way of contribution. When people come together to build relationships as they work, it usually results in effective teamwork. When individuals in the team come together to pursue meaningful goals, the performance of the team starts to flow naturally, and results are usually meaningful and rewarding. Team leaders must ensure that they align the individuals’ strengths with effective teamwork and also focus on meaningful results (Wilder, 2015). It is the basis of the model for effective teams, which is called STAR team performance model also known as Strengths, Teamwork, Alignment and Results (The Happy Manager, 2015).

Bruce Tuckman’s Teamwork Theory

Bruce Tuckman created the team stage model in 1965 and since then it has been used several times for different organizations. The theory has five phases that take place in the team development, and they include forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Johnson, 2009). The formation phase is the first where members of the team try to work out where they fit in, figure out their teammates and wonder why they are part of the team at all. Most team members are positive and polite, and others are anxious since they have not fully understood what teamwork can do. Some are also excited about the tasks ahead. Leaders play a dominant role at this stage since the team members’ roles and responsibilities are still not clear. The stage can last for some time as the team members try to work together as they all try to make an effort to get to know their colleagues. Storming is the second phase where team members start to see themselves as a team. It can also be challenging because the team members may attempt to position themselves as the leaders. In this stage, most teams usually fail. The phase starts where there is a conflict between the team members’ natural working styles. People may work in different ways for various reasons but if having different working styles cause any unforeseen problems, team members become frustrated. Storming can also happen in other situations. For example, people in the team may challenge the authority for the position as their roles are clarified. Some may question the worthiness of the team’s goals, they may resist taking on tasks. All team members who stick with the task at hand may experience stress, and they may not have the support of established processes or strong relationships with their colleagues (Mind Tools, 2015).
Norming is where the team begins to work together to establish goals, rules and figure out who does what and what the results are. In this phase, team members begin to resolve their differences, respect the authority of the leaders and appreciate colleagues’ strengths. Team members know each other better, and they may even socialize together and they can also help each other and offer constructive feedback. The team members develop a stronger commitment to team goals, and there is better progress towards it. There is sometimes an overlap between storming and norming since new tasks come up, and the team could fall back into storming stage behavior. Performing is the last phase since this is the point where team members begin to focus on not only the task but also the relationships with each other. During this stage, the team starts to grow together. The team reaches this phase when hard work leads to achieving the team’s goals. The processes and structures set should support this as well. Team leaders can delegate their work and concentrate on developing the team members. At this point, it feels easy to be part of the team at this stage, and the people who join and leave would not disrupt the performance (Workplace Communication, 2013).

Belbin’s Theory of Team Roles

Dr. Meredith Belbin learned extensively about teamwork. He observed that members of a team tend to assume different roles in a team. He defined team role as a tendency to contribute with others in a particular way. He named nine roles that are responsible for a teams’ success. He claimed that understanding your role in a team helps you develop strengths and manage weaknesses as a team member. Belbin identified nine team roles and categorized them into three namely; action-oriented, people oriented and thought oriented (Belbin, 2004). He also defined characteristic weaknesses that accompany each team role.

Action Oriented Roles

Shapers are the people who challenge the team to improve. They are usually extroverted people who enjoy challenging others and finding the best approaches to solving a problem. A shaper shakes things up and ensures that all possibilities are considered, and the team is not complacent. They tend to see obstacles as exciting challenges and have the courage to continue pushing. Implementers are people who get things done. They usually turn team’s ideas and concepts into practical plans and actions. They are disciplined, conservative people who work efficiently and systematically. The downside is that implementers can be inflexible and sometimes resistant to change. Completer-finishers are the people who ensure projects are completed thoroughly. They ensure there are no errors, and they pay attention to every detail. They are usually described as perfectionists (Mind Tools, 2015).

People Oriented Roles

Coordinators take the role of a traditional team-leader. They guide the team to the objectives. They are good listeners and can recognize the value of each team member. Their weaknesses are that they may delegate too much responsibility and may tend to be manipulative. Team workers provide support ensure people on the team are working together effectively. They tend to fill the role of negotiators in the team and are diplomatic, flexible and perceptive. Resource Investigators are curious and innovative. They develop contacts, explore options and negotiate resources on behalf of the team. They are extroverted, and others are receptive to them and their ideas.

Thought Oriented Roles

The plant is the innovator that comes up with ideas and new approaches. They are often introverted and most times prefer to work away from the others. They may be poor communicators and most times ignore constraints and parameters. Monitor evaluators are best in evaluating and analyzing ideas that plants develop. They are critical thinkers and strategic in their approach. They are said to be detached or unemotional and may react to events than instigating them. Specialists are the people who have specialized knowledge needed to get the job done. They have skills and abilities, and they work to maintain the professional status (Mind Tools, 2015).

Effectiveness

I believe I am important to this team. I know my responsibilities and like everyone else in my team, I try my best to deliver. I advise the team on how to meet their social media targets and the kind of software applications to invest. I believe everyone else in the team is doing their best, and that goes a long way toward the success of this team so far. We have all set overall standards and objectives for the team. The team objectives help everyone set their objectives to contribute to achieving the overall goals. Our strategies so far have been successful since we have met almost all the objectives and goals set at the beginning of our year.
There are obviously things that I wish we could change since we are still not at perfection yet. My main recommendation is that we set both long-term and short-term goals. Even though we meet our overall goals most of the time, I believe having short-term goals would help us know our progress before getting there (McKay, 2015). It would be a way to know what necessary changes should be made before it is too late. I would also recommend having more people in the team with different skills. So far, we have the necessary skills that help run the team but having more skills will give us better strategies by incorporating the different skills.

Bibliography

BELBIN, R. M. (2004) Management Teams: Why they Succeed or Fail. 2nd Ed. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
JOHNSON, J. (ed.) (2009) Health organizations: Theory, Behavior, and Development. London, UK: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
KATES, A. and GALBRAITH, J. R. (2007) Designing Your Organization: Using the STAR Model to Solve 5 Critical Design Challenges. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
MCKAY, M. (2015) The Importance of Setting Goals for a Business. The Houston Chronicle [Online] Available from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-setting-goals-business-834.html
MIND TOOLS. (2015) Belbin’s Team Roles. [Online] Available from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_83.htm
MIND TOOLS. (2015) Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing [Online] Available from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_86.htm
THE HAPPY MANAGER. (2015) Teamwork Theories. [Online] Available from: http://www.the-happy-manager.com/articles/teamwork-theories/
WEST, M. A. (2012) Effective Teamwork: Practical Lessons from Organizational Research. 3rd Ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
WILDER, B. (2015) How Do You Create a High-Performance Team? [Online] Available from http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/28506/high-performance-team
WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION. (2013) Teamwork Theory. [Online] Available from http://www.workplace-communication.com/teamwork-theory.html