Executive Summary
The work of teams is an increasing concern for top management as well as all other leaders in any organization. Real groups offer an attractive potential for boosts in small group performance at all levels in the organization (Katzenbach, 1998). The versatility of a team is well suited to the dynamics of speed and rapid change that is faced by high performing organizations.
This paper looks at the assumption that people working in teams always achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively than those working in isolation. It provides different definitions and characteristics of a working team and goes on to discuss what different authors have said about the working of teams. Challenges of creating and maintaining a good working team as well as factors that lead to the effectiveness of a team are also discussed.
Towards the end, the practicality of working teams in organizations is examined and explanations are given to show why the actual implementation of a team is a difficult task.
Introduction
A team may be defined as a group of people who have come together to pursue a common goal. Barnes (2008) defined a work team as a group of people who work together on a common task to achieve a specific goal or objective.
In the present day competitive business world, it is almost impossible for any organization to succeed in isolation. Teams are therefore a common characteristic in most organizations today. According to research, when people join efforts, it is possible to work well than when individuals are left to work individually.
According to West (2004), when we create teams, it is important to think beyond the relatively unchangeable aspects of the person such as their personality and think more of their motivation, knowledge and skills for working in teams.
This includes their preference for working in teams; whether they have an individualistic or collective approach to working with others; their basic social skills such as listening, speaking and cooperating; and their team working skills such as collaboration, concern for the team and interpersonal awareness.
Team working practices are based on the belief that when working together effectively, a group of people can make a much greater contribution than would be made by those people working as individuals (Barnes, 2008).
Barnes also points out that a team is more than just a group of people. A team works together on a common task to achieve a specific goal or objective. Team work requires cohesion, complimentary skills and leadership (Barnes, 2008).
An organization may create a variety of teams such as action teams, problem solving teams, project teams or production teams (Barnes, 2008).
Characteristics of a Team
A team is defined by a clear common goal that is well understood by everyone in the group who also believe in it. The goal could be a sales target, the development of a new process, or managing a group of business units (Maginn, 2003). Whatever it is, achieving the goal is clearly the reason for the existence of the group.
Another characteristic is that individuals have to work together to achieve the set goal. People on a team often depend on each other’s expertise, perspective and efforts (Gaines, 2006). Working in teams enables organizations to bring together employees with varying skills and this creates opportunities for staff to grow in their various fields. When the power of the different perspectives within the organization are brought together to deal with a problem or challenge, the outcome is always amazing (Maginn, 2003).
Critical Literature Review
According to Barnes (2008), working teams have always been an important feature of most organizations. It is very rare to find an individual working in total isolation in any organization. As a matter of fact, one of the main purposes of business organizations is to bring people together so that they can perform more efficiently than if they acted a lone (Aronoff & Ward, 1997).
Furthermore, many work tasks have to be performed by a group of people working collectively and this is the very essence of team work. Barnes also argues that the concept of working in teams was not so popular a few years back than it is today. Particularly, much success has been realized by Japanese manufacturing companies that for a long time worked based on teams.
The Toyota production system for example, has team work at the heart of its operations. The use of work teams is, however, increasingly gaining popularity among many other organizations globally as people realize that they can boost their operations greatly by getting employees to work in groups rather than in isolation (Barnes, 2008).
An important issue with regard to team working is the degree of empowerment afforded to the team. Empowerment is the concept that workers are able to take greater control over the work that they do without reference to higher levels of management (Beyerlein & Johnson, 2001). Workers are given the authority and the resources to take greater control over the decisions that affect their work.
If teams are to function effectively, they not only need to understand the extent and limits of their autonomy, but also how decisions delegated to them are taken. In particular, it is important to establish the extent to which power resides in the team leader and the extent to which decision making is exercised collectively (Robbins, Judge & Judge, 2008).
Effective Teamwork
According to West (2004), the success of a team, depends on a number of factors. Team workers must exhibit certain characteristics as they endeavor to accomplish tasks. Effective team workers are able to relate well with all other team members. An effective member of a team possesses good listening skills and will be reluctant to do anything that will hurt other team members (West, 2004).
Jones and Beyerlein (1999) discovered that there are principles to follow if teams are to succeed and noticed that the effectiveness of teams falls off dramatically if the essential principles are ignored. They identified five principles that are common to successful teams. First, an organization must try as much as possible to redesign the work to be done to focus on the customer and make team members interdependent.
Secondly, a significant investment must be made in innovative training, especially for team leaders and coaches. Thirdly, team implementation should be planned as a culture change that is likely to meet stiff resistance. The other principle requires that organizations build grassroots support for teams among employees. Finally, teams should be tied to the business strategy through team performance measurement and by encouraging teams to see themselves as business partners (Jones & Beyerlein, 1999).
Why Working Teams Fail
According to Maginn (2003), a team without a goal is like a ship without a destination. What every team needs is a solid, clear and achievable goal. A goal states what the team has to achieve. It is motivating and demands action and decisiveness. In a team setting, the goal is usually an outcome that individuals can not possibly achieve by themselves (Robbins & Finley, 2000).
Considering that a team is made up of so many people, there is a chance that individuals might not really understand what the team goals actually means. This can create chaos in the team and the outcome could be disastrous (Maginn, 2003). The team leader must therefore take time to explain the goal to the team members and ensure that everyone understands the direction the team is going.
Another challenge in a team is making sure that team members strongly believe that the goal is possible to achieve and that it is the right thing to do (Katzenbach & Smith, 2001). If people feel that things are being imposed on them, they may not perform optimally and this will certainly lead to failure.
The best way to deal with this problem is to make goals that are short, clear, action oriented and definite. It the team can not see it, it can not do it either. Asking the team members what the goal is may also be helpful in establishing if the team members understand what the team outcome is supposed to be. It is also important to check feasibility and ensure that the team is capable of achieving the goal. This will motivate the team members to stretch themselves to whatever level to achieve it (Maginn, 2003).
According to Humphrey (2000), working in teams has great advantages. However, problems may arise when the implementation is not done properly. Research has shown that most problems experienced by working teams are associated with leadership, cooperation, participation, procrastination and quality.
Without effective leadership for example, teams generally have trouble sticking to agreed plans and maintaining personal discipline (Yeatts & Hyten, 1998). Considering that team members have different skills and abilities, it is important that every one participates fully. Every member makes a different level of contribution to the teams overall performance (Hardingham, 1998).
The success of the team may therefore be hindered by individuals who choose not to participate fully. Lack of proper training could also lead to failure. Training of the team members in different areas is thus important for the success of the team (Humphrey, 2000).
Practical Implications of Working Teams
The practicality of the concepts reviewed above is usually hindered by a number of factors. The most obvious one is independence (Schuman, 2010). Getting people to come out of themselves and embrace the concept of working in a team setup can be a real challenge. An organization may need to do a lot of work in motivating employees to work in teams. In some organizations, employees have been rewarded for cooperating with other team members in a team (Schuman, 2010).
Although this may appear like a good solution for the moment, it may only last for a short while. When it reaches a point where the organization can no longer afford to give employees the benefits as agreed, resistance will occur and team performance will occur. Subsequently the overall performance in the organization will decline drastically (Montebello, 1994).
As already explained earlier, working teams can also fail because of lack of training. When employees do not understand how a work team is supposed to function, the expected performance may not be realized (Orsburn, 1990). However, getting employees to embrace training may be an uphill task. Unless training is in line with an employee’s area of interest, he or she may not be willing to attend it and if forced to do so, the outcome may not be pleasant.
Jones and Beyerlein (1999) also suggested that in creating a team, an organization must try as much as possible to redesign the work to be done to be in line with the objectives of the team. This may, however, be difficult to accomplish. Redesigning the work to be done may involve numerous tasks that eventually will consume valuable time (Scholtes, Joiner & Streibel, 2003). Energy and time could be wasted in the process.
This is therefore something that is easily said than done. Again, when dealing with difficult group members, getting everyone to be focused on one thing and work towards accomplishing a task may not be that easy (Guest, 1986). Agreeing on important issues like rules of engagement could be a real problem and so much time could be spent debating rather than working on the task at hand (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011).
In view of the challenges mentioned here, the practicality of implementing working teams is questionable. As organizations adopt the use of working teams, they must be ready to address the challenges that will arise.
Conclusion
Without doubt, working teams are a great asset to an organization. By bringing together individuals with different capabilities and skills, it is possible for organizations to greatly improve performance. Working teams create opportunities for team members to learn and grow in their careers through the exchange of ideas with others.
However, in as much as teams are quite beneficial to the growth of any organization, their implementation is a delicate matter and must be done with a lot of caution. Improper constitution of the working teams will cause more harm than good to the organization.
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