MGT200 Building and Issues Related With Team Members Assessment 3 Answer
Answer
TEAM BUILDING
Executive summary
In this paper team building and the issues related with the team members are discussed. Team building is important for the organisation as a highly capable team can solve issues and present better outcomes. The Belbin model is used for analysing the team composition as it identifies the strength and weakness of different team members. The issues like social loafing, lack of motivation, low team norms and poor communication are addressed in this study. Team building can be beneficial for the organisation and configuration of the team is important.
Introduction
Team building is an important task in the organisation as it turns different individuals from diversified culture into a cohesive team. Team creation is essential for organising work so that together organisational problems can be solved. In this study, the team needs to present a proposal for the organisational problem to the directors and team manager. Different individuals are present in the organisation, and team building is required for stronger bonds among the four individuals. Respecting the differences in team building is essential for accomplishing the goals. There are different activities which can be used for team building, and daily interaction serves the best for this interest. In the practices, managers identify the strength and weakness of each team member so that he can mix the right mix of people for the purpose of problem-solving. It is important to facilitate communication among the team members by the manager for team building (Vukasinovic et al., 2017). Team building provides several advantages to the organisation as activities are directed towards the accomplishment of objectives and goals. It develops collaboration which increases organisational efficiency and productivity. Each member is designated with a clear set of responsibilities which motivates the team to work towards the problem and present a concise and effective technique. This study focuses on the different team-building issues so that a highly functional team can be built.
Analysis of team composition
Configuration of team members which is generally based on the team members attributes is known as team composition. The composition of a team is a mixed and matched process and has a strong influence on team building and outcomes in problem-solving. Team composition is homogenous, but in this study, it is heterogeneous as all the team members have differences.
The Belbin model is used for team composition as it provides insights into the team members' behaviour. The model has described different team members into three categories which are active, people and thought oriented. It depends on interpersonal strength. Action-oriented members shape and implement things so that tasks can be completed. People-oriented believe in coordinating and are innovative. Though oriented, evaluate and monitor as they specialise knowledge (Vera et al., 2019).
The Belbin model identifies team members' potential for understanding their contribution. Groups are divided into teams of four members for this assignment. Encouraging discussion assists in matching and forming a team. Another approach which can be used is role as the main idea is to make each team member step out and in from different roles. It depicts the capabilities of team members (Eybers and Hattingh, 2018).
The team size is small as there are only four members. The team diversity is present as each member is different and has issues like social loafing, poor communication, negative team norms and motivation. As interns are young and egotistical communication is not properly done, which results in conflict. Motivation among the team is also low as effective team leaders do not direct an individual. Each member has a low collaboration level, and lack of accountability has created issues like social loafing.
Issues that affect the performance of the team
It is important that all the members within teamwork must cooperate in order to provide enhanced and effective performance. This paper highlights the prevalent issues within the internship team that are affecting its performance, and it also highlights the need for rectifying it at the earliest (Byun et al., 2020). By understanding these issues, the team management can have a clear idea regarding its magnitude, and hence it can be then solved easily and effectively. Following are the four issues identified within the internship team that must be solved as they are likely to affect the performances of the team.
Social Loafing
Social loafing is one of the prominent problems associated with this team, and there are certain reasons behind it. At times when individuals work on their own then they break down the assignment into variable steps and then start working over it, but in this scenario, all the four participants are a part of a group or team, and hence the tendency of social loafing tends to make it likely that you impart less effort in the project. This problem is highly seen in the group as the members usually avoid responsibilities, and they think that someone else can assume the task for themselves. It is also witnessed in certain cases that the members of a group assume that other members will also take care of their share of work and hence at the end they get stuck doing the whole assignment by themselves (Lyons et al., 2017).
Different experiments had defined social loafing extensively, and it is also addressed within the organisational behaviour and management theory. The French agricultural engineer Max Ringlemann conducted the first-ever research on this topic. He had witnessed the concept of social loafing by organising a rope pulling game, and he witnessed that individuals usually make less effort while in a team whereas they put relatively more effort when they are doing it alone. There also various other research initiated over this topic and most of them had drawn the conclusion that groups having the real participants experienced a huge decline in their performance and they suggest that the losses were interlinked with several motivational factors and not by the group coordination issues (Robert, 2020).
In this internship group, the participants are moving towards a larger goal, and they are a bit focussed towards it, but they are experiencing the psychological phenomenon. The leader is also facing extreme frustrations because of the lack of effort imparted by group members. Following are certain examples behind it.
- Motivation: This plays a vital role in order to determine whether social loafing has taken place or not.
- Responsibility Diffusion: When individuals feel less accountable, then they usually get indulged in social loafing.
- Group Size: The size of this group is small; still, there is social loafing.
- Expectations: Individuals in this group expect their share of work to be accomplished by others.
Poor communication
Poor communication is another vital factor that severely impacts the performance of the team. Poor communication is prevalent within this group, as the interns are young and egoistic. This has resulted in frustration, friction, confusion and the extremely tense environment gets created because of it. The individuals are also not motivated as they do not get any support by the side of their teammates, and hence they are not inspired to collaborate. This lack of motivation and improper communication brutally impacts their performance as well as the performance of the team (Wu et al., 2017).
Certain issues aren't the only reason behind poor communication, but it is important to identify the root cause of it and then to address it appropriately. The group can have better outcomes via understanding these causes and addressing it. Pour communication often messes up the objectives, and it also makes it unclear. Individuals who are in this internship group usually avoid face to face communication, and it leads to various misconceptions. This is the primary reason because of which they are frustrated and confused, and they also underperform because of this.
Certain expectations go along with the position, and it is also important for the employees to understand their roles and perform extensively to satisfy them. Poor leadership also contributes to this. Organisation behavioural theory extensively explains the root cause of poor communication along with the mitigating factors that can be used in order to get rid of this problem. The organisational behavioural theory states that unmotivated individuals are considered as lazy, and team members need to talk to each other in order to gain motivation and improvise their associated performance.
Lack of Motivation
Motivation is regarded as one among the three elements that impart a direct effect over the performances. Accordingly, the research performance is regarded as a function associated with ability, opportunities and motivation (David et al., 2017).
Motivation is one of the major things that these young interns lack. The managers, as well as employees, can be more effective and productive if they successfully understand the sources through which motivation can be inculcated, and they can also create certain ways through which they can get motivation (Cerqueti et al., 2020).
Motivation plays a pivotal role in the workplace, motivation is extremely important for the managers as it leads towards the action, and it is also among the three key elements associated with performance (Gamil and Rahman, 2017). Another vital factor is that it is a variable that gets impacted by the state of mind. It is the task of managers to enhance motivation as it helps in increasing productivity.
Hence it can be stated that the lack of motivation imparts a direct effect over the employee and team performance, and it is important to consider it as an important factor. The group of interns lack motivation because they are new, and they do not know much about the job they have to perform. They also do not communicate effectively with each that further contributes towards it.
Negative team norm
The individuals within the internship group have a different line of thoughts, and they are strange from each other's perspective. This often results in making them uncivilised, and they commit things that are not forgivable. The team norm established among them is negative, and this is the primary reason behind the insolence. The members are from various backgrounds, and they also have variable priorities (Aga et al., 2016).
Team norms are regarded as basic rules that are there for civil discussion. In this internship group, there is nos much discussion, which ultimately leads to unclear messages. There is not any set of agreements regarding the way through which members will work along with each other (Dasborough et al., 2020). Because of the not defined agreed behaviours, the collective performance of the team cannot be enhanced. The organisational behaviour theory also supports the need for a positive team norm, which is not accomplished by this team.
Recommendation
This section presents recommendations that can be useful in order to mitigate the above-discussed problems within the group. There are four recommendations in this section, and each one is specific for solving the four major challenges highlighted in the above section.
- Social loafing is a negative aspect of the team, and hence it is important to solve it at the earliest. Since the team of interns is already small, team management can develop certain engagement rules. By establishing the ground rules for conducting the outset of the group, the group can experience comparatively lesser push back. It is also essential at times when individuals are working closely over a goal. Another major thing that can be done in highlighting the importance associated with accountability, deadlines and deliverability. These are some of the factors that can help in satisfying the objectives and goals. Each of the team members can also be assigned with a separate and distinct task so that they can understand the specific contribution they will make towards the task.
- Poor communication is regarded as a major barrier to success. It is vital to overcome poor communication and it can be done via passing in the information clearly and highlighting the importance of communication at the workplace (Boss et al., 2019). Since the interns do not have any formal experience regarding the workplace; hence, they must be reminded about its importance. The leader or the manager working with the group of interns needs to lead by example so that the message can be conveyed in an enhanced manner. They must be taught regarding the importance of paying attention during communication. They must not use phones or do something else while doing so. These are some of the things that can assist in improving poor communication techniques and can also result in a positive output.
- Motivation is extremely important in the workplace; there are certain things that can be done by the leader in order to motivate the young interns working there. It is important to make sure that the employees working there must have meaningful work with them, and they are provided with challenges regularly. However, it is a bit difficult to apply in reality; but still, the interns can be encouraged to play to their strengths. They can also be provided with regular opportunities so that they can do certain experiments and they can also assist them in their work so that interns can understand about the mistakes they are committing and hence rectify it.
- Negative team norms are a dangerous problem, and it also hinders productivity. The HR manager can talk to the interns, and he can explain to them the importance of positivity at the workplace. They can also ask for the specific problems the interns are facing and hence can offer possible solutions towards it (Pollack and Matous, 2019). This can be very useful in mitigating negativity. Another major thing that can be done to build positive team norms is by providing equal opportunities in order to express opinions.
Conclusion
The above paper presents the effective role of team building in an organisation for problem-solving. It is essential to go through a robust framework of team building as it assists in the creation of a highly functional team. There are several issues discussed in the team building and four members involved. Team composition of a team member is done within the implementation of the Belbin model. In the last section, recommendations are provided for effective team building so that a highly functional team can be created for presenting proposals regarding the organisational problem. This study deeply discussed the issue derived from diversified and heterogeneous team members.
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