Monday, 9 May 2011

Blog 9 - Teamworking


From my previous experiences in team working, I have found out that different attributes in each person is key to a successful group. I carried out a group assignment with two other members if my class to complete work based on motivation. Looking at the relevant models I have related ours back to Gersick’s (1988) model for contemporary groups, this is the one I believe to most reflect our experiences. At first we were very open minded about our time frame and did not decide on our roles for the first few weeks, we decided that we had the time to think about how we would go about the job at hand and wait till closer to the deadline. After three weeks we decided we had left to much work to do, to close to the deadline. Therefore we agreed to delegate roles to each member of the team; we shared out the work equally and set a time to have it completed by. At this point we were working rather independently as we were each doing so research by ourselves. Once we had completed our task we came together to discuss and reflect on the work we had done, giving opinions and helping to improve each others work. This meant that we had all agreed on the content of the work and put it all together to create our assignment, making it seem like one piece if work instead of three. My role within the group was to look at different motivational theories and describe them. Also I felt like I became the team leader because no-one wanted to take that role but it is an essential one to a group. I felt like we all had an important role to play in our group and each had a large amount of research to carry out. Belbin developed a self-participation questionnaire that allows the participant to find out what role they are within a team. Looking at Belbin’s model of team roles I class myself as a co-ordinator. They are the ones who are mature, confident, clarify goals, promotes decision making and delegates well. Before this task I would not have seen myself as this but the group I was working with I decided to take control as I thought nothing would be done if I hadn’t. The other members in my groups were a team worker and a specialist.

Tuckman (1973) talks about the stages of team development and the impact they have upon it. They are made up of five stages; forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Stage one is forming, which is the initial formation of the group. At this stage consideration is given to appointing individual roles and responsibilities. Tuckman believes there might be anxiety among the group as members might test each other to establish themselves within the group according to Mullins (2010). Stage two is storming, where members of the group will start to interact with each other and put forward their ideas and views on the chosen activity at hand. Often at this stage there are disagreements about the way the will carry out the nature of the task, leading to confrontation and hostility. Stage three is norming, where the arguments and hostility are controlled and members of the group decide what areas they are covering. This is a very important stage as it establishes the need for members to cooperate in order to plan and agree standards of performance. The fourth stage is performing, where structure and cohesiveness are created. They can now concentrate on the task at hand and be more effective as a group. The final stage in adjourning, where the task at hand is completed and the team is disbanded. Another team working theory is Gersick’s (1988) model for temporary groups with deadlines, or punctuated equilibrium model. The idea of this model is that at about the midway point in any project, they will realise that the deadline is a lot closer than they first thought and naturally elevate their productivity. There are six stages within this model; group direction, inertia, half way, major change, second phase of inertia and last meeting.
One of the main theory’s used in team working would be Belbin’s (1993) team roles theory. He believes that groups composed of entirely clever people of people with similar personalities displayed a number of negative results, and also a lack of creativity. The most successful groups consist of a variety of people and personalities with a number of different roles undertaken within the group. Belbin initially identified eight useful types of team roles, which eventually turned into nine, these are as follows; plant, resource investigator, co-ordinator, shaper, monitor, team worker, implementer, completer and specialist . A team role is described as a pattern of behaviour, as in the way that one team member interacts with another.

Many companies use team work to their advantage and help their business succeed. It is essential that people work together within an organisation so they can advise each other and support each other in the work place. An example of this would be Hereford Sixth Form College which came fourth in the times newspaper top 100 companies of 2010. An Ofsted report revealed that the staff has a low staff average of only 2.4 sick days a year and this is a testimony to the loyalty of the workforce. Also the principal has been praised for ‘excellent leadership’ which staff agree, 73% said that they inspire him and he is always available to talk. Another example of team work in an organisation would be careers south west ltd which specialises in careers advice. They came sixth in the list of the 100 top companies for 2010. The staff say their bosses talk openly and honestly with them, and an essential part of team working is communication, also they care about them as individuals. Also the chief executive was awarded an OBE for her services to careers education; this shows her dedication and emphasis for the job at hand. She runs the organisation on sound moral principles and all employees have a great deal of faith in her.

References
Mullins, L. (2010) Management and organisational behaviour.9th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Wolinski, J. and Coates, G. (2009) AQA A2 Business Studies: Textbook, Philip Allan Updates
Manfacturing network (2011) Belbin’s team roles[online], Available from: http://www.manufacturingnetwork.org/SITE/UPLOAD/IMAGE/Belbin_team_roles1.gif [accessed 13 April 2011]

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