Practice And Theory Of HRM Systems: Establishing Teamwork In An Organisation

Views regarding the difficulty of establishing teamwork in an organisation

Discuss about the Practice and Theory of HRM Systems.

Team effectiveness plays an important role in increasing the effectiveness of the organisation. It is therefore important for the managers of an organisation critically employ staffs who have a perfect balance of skills, knowledge and other required personalities. Moreover, it is important for the managers of the company to assist the employees well in order to increase the performance of the company.

The project focuses on whether it is difficult to establish teamwotk in an organisation or not. In order to study the project in details, four theoretical themes from the literature are discussed. Relevant examples are provided in the study to support the discussion on the establishment of teamwork in the organisation.

Teamwork in an organisation can be defined as the process of collaborating the work with the employees of the organisation in order to increase the effectiveness of the activities and achieving the organisational goals in an efficient manner. Teamwork is an important concept in the market environment as it is crucial for the staff members to work together towards a particular goal and give their best performance in any circumstances. In order to carry out effective teamwork it is necessary for the individuals to incorporate their individual personal skills and communicate properly with each other (Armstron and Taylor 2014).

The outcome and the effectiveness of teamwork depend upon the implementation of teamwork within the organisation. The establishment of teamwork in a workplace does not happen on its own, rather the process of implementation is a critical one. In order to establish teamwork it is important for the managers of the organisation to become a part of the work culture and an integral part of the employees, process and culture. Therefore, it can be said that implementing teamwork in the workplace can be tricky and difficult.

The Tuckman’s stages of group development, is effective in highlighting the challenges faced by the managers of the organisation whole implementing teamwork in the organisation.  the main problems faced by the company while establishing teamwork in the organisation are to decode on whether the team members of the organisation are effective enough in working together with each other towards one particular goal. The presence of highly competitive staff within the workplace creates problem in the process of teamwork establishment. Therefore, it can be stated that the establishment of effective teamwork in the organisation is a difficult activity.

Theoretical concepts on the support of the view

There are many theories on teamwork that helps to support the fact that establishing teamwork in an organisation is a difficult process. The relevant theories on teamwork that is effective to study the topic are Tuckman’s theory, Star model theory, Agent theory and Human-agent teamwork theory.   

According to the Tuckman’s theory, there are four phases in the theory namely the forming stage, storming stage, norming stage and performing stage. The forming stage of the theory is the initial stage where the employees or the team members are not gelled up together. This stage is a messed up stage as the employees or the members of the team are busy settling and positioning themselves within the team (Weberg and Weberg 2014). Therefore, this stage needs to be handled carefully by the managers, as there is a high chance for the failure of teamwork in this very first stage.

The next stage in the storming stage in which the individuals starts considering themselves as a part of the team. However in the opinion of Besner and Hobbs (2013), the managers of the organization faces difficulties in this stage as the team member constantly challenges each other that reduces the effectiveness of teamwork. A difference is created that results from the confrontation and conflicts between the employees and the members of the team. The team therefore, loses its performance level or diverts from the focused task.

Norming stage is followed by the storming stage where there is a presence of positivity. In this phase, the team members starts working as a team together, develop processes, sets rules and criteria for working, and clarifies the task that are to be done. There is an increased sense of togetherness that is essential for organisational effectiveness.

The performing swage is the final stage, which is observed with increased focus on the activities and the relationship between the team members. The enhanced teamwork is beneficial in creating a performing team while the characteristics of effective teamwork are useful for the team to maintain the level of performance (West 2012).

The four stages of the Tuckman’s strategy in teamwork is effective in supporting the topic as the managers faces difficulty in managing the team in the preliminary stage of the theory (Valentine, Nembhard and Edmondson 2015). However, if the managers implements strategies and proper techniques to implement the leadership, the organisation will be able to achieve the expected outcome of leadership.

Tuckman’s theory

The star team model is am effective model that helps the team members to determine the factors on which they need to focus. As mentioned by Kirk et al. (2012), good teamwork is all about providing the condition and environment that help the members to members to enhance their skills, ideas and knowledge. the theory suggest that focusing on the strengths of the team members at the time of pursuing the goals is an effective way to achieve organisational effectiveness. The model infers that the effective teamwork can be achieved when the team members uses and develop their strengths to flourish. However, it is a difficult task as the managers of the team are not always able to identify the strengths of the team members. It becomes complicated when the managers of the organisation tries to implement the Star model as it is not always possible to effectively align teamwork with the strengths of the employees and thus the expected outcome is not achieved (Hibbert and Cunliffe 2015).

The agent teamwork theory characterises certain features in teamwork. First, the goals that are to achieved is needed to be shared by the agents. Secondly, the intention of carrying out the pan also needs to shared and sis cussed. Third, the team members need to be fully aware of their individual capabilities and the ways in which they perform the assigned roles in order to be successful in achieving the organisational goals (Chuang, Jackson and Jiang 2016).

However, Paull et al. (2013) argued that the theory fails to resolve the problems of agency problems. The team leaders fail to cherish the fruitful results of effective teamwork, as the agency theory is unable to provide satisfaction to the team members, as their individual problems are not focussed on. Therefore, it again becomes difficult for the organisation to establish an effective teamwork within the workplace.

According to Drew and Coulsonâ€ÂThomas (2013), when a work is performed by a group of individuals where each of them carries out their subordinating personal functions and adds towards achieving one particular goal, the result is effective. When teamwork is performed, the goals can be achieved in a flexible and robustable manner in a distributed, dynamic and hostile environment. However, the managers of the organisation face the biggest challenge in developing a mixed initiative of human organisation. One of the limiting factors of the theory is that the interaction between the ability of the users and their willingness to spend the time in communicating with the other agent is not well understood (Goetsch and Davis 2014). There occur problems related to management uncertainties and focusing on the task while trying to incorporate teamwork within the organisation. Teamwork further increases the uncertainty about the agent plans and the status (Rasula, Vuksic and Stemberger 2012). The failure of effective teamwork elongates the process of achieving the organisational goal, as the team members are unable to coordinate the work among them effectively.

Star team model

In order to support the view that it is difficult to establish teamwork within the organisation, relevant examples are discussed. In the modern era, the organisations especially in US, spends almost $14 billion every year on the leadership and teamwork development. In the context of the European retail bank, the organisation was anxious to increase its sales. For the company, in the short-run, the skill that was the major concern was to persuade and motivate the team members without any formal authority of the direct line management (TungBaird and Schoch 2014). It was critical for the managers to persuade the team members to work in a coordinate manner and change the working approaches that restricted the organisation from achieving the organisational goals (Bratton and Gold 2012). This implies that establishing teamwork in an organisation is a difficult task and failure to make appropriate decisions regarding teamwork decreases the productivity of the team members resulting in failure of teamwork.

In the example of Microsoft Company, the company sets a new mission to create real teamwork and just not mere teams. The managers of the company witnessed fall in the productivity due to less effective teamwork. There was absence of team identity, as members did not feel mutually accountable with each other. They were not able to make decisions and faced problems in tomes of critical decision-making. In order to resolve the issues faced by the company, the CEO of the company decides to makes changes in the organisational activities in order to increase the effectiveness of the teamwork (Tabassi, Ramli and Bakar 2012). The managers intended to identify the strength of the team in order to make the individuals responsible of the task that they are capable of carrying out.

Conclusion

The theories and the examples studied in the project helps to conclude that the process of establishing teamwork in an organisation is a difficult and critical activity. The theories on teamwork such as Tuckman’s theory, Star team model, Agent theory of teamwork and the Human-agent theory of teamwork provide wide knowledge on the concept of teamwork. These models are further beneficial in supporting the view that achieving effective teamwork is a difficult process. There are various factors that a team leader needs to focus on order to establish teamwork in the workplace. However, it is not always possible for the leaders to focus on each factor before implementing teamwork in the firm. Moreover, based on the example of the European retail bank it can be stated that there are many other organisations that fails to establish effective teamwork due to the complexity of the process. Therefore, it is important for the organisations to hire staffs that have the capabilities of working as team and have the required skills. The managers of the company also need to corporate with the team members in order to provide them the best ambience to work effectively as a team. It can be therefore stated that to establish effective teamwork within the organisation the managers needs to develop and implement strategies for teamwork.

References

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Besner, C. and Hobbs, B., 2013. Contextualized project management practice: A cluster analysis of practices and best practices. Project Management Journal, 44(1), pp.17-34.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Chuang, C.H., Jackson, S.E. and Jiang, Y., 2016. Can knowledge-intensive teamwork be managed? Examining the roles of HRM systems, leadership, and tacit knowledge. Journal of management, 42(2), pp.524-554.

Drew, S. and Coulsonâ€ÂThomas, C., 2013. Transformation through teamwork: the path to the new organization?. Team Performance Management: An International Journal.

Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. pearson.

Hibbert, P. and Cunliffe, A., 2015. Responsible management: Engaging moral reflexive practice through threshold concepts. Journal of business ethics, 127(1), pp.177-188.

Kirk, S.F.L., Penney, T.L., McHugh, T.L. and Sharma, A.M., 2012. Effective weight management practice: a review of the lifestyle intervention evidence.International journal of Obesity, 36(2), pp.178-185.

Paull, D.E., DeLeeuw, L.D., Wolk, S., Paige, J.T., Neily, J. and Mills, P.D., 2013. The effect of simulation-based crew resource management training on measurable teamwork and communication among interprofessional teams caring for postoperative patients. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 44(11), pp.516-524.

Rasula, J., Vuksic, V.B. and Stemberger, M.I., 2012. The impact of knowledge management on organisational performance. Economic and Business Review for Central and South-Eastern Europe, 14(2), p.147.

Tabassi, A.A., Ramli, M. and Bakar, A.H.A., 2012. Effects of training and motivation practices on teamwork improvement and task efficiency: The case of construction firms. International Journal of Project Management,30(2), pp.213-224.

Tung, A., Baird, K. and Schoch, H., 2014. The relationship between organisational factors and the effectiveness of environmental management.Journal of environmental management, 144, pp.186-196.

Valentine, M.A., Nembhard, I.M. and Edmondson, A.C., 2015. Measuring teamwork in health care settings: a review of survey instruments. Medical Care, 53(4), pp.e16-e30.

Weberg, D. and Weberg, K., 2014. Seven behaviors to advance teamwork: findings from a study of innovation leadership in a simulation center. Nursing administration quarterly, 38(3), pp.230-237.

West, M.A., 2012. Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons.