Human Resource Management For Imaginate Company – Discussion And Recommendations

Merits of working in team

Discuss about the Human Resource Management for Imaginate Company.

Team work is one of the key criterions to effectively accomplish the organizational or any other goals or motives. The more effective will be the team management and the team work, the more will be the effectiveness of the accomplished task (Turner 2014). We as a group were assigned a job of observing the human resource management in Imaginate Company. We had to determine the aspects of human resource management being initiated by the human resource manager of this organization and providing recommendations accordingly (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). We have accomplished the given task effectively and gain huge knowledge about the various elements that need to be considered by the team members in working as a team. This essay will discuss about the knowledge that I have gathered in working in the team. I will also state some recommendations, which will help to further enhance the effectiveness of the team work.

One of the key merits that have been identified by me in working in the team is the division of the responsibilities. We are five members in the team and among us, we have divided the responsibilities. This helped us in accomplishing the task more effectively. Another key benefit being identified is the generation of more options (Gallie et al. 2012). For a certain point to get evaluated we came up with different and diversified solutions and thus it helped us in having broader considerations during the decision making process. It is also been noticed by me that, due to the team work, the team members came to know each other more effectively. It helped me in gaining diversified and varied knowledge from other team members for a certain issue.

Beyond the merits and the knowledge that I have gathered from the team work, there are various other issues that had been emerged in the team. At the start of the project, we have decided that Tuckman’s teamwork theory will be implemented in order to effectively manage the team (Raes et al. 2015). This is due to the reason that, according to us, step-by-step implementation of this theory will help us to reduce the gap between the team members and understands each other’s perspective effectively.

Figure: 1

However, from the very first stage of this theory, we have faced issues. Forming is the first step in this theory. According to this step, team member takes time to get them accustomed in the team and determine their role in the team. Allocation of the responsibilities are also been done in this step. However, due to the reason that, the four members of our team are culturally different with having different social backgrounds, allocation of the responsibilities became difficult (Pieterse, Van Knippenberg and Van Dierendonck 2013). No one was ready to opt for complex job. Moreover, selection of the team leader also faced difficulties due to the reason that no one was ready to accept the leader who will be culturally and socially different (Woehr, Arciniega and Poling 2013). Thus, random process was selected and I was made the team leader. I have allocated the responsibilities based on the expertise of the team members.

Issues identified in the team

Conflict is quite normal in any team work and it is ought to happen. However our team faced the conflict regarding the difference in the opinion of the members. Majority of the opinions of the members are contradictory to one another and thus caused in conflict (Plessis 2012). Moreover, they are not ready to adjust or compromise to some extent in order to solve the conflict. Most notable conflict in our team occurred in determining the effectiveness of the initiation of work flexibility in Imaginate Company. Two members were of the opinion that work flexibility is the best option for the organization to enhance their employee performance, whereas another member came with the opinion that work flexibility will not help to increase the effectiveness of the employees. Eventually it caused the deviation from the core objective of our team.

Being the team leader I was assigned the role of building consensus among the team members. However, for creation of consensus, adjustment is required from all the team members, which was not possible in this group. This situation can be related with the norming step of Tuckman’s teamwork theory. Due to this reason, I opted for individual meeting with all the members to determine their opinions and arguments and tried to identify the limitations (Ishikawa 2012). It helped them to determine their shortcomings in their opinions. However, it is being seen by me that all the team members are more concentrated in identifying the limitations of other members than their own.

I being the team leader initiated the approach of transformational style of leadership. According to this leadership approach, the key objective of the leader is to motivate their team members in accomplishing their task (Tabassi, Ramli and Bakar 2012). I helped them in working out the plan for task accomplishment for the team members. In addition, I helped them in determining and evaluating the issues of Imaginate Company. It enabled me as well as the team members to indentify the core areas of the task and accomplish it effectively.

Effective feedback mechanism is important and one of the key factors to enhance the effectiveness of teamwork. This is due to the reason that, for the effective management of the teamwork, it is necessary that all the team members will be effectively communicated with one another and with the team leaders (Tausczik and Pennebaker 2013). In our team, we have initiated an effective communication channel among the team members. It helped me as a team leader in effectively coordinating with the team members and managing the issues and grievances of the team members in time (Tsay and Brady 2012). In our team we have initiated a process of conducting a live meeting among the team members once a week.

Building of consensus

It helped us in evaluating the job being done by the individual team members in a single week along with identifying the areas of improvement. In addition, we are being connected through the use of various electronic mediums such as mobiles, Skype and social media. It helped us in communicating with all the members at any point of time. I being the team leader initiated the process of garnering feedback from the team members in every week (Dumitrescu, Cetina and Pentescu 2012). It helped me in determining the shortcomings of mine in managing the team effectively. Thus, it acted as one of the key sources of determining factors to enhance the effectiveness of the team management.

By leading and managing the team in accomplishing the given task, I have gained various diversified ideas and knowledge, which can be further used to enhance the effectiveness of the future teamwork. There are some points that are being identified by me, which may help in enhancing the effectiveness of the teamwork in future. The following sections will discuss about these recommended steps.

• According to me, effective management of the team starts from the selection of the team members. This is due to the reason that, I have seen in working in the team that if the team members are not being selected according to the requirement of the task, then it will be difficult for the team to effectively work based on mutual cooperation and coordination. Thus, the members should be selected in accordance to the requirement.
• During the time of selection of the team members, it is also to be considered the cultural aspects, mentality and attitude of the team members. This is due to the reason that differences in culture among the team members caused conflict in the team management. Thus, having team member from similar cultural and social backgrounds should be considered.
• Time allocation is an important aspect in effective management of team. This is due to the reason that, in our team, all the members cannot able to enhance their relationship with one another due to having less time. People tend to get comfortable with one another after spending a certain time. Thus, it is important to allocate enough time to the team members of the newly formed team. It will help them to understand their co-members effectively and thus the mutual cooperation and coordination will get enhanced among the team members.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be concluded that in our team work, we have faced various issues in effective management of the team. Key issues identified are the conflict among the members, cultural differences among the members and allocation of minimal time for the teamwork. Various merits such as initiation of effective communication channel and generation of varied and diverse opinions and information are also been observed by me in working in the team. Moreover, knowledge such as how to lead a team and how to create consensus among the team members are being gained by me by working in this team. Based on my gained knowledge, I have stated several recommendations, which will help to enhance the effectiveness of the performance in the future teamwork.

Reference

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

Dumitrescu, L., Cetin?, I. and Pentescu, A., 2012. Employee feedback-condition for their retention and loyalty. Romanian Journal of Marketing, (3).

Gallie, D., Zhou, Y., Felstead, A. and Green, F., 2012. Teamwork, skill development and employee welfare. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 50(1), pp.23-46.

Ishikawa, J., 2012. Transformational leadership and gatekeeping leadership: The roles of norm for maintaining consensus and shared leadership in team performance. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 29(2), pp.265-283.

Pieterse, A.N., Van Knippenberg, D. and Van Dierendonck, D., 2013. Cultural diversity and team performance: The role of team member goal orientation. Academy of Management Journal, 56(3), pp.782-804.

Plessis, Y.D., 2012. Exploring teamwork paradoxes challenging 21st-century cross-cultural conflict management in a multicultural organizational context. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 12(1), pp.49-71.

Raes, E., Kyndt, E., Decuyper, S., Van den Bossche, P. and Dochy, F., 2015. An exploratory study of group development and team learning. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 26(1), pp.5-30.

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.

Tausczik, Y.R. and Pennebaker, J.W., 2013, April. Improving teamwork using real-time language feedback. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 459-468). ACM.

Tsay, M. and Brady, M., 2012. A case study of cooperative learning and communication pedagogy: Does working in teams make a difference?. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2), pp.78-89.

Turner, M.E., 2014. Groups at work: Theory and research. Psychology Press.

Woehr, D.J., Arciniega, L.M. and Poling, T.L., 2013. Exploring the effects of value diversity on team effectiveness. Journal of Business and Psychology, 28(1), pp.107-121.