Analyze the various questions on the employment relationship, leadership theories, teamwork and motivation.
The main aim of the report is to analyze the various questions on the employment relationship, leadership theories, teamwork and motivation. The report uses relevant concepts and theories on the questions that are being invested. The first part of the report analyzes the types of teams that are fireside charts and the problems busting teams. It also specifies the stages of development of team. The second part of the report specifies the role of Debrito in the success of the Alberta team – based productivity project. It also discusses the leadership approaches that the company employ to resolve the conflict between labor and the professional. The last part of the report analyzes and gives advice to Algoma Howard and her team for improving the employee – involvement climate and environment to meet the production goals of the organization. The report discusses the contingency leadership theory and the conflict solution approach to resolve the conflict between employers and employee. The report is based on the Calgary Oil Shale Technologies Inc. (COST). Calgary Oil Shale is the subsidiary unit of the oil and technology that supplies databases and data management to the oilfield service company to maximize oil recovery in Alberta, Colorado and Utah of the company. The main problem that is identified is a clash between the scientists and the laborers in the organization. The applied solution was to hire Algoma Howard to implement the plan and action of teamwork in the organization to resolve the issue and the conflict. Algoma Howard is the first Nation descendant to implement a teamwork program. Her team of members includes Carlos Debrito who had been the company for twenty six years and had served in all units of the organization. There are three functional groups in the organization that includes operations, below ground group and equipment maintenance people of the company (Daft and Marcic 2006).
Cross functional team is a group formed with members from different cities with varied skills, functions, expertise and goals. Cross functional teams help in improving coordination and integration. It also helps in resolving conflict at workplace. The Alberta city that is the city of Grande Prairie has experienced many cross functional teams in the past one being the cross functional teams of Howard and Debrito (Majchrzak et al. 2012). The “Fire side charts” evolved as a lively problem solving discussions. Fireside charts involve a stage of optional meeting in organization where all the employees are invited for the meeting. The place chosen for the fireside charts or meeting is the Cafeteria and the meeting is usually held in the late afternoon. The main objective of the fireside charts is to create a relaxed environment for the members of the organization. The meeting is held to discuss the problem that the employees in an organization face to solve and discuss the problems of the unresolved issue. The meeting is held to resolve the issues that the employees face in an organization in a relaxed environment. The meeting is held usually by the management team to resolve the unsolved issues (Daft and Marcic 2006).
Debrito along with Howard was a permanent cross functional team in Alberta whose main aim was to solve the issues that the organization was facing. Its goal was to resolve the issue and conflict between the group of scientists and labors using an effective team work. For example, the machines that were used in the company failed to work during cold weather. Debrito solve the issue by hiring a maintenance engineer in the organization to look into the maintenance of the machine. The next issue for the Howard and Debrito was to introduce the problem busting team in the organization. Problem busting team is a temporary tem that includes members from then three functional areas of management that include operations, below ground group and equipment maintenance people of the company. Each team contains a team leader for supervising the work. The team was divided on the basis of hierarchical level. Problem busting team is a temporary team whose main aim is to solve the problems that are identified in the fireside charts by the employers of the organization. The team leader that is assigned to the team is properly trained for team building (Roosevelt 2015). The problem busting team is a temporary team that is dissolved after the team is able to solve the problem and come to an effective conclusion and outcome that benefits all the members involved. It was a solution team that required a careful planning and analysis of the problem in the fireside chart or meeting of employers. The team was also required to maintain a specific cost guideline without the approval of the management team. The formation of problem solving team and the fireside charts had both the advantages and disadvantages. The fireside charts also had delicate moments because of the engineers that resented working as a problem solver. With the coordination of Howard and Debrito and effective strategies the organization was successful in solving many problems that had long been ignored (Cohen and Levesque 1991).
The result of the effective team building was seen in entire Alberta where the cross functional team was recognized as a permanent body. The fireside charts and the problem busting team helped the organization increase its productivity. The main drawback of the programme was that the team started losing its popularity in the later years. Less people attended the fireside charts due to which the problems that the organization and the employers faced were not raised. The problem busting team had also started losing its importance (Washington et al. 2014).
Both the fireside chart team and the problem busting team evolved as the cross functional team to solve the problems that the organization faced. The coordination of Howard and Debrito as cross functional team led to the development of fireside chart teams and the problem busting teams. After the success of the problem solving team and the fireside charts, Alberta saw formations of a permanent cross functional team that was the final stage of team development. The stages in which the two teams were formed are forming, storming, worming, performing and adjourning. The fireside charts are still progressing and the meeting is held on the weekly basis. The problem solving team is a temporary one that dissolves after the problem is solved and develops again on the arrival of new problems or the issues. The leadership team of Howard and Debrito proved to be success in Alberta due to which the temporary team was transformed into a permanent cross functional team at the final stage of development (McNeil et al. 2015). The entire work force was transformed into the permanent team about one and a half year ago into the team building program. The workforce was now independent to elect their own leader and make theory own decisions. The rule of team leaders were abandoned in Alberta. The workforce and people of Alberta were happy working with the cross functional team as an independent body. The workers were happy conducting the fireside chat session that it continued outside the workplace at cafeterias and snack bars. Though the tensions between the group of members were there but it resolved in short span of time due to clear understanding and coordination. The costs of the company continued to decline while the productivity continued to increase (West 2012).
The main reason for the success of the leadership and teamwork in problem solving in Alberta was the strategies and involvement of Debrito along with Howard. Debrito was working with the COST Company for about twenty six years and had worked in almost the departments of the company. He had a great knowledge of all the units of the company that helped Howard forming strategies for effective team building. Debrito was highly respected at Alberta and was planning to take a new challenge or project before his retirement. Since Debrito understood all the problems that the workers were facing in the organization from both the technical as well as field side Alberta was pleased to welcome him. The first step taken by they were making the different groups talk and share ideas. Debrito was the one to start the idea of fireside chats that proved to be a great success for increasing the productivity of the company (Folger et al. 2012). It was the idea of Debrito that helped the team gathers more and more people for the meetings. His idea of distributing free food and fireplace spread out and gained popularity. Debrito also helped in rescuing one session by diverting the topic and resolving the issue. Debrito also solved the problems by listening to the employees, for example the organization was facing a problem with the installation of machine as it was not working during the cold weather. Debrito hired a maintenance engineer to look into the matter that helped the company solve the problem. Hence Howard and Debrito strategies helped the firm the chronic problems that had been ignored over the past. Debrito played a great role in the success of the Alberta team-based productivity project through his team leadership and motivation strategies (Tambe 1997).
The leadership approach adopted by Debrito and Howard to resolve the conflict and solve the issue was the conflict solution approach. He used the conflict solution approach to resolve the issue between labour and professionals in an organization (Tedeschi 2013).
The next aim of the Algoma Howard and leadership team was to improve the productivity and solve the problems that Colorado was facing by applying the same method and strategies that it had applied in the Alberta. The aim was to introduce cross functional team at another branch of the company that is Colorado. The experts believed that since the program was already successful in Alberta it would be less time consuming and cost effective when implied at Colorado. But this did not happen as most of the people didn’t turn up for the fireside chats. Under pressure Howard had to make the attendance compulsory. At the time of problem busting method the people at Colorado were give the freedom to choose their own leader to make the policy more effective (Hersey and Blanchard 1993). The workers and the leaders were given the same training as the workers of Alberta. The policy implementation at Colorado solved many issues but it was not as much effective as it was in Alberta. The workers even refused to join the softball game and other team building exercises formulated by the members. Howard had to adopt unethical, method to solve the problem. Hence the policy at Colorado was not much effective as it was in Alberta. Howard stated the main reason for the failure of policy at Colorado was the absence of Carlos Debrito. If he had been one of the members of the team then things would have gone more smoothly. The main reason for success of policy implementation at Alberta was that the workers trusted Debrito. Since the workers in Colorado didn’t trust Howard they were hesitant in adopting the change due to which the policy implementation failed. In spite of the hard work of the team of Howard the conflict in Colorado continued to rise (Wellington 2012).
The author agrees with the statement that if Algoma Howard had Debrito in her team in Colorado the project would have been successful.
There are various approaches that Algoma Howards team could adopt to improve the employment relationship and environment for the achievement of the goals of the company at the Colorado facility. The main reason for the project at Colorado was the lack of trust that they had in the leaders (Bergerson and Keith 2006). The conflict between the different groups of individuals at Colorado can be solved by adopting the following methods or techniques:
Therefore, Algoma Howard should provide the proper leadership to the organization, but she should receive the help of the experienced employee Alberto Debrito. It is so because, without his help it would not be possible for Howard to know about the personalities of the team and at the same time the infrastructure that the organization; and whether it all support introducing conflict resolution programs or not (Behrends et al. 2014).
Conclusion
Teamwork and leadership is an essential part of any organization for its success. Effective leaders help in increasing the productivity of the organization and also help in resolving the conflict that arises at workplace. Leaders play an essential role in organizations. Howard and Debrito together developed cross functional team whose projects was a great success in Alberta as it helped in resolving the conflicts and issues between different groups. Coordination is an essential part for any organization to be successful. Without the help of Debrito, Howard’s project was not successful in Colorado.
References
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