Discuss the emergence of teams as a key feature of the modern workplace and trace its origins in the context of the changes in thinking associated with the development of schools of management thought.
1.Outline Tuckman’s stages in team development identifying the leader’s role at each stage (Use examples)
2.Apply insights from the study of managerial decision making to decision making in teams
3.Give examples of how the physical structures have been designed to facilitate teamwork
4.Outline the ways in which managers might promote teamwork
The development of teams is an important part of the successful operations of an organization. The teams within an organization help in the process of decision making and the ways by which the organization operates in the environment. The structure and the culture of the various modern organizations affect the ways by which the teams operate. The members of the team are considered to be the most important part of the development of teams. The decision making process is the most important function that is considered by the teams in the modern companies (Bals, Kirchoff and Foerstl 2016).
The report will be based on the detailed analysis of the teams that are operating within the organizations and the process that is involved behind the formation of these teams. The company that has been taken as an example to explain the processes of team development is Kmart. Kmart Australia Limited is a retail organization which is based in Australia. The company mainly operates in the area of low cost products. The organization was formed as a result of the joint venture between G.J. Coles and Coy Limited and the S.S. Kresge Company. The Kresge Company is the owner of around 51% of the total shares. The development of the Kmart stores in Australia had started in the year 1968. The first store of Kmart was opened in Burwood East, Victoria.
The process pf team development is based on five major stages that have been described by Tuckman. The stages of tea, development were proposed and explained by Bruce Tuckman, who was a psychologist in the year 1965. The stages of team formation start from the time when the members of the team meet up to the completion of the entire project. Each of the stages that have been described by Tuckman plays an important role in the high functioning teams of the organizations (Conrado et al. 2016).
Forming – This is the first stage of the development of the teams. This step involves the process of the meeting that takes place among the potential members of the team. The team are also able to learn about the challenges and the opportunities that they are likely to face within the teams or the organization as a whole. The members in this case are required to behave in an independent manner. The members of the team can be motivated, however, they are informed about the objectives and the issues of a team. The members show their best behaviour in the first step and are highly focussed on themselves (Driskell, Salas and Driskell 2018). The mature members of the team aim at formulating the appropriate behaviour that is important for the team in the early phase of its operations. The meeting of the team members is also important for the with respect to their initial behaviour within the organization. The major task related functions thereby include the orientation of the members who are considered for the formation of the groups. The members have the chance to get oriented to the tasks and the to one another as well (Fay et al. 2015). The discussions that take place in the meeting are based on the tasks that have been provided and the scope of the tasks as well. The members thereby need to grow from this stage of team development to the next stage. For example, the teams can be formed in Kmart with respect to the different operations like, the marketing of the products, the finance related activities and the other functions that are performed within the organizational operations.
Storming – The second step is based on the process of storming. This step is based on the process when the team members try to sort out their arrangement and then gain the trust of each other. This is further based on the method where the employees try to voice their personal opinions about the formation of various teams. This stage is thereby based on the ways by which the members try to create their own position within the team. This can further lead to many conflicts among the members. The team members are thereby able to understand the effects of working with each other in a team and their individual style of working as well (Ghattas, Soffer and Peleg 2014). The identification of hierarchy among the members of the team is also possible in this step. The atmosphere that is created is polite and positive in nature and the members are quite pleasant with each other. The leader plays an important role in this stage. The tasks that are assigned to the group are explained to the members in this stage itself. The disagreements between the members of the team and the clashes that occur between the personalities are resolved at this stage. This phase can also cause destruction to the team as the members may also leave the team after the various conflicts that surface after the completion of this stage (Karimi, Papamichail and Holland 2015). The teams may also not develop further after the completion of this stage. The tolerance of the members and their individual behaviour is also analysed in this stage. The lower levels of motivation can cause destructive effects for the team. The teams which are not able to pass this stage are mainly not able to reach the goals that have been set previously. The members of the team thereby need to resolve the issues that are being faced by them in the team. This will help the team to move to the next stage (Lacerenza et al. 2018).
Norming – This stage occurs when the team is aware of the competition that they need to face in the market. The members thereby set a common goal which needs to be achieved by them in a joint manner. The main responsibility of the team is to thereby take the responsibility of further work towards the achievement of the objectives that are set by the management. The main ambition of the team members is to work for success of the team in the future (Rosemann and vom Brocke 2015). The members start tolerating the fancies and the whims of the fellow workers and work in such a manner which will help in achieving the goals. The members thereby tend to accept the ways of working of the others in the team and the make the effort that is related to the resolving of the conflicts between them. The members are focussed towards preventing the conflicts that can occur among the members of the team. The ideas of various members of the team are shared between each other (Salas and Martin 2017).
Performing – This stage occurs when the members of the team are totally knowledgeable and motivated to provide their best performance in the organization. The members of the team are thereby competent enough to achieve the various targets and goals. The process of decision making in the organization is also handled in an effective manner in this stage. The supervisors of the teams also participate in this stage which helps in the faster achievement of the organizational goals. The important decisions are also made by the teams in this stage. The teams may also need to revert to the earlier stages in case of the issues that can occur in the performance of these teams (Salas et al. 2015). The long standing teams also need to go through this process for the purpose of bringing improvements in the work process. The existing processes and policies of the teams are also changed if there is a need for the same. For example, the employees of the various departments in Kmart can also go through many changes in their work process.
Adjourning – This is considered to be the last stage of the entire team development process. This helps the organizations to break up the teams that had been created for the purpose of completing a particular task (Sharma, Mithas and Kankanhalli 2014).
The process of teamwork can provide huge opportunities to the employees and the organizations to which they belong. The identity of the team is important for the benefits that can be provided to the teams. The teamwork further provides the feel of belonging to the employees who are a major part of the organizations. This also helps the groups to work more closely to achieve the goals and the objectives of the organizations. This also helps in improving the levels of motivation and the performance of the teams. The members of the team are further able to improve the skills that are already possessed by them (Shepherd, Williams and Patzelt 2015). This helps the individuals to lean different types of skills which can be the major reason behind their success in the future. The members are also able to learn a lot from the skills that are possessed by the other members. This can further enhance the performance of the teams and the morale of the teams are also increased with the help of teamwork. The effectiveness of decision making in the teams is also based on the many factors. The abilities and the skills of the members of the teams are important for the effectiveness of the decisions that are taken by the teams within an organization. The mix of members in the team is an important factor that can affect the decisions that are taken by the teams (Smith 2014). The effectiveness of the teams is also based on the ways by which they are able to achieve the objectives and goals of the organization. The size of the teams can also impact the levels of effectiveness of the decisions that are taken by them. The process tends to be much more complex for the larger teams as compared to the teams of smaller size. The complexity of the tasks that are undertaken by the teams also affects the effectiveness of the decision making based process. The teams thereby play an important role in the dealing with complex issues that are faced by the companies in the process of their operations in the environment (Ståhl et al. 2015). The process of group decision making is thereby considered to be a participative process and the multiple individuals take decisions that are based on the improvement of the organizational operations. The number of members of the groups also affect the process of decision making by the various functional groups that are a part of the organizations. The decisions of the organizations are sometimes taken based on the decisions of the groups that are a major part of the company. The process of group decision making is totally different from the concepts of the teams, team management and teamwork. The various methods that can be used for the purpose of group decision making are, brainstorming, dialectical inquiry, nominal group technique, Delphi technique (Vahlne and Johanson 2017). The decisions are thereby made by the groups with the implementation of any one of the methods. For example, the groups that are formed in Kmart are important for the proper operations of the teams in the working environment. The teams can provide their opinions and insights that are based on the process with which the decisions are made by the companies. This will further help in the achievement of the organizational goals in an effective manner.
The structure of organization affects the process of decision making of the organizations. The teamwork and management of the teams is also affected by the hierarchies that are set by the organizations. The setting up of the organizational structure and the effects that this has on the productivity of the company is important for the successful operations of the company. The effective process of the monitoring employee effectiveness and their outputs is also based the structure of the organizations (Wheelen et al. 2017). The efficiency that is depicted by the managerial staff further affects the ways by which the structure of the organization can be effective in nature. The incompetency of organizational management can further have adverse effects on the successful operations of the organizations. On the other hand, the proper management of employees can have a positive effect on the success of the organization irrespective of the industry to which it belongs. The issues and flaws in the organizational structure can affect the organizational processes in a huge manner. This can also cause a breakdown in the entire operations of the company in the industry (Ståhl et al. 2015). The creative and innovative capabilities of the company can also affect the operations in the various industries. The differences in the structure can also cause huge effects on the ways by which the teams operate. The growth of the company is also affected by the structure that has been implemented. The strong corporate structure can also affect the improvements which are important for the decision making process in the teams. For example, the organizational structure that has been implemented in Kmart is hierarchical in nature. The process of decision making is quite slow in this case and the decisions have to be taken and implemented based on the various levels that are present in the organizational structure (Sharma, Mithas and Kankanhalli 2014).
The managers of the organizations can promote teamwork with the help of the five strategies which are,
Conclusion
The report can be concluded by stating that the process of decision making is totally based on the ways by which the teams operate within the companies. The decisions that are taken by the teams or the groups are affected by the ways of operations of the teams in the environment. The structure of the company also affects the ways by which the decisions are taken in the teams. The organization which has been taken as an example is Kmart which has proved the importance of teams in the process of decision making in the modern organizations.
References
Bals, L., Kirchoff, J.F. and Foerstl, K., 2016. Exploring the reshoring and insourcing decision making process: toward an agenda for future research. Operations Management Research, 9(3-4), pp.102-116.
Conrado, S.P., Neville, K., Woodworth, S. and O’Riordan, S., 2016. Managing social media uncertainty to support the decision making process during emergencies. Journal of Decision Systems, 25(sup1), pp.171-181.
Driskell, J.E., Salas, E. and Driskell, T., 2018. Foundations of teamwork and collaboration. American Psychologist, 73(4), p.334.
Fay, D., Shipton, H., West, M.A. and Patterson, M., 2015. Teamwork and organizational innovation: The moderating role of the HRM context. Creativity and Innovation Management, 24(2), pp.261-277.
Ghattas, J., Soffer, P. and Peleg, M., 2014. Improving business process decision making based on past experience. Decision Support Systems, 59, pp.93-107.
Karimi, S., Papamichail, K.N. and Holland, C.P., 2015. The effect of prior knowledge and decision-making style on the online purchase decision-making process: A typology of consumer shopping behaviour. Decision Support Systems, 77, pp.137-147.
Kmart.com. (2018). International landing. [online] Available at: https://www.kmart.com/ [Accessed 30 May 2018].
Lacerenza, C.N., Marlow, S.L., Tannenbaum, S.I. and Salas, E., 2018. Team development interventions: Evidence-based approaches for improving teamwork. American Psychologist, 73(4), p.517.
Rosemann, M. and vom Brocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Salas, E. and Martin, L., 2017. Decision-making under stress: Emerging themes and applications. Routledge.
Salas, E., Shuffler, M.L., Thayer, A.L., Bedwell, W.L. and Lazzara, E.H., 2015. Understanding and improving teamwork in organizations: A scientifically based practical guide. Human Resource Management, 54(4), pp.599-622.
Sharma, R., Mithas, S. and Kankanhalli, A., 2014. Transforming decision-making processes: a research agenda for understanding the impact of business analytics on organisations. European Journal of Information Systems, 23(4), pp.433-441.
Shepherd, D.A., Williams, T.A. and Patzelt, H., 2015. Thinking about entrepreneurial decision making: Review and research agenda. Journal of management, 41(1), pp.11-46.
Smith, W.K., 2014. Dynamic decision making: A model of senior leaders managing strategic paradoxes. Academy of Management Journal, 57(6), pp.1592-1623.
Ståhl, A.C.F., Gustavsson, M., Karlsson, N., Johansson, G. and Ekberg, K., 2015. Lean production tools and decision latitude enable conditions for innovative learning in organizations: A multilevel analysis. Applied ergonomics, 47, pp.285-291.
Vahlne, J.E. and Johanson, J., 2017. The internationalization process of the firm—a model of knowledge development and increasing foreign market commitments. In International Business (pp. 145-154). Routledge.
Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. pearson
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