The importance of a team has recently become known and appreciated in almost all forms of organizations that have a certain number of goals and targets they aim to meet. A team enables individuals to work together to achieve these goals and targets effectively. In a team, individuals manage to organize themselves about the roles and duties that they are expected to carry out. Almost all teams have team leaders whose main role is organizing the team members and ensuring that they are fully capable and willing to ensure the team meets its goals and targets. The responsibility of meeting the goals and targets of the team is, therefore, much more of a team leader than it is to a single team member. Team members are not simply asked to join the team without an assessment and consideration of the role that they will play in the team. Depending on the role and duties that the team is required to carry out, individuals are required to join according to the contribution that they are required to make. The process of formulating a team is thus of significant importance in determining the effectiveness of that team in future (Monash, 2017). This paper assesses this process and mainly aim to provide a critical evaluation of the statement, “Effective designing of teams is an essential function of managers. However, team functionality and performance are critical ongoing challenges for managers to ensure organizational success.”
To understand the aspects of the team and their importance, it is appropriate to evaluate the role that teams play in organizations. Currently, all the employees of the organizations are made to view their relationship with one another as that of a team’s member. This aspect is important because it helps them attain the understanding that both the organization and the rest of the employees relies on their input to succeed. If a single member of a team does not carry out his or her duties and roles as required by the rest of the team, that individual has the potential to cause the full team to fail in accomplishing its goals and targets. With this regard, therefore, the concept of a team in an organization helps to motivate employees and incline them to work harder and more effectively which carrying out their roles and duties.
Apart from this inclination, the other important role that teams play in organizations is helping employees focus on a certain goal which is considered very important. Many organizations have established a team of employees to carry out certain goals and duties within the organization. An organization can, for example, have a sales team, a marketing team, an advertising team and a human resource management team among other possible teams. In these teams, each employee has a unique role that he or she is required to carry out. The teams also have unique goals and targets which they are required to carry out and become highly effective in, compared to other teams. With this regard, therefore, the aspect of team establishment becomes extremely important and beneficial to all the organizations.
A large number of theories explain different aspects of teams and how effectively they can be managed to provide value. A good example of a theory that describes team development and management is the Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development. This theory has its main purpose is to explain aspects of group and team development. The model basis its team establishment process into four main phases. The first phase which is explained to be very import ant is the forming phase. In this phase, the individuals who will become the team members are gathered and selected. The theory explains this to be a very important phase in the process of creating an effective team because it determines the skills and capabilities of the individuals that will become team members. The capabilities of a team are defined by the capabilities of the team members and thus this phase significantly defines the limits about skills that the team will have (Happy Manager, 2017).
The second phase explained by this theory is the storming phase. It is in this phase that team members gather together and determine the means through which the team will operate and the guidelines that it will use to remain effective. In this phase, the team members have the chance and the will to establish an effective group of individuals which will ensure that people remain in complete capability and that they will remain effective in their team development operations. The other phase that teams being developed pass through are the norming phase. According to this theory, this phase is the point where team members reach certain agreements and begin practicing them in an effective manner. The team members define the means through which they can determine effectiveness and the means through which all the individuals can be considered completely effective in the activities that they involve in. In this phase, therefore, an increased growing sense of working together occurs among the team members. They all accept their duties and agree on the roles that they will play to ensure the team succeeds (Gilson, Maynard, Young, Vartiainen, & Hakonen, 2015).
The last phase that this theory explains is the Performing stage. This is the stage that individuals now begin using the plans and strategies that they had already established to remain completely effective in their operations and activities. This stage simply determines how effective a team will operate and the means through which that effectiveness will be beneficial to the team. The performing stage is also the session when team members begin working together as they utilize all the team establishment and maintaining strategies that they established in the early stages. That theory, therefore, explain that it is through effectiveness in each of these stages that the individuals remain completely effective in the operations that they involve in (Mindtools, 2017).
Another important aspect of team establishment and management is team motivation. The effectiveness that a certain team has is mostly dependent on the motivation of team members. When an individual is fully motivated to involve in a certain activity, he or she can carry out that activity in a significantly appropriate way. With this regard, therefore, team motivation is a major goal that teams and their leadership have. A large number of theories aim to explain the concept of team motivation and the process through which a team can manage to remain completely motivated. A good example of such a theory is the Progress Theory, which was developed by both Amabile and Kramer. In their theory, these two individuals explained that individuals could easily motivate others by providing them with opportunities for moving forward and improving in their operations (Mindtools, 2017).
To obtain a clear picture of their analysis, the authors of this theory carried out a study, which they obtained data of how people operate and then utilized that data to explain different aspects of motivation. The first content of their theory is the explanation that when individuals are presented with opportunities to develop themselves by handling different forms of projects as a team, they became more creative and willing to carry out their goals successfully. With this regard, therefore, it is appropriate to ensure that these individuals manage to remain successful and capable of maintaining effectiveness in the activities that they involve in. The other major aspect of consideration is the means through which the individuals can manage to implement their effective operations appropriately. The aspect of both recognizing and achieving small goals motivates employees to increase their operational effectiveness. It is, therefore, the responsibility of team leaders to ensure that they establish small goals for their team members and that they appreciate them when they manage to meet any of those goals. This aspect of motivation helps the individuals to manage to become completely effective and capable of operating in the most appropriate manner (O’Neill, McLarnon, Hoffart, Woodley, & Allen, 2015).
As explained earlier, organizations have embraced the utilization of teams to operate effectively in their operations and to meet the goals and targets that they have. With this regard, therefore, a large number of organizations deal with teams as they proceed on to provide value to their customers. One of the main challenges that many organizational managers face is the means through which they can manage to establish significantly effective teams, which will help their organizations to achieve their goals easily. The process of establishing a team, like explained, earlier begins by deciding the specific team members about the skills that they have. Organizational managers, being the individuals who are highly interested in utilizing the teams to achieve the effectiveness are in most cases the individuals who make the decisions on the teams to establish and the members that those teams should have. With this regard, the first major aspect that these individuals involved in is selected the specific individuals that will be members of the team. The challenge is mainly brought about by the decision of what employees to group in certain teams and those other employees that should not be team members. This aspect is critical since it also can influence the effectiveness of employees.
If a certain employee believes that he or she is fully qualified to be part of a certain team, but for a certain reason, the organizational manager selects another employee instead, that employee may end up being less motivated in carrying out activities effectively for the organization. With this regard, therefore, the first major aspect of consideration is the means through which the organization can manage to remain effective and capable of maintaining that effectiveness. To avoid such occurrences, the managers utilize the strategies of stratifying all the organizational employees into different teams and thus ensure that almost every employee is a member of a certain team. This action enables the managers to enhance the effectiveness of all the organizational employees and ensure that they all operate in certain teams to help the organization meet its set goals and targets (Marques, Uitdewilligen, & Passos, 2015).
After establishing highly effective and capable teams, organizational management then faces major problems of ensuring that the teams remain completely effective. The effectiveness of the organizational teams within which the organizational employees operate is a major aspect that significantly determines the general effectiveness of the organization. When the teams manage to remain completely effective, they manage to meet the specific team goals and targets that are set for each team. These goals and targets then lead the organization to meet the specifications required goals that it aims to meet in the long-term. One way that organizations can ensure that its employee teams are completely effective in their operations is by ensuring that all individuals are fully motivated in operating within the team. The challenge, however, arises on the strategies that the organizational managers can utilize to enhance this motivation to employees, even for teams where they are not among the members.
The aspects of not being members of the team make extremely difficult for the organizational managers to influence how motivated the team members are. One way that they, however, manage to overcome this challenge and establish improvement of operation, however, is by operating closely with team leaders in the activities of managing the organizational teams and establishing team improvements. The team leaders are the individuals that have a direct connection with the teams that they lead. The organizational managers, therefore, help them to set team targets and goals which all team members should put in mind and also help them to understand how to improve efficiency. With this regard, therefore the managers can manage to help the teams become effective and thus increase their capacity to meet the organizational goals and targets (Kukenberger, Mathieu, & Ruddy, 2015).
In conclusion, organizational managers are essential individuals whose contribution makes a significant impact and influence on whether the organization will succeed or not. A major role that these individuals play is using organizational teams to enhance effectiveness. Like the initial statement guiding this paper explains, these individuals face significant challenges in designing organizational teams. The managers also face another major challenge in enhancing the functionality and performance of those teams.
References
Gilson, L., Maynard, T., Young, N., Vartiainen, M. & Hakonen, M. (2015). Virtual Teams Research: 10 Years, 10 Themes, and 10 Opportunities: Journal of Management.
Happy Manager, (2017). Teamwork Theory: Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development. Happy Manager. Retrieved from https://the-happy-manager.com/articles/teamwork-theory/
Kukenberger, M., Mathieu, J. & Ruddy, M. (2015). A Cross-Level Test of Empowerment and Process Influences on Members’ Informal Learning and Team Commitment: Journal of Management Vol. 41 No. 3,
Marques, C., Uitdewilligen, S. & Passos, M. (2015). Why is Your Team More Creative Than Mine? The Influence of Shared Mental Models on Intra-group Conflict, Team Creativity and Effectiveness: Shared Mental Models and Team Effectiveness
Mindtools, (2017). Amabile and Kramer’s Progress Theory; Using Small Wins to Enhance Motivation: Mindtools. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/progress-theory.htm
Mindtools, (2017). Theory X and Theory Y; Understanding People’s Motivations: Mindtools. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_74.htm
Monash, (2017). Principles of Management. Monash University.
O’Neill, T., McLarnon, M., Hoffart, G., Woodley, H. & Allen, N. (2015). The Structure and Function of Team Conflict State Profiles: Journal of Management.
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