Question:
Discuss about the Business and Ethics for Skills and Knowledge.
Teamwork refers to a situation where all the subordinates work collaboratively utilizing their skills, knowledge and constructive feedback. Shockley-Zalabak (2014) stated that the prime benefit of team work is that the desired organizational goals and objectives can be accomplished efficiently. Killen and Dahl (2016) furthermore depicts that teamwork fosters creativity and learning, blends individual strength in order to boost creative thinking. Team work also helps in building trust and teaches conflict resolution skills and promotes a sense of ownership among all the team members. On the other hand, communication among them should also be maintained properly. Rebore (2013) depicts that effective communication enhance the probability of taking sudden actions and creates understanding. In some cases, cultural diversity becomes a benefit but Samovar et al. (2014) argued that difference and workplace harassments are also created through this difference. Thus, proper business ethics should be followed that can address both the team work and communication at work effectively. In this business report, the concept of team work, team effectiveness, team performance and team communication will be represented. In the second part of the assessment, the detail about communication component of team work and relationship between communication and team effectiveness is also presented. Moreover, the concept of ethical communication in teamwork and communication ethics will also be addressed. The link between team work, communication and ethics will also be illustrated in the assessment.
The importance of teamwork has never been felt so strongly as in the past few decades. With the changing era, every organization, institution, firm or company knows the value and importance of teamwork. However, one must be acquainted with the term teamwork in order to proceed with its importance in the workplace or anywhere else.
Teamwork is the collective action of a set of people. However, teamwork is successful when each individual in the team utilizes his or her potential to the maximum. A good team player is the one who possesses exceptional interpersonal skills and a positive attitude. In addition, he or she also has to understand the influence of the size, composition, background and construction on the group dynamics and has to realize that it alters over time (West 2012).
Team effectiveness heavily relies on the performance of a team as a whole. To say that one member of the team performed brilliantly but others failed to reciprocate and that is why the team failed would be invalid. It is because teamwork involves not only individual performance but also how each member is encouraged to perform better. An effective team is the one, which is a combination of skilled members who know their roles and responsibilities clearly. In almost all the organizations today, management follows different models of team effectiveness to ensure best performance (Cooke et al., 2017). The model comprises various stages starting with the goals of the team, roles and responsibilities of each member, procedures, relationships and bond shared by the team members and leadership (Uvic.ca, 2017).
Success of an organization depends on the success of a team and a team cannot achieve success unless each individual member performs. The performance of an individual in a team is directly proportional to the performance of the team as a whole. The role of the team leader becomes crucial in this regard as he or she is the one who needs to motivate the team members to perform well. In a large number of organizations today, team performances are also measured systematically assisted by data and statistics. When a team member fails to perform, the team leader is held accountable, as the entire team has to suffer (Dyer and Dyer 2013). This results in the poor performance of the organization thus making it vulnerable in the competitive market.
Communication is undoubtedly the best way to create, improve and enhance a team and its performance. It is in fact the basic element of interacting with others not only within a team. A team that encourages open communication yields the best results (Shultz and Adams 2012). Teamwork is largely dependent on communication. Interacting with team members helps boost strong relationship in the team.
Teamwork in the workplace has received prominent importance especially with the emergence of technological era that demands nonstop result. Organizations are discovering ways to create an atmosphere where teams can perform and deliver the best for them. It is evident from the latest developments in the world of business where recruiters demand exceptional qualities of working in a team from the prospective candidates. Teamwork has now become a qualification and individuals aspiring to compete in the market have to demonstrate this skill.
As already mentioned in the above segment, communication is an integral part of teamwork. Without communication, no team can achieve success. It however has to be understood that communication can affect teamwork either in a good or in a bad way. A team comprises different individuals who might have different ways to communicate; some might be introvert, some may be extrovert while some can be soft spoken or hard spoken. This can be realized or learned by the leader through the team effectiveness model where every member is given a chance to introduce them.
Communication involves wide range of aspects. Listening and speaking are of course the two most basic components of communication. The one who listens carefully is the one who can speak fluently and convincingly. In a team, one might be a good listener or a good speaker. It is essential for an individual to be assertive and clear in what he or she wants to communicate especially in a team. Communication within teams also depends on the history shared by the team to its members within an organization. To have a smooth flow of communication, there must be transparency within the team and the leader has to ensure that no information is hidden from the team members (Schellwies 2014).
Communication has been the most emphasized factor in studies that cover teamwork, team effectiveness or team performance. Most researchers have found that communication affects team performance or effectiveness largely. It is evident from the structure and functioning of reputed organizations as well, that communication has been given prominence in teamwork.
Illustrations from real life could also be given where communication and teamwork played a vital role in the company’s success. The biggest example can be of Google, a company that revolutionized the concept of teamwork and communication. Created by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google has led the list of companies that give prominence to employee satisfaction, open communication and teamwork (Lahti 2015). Apple Inc too is not far away, as it also boasts of outstanding results every year owning to its exception teamwork. These companies, along with other renowned and successful organizations prove with their success rate that communication is and has always been an integral part of teamwork. Effective teams are made effective only through effective communication.
Teams can communicate on a regular basis or the communication might be limited. It has been found that while some teams perform better by communicating often, others have done well with limited communication (Eprints.qut.edu.au, 2017). This indicates that although communication is an essential part, the nature of teamwork or situations may influence the rate of communication. To say it simply, sometime, regular communication works in favor of teamwork and at other times productive but limited communication yields positive results. However, in either case, communication is needed to produce effective team results.
Tubbs (2012) furthermore depicts that ethical communication refers to the moral aspects of group interaction. The importance of ethical communication is to enhance the human worth and dignity by addressing the fairness, personal integrity, truthfulness, responsibility and self-respect. Thus, caring and responsibility for oneself illustrates the ethical communication in small groups (Killen and Dahl 2016.). There are some principles that can be applicable in a team communication. These principles are illustrated below:
Truthfulness- Rebore (2013) depicted that in order to attain the integrity of communication, accuracy and honesty along with truthfulness is required. This shows that every member shared accurate information and they are working collaboratively for attaining the organizational objectives.
Adapting diversity- Communication ethics also allow everyone to express their perspective without any hesitation. Ulrich and Sarasin (2012) argued that in this case, some organization faces adversity for harassment and discrimination due to difference in cultural and traditional beliefs and those people are not allowed to share their perception. However, according to ethical communication, every individual is free to express their thoughts tolerance of dissent so that the organization and managers can attain responsible decision making fundamental to a civil society (Leeuwis 2013).
Advocacy- Each team member are liable to promote communication climates for enhancing mutual understanding and respect the unique needs. Killen and Dahl (2016) depicted that these members should advocate sharing information and feelings when facing significant choices along with respecting the confidentiality and privacy.
Rebore (2013) stated that ethics in workplace involves in three levels- individual group members and group environment. Moreover, it can also be said that moral dimension relevant to interpersonal communication also refers ethics of communication. In context of a team, all team members should maintain correct balance between speaking and listening, the degree of criticism and praise and between the fear and emotional appeal. There are some fundamentals of communication ethics- responsible thinking, decision making and development of relationships and communities. Stacks and Salwen (2014) furthermore highlighted that a team member should respect all their team members and suggest them ways so that they can prosper in their working approaches. In some cases, heterogeneity also leads to conflict among each other. In such cases, the members should respect their perceptions and not shared the conflict stories with other members. This arises to the adversity of unhealthy competition and aggressiveness in the workplace. Samovar et al. (2015) also highlighted that in communication ethics, best practices should be considered. The mangers should also listen to all the queries of each subordinate and suggest ways for improvement rather than imposing their self-thinking based on the situation. Thus, biasness should be avoided in context of communication ethics. Shockley-Zalabak (2014) also depicts that team members are allowed to speak their own experience and perspective that can be utilized by other team members as a solution of they will face the same situation. Thus, members should be allowed to express their knowledge and suggestions to others. The communication ethics also suggests that the managers or organizational leaders should avoid speaking for others and universalize their opinions, beliefs and values. They should also avoid interrupting and side conversations and adopt ways like implementation of textual communication like social media conversation. This approach will allow those members to express their thoughts who face difficulty in speaking in front of others. Team members on the other hand should encourage their colleagues to speak and support their thoughts in workplace.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be said that, team work provide many advantages to the organization like improved work effectiveness and efficiency, quick accomplishments of business objectives and enhances interpersonal relationship among the team members. It can be concluded from the assessment that in a workplace, there are many employees working together and they have to communicate with each other for obtaining their work goals. The important principle of team communication that is identified in this assessment is truthfulness, adapting diversity and advocacy. These members should seek to understand others and respect their thoughts. In some cases, there might be cases of violence and harassment as some employee does not encourage thoughts of people, who belong from other culture and tradition. Team members are also encouraged to Think and act like an owner, keep a balance in their life, communicate without fear of retribution and make and meet commitments. In such cases, the manager should implement process for textual communication so that everyone can express their thoughts freely. This concept expresses the communication ethics of freedom of expression. The managers n this case also suggested that they should recognize a moral issue, get the facts, evaluate the alternative actions, make a decision, taking actions and reflect on the decision.
Reference List
Cooke, N., Hilton, M., Science, C., Board on Behavioral, a., Education, D. and Council, N. (2017). Overview of the Research on Team Effectiveness. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK310384/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2017].
Dyer, W.G. and Dyer, J.H., 2013. Team building: Proven strategies for improving team performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Eprints.qut.edu.au (2017). [online] Available at: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/30311/1/Stacey_Hassall_Thesis.pdf [Accessed 27 Oct. 2017].
Killen, M. and Dahl, A., 2016. Moral judgment: Reflective, interactive, spontaneous, challenging, and always evolving.
Lahti, M., 2015. Communicating interculturality in the workplace. University of Jyväskylä.
Leeuwis, C., 2013. Communication for rural innovation: rethinking agricultural extension. John Wiley & Sons.
Rebore, R.W., 2013. The ethics of educational leadership. Pearson Higher Ed.
Rebore, R.W., 2013. The ethics of educational leadership. Pearson Higher Ed.
Samovar, L.A., Porter, R.E., McDaniel, E.R. and Roy, C.S., 2014. Intercultural communication: A reader. Cengage Learning.
Samovar, L.A., Porter, R.E., McDaniel, E.R. and Roy, C.S., 2015. Communication between cultures. Nelson Education.
Schellwies, L., 2014. Critical Situations in Multicultural Teams. Challenges for Multinational Companies.
Shockley-Zalabak, P., 2014. Fundamentals of organizational communication. Pearson.
Shultz, K.S. and Adams, G.A., 2012. Aging and work in the 21st century. Psychology Press.
Stacks, D.W. and Salwen, M.B. eds., 2014. An integrated approach to communication theory and research. Routledge.
Tubbs, S.L., 2012. Human communication: Principles and contexts.
Ulrich, P. and Sarasin, C. eds., 2012. Facing public interest: The ethical challenge to business policy and corporate communications (Vol. 8). Springer Science & Business Media.
Uvic.ca (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.uvic.ca/hr/assets/docs/od/teammodel.pdf [Accessed 27 Oct. 2017].
West, M.A., 2012. Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download