Team Building in Organizations

Outline

This is an essay on the topic “Team building in organization”. The paper is designed in such a way that first there is an introduction followed by the body of the paper. The body of the paper describes the importance of team building, techniques and main issues related to building a team in an organization. The paper explains different motivational techniques for team building, role of the leader in team building etc.

Introduction

Team work plays a very important role in the success of any organization. Nowadays organizations give due importance to team building as it has much influence on the productivity and success of the organizations. The studies and experiences proved that team-centered work not only helps in achieving the objectives; also it helps to understand the team members’ difficulties in achieving the objectives and finding strategies for it. Some works which cannot be done by an individual can be done by a team. If team members work harmoniously, it can give better results. The task of building an effective team is not an easy task. An inefficient team leader would spoil the reputation of an organization. An inefficient team may face different types of challenges such as conflict between team members, lack of product knowledge, delay in completion of project, and cancellation of project…etc.

What is team building?

Team building refers to uniting of some individuals for the achievement of certain specific goals. If there is a proper teamwork the performance of individuals can be improved thereby the performance of the organization is also improved. Team building can be defined as “the process of enabling that group of people to reach their goal.” (Neill).

Team building is an activity in which works and tasks are carried out as a collective effort by the individuals. A team is a group of persons working in an organization or be part of the same organization for a common object. For instance: a computer sales team, one employee makes appointment with the client, another person provides technical support, another employee organizes a proposal, and another person does the sale. These people work in an organization in different sections, but they all work for a common goal. Therefore, we can consider them as a team. Team members require proper motivation from the team leader to achieve certain targets which are given by the organization.

Importance of team building

Team building in an organization is very important at any time. However, today the importance of the team building has increased. The main reason is that today people are living in a world where competition among business organizations has increased. Those organizations who strategically design their business plan and work according to the plan only succeed in this business world of cut-throat competition. The strategic plan can be implemented easily if there are good harmonious work groups in the organization. The importance of team building can be understood from the following points.

1. Team building helps in achieving specific tasks:

Team building helps in achieving some specific tasks. Sometimes employees may find it difficult to do a particular task if it is assigned to them individually. But if the same work is assigned to a team of individuals, each member will have a feeling of confidence and they will finish it perfectly.

2. It helps in achieving the goals of organizations:

If there is a team and the team members work as a group it can ensure that the organizational goals are achieved. In order to achieve the organizational goals the combined efforts of employees at different levels are required.

3. It helps in creating harmony at work place:

If there is a team work in an organization it can ensure harmony in the work place. A harmonious work place is essential for retaining employees and thereby reducing labor turnover. The harmonious work place is essential for motivating employees and ensuring all the given tasks are completed on time.

4. It helps in improving the efficiency and performance of an organization:

Team work can ensure improvement in the efficiency and overall performance of the organization. If the employees do not work as a group or if they are too selfish, that will affect the performance of the organization.

5. It helps in the personal development and growth of group members:

Not only the organization is benefited by the team building and combined efforts but each employee is benefited. The individual employees are benefited in such a way that he can learn many things if he is working in a team. The communication skill can also be improved. He can learn personality traits by becoming part of a group.

6. It cultivates a mentality of help and co-operation among members:

By working in a group, an employee can create a mentality of helping others. This makes an employee to help his colleagues in difficult situations. Where there is a group work in an organization there will be a mutual understanding between employees. It also makes ready the employees to share the tasks or duties of a colleague if he is on leave or during urgencies.

7. It helps in motivating employees: In a team work there would be motivation by each team member and also by the team leader. Motivation is just like energy booster which makes the employees take up challenging tasks confidently.
8. It creates a feeling of belonging and protection among the members of the group:

If there is a strongly built team in an organization, it can create a feeling of belonging and protection among the employees. The members are sure that in difficult situations, the colleagues will help them if there is such kind of team work and unity among the employees.

Role of a leader in Team building

Team leader tries to achieve the task assigned to the team and makes sure that workers are getting proper atmosphere in the working place. If an organization faces the lack of resources, team leader should inform it to the workers and lead the team to find out the other sources. He should ensure that the team members are provided with better medical facilities, healthy working conditions etc. He takes various crucial decisions for the organization. He has the responsibilities in developing team building and scheduling the activities of the employees and he takes the decision in times of divergence in an organization. He tries to keep a strong communication with the workers and helps to solve their problems. Team leader tries to satisfy administrative requirements. Leader manages the bill and the programmed fund in an effective way. He provides public education about mental health and makes relation with the agency in media. Team leader acts as team agent to agency function. A team leader requires adequate resources for the smooth function of the team and it helps to the successful running of an organization. An organization requires a good team with an efficient leader and the role of a team leader is very important for the implementation of policies in an organization. Communication and organizational tools are very important for good team work and efficient leadership helps smooth teamwork in an organization. Team leader sets the goals of the organization and tries to achieve the same. He can foresee risk and take appropriate decisions that are solutions to the problem of an organization. (Studer, and Boust).

Motivation and team building

Motivation plays a very important role in team building. The leaders have to motivate the followers. Also the followers should motivate each other. Motivation is an important function which is to be performed by every manager in an organization. It is the duty of the manager to get the work done in the desired manner. For this, he should motivate the employees. To motivate the employees, manager should first of all understand their needs. Motivation can be in monetary terms or non-monetary terms. Whatever be the form it aims at fulfillment of the objectives of the organization. Thus motivation means the process of inspiring the employees by satisfying their needs so as to get the work done in a good manner so as to accomplish the desired objectives. The performance of a team, where there is high motivation, would be different from the performance of a team where there is a lesser or no motivation. As motivation plays a very important role in team work and organizational success, the organization makes use of different techniques of motivation. A team leader should have the skills for making a good team. A team should have a long vision of achieving a target. Every team member should work for achieve a common goal. Employee motivation is a prime technique for building up a team. A team leader has to take initiative for giving motivation to all team members. Motivation can directly affect the employee’s performance. There are several types of motivational techniques that can be applied in an organization. Giving incentives to employees based on their performance, conducting different of types contests, and appreciation are considered as common motivation techniques. Nowadays job designs, job enrichment, target fixing, and turnover division are also used for motivating employees. Some of the techniques are explained below.

1. Job design: Job design plays a significant role for inspiring staffs. The effective motivation encourages employees to do better performance.
2. Job enrichment is another factor for motivating team members. It means employees should have more responsibilities towards their job. Team leaders use different tactics for job enrichment. Training is the best technique for job enrichment which helps employees to learn new skills. Team leader should permit staffs to design their own daily report that helps them to work for specific goal. Permit staffs to verify their own task which provide more commitment towards the quality of their task. Team leaders should provide a flexible time schedule for their employees that help them to choose starting and closing time.
3. Indistinct targets will not encourage employees to make better performance. Setting a target is associated with employee motivation so that they can achieve a high performance. There are several theories behind setting a target. One tactic is that a specific difficult target would force staffs to work hard for achieving that target. Another strategy is that accomplishment of hard target helps employees to achieve greater job satisfaction.
4. Profit sharing: Profit sharing plays a major role for motivating employees in corporate world. Profit sharing can be either annual profit sharing or an incentive method.
5. Recognition: Recognition is also considered as a part of motivation. In the article “Motivated Employees Feel that they Play an Important Role within the Organization” explains “recognition can be in the form of asking employees for their opinions on procedure development. This makes the employees feel that their opinion is valued, which makes them feel as though they play an important role within the company.” (Bushman, 2).
6. Appreciation: Appreciation is regarded as one of the techniques of team building. For instance, when an employee achieves or accomplishes a task in a better way and on time, his supervisor gives an appreciation word it would be definitely a motivating factor and inspiration to the employees to perform better in future.

How training program helps to build up an effective team

Training plays a vital role in organization for building up a team. Training and development help the employees to constantly meet their goals. Staffs in companies are busy with their works like marketing, research and complaint handling, etc. They cannot perform well without adequate training. Therefore, training is very essential in all industries. A good trainer can make good impact on employees at the time of training. They are always very good coaches and good teachers. Training assists employees to bring out their ideas and performance in order to reach organizational accomplishment. Training helps trainees to understand their roles and responsibilities. They can recognize their strength and weakness. Training facilitates employees to handle tough tasks in their organization. Training provides and receives positive feedback. The other applications of training are increasing work place harmony, enhancing employee’s productivity, reducing cost, reduced cycle time, customer satisfaction, improving quality of work life for staffs and increasing internal strength. All these help in building a better team and achieving the organizational objectives.

Issues and obstacles in team building and their solutions

There are many obstacles that act as barriers in effective team building. They are explained below. Some of the common obstacles are lack of direction, difference in commitment by each member, difference in skills, unfriendliness, difference in the leadership skills and attitude of members. (Brodie).

Lack of direction

Lack of direction is one of the main obstacles in the success of team building. If the team members do not get proper direction it will definitely affect the team building. The core purpose or objective behind team work is achieving a common objective or common objectives. For this the team members need proper direction; otherwise they cannot effectively implement the team work and they cannot achieve the objectives of the organization. This obstacle can be overcome by clearly defining the objectives for which the team work for, and giving clear direction to the team members, so that ambiguity can be avoided. Giving improper direction may cause to mislead the members of the team.

Difference in commitment by each member

This is another problem faced while building a team. The level of commitment by each member would be different. Some employees might be more committed to the organization and achieving organizational goal and some others might be less committed. Commitment from the part of all the members is required for ensuring effectiveness of team building. Therefore, the organization must ensure a team structure in which all the members show equal commitment. “Teams need leaders, but if only a few team members carry the load, the team is in danger of member burnout or, worse yet, member turn-off” (Management and Organizational Dynamics Lesson Ten: Teamwork – Effective Workgroups, p. 12).

Difference in skills

The skills of each member of the team are different. In other words, there is a gap between the skills held by a member from another member. This will affect the performance of the group and is an obstacle in team building. To overcome this problem, the organization should take necessary steps to make skill difference least affected, by way of giving special training to such members.

Unfriendliness

 A friendly atmosphere is required for effectively implementing the team building activities. If there are any problems between the members of the group that will definitely affect the performance of the team. However, healthy competition is required for ensuring the spirit of work and making the employees ready to accept the challenges. The organization should take necessary awareness programs to eliminate unfair competition or unhealthy conflicts between the employees.

Leadership skill difference

 It is unwise to think that every leader will have all the leadership qualities. Some leaders may have some leadership qualities but they may lack some other qualities and skills. This will affect the performance of the team. The reason is that the team leaders have a significant role in the success or failure of a team.

Attitude of members

 The attitude of the members is one of the main hindrances of team building. Some members might have bad attitudes like ego, selfishness, laziness etc. This will act as a hindrance in the effectiveness of the team work. The organization should conduct awareness programs or training programs to change these kinds of bad habits of the employees. By giving such training, the organization can ensure that the employees interact with each other in a better and friendly way and also there is a good flow of communication between them.

Some general techniques can also be used for removing the obstacles in team building. First, the group leader or the concerned person has to find out the route cause of the obstacle. After that, necessary steps have to be taken for overcoming the obstacles.

Conclusion

Team building is a very important aspect which plays a significant role in the success of an organization. Group or team is considered as the most important element in an organization. It means the collection of people who interact daily with one another to achieve predetermined objectives. It acts as a tool in achieving the objectives of an organization, that is it helps in improving the performance of the members involved in such groups, creating a better environment for working, improving the creativity of the members, facilitating to take better decisions, and through ensuring proper control over the members of the group. All these together will directly contribute to the success of an organization. On the other hand a team is a small group of people having different capabilities and who work together to produce something so as to achieve the objectives of the organization. During the process of team building some barriers may arise which hinder the way to develop a challenging and efficient team.

Works Cited

1. Brodie, Duncan. 5 Obstacles to Team Success. Ezine Article. 2009. Web.
2. Bushman, Melissa. Motivated Employees Feel that they play an Important Role within the Organization: Recognition. AC: Associated Content. 2007.
3. Management and Organizational Dynamics Lesson Ten: Teamwork – Effective Workgroups: Shared Work Load. Team work-Effective Work Groups. 12. (Provided by student)
4. Neill, James. What is Team Building? (Definition). 2005.
5. Studer, Lynette., and Boust, Susan. The Team Leader in Assertive Community Treatment. 2009.