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Your NameYour Instructor’s NameCourse04 June 2009Emphasis on Team RewardEffective teamwork matters a lot in an organization to realize and benefit from its high- performance potential. Following this stripping-out process, “the organization that is left canonly function effectively if team working is formalized and made an important part of the business operation.” (Industrial Relations Services). “The primary purpose of top management isto focus on performance and teams that will deliver it.” (Katzenbach) Teamwork is the only waythrough which an organization can achieve its goals with quality and efficiency. My goal in this paper is to realize team rewards through teamwork. I have used examples from the past toelaborate and enforce my point of view. Characteristics of successful teamwork have also beendiscussed in order to expose gaps on negative factors inhibiting teamwork success.Michael Armstrong stated that team rewards reinforce the sort of behavior that leads toand sustains effective performance by:(1) Providing incentives and other means of recognizing team achievements; (2)Clarifying what teams are expected to achieve by relating rewards to the attainment of predetermined and agreed targets and standards of performance or to the satisfactorycompletion of project or a stage of a project; (3) Conveying the message that one of theorganization’s core values is effective teamwork. (Armstrong 336)

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Teamwork is the heart of great achievement. Teams involve more people, thus affording moreresources, ideas and energy. Throughout human history, whatever the endeavor, great individualsstill had teams of people supporting them along the way.One good example of team rewards and its importance can be realized from the “Apollo13 mission”. The survival of the astronauts depended on the highest level of teamwork in NASA's history. The challenge involved getting the command and lunar modules on the quickestcourse home, while conserving the most important consumables on board like power, oxygenand water. Three men's lives were on the line. In this situation, failure was not an option. Eachtime NASA's massive team faced an obstacle that threatened to leave the crew stranded in space,their pooled ingenuity, inherent tenacity, and incredible cooperation enabled them to overcome it.The result was that the whole mission was successful and brought fame and honor to the nation.In my case, I was working in an organization which had about 20 employees in their workspace. These 20 persons were then split into 4 groups. Rewards were given to one of thesub-teams who had performed well. This strategy encouraged teams to compete against eachother and every individual within the sub-team would help its fellow members in order to get thework done efficiently. It strengthened the weak members within the teams and motivated others.Individual incentives hold little importance when it comes to long-term benefits andrewards. In fact, in some of the cases, it can lead to disastrous consequences. In 1989, the oiltanker Exxon Valdez, ran aground Bligh Reef on Prince William Sound. The oil slick cost billions of dollars in damages and cleanup operations, not to mention the lives of thousands of seabirds, sea otters, harbor seals, eagles, and whales. The cause: a weak link in the ship's chain of command. Adrunken, negligent Captain ignored company policy, caused discrepancies innavigation, and left his overworked, fatigued Third Mate on the bridge. The result was one of the

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greatest environmental disasters in the history of Alaska. The Exxon Company faced a publicrelations nightmare and enormous financial obligations.From GE's Jack Welch, to the victory of the US in the Persian Gulf War under Generals Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell, and the phenomenal Chicago Bulls' six NBAchampionships under Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan, look at any team that has achieved greatsuccess, and you will find that it had strong leadership and teamwork which resulted in providing benefits and rewards to the whole group. The success of teamwork is an integral part of anyorganization wishing to succeed in the global community. In order for organization to achieveany desired goals it should know its status thus, background and the impact or importance of teamwork in an organization. Teamwork enhances the organization to operate and function to its best ability as well as to understand crucial issues such as factors promoting teamwork successand the disadvantages inhibiting teamwork success.CONCLUSIONFrom examining the examples from the past and personal experiences, we can realize thatteamwork improves the overall performance in an organization and at the same time improvesthe performance of weaker members in the group resulting in team rewards which benefitseveryone.Works Cited