Topic: How can a manager help a work group to function as an effective team?

Discuss the differences between a group and a team, and describe the strategies a manager can use to promote team effectiveness. Use examples to support your discussion.

Teams and groups, increasing organizational effectiveness

Introduction
Effective leadership is all about providing clear vision for its employees and associated guidelines in which employees are expected to operate. Key to improved performance is empowerment of team members along with clear communication channels to provide directives clearly and cogently. Teaming is a natural and vital part of human social and work life (Linda, 2005). Team building is a structured process using which discrete units can be empowered and best practices used elsewhere utilized for building groups into functional teams which will provide the required output in timely and precise manner. Employees have to be charged with passion, an excitement, contagious enthusiasm and ownership about their work to produce results that are truly remarkable and unmatchable. An effective team has diversity which helps in tapping the individual prowess and utilizing it synergistically to produce an output more than sum of its constituent parts. Appropriate training and support from senior management can help build a supportive structure under which teams can nurture.

Stellar Performance
Enhanced performance and effective leadership has been the cornerstone of best practices in management. According to Linda (2005), high growth is characteristic of strong leadership skills with clear vision for the team and with direction emulating the type of behavior one wishes to see and by making clear guidelines on what behavior is expected of employees. This is especially important for industries in which knowledge workers lead effective and quick change mechanisms. She says the managers should go out to hire the best

talent available and establish clarity and direction of what goals the team is expected to accomplish. There should be effective communication channels so that information is passed readily strategic direction is clearly communicated and the team is continuously aware of its directives. Appropriate training and resources availability help the team in utilizing their skills and abilities to fullest advantage. Empower your team members and repose trust in them to deliver. By becoming aware of the group dynamics helps in production of potentate highly functional teams along with concomitant performance results.

Enabling team building

Effective team building requires commitment from organization and its managers. Managers need to be aware of their crucial role that they, as managers need to provide, together with a framework in which tem members can focus and direct their energies for fruition of their tasks. Laird and Ramon (2005) have structured the team building into a seven step process that can guide and streamline the team building exercise. The process is built on the premise that characteristics that form common ground amongst efficacious teams can be utilized by aspiring team members for similar success in newer ventures. Worldwide expansion into global marketplace has removed boundaries of towns and countries it is now common and very easy to market ones products to international arena, so strategies and management have to be cognizant of best practices worldwide to enable success. Team structuring is hence an important part of this transformation and teams may include cross functional elements from various discrete aspects of organizational structure - basically a team may be incorporated to handle a discrete unit of work, work which can be managed individually and which provides autonomy to its team members for effective deliverance. Laird and Ramon cite that 82% of companies with more than 100 employees work in group based

work to align their work alongside organizational goals and missions. Effective team building has to be led by its manager, and it is an on going activity rather than a one time affair, and team building should be a priori managers responsibilities. The framework within which manager is building his team should be action oriented and aligned with key concepts from the management principles that form the hallmark of team building.

The seven step process

1. Identifying team characteristics that are desirable: Balancing attributes to effectuate team synergies, so that the team characteristics produce the optimum output. 2. Profile existing team characteristics: Using surveys, questionnaires, interviews and direct observation of existing team members can be used to check and validate the team characteristics that are effective predictors of teams success. The aim is to produce as accurate profile as possible of existent situation. 3. Identify deficiencies: The next step is identification of which areas need focus and improvement. The identified areas are those which create bottleneck and unless these areas are redressed by management intervention, the group members potential will remain unutilized. 4. Use pre-established criteria to identify and apply proper intervention: Awareness of the existing environment will help in building a profile of staffs existing strengths, weaknesses and that of the organizations culture, traditions and availability of resources. Armed thus proper intervention strategies can be placed to guide best results.

5. Identify team building strategies to help overcome deficiencies: These strategies can be implemented once weaknesses have been identified and prioritized.

6. Use pre-established decision processes for appropriate intervention: This will depend on the variables of situation at hand and management thinking. However the base requirement is intimate working knowledge of the situation 7. Implement and assess: The key step is implementation with a feedback loop. The manager should clearly communicate expectation to its team members and ways in which assessment would be done. Team management theories espouse reduction in hierarchical layers thus dissolving boundaries and creating a more cohesive workforce. Organization can be made more friendly and workplace made more conducive to work if cooperation is made part of the organizational policies to encourage lines of communication and empowerment of individuals to work synergistically towards common organizational goals. (Evelyn, 1996). Richard Chang (2001) proposes that for bringing out the best from employees, team members must be passionate about their work. According to him passion is a resource that can be leveraged by all organizations and it is not limited to choice few. Passion according to Chang is one of the distinguishing traits of successful organizations where team members are working concertedly towards organizational effectiveness this is where true synergy takes place and employees exude enthusiasm and excitement about their work. This is what forms one of the most significant of competitive advantages an organization can boast of! Team members need to be convinced and working in unity to enable passion to shine through and make organization work from individual members to one cohesive unit

Becoming passion driven

A very good example of employees working as a single team driven towards a common goal can be found in Southwest airlines. Their business success has baffled management gurus and traditional business sense. Founders of Southwest airlines were sure that commuters were being charged heavily for air travel so they built their airline on the premise of ultra low fares

with friendly and efficient services. Employees of Southwest airlines are empowered to take on the spot decisions that would help the customers and benefit the company, thus bringing on profits despite the industry plunging into huge losses It takes a unity of effort, be it common goal, passion, of unrivalled customer services or innovation technologically or in product by being charged with common passion employees perform at improved levels outputting effort beyond the ordinary. These employees exude confidence and energy that is infectious and quite simply these employees enjoy themselves at work Customers are similarly affected by the emotions that like invisible magnets attract themselves to the services and products being sold, as people dont just buy products they buy emotions and feelings and customers often make their judgments and purchasing decisions based on emotional responses to products and services, (Richard, 2001) How can one enable and nurture passion driven employees: Make passion the cornerstone and focal point of all activities vision, mission, policies all should reflect it. The organization should unearth and acknowledge core areas, ideas and vision that drive and guide and inspire its performance. Leaders and managers should have clear vision of where the core passions will lead what is the sense of purpose. There should be a clear action plan on how to nurture and grow passion. Passion is as good as its action so employees should be aligned around goals, passion and excited enough so that organizational passion becomes their passion and the employees enthusiasm and excitement is visible and infectiously taints anyone and everyone within its swathe, so the charge like a self sustaining reaction works without need for external stimulus. However passion driven organizations need to keep on the track by keeping in sight values, passions that made them the organizations that they have become. The leaders and managers should emulate and show to their workers what they believe in, they must live and be the passion expected from the team members. Without clear communication, team members cannot be held accountable for core passions that arent aware

of. Organizations must allow employees to completely understand, become aware of and live organizations core passions, by having internal training programs and specific courses that charge the employees with passion. With training employees can tap into their potential and emotional reservoir to perform at their best and be happy about what they are doing. Southwest airlines has established training university where employees can be indoctrinated in leadership, customer services, team performance and self development. (Richard, 2001). The corresponding benefits of being passionate about work brings on emotional investment to the organization providing self satisfaction and commitment on a level far more profound than traditional work relationship.

Art of team building

Company profitability and motivation often go hand in hand, and team building helps in allowing employees to combine and produce motivated efforts thus sending positive vibes throughout the organization. This requires commitment from the senior management and provides empowerment down the hierarchy which amongst other benefits by its very nature this helps in improving individual and company wide work performance. A successful team has effective communication methodology, and builds on strengths and provides experiential learning of the whole group. In addition senior management buy in is necessary to enable individual teams to coordinate their efforts towards common goal of company betterment. (Keith, 1993). If done and managed properly team building can help employees to make long lasting changes, that would help combine the multi dimensional team members expertise and skills into natural and efficacious teams that can produce changes they were expected to. Team members individual strengths can help management become effective, as group members and leaders together can make the difference teams were originally set out to do. Teams effectiveness is not only in leadership it is in performance of the unit as a cohesive

whole to sustain and achieve its set targets. (Olusegun, 1998). It is known today that group working is not only the group leaders domain it is dependent on the personality traits of the groups individuals, hence leadership paradigm is more of the concept of sharing between incumbent leader and group members. Olusegun cites Kouzes and Pousner who undertook massive 500 cases study to determine potency of the leadership. Surprisingly they were able to state that in all 500 cases any significant achievement was the combined efforts of multiple people instead of the leader alone. Therefore accomplishing tasks in a group cant be goaded or pushed by the leader alone it will be collective onus of the group. Also this validates team members extraordinary role in accomplishing work in teams. Further individuals special skills and diversity might be considered a key in successful accomplishments of group work. (Olusegun, 1998)

Cooperative team management

As Evelyn (1996) states that working cooperatively for a common goal is the base construct of team management theory. She cites successful team implementation at blue chip companies like Toyota, Nissan, Harley Davidson, British Airways, etc. and as mentioned collective output was far more helpful and synergistic than the leader or single member alone. Teams working in the above companies not only helped in increasing customer satisfaction but also increased revenues and reduced operational expenses, and most importantly created passion for themselves and their workplace to improve work environment and quality of life in general. The basic tenet is working together, cooperatively for a common goal. All is not smooth sailing, as synergy in group only occurs if group is functioning well. Some conflict is healthy as it offers alternative viewpoints, however procedural conflicts can lead to distress, hence clear communication and guidelines are essential for success. Another problem to avoid is clash

because of personality clashes, inappropriate task distribution and power struggles. One resolution method decentralizing power, giving equal status to team members, rationalizing team members inputs , removing competitive atmosphere (internal competition) and introducing a supportive environment. (Evelyn, 1996) Olusegun cites a practical example of group effectiveness. Lincoln Electric Company, founded in 1895 and was given to James Lincoln to manage. James, hesitant to manage in the new role diversified the management role into different committees each of which was responsible for one function like sales, planning etc. These committees were in turn responsible to an advisory board, which met fortnightly for discussions on the mechanics and issues of the respective group. The company made rapid progress, and soon grew more rapidly than it was though possible at that time, with an impressive customer base worth $ 10 million. (Olusegun, 1998)

Conclusion
Effective teams can be built through structured intervention, however it is crucial that management is committed to providing resources and support for effective team building initially and later on so that team members are suitably empowered for decision making. Effective team members have different skill sets that should be blended in by effective leadership so that desired productivity results with increased customer satisfaction, more margins and increased productivity together with empowered and passionate employees who are enthusiastic and committed to positive results. This is the cornerstone hallmark of success in companies like Toyota, Nissan, Harley Davidson, British Airways and small time operators like Southwest Airlines. Olusegun (1998) rightly concludes that group processes become more effective when leader and team members are considered as interdependent to function effectively, and for high degree of efficacy group members traits need to be mined and group members managed to produce cooperative results as an integral team.

References Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber (1996) Muddles and Huddles: Facilitating a Multicultural Workforce through Team Management Theory: The Journal of Business Communication. Volume: 33. Issue: 4. Page Number: 459+. Laird Mealiea, Ramon Baltazar (2005) A Strategic Guide for Building Effective Teams.: Public Personnel Management. Volume: 34. Issue: 2. Page Number: 141+. Richard Chang (May 2001) Turning into Organizational Performance. Magazine Title: T&D. Volume: 55. Issue: 5. Keith T. Hughes (November 1993) A Manager's Guide to the Art of Team Building. Security Management. Volume: 37. Issue: 11. Page Number: 20+. Olusegun Agboola Sogunro (1998) Leadership Effectiveness and Personality Characteristics of Group Members. Journal of Leadership Studies. Volume: 5. Issue: 3. Page Number: 26. Linda S Wing (2005) Leadership in high-performance teams: a model for superior team performance. Team Performance Management; 11, 1/2; ABI/INFORM Global.Page. 4