Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

Subject
Professional Project (BUSN20019)

Assessment Task-1
TEAM SIZE AFFECT ON EMPLOYEE AND
ORGANIZATION PERFORMANCE

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Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

INDEX

1. Executive summary………………………………………………….3

2. Introduction………………………………………………………….3

3. Project context……………………………………………………….3

4. Project proposal……………………………………………………...5

5. Background and problem definition………………………………..5

6. Aim and objectives…………………………………………………...5

7. Literature Review………………………………………………………….6

8. Project Plan………………………………………………………………...7

9. Appendix……………………………………………………………..8

10. List of References…………………………………………………...19

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Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

Executive summary

Finding the right balance between the inputs required for the desired output by any

firm is crucial to its productivity. The effect of the size of a team assigned to a project on the

performance of individual employees and also that of the organization is an interesting area to

research, with the prospect of arriving at a formula to determine the appropriate size for a

team to be assigned to a project. This is especially true in the case of chemical firms where

developmental costs are for the most part linked to the cost incurred to cover the

compensation of the employees engaged by the team (Burke, R., & Barron, S.,2007).

Introduction

In this report, a project proposal related to field of management specially in the case

of a chemical firm has been debated as I aspire to enter in the field of professional

management and work for a chemical firm as a manager, after completing my degree in the

masters of management that I am currently studying for. I have completed my graduation

degree in chemical engineering (Bragg,1998).

Project context:

Just as the title of the profession suggests, it relates to handling different aspects

connected to the processes and staff which has been assigned to a manager. A manager is

responsible for arranging smooth operations and proactively managing by organizing the

work of the people allocated to them and to solve any problem (Allen, 1964). The profession

of a manager can be defined as that of being the one who can be regarded as a specialist in the

planning, leading and organizing all of the efforts and work done by others. In an

organization, the manager has to be known a number of skills in order to effectively perform

the management process because an organization can only achieve the desired goals when the

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Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

manager motivates the employees to work hard. In a sense, a manager is a person who has the

skills to get the work from a group of people working under him while working in close

connection with them and also effectively managing with the help of available resources with

the end goal of reaching the organization’s objective. The basic aim of a manager in an

organization is to provide the process of productive performance by the workforce in a way

that it proves to be beneficial for company’s performance and productivity (Herzberg,2008).

These objectives can be achieved through proper controlling and provide the direction

while using all of the available resources effectively. Planning can be conceptualized as

building the bridge between the present position of an organization and its vision in a way

that provides guidance at each step by mapping the way to attain the vision. Since

management process in which the manager has to get the required work done by the people so

it is imperative that he has the excellent interpersonal skills which are crucial in getting the

maximum productivity from people he is managing. The manager should also be involved in

the decision and selection of the people to work on the assigned task and to make an

assessment regarding the capabilities of the staff. Another important function of a manager is

to be able to decide the size of the workforce needed to produce optimum results while

maximizing the earning of the company (Stewart, 2006).

One of the many strengths of a good manager is to consider having the ability to

motivate and mobilize the people under him to give their best efforts in order to work towards

the vision of the company. It can be only achieved by the hard working manager who has

communication skills and to be able to relate and empathize with employees. Sensitivity is

another attribute the distinguishes an exceptional manager from an average manager. A

manager is a person on which the working and production of an organization completely

depend because an organization can only achieve its objective when a manager motivates all

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Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

of the employees in a proper way. Motivation is an only thing which accelerates the zeal of

all the employees and helps them to focus on their tasks (de Janasz, et.l., 2014).

Project proposal

My professional project will be based on studying the relationship between the team

size and its effects on the performance of the employees as well as that of the organization

Background and problem definition

In order to achieve the goals of an organization the employees work together in the

form of teams and those teams have managers to guide the efforts of the team to ensure that

they are in line with the aims of the organization. Teamwork is especially important in the

field of chemical and chemical industry where a group of engineers works with each other for

a project assigned by the client, in order to ensure the cohesive work, it is important to

include the creative and suitable people in a team so that they can effectively achieve the

goal. Chemical industries have a large number of people in the team to work on separate

projects by different clients. Therefore, the size of the team is an important factor to be

considered regarding the productivity of the employee as well as the profitability of the firm.

Having too many employees on a team can decrease the profitability of the firm while having

few necessary members in a team can also prove to counterproductive in terms of delays and

failure deadlines. Hence, it is very important to find the right balance between productivity

and team size (Salsbury, 2013).

Aim and objectives:

The proposal research has many aims and objectives. Some of them are under as:

 Exploring various methods and techniques available for calculating the team size.

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Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

 Studying the impact of the team size on the productivity of the employees and also

of the organization.

 To determine if the proposed methods apply only to the chemical industry or if

they are applicable for all the industries.

 Determining the optimum size of the development teams for maximum

productivity for the chemical organization I will work for.

 To develop an empirical model to determine the appropriate team size for various

projects.

 To identify the various preprocessing methods and their relative mechanism

essential to determine the appropriate team size.

Literature Review:

According to a research conducted in 2009 to study the relationship between the size

of the chemical engineering team and the total cost of developing a project, it has been

observed that a major part of the project development cost is directly related to the salaries of

the employees working on the development team. Hence, factors relating to the team can

directly affect the productivity and profitability of the project (Cain, Books, 2013 ).

A meta-analysis performed in 2006 illustrated that the relationship between the

performance of a team and its size is limited but controlling the size of the team showed

strongly positive outcomes for the management and the project teams. Decreasing the size of

the development team to an optimum productivity level will not have any significant effect on

the performance of the individuals within the team (Kayser, 2011).

In the wake of changing work dynamics, organizations have found that it restructuring

their teams has resulted in better productivity (Hales, 1993). The globalization and increased

keenness of the world’s economy have made the need for effective, concise, efficient,

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Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

adaptable, and manageable teams even more prominent than before. It is also important to

work on increasing the motivation of team members and encouraging better teamwork to

align with the goals of the organization (Pendharkar, Rodger, 2009).

It has been observed that engaging the teams in activities that do not relate to the work

can increase the cohesiveness between the members of the team. A research has been

conducted to observe the effects on the cohesiveness of a team of chemical engineers that

spends a lot of time together and works long hours while working on the project they are

working on in a high-stress environment, the teams were asked to participate in fun activities

in the same formation as they work. After the experiment, it became apparent that the teams

that participated in relaxing and fun activities together significantly increased the

compatibility among the team members (RAJU, PARTHASARATHY, 2009).

Project Plan:

The data will be collected from the previous projects handled by the company. The

size and dynamics of the team, its productivity, the profitability of the project and value

added to the organization will be the will be the factors that will provide the data required for

the analysis during the research. The time of the project plan will be decreased if the number

of team members increased because if the workforce will be greater than the time required for

completion of the project will be decreased and vice versa.

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Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

Appendix

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Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

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Running head: Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

PRIOR to Meeting 1 (during week 2)

COMPULSORY ACTIVITY FOR on-campus students: Send an email to your

campus tutor informing him/her of the topic you want to address. This should include
a clear title and a brief (ONE paragraph) overview of your project idea.

COMPULSORY ACTIVITY FOR on-campus students: Send an email to the unit co-
ordinator informing her of the topic you want to address. This should include a clear
title and a brief (ONE paragraph) overview of your project idea.

ALL students: You are required to do this between Monday and Friday of week 2.
You need the tutor's approval before you can progress your project - approval is part
of assessment 1.

Copy a screenshot of your email and the tutor response here:

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Campus tutor signature is NOT required for this pre-meeting activity.

Space for your notes/comments/reflections/tasks (optional):

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List of References

Allen, L. A. (1964). Management and organization. Auckland: McGraw-Hill International.

Bragg, S. M. (1998). Outsourcing: A guide to-- selecting the correct business unit-- negotiating

the contract-- maintaining control of the process. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Burke, R., & Barron, S. (2007). Project management leadership: Building creative teams

(project management) (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Burke Publishing.

Cain, P., & Books, C. (2013). Managing others: Teams and individuals: Your guide to getting it

right. London: Profile Books.

de Janasz, S., Crossman, J., Campbell, N., & Powers, M. (2014). Interpersonal skills in

organisations (2nd ed.). Sydney, Australia: McGraw-Hill Australia.

Hales, C. (1993). Managing through organisation: The management process, forms of

organisation and the work of managers. New York: Cengage Learning EMEA.

Herzberg, F. (2008). One more time: How do you motivate employees? Harvard Business

Review Press.

Kayser, T. A. (2011). Building team power: How to unleash the collaborative genius of teams

for increased engagement, productivity, and results (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill

Education.

Pendharkar, P. C., & Rodger, J. A. (2009). The relationship between software development team

size and software development cost. Communications of the ACM, 52(1), 141.

doi:10.1145/1435417.1435449

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 Team Size Effect on Employee and Organization Performance

RAJU, S. R., & PARTHASARATHY, A. (2009). MANAGEMENT: TEXT AND CASES. PHI

Learning Pvt.

Salsbury, M. P. (2013). Human capital management: Leveraging your workforce for a

competitive advantage. San Bernardino, CA, United States: Createspace.

Stewart, G. L. (2006). A Meta-Analytic review of relationships between team design features

and team performance. Journal of Management, 32(1), 29–55.

doi:10.1177/0149206305277792

Sudhakar, G.P. (2015). SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TEAMS: PERFORMANCE,

PRODUCTIVITY, AND INNOVATION. PHI Learning Pvt.

Tohidi, H. (2016). Teamwork productivity & effectiveness in an organization base on rewards,

leadership, training, goals, wage, size, motivation, measurement and information

technology. Procedia Computer Science, 3, 1137–1146. doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2010.12.185

Williams, C. (2008). Management. Cengage Learning.

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