Total Quality Management Muhammad Zeeshan

Q: What are the different types of teams? What are the barriers of team
progress?
Answer:

Team:
Group of people with different skills and different tasks who work together on a
common project, service, or goals, with a meshing of functions and mutual support.

Types of teams:
Following are the types of teams which normally exists in an organization
1- Functional team
A functional team is permanent. It includes members of the same department with
different responsibilities. There is a manager who is responsible for everything.
Everyone in the team reports to him. A functional team can be usually recognized in
traditional project management companies. This type requires a manager who
ensures that there are no obstacles when it comes to transferring work from one team
to another.
2- Cross-functional team
A cross-functional team consists of members from different departments. This kind
of team tackles specific tasks that require different expertise and inputs. Cross-
functional teams are becoming increasingly popular all over the world. However,
there is an opinion that the whopping numbers of all cross-functional teams are
dysfunctional. For example, cross-functional teams may be composed of
representatives from production, sales, marketing, finance, and legal. The strength of
this type of team lies in its members having different functional backgrounds,
education, and experience. The diversity of experience aids innovative problem
solving and decision making.
3-Virtual team
A virtual team involves employees who work in different locations and who rely on
the power of communication and collaboration tools to get things done together. This
kind of team provides people with better life-work balance and allows business
owners to hire the best experts.
There are different types of virtual teams that are characterized by 3 dimensions:
time, space and culture.

• Time is about when people work (during different hours, on different shifts, in
different time-zones).
• Space is about where people work (right next to each other or hundreds of
kilometers away).
• Culture is about how people work (including such factors as gender, age, race,
language, education, nationality, social, religious, economic factors, etc.)
Total Quality Management Muhammad Zeeshan

4-Self-managed teams
Self-managed teams consist of employees of the same company who work together.
Although they have a wide set of objectives, their key goal is to reach a common
result.
There is no manager here. The members of self-managed teams should determine
rules and expectations solve problems and bare shared responsibilities.
Thinking about creating a self-managed team, you should pay attention to the levels
of responsibility and the autonomy that is given to the team.
The main advantages of self-managed teams are:

• Improved motivation because of autonomy

• Ability to manage own time and handle tasks when it suits employees
• No pay for office
• Pride in team accomplishments because of shared responsibility

Barriers of team progress:

Here are some barriers which a team faces and which create hurdle in success

Insufficient training:-
Teams cannot be expected to perform unless they are trained in problem-solving
techniques, group dynamics, and communication skills.
Incompatible rewards and compensation:-
In general, organizations make little effort to reward team performance. Because of a
strong focus on individual rewards it is difficult for individuals to buy into the team
concept. Similarly, performance appraisals do not accept input from peers or team
members.
First-line supervisor resistance:-
Supervisors are reluctant to give up power confident that they can do the work better
and faster are concerned about job security and are ultimately held responsible.
Lack of planning:-
A lack of common direction or alignment on the use of collaborative efforts, internal
competition, redundancy, and fragmented work processes all prevent team progress.
Plan should be the same of whole team. If they have competition within the team
they will not work effectively.
Lack of management support:-
Management must provide the resources and “buy into” the quality council/sponsor
system. Progress and success of a team is depending on management support.
Management should support them the way they want.
Access to information systems:-
Teams need access to organizational information such as business performance,
competitive performance, financial data, and so forth.
Total Quality Management Muhammad Zeeshan

Project objectives are not significant:-

Management has not defined what role the team will play in the organization. First
organization selects the project and then forms a team for that project. If the objective
of the project is not significant then management can’t define the role of the team.
No clear measures of success:-
The team is not clear about its charter and goals. Goal is the main thing by which
organization can measure the success of the team. Clear goal will clear the measures
of the team success which leads to the success of the organization.
No time to do improvement work:-
Values and beliefs of the organization are not compatible with the team’s work.
Individual departmental politics interfere with the team’s progress. Management has
not given the team proper resources.
Large Team:-
The organization lacks methods for involving people in ways other than team
membership. Large team reduces the productivity of the organization. If the team is
too large then team will lack in many things like communication, time, productivity
etc.
Trapped in groupthink:-
Team members all have a mindset that no actions are taken until everyone agrees
with every decision. This is the huge barrier in the team success. If a member has
some new and unique ideas in his mind still he can’t apply it in operations till every
member will not agree with his idea.
Lack of Diverse Skills and Interests:
If a team consists of members with similar skills and interests, the purpose of the
team may not be achieved. Consider the scope of the project before selecting team
members to determine which skills and interest best serve the team. Choose team
members who have a range of different skill sets and interests.
Lack of Leadership:-
Teams need leaders to offer a sense of purpose and direction. Lack of effective
leadership challenges effective team development. Without a strong leader to guide
the team and hold members accountable, the team may lose morale and momentum.
Commit yourself to monitoring the team's performance and offering support as
needed. If you can't be present during team meetings, appoint a team leader.
Introduce the leader and his role to the team to prevent competition for the role from
other team members.
Role Confusion:-
Even though a team works together to achieve a goal each person needs to know his
specific role within the team. When team members lack an understanding of their
specific roles or choose not to follow through with their roles the team cannot
develop as a cohesive and well-functioning unit. As a small business owner develop
specific well defined roles for each team member. Explain each role in detail to each
Total Quality Management Muhammad Zeeshan

team member to avoid confusion. Monitor team members to make sure they adhere
to their assigned role.
Poor Work Environment:-
A team needs a specific place to meet. It needs to be quiet and conducive to effective
teamwork. If the team is virtual the members need to agree on a set of virtual tools
communication, file sharing, project and task monitoring to help the team work
together to accomplish goals. Not having a designated place or online management
tools as part of team development can hinder progress.
Conflict:-
Conflict within a team is inevitable. How team members deal with conflict is critical
to team development. Invest time in training for yourself and your employees in
conflict resolution skills. With the skills to effectively resolve conflict, your team can
work together to stay on track without your constant intervention.
Conclusion:-
As per our study we can conclude that if a team will have the barriers which create
hurdles in their work that team can’t do work effectively. For the good progress of
the team organization should provide all the necessary things which a team need for
work. Ultimately team’s success is the organization’s success.