The importance of team work in international corporations

Iosub Maria8103

IEA

The Role of Teamwork in a Modern Global Organization

Teamwork plays a variety of important roles in a business.

Many businesses rely on successful teamwork in order to reach company goals and objectives. While more organizations have gone global, good teamwork has become increasingly imperative, since employees with differing skill sets and ideas are scattered around different continents. Circumstances may call for these global employees to share what information they have in each location in order to strategize, innovate and bring into market a company's products or services.

Teamwork in a Modern Global Organization

Organizational Effectiveness Teamwork plays a vital role in organizational effectiveness, which determineshow effective a company can be in its many facets. Shared KnowledgeWith varying skill sets, strategies, education levels and past work experiences,a team can bring more shared knowledge to the table in terms of innovation, ideasand solutions. Faster Results With a team of employees that can benefit from shared knowledge, decisionmaking can become more efficient, since each team’s decision will be morewell-informed compared to a decision that is made by an individual who may lack the complete skill set that a team possesses. Common Purpose The strength of many teams is the coming together for a common purpose.This recognition of common purpose and the daily striving of working togetherfor the greater good of the organization plays a vital role in the health, vitality andagility of a company striving towards well-functioning.

10 Effective Qualities of a Team Leader

Team leaders naturally possess certain qualities, such as compassion and integrity, or they can learn leadership skills through formal training and experience. The qualities of an effective team leader inspire the trust and respect of the team and stimulate production within the workplace.

Communication. Effective team leaders communicate clearly. Verbal and written communication skills allow leaders to present expectations to team members in a way workers can understand. Organization. Effective team leaders possess exceptional organizational skills such as planning objectives and strategies.Confidence. An effective team leader is confident in his abilities, as well as in the abilities of his team members. Respectful. A team leader is respectful towards his team members. A respectful leader empowers employees by encouraging them to offer ideas about decisions that affect them. This lets team members know that the leader respects their opinions.Fair. A team leader treats team members fairly. He is consistent with rewards and recognition, as well as disciplinary action. A fair leader ensures all employees receive the same treatment.Integrity. An effective team leader is honest and open with his team members. Leaders who possess integrity gain the trust of team members especially by following on their promises.Influential. Influential leaders help manage change in the workplace by gaining the confidence of workers through effective decision making and communication.Delegation. Effective team leaders know how to share leadership through delegation. Facilitator. As a facilitator, team leaders help workers understand their goals. Negotiation. Team leaders utilize negotiation skills to achieve results and reach an understanding in the situation of a workplace conflict.

Importance of Teamwork in an Organizational Setting

A team often has a team leader, who guides all members to reach the company’s expectations. In addition, each team leader must make all workers feel included in order to boost motivation and workplace morale. However, the role of teams in organizations also has practical importance.

Scope of the WorkEach employee hired by the company has a certain skill set, which contributes to a single department. Physical DistancesSome organizations have managers and executives who travel frequently, which means that they are not in theoffice everyday. These individuals communicate by using the email and telephone to stay updated with tasks,assignments and production. Teamwork is important in these situations, as modern technology allows allemployees to stay in touch about tasks and assignments despite being miles or time zones apart. Teamwork inthese situations also shows trust and reliability, because employees trust that other workers get the job done intheir absence.Departments and TeamworkEach organization is consists of various departments. These departments must work together in different situations for the organization, (ex. production department working with the accounting department to create products on abudget.) These departments must work together as a team to meet the company’s goals and objectives, despitehaving different functions within the organization.Ethnicities and BackgroundsAnother important reason for teamwork in an organization is the different backgrounds and ethnicities of people working in a single organization. Each employee has a different background or experience, meaning each of them can perform differently on any given tasks. Teamwork is important, as these differences get ironed out, so all employees think and perform with the same goal in mind. In addition, all employees understand the methods used to reach these goals.

Importance of Teamwork & Professional Development

Professional development is the continued integration of the organizational team and is composed of all types of facilitated learning opportunities, having been described as intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating an evaluative stage. There are a variety of approaches to professional development, including consultation, coaching, communities of practice, lesson study, mentoring, reflective supervision and technical assistance, which mostly take place inside a team, as the role of peers is central in the process of occupational development.

TeamworkTeamwork as an economic variable.Building a real team is about getting the same amount of work done quicker and more accurately. The whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts.. The work for each individual is less, and the final result that much greater.DevelopmentProfessional or occupational development is part of the life-long learning process. Learning does not end when schooling is over but is a continual movement towards well defined goals and standards. Professional development, formally speaking, is about being observed both by peers and supervisors for your ability to identify problem areas that you might miss in your daily labor.Teamwork and the EgoTeamwork requires the ego to become part of a team. Real professional development assumes the willingness to take criticism on your performance from both your peers and your supervisors. StandardsAnother feature shared between teamwork and professional development is the existence of objective standards proven useful through experience. Criticism by peers or supervisors means little unless there are specific goals and standards to which your improvements should be directed. Machinists strive for accuracy, artists for creative inspiration, teachers for motivation and love of learning and economists for accurate model building. Both the peer group and developmental goals are central for this.

The Use of Teamwork in an Organization

Human resources specialists and management professionals are familiar with the concept of using the word "team" as an acronym: Together Everyone Achieves More. The concept is an ideal representation of the importance of cooperation and teamwork within a workplace or other organizational structure. In fact, the use of teamwork in an organization enhances and improves productivity and increases overall profit and success.

Types of Teams Problem-solving teams composed of cross-

trained workers are brought together to resolve issues within the organizational structure. Leadership teams include heads of specific departments to develop company goals and strategic marketing directions. Self-directed teams are issued a goal by the organization and are left to their own discretion to determine how to accomplish it. Virtual teams are formed by companies who rely on technology to conduct long-distance business, meetings and conferences in real time.

The Use of Teamwork in an Organization

Requirements for TeamworkOne of the primary components of successful teamwork is a clear and precise goal followed by a straightforward path to achieve it. A successful team has knowledgeable staff members and assigns specific duties relevant to their expertise.

Employee BenefitsThe opportunity to expand your professional knowledge by collaborating with members of different expertise provides learning opportunities. Other perks include increased social contact in the workplace and opportunities to for professional development.

Organizational BenefitsA well-integrated team leads to good morale within an organization, which leads to increased productivity. Teamwork promotes collaboration, commitment, motivation, dependability and accountability among staff or organizational members. Imposing team responsibilities helps increase individual strengths, improves delegation and reduces or eliminates certain lower levels of management.

Elements for Effective Teamwork

Teamwork is as much a science as it is considered an art. Some teams work extremely well together, while others seem to fall apart or actually hinder progress. Knowing the elements for effective teamwork can help you to build and maintain high-performance teams throughout your organization.

Commitment and Trust. All members of a high-impact team must be fully committed to achieving the team's mission and goals. Mistrust stemming from unbalanced workloads can lead to petty political moves, such as high performers slacking off to close the gap between team member outputs.

Communication. Team members who understand each other's unique communication styles, or who agree on a single style of communication from the outset, are more likely to move the team in a productive direction that everyone understands and supports. Team members must never be hesitant to communicate with other members about issues and concerns, as well as new ideas or personal observations.

Diversity of Capabilities Teams that possess a wide range of professional competencies can be more fully equipped to meet a wide range of challenges. When building teams, take time to ensure that each team member possesses skills and strengths that complement the skills, strengths and weaknesses of other team members. Ensuring that each team member possesses an unique specialty allows team members to trust each other for certain aspects of performance, while fully understanding what their own contribution is expected to be.

Elements for Effective Teamwork

Adaptability. High-powered teams must be flexible and adaptable to changing conditions. Team strategies, goals, tasks, workflows and even members can change over the life of the team. Change is an unavoidable part of modern business, and the most effective teams have the ability to roll with the punches and change the way they work together on the fly.

Creative Freedom. All team members should feel free to think creatively, to try new things and fail without the fear of consequences. This aspect of teamwork brings together all of the other elements for effective teamwork. Team members must trust that others will listen openly to their ideas, they must be able to openly communicate their new ideas, they must be trusted enough in their area of expertise to lead the way in new initiatives and they must be adaptable enough to accommodate the changes inherent in bringing new ideas to realization.

Factors Affecting Effective Teamwork

In order to understand how to assemble an efficient team, you first need to know the factors affecting effective teamwork.

Focusing on Goals. A team is driven by a common goal. In order to have an effective team, that common goal needs to be spelled out in advance and understood by team members.. Put the goals in writing so everyone can see and understand what the objectives of the team are and help to work toward accomplishing them.

Compensation. A team works well when the members understand what they will be compensated for their efforts. All Business notes it is best to come up with a compensation plan before assembling the team.

Communication. Communication in developing an effective team happens on two levels: communication between team members and communication from management to the team. Encourage open communication among teammates inside and outside the office so they can learn how each other communicates, which implies informal, as well as professional communication. Managers should hold regular meetings to keep a team updated on important information and to offer training.

Deal With Conflict. Conflict tends to throw a team off of its focus, getting it away from its goals and objectives, therefore, by learning how to deal with conflict immediately, a team can remain effective at all times.

The Cost & Benefits of Teamwork

BENEFITS

Boosting Morale

One key benefit of teamwork is that it can boost morale, as employees can feel they are working together to achieve a goal that benefits all members of the team, as well as the organization. This spirit of camaraderie can motivate employees to work harder so they don't disappoint other team members by failing to meet expectations.

Multiple Ideas

The existence of multiple members in a team can lead to several different approaches or solutions that a person working alone may not have been able to devise. By using techniques such as brainstorming, each team member has the opportunity to interject his own ideas, which can be discussed by the team as a whole until a consensus is reached.

COSTS

Personality Clashes

One potential cost of teamwork is that personality clashes can alienate team members and lead to an unproductive effort. One member of the team may have a strong personality and attempt to dominate the project. Team members who have an initial idea rejected by the rest of the team may come to resent the other members and become disengaged from the project. If the personality conflicts remain unresolved, it is possible they could have a lingering negative effect on employee morale.

Lack of Clear Purpose

A team can be assembled for the wrong reasons, such as a manager believing that teams are necessary to be politically correct or to comply with corporate mandates. The cost to the organization is a waste of productive time or team members who simply go through the motions.

Teamwork is generally considered beneficial and essential for a company to maximize its productivity.

Team building

Team building is the use of different types of team interventions that are aimed at enhancing social relations and clarifying team members’ roles, as well as solving tasks and interpersonal problems that affect team functioning and is one of the most widely used group development interventions in organizations today. At the organizational level, team building is a philosophy of job design in which employees are viewed as members of interdependent teams instead of as individual workers.

It refers to the activities in which a team can engage to change its context, composition or team competencies to improve performance. Team building is not necessarily formal or systematic in nature, it does not target skill-based competencies, and is typically done in settings that are not in the actual environment where the team works on the task. Its four components are:

Goal Setting: aligning around goals

Interpersonal-relationship management: building effective working relationships

Role clarification: reducing team members’ role ambiguity

Problem solving: finding solutions to team problems

http://www.ecocameron.com/team-building-activities

‘There will be a lot of communication, strategies, delegation skill, utilizing individual/team strength to maximize everyone's involvement.’

‘This activity emphasizes on teamwork, communication, leadership, planning and to think out of the box. This program helps participants to realize that they have a mindset and their mindset inhibits them from doing their best.’

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a group or individual creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its member(s). The term was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn. Osborn claimed that brainstorming was more effective than individuals working alone in generating ideas. Today, the term is used as a catch all for all group ideation sessions.

Osborn claimed that two principles contribute to “ideative efficacy" : 1. Defer judgment

2. Reach for quantity.

By following these two principles were created his four general rules of brainstorming, established with intention to reduce social inhibitions among group members, stimulate idea generation, increase overall creativity of the group.1.Focus on quantity: the assumption is that the greater the number of ideas generated, the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.2.Withhold criticism: participants should focus on extending or adding to ideas, reserving criticism for a later 'critical stage' of the process. By suspending judgment, participants will feel free to generate unusual ideas.3.Welcome unusual ideas: unusual ideas can be generated by looking from new perspectives and suspending assumptions. These new ways of thinking may provide better solutions.4.Combine and improve ideas: good ideas may be combined to form a single better good idea, as suggested by the slogan "1+1=3". It is believed to stimulate the building of ideas by a process of association.

THANK YOU!

Bibliographyhttp://smallbusiness.chron.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_building