A team describes a group of people working together in achieving a set standard objective; these people may be professionals in one field or different fields pulling resources together for one goal. Teamwork is a more efficient way to accomplish tasks in the business, professional as well as academic areas only if the strategies and all elements are set right to ensure its effectiveness (Beck, 2014). A team guidance is an individual, a leader that collaborates the different views and ideas of team members before embarking on a project in the respective steps. A leader joins the group members; a person they look upon on critical decisions before proceeding with assigned tasks. Therefore, an effective team has a lot to do with healthy relationships between a leader and the team members among other aspects.
"Working in teams" video centers around four individuals; Joe, Cheng, Simon, and Rosa. Most people whether at workplaces or in college have had to work together in a group, just like the team in this video. The group members' coordination and different skills they possess, different perspectives of issues in life have a lot of lessons concerning forming and working in a team efficiently to achieve the set goals.
Teams undergo evaluations on a regular basis with regards to effectiveness and efficiency in the previous activities. There are three major factors in consideration in the assessment criteria to rate a group and recommend changes or where to put in more effort for better results; task performance, member satisfaction, and team viability. Task performance involve the activities that are either direct or indirect in achieving an organization's core objective; evaluating individual performance with regards to technical processes and specific duties is the first step in the effectiveness criteria (Woods and West, 2012).
In addition to this, team viability focuses on the ability of a group of people to sustain challenges that come in the respective field as well as the capacity of the team to grow for better future performances. Members need to work together to achieve team viability. The ability of the whole team, resources, and potentiality for growth influence motivation and performance of individual group members. Member satisfaction, on the other hand, is personal determination and commitment towards the assigned duties that collectively contribute to ending goals and purpose of the team, the believe that individual participation and skill contribution is important to the team. Evaluation of different perception about the team, the positivity towards working on as a team has a lot to say concerning team effectiveness.
Concerning member satisfaction in the group, Joe is a new member of the group which has been in operation for a while still not fully familiarized with the other three. However, his contribution to the team so far is noticeable at the start of the video. Cheng transfer to a new division depicts his commitment and confidence in his abilities because he still stays in touch with the group members accomplishing his part of duty. The members have not told each other much about their personal lives and therefore do not have sufficient satisfaction to work together. Each one of the four including Rosa the only female has necessary skills hence high levels of task performance; the group is not yet active basing on these three-factor evaluation criteria.
According to Woods and West (2012), teams are bound to face challenges, problems that will need tackling and solutions for the same, handsome results which every team looks upon requires proper planning in the development stages. Five steps are necessary for group development according to Bruce Tuckman; forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Forming entails getting to know each other which is the first step in developing a team, members have to familiarize with each other with perspectives and personalities. It is important for every member to be open to the rest, understanding a fellow team member is relevant for better working relationships.
Storming as the second stage of group development involves dealing with work tension as well as the pressure that comes when working with new personalities just after the forming stage. In this juncture, there is the definition of a group and individual tasks for each one of the group members. According to skills that a person possesses or tasks that one is comfortable with depending on terms of formation. After watching there is a reason to believe that the four group members are still struggling through this stage considering each one of them has given to little information about themselves.
Norming, on the other hand, involves the building of relationships between the group members considering effectiveness in work requires good relationships between team members. Team building activities come in at this phase of group development necessary for successful completion of future tasks. Members get to realize the importance of each person in the group; individuals learn to appreciate each other; accepting the fact that everyone has unique capabilities and that is why their teams are efficient ways to accomplish tasks.
Performing entails maturing in relationships, the performance of tasks starts at this point. Cheng, Rosa, and Simon have been together for a little longer more than Joe is with the team; the three are maturing in relationships hence task performance evaluation applies to them. The group focuses on specific tasks each is assigned to meet the requirements and achieve the goals within the set period. Adjourning comes last in five development stages; this is after accomplishing of the tasks where the team members disband and celebrate of their respective accomplishments. According to the video, the group is still on storming stage trying to incorporate Joe into the team.
Each one of the team members represents specific tasks in the group, Joe being new in the group still learning of the roles while Cheng, Rosa, and Simon had maintenance and other dysfunctional parts respectively. The video specifically outlines the tasks of the four members of stage movement and perspectives that each one gives in their several discussion scenes. Cheng, for instance, makes a decision concerning their materials on many occasions of the group identifying his role.
According to Beck (2014), communication is vital for effectiveness in any team; proper encoding of the message in a known way to the receivers who were on active listening in the video depict successful communication because of the many instances of responses. However, noise can be a barrier to communication. There is an element of physiological noise on the four teammates while on a conversation when Joe is giving an opinion; being new the others were apparently not following because of assumptions and stereotypes, thinking he is not sufficient because they have not yet built relationships.
Conflict is either internal or external this depends on the source which can either be fully within the mind of an individual or between a character and external elements; it often occurs between two people. Joe, in this case, has to deal with personalities of his teammates, this is internal conflict; the fact that he is new in the group thus members do not have much about him, not sure of his actions, they are not yet in the performing stage. Avoidance is the best tactic to resolve this conflict, this involves assuming the existence of the conflict and avoid confronting the matter. Cheng, Rosa, and Simon only need a time of interaction with Joe to mature in their relationships with him; avoidance would be the best strategy to manage the conflict as a direct approach.
The four people in the video make up a regular group in normal day activities, especially in the professional field. Conflict is part of incidences when new personalities are still learning of each other's characters, through this communication effectiveness is also build up. Cheng, Joe, Simon, and Rosa only luck motivation to work together.
Motivation involves directing energy and efforts of an individual towards personal desires or group objectives for successful completion of tasks. Fear of failure, low expectations for the group's success and anxiety for achievement are among the major motivational problems evident in the group; the three teammates are wary of Joe performance and contribution to the team thus a motivational problem (Beck, 2014). According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, people have five levels of needs classification which they fulfill from the lowest, deficiency to growth. Cheng, who is moving to a different new division, for instance, is not convinced of his capabilities, still at the safety needs in the hierarchy. Group members in the video have to understand they have, to begin with, physiological needs and grow all the way up to self-actualization. Teamwork is a necessary approach to accomplish projects and tasks within set time frames, scheduling and assigning tasks to specific quality personalities.
Concisely, teamwork is a force to reckon with and organizations, learning institutions ought to harness its power. The benefits described above for working in groups enable the workforce to share resources and enhance their skillset whilst improving their performance and productivity.
References
Beck, R. C. (2014). Motivation: Theories and Principles. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Education.
Woods, S. A., & West, M. A. (2012). The psychology of work and organizations. Andover, UK: South-Western Cengage Learning.
