Trust, commitment to organizational goals and readiness to apply efforts to reach common goals represent the key assets that allow for a successful performance of a team. According to Lencioni (2002), the absence of trust is a foundational dysfunction of a team, stemming from ‘team members’ unwillingness to be vulnerable within a team’ (p.187). If a team leader is not able to promote openness among team members, they may also fear a conflict, striving to an artificial harmony. Apart from promoting trust and constructive conflict, a team manager needs to be able to inspire employees and develop their commitment. In turn, commitment is necessary to ensure continuity, when pursuing common goals, and ‘no change can occur without willing and committed followers’ (Bennis, 1999, p.19). Another important point about commitment finds its reflection in the Bible, where it is emphasized that ‘all things shall be done decently and in order’ (Open Bible, 2016). In case an employee lacks commitment to the common goals of an organization, he/she may implement his/her obligations in a non-decent way, causing harm to the overall order in an organizations and the completion of common goals.
The lack of employees’ commitment and attention to the order can be viewed as an important root cause of the two other dysfunctions of a team, distinguished by P.Lencioni (2002) in his work. The first one is the avoidance of accountability. The lack of a clear action plan and the responsibilities, divided between the members of a team, leads to the fact that team members fail to acknowledge responsibility for the implementation of an organization’s shared goals (Lencioni, 2002, p.187). In turn, in case an employee does not feel responsible for completing a specific share of work, he/she becomes inattentive to the results of his/her work, as well as the work of the team. In view of the complexity and interconnectedness of the possible deficiencies of a team’s functioning, a manager needs to keep an eye on the relations within a team, facilitate them and promote clear separation of tasks and accountability.
References
Bennis, W. (1999). The leadership advantage. Leader to Leader, 12, pp.18-23
Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team. A leadership fable. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Open Bible (2016). What does the Bible say about organizations? Retrieved 4 May 2016 from https://www.openbible.info/topics/organization
