Abstract
This report describes the necessity of working in the form of groups and teams for effective organizational output. The basic essence of teamwork is provided along with its definition in the initial part. Then, the importance of teamwork is discussed from various aspects. Literature is consulted for effects of teamwork on organizational performance. We also discuss various traits and attributes of working together in teams and groups. We will see how teamwork leads to employee satisfaction, reduced turnover, decentralized responsibility, skills’ enhancement, feelings of empowerment, satisfaction of stakeholders, and much more.
Introduction
As the technology is advancing at a rapid pace, various processes in industries and other corporate organizations have become complex. An individual cannot complete a single industrial project by himself now. The importance of working in the form of teams is recognized at all levels in professional companies. The teamwork is defined as a collaborative process that enables ordinary people to achieve extraordinary outcomes. When people, possessing different set of skills and proficiencies, work together, then the chances of getting mutual success increase.
Successful teamwork requires coherence among all team members where they can contribute effectively towards nurturing of combined goals and objectives (Tarricone and Luca 641). This report highlights the importance of teamwork in modern day world organizations, businesses, sports, and other aspects of life. We will see how effective teamwork leads to ultimate success through important tasks and processes.
Nomenclature
Teamwork means coordinated and collaborative approach for performing different tasks in the form of a group consisting of different members. This is basically an employment hierarchy practiced in most of the private organizations today to boost performance and output.
Success as a Virtue of Effective Teamwork
The attributes of effective teamwork include task functioning, performance analysis, report generation, proposing suggestions for improvement, and many more. The team members combine their efforts, knowledge, and skills to enhance quality of products in industries and organizations (West 3). They collaborate to face challenges together and come up with possible solutions.
Teams are dedicated to special tasks and projects. Effectiveness of teamwork means that the individual members work selflessly. They should promote combined goals and benefits. The team members should inspire each other to raise their levels of motivation. The hard work and dedication of team members may enable them to achieve more than the desired success (West 4). The performance of effective teams sets standards for other teams within organizations.
In order to achieve effective teamwork, the organizations must consider many factors. The size of the team is very important in this regard. The management would love to carry out a task with minimum but still enough manpower to achieve goals in desired manner. The members should be stable and dedicated to organizations. Moreover, the assigned tasks and projects must require collaboration of all team members (West 4). The role of team members should be vivid and clear. Their efforts should combine into a significant outcome.
Shared Output is bigger than Individual Ones
When people work in the form of teams, they can contribute a lot more as compared to their individual performance. Their interdependency adds value to the performance of every member (Tarricone and Luca 641). The products of members could be integrated to form a significant project. They inspire and help each other to stay positive in their intent. Learning environment allows team members to improve their performance on a regular basis so that they play their role with zeal and zest. These factors clearly highlight the requirements of coordination and teamwork for accomplishing big goals in organizations.
Effective Communication as Necessary Tool for Teamwork
Strength of a team is intimately linked with effective communication among members. They share problems that they face in performing various group tasks. Active listening to every team member is utmost necessary to cultivate strong group relationships. The team members also praise efforts of their colleagues and provide good moral support. They are willing to provide and receive strong positive criticism for improving group performance (Tarricone and Luca 641). These group characteristics raise the level of project outcomes, and clearly show the importance of effective communication in teamwork in various organizations.
Commitment to Team Leadership
Teamwork is essential in various processes and organizational tasks as hierarchy of group, consisting of leader and members, is fruitful for achieving desired objectives. The leader of the team acts as the brain for managing all group activities. He assigns role of individual team members according to their set of skills. It is the responsibility of members to abide by the rules and regulations set by the leader. They fulfill their commitments at individual level to be integrated to group activities. They respect their leader and assist him in decision making for the betterment of the whole group (Tarricone and Luca 644).
Decentralized Responsibility
Assigning a certain task to an individual makes him solely responsible for completing it under the given set of circumstances. If the same task is integrated with similar jobs and assigned to a group then individuals will perform better. The responsibility on a single person burdens him and he feels pressurized while carrying out his job. The idea of teamwork introduces decentralized approach for assigning responsibilities to employees in organizations (Gallie 1). Team members have greater control over their responsibilities and they can better utilize their creative skills.
Job Satisfaction
Another reason why teamwork is necessary lies in job satisfaction of employees. Employees, working in the form of groups, develop strong relations and enjoy performing their tasks. They never get bored from group activities as collaboration keeps them interested. According to a research study by (Cohen and Ledford), employee satisfaction and job performance is much better in self-managing teams. Group activities introduce sense of commitment among team members to assist each other in putting their best effort for achieving highest level of performance.
Sense of Control over Tasks
Working in the form of team gives sense of control to members over their assigned tasks. They not only work hard by themselves but also inspire others to achieve mutual goals. They feel empowered to control their progress for completing group activities. Sense of control automatically raises their performance bar as they are willing to strive for the best in every aspect of their work.
Information Sharing
When employees work in groups, they share their string and weak points with each other (Gallie 2). They assist their coworkers in their strong zones and learn to remove their weaknesses in coordination with expert team members. The collaborative set of skills results in a strong integrated effort that could be much more than their combined individual efforts. As the skills of employees increase, they feel more confident towards their job and their turnover is reduced.
Development of Trust among Employees
Most of the public and private sector organizations suffer from lack of trust among their employees. They don’t praise each others’ efforts and try to let their coworkers down in front of management. Teamwork reduces these factors to minimum. Employees work like a family in team and enjoy success of each other because it is ultimately linked to combined benefits. They appreciate competence of their group members (Manzoor et al.113). The employees could trust their coworkers for information and knowledge sharing. They share their experience and strong points for improving the outcome of assigned projects.
Shared Views and Suggestions
When multiple brains are combined, their vision becomes broad. They could suggest many possible solutions to problems as compared to a single person. When employees work in teams, they provide valuable opinion to their project leader for better decision making. Every member has his own point of view about a certain situation and their combined intelligence provides clearer picture (Salas, Cooke, and Rosen 540).
Adaptation of Teamwork in Public Sector
Traditionally public sector organizations followed hierarchical level of employees in which there was only a single group of management over all workers. The complex and changing market environment require these organizations to distribute responsibilities at lower level also so that better decision making takes place. The leadership should be shared among teams and their individual members. The employees will feel empowered and responsible for their tasks. Hence, teamwork is quite essential for public sector organizations if they are to complete with successful private companies (Chin 3).
Satisfaction of Stake Holders
Teamwork is effective in some professions more than the others. Healthcare and nursing are some of these fields in which teamwork is noteworthy for patients’ well-being (A. McCallin and M. McCallin 61). The organizations that require teamwork in high proportion, must distribute their tasks accordingly. The spirits of collaboration, effective communication, knowledge sharing, positive feedback are utmost necessary for satisfaction of team members, management, and clients.
In healthcare industry, the doctors work together in the form of teams, carrying different but coordinated expertise. They coordinate with each other for improving health of patients.
Optimization of Efforts and Performance
Teamwork enhances group performance by optimizing their efforts in a right fashion. Teamwork is superior to individual brilliance or talent since it is basically the optimization of small goals and objectives into a significant one (Gaffney 1).
A group working on a project will vary in expertise of individuals. Some of them will be better equipped with knowledge and experience for the assigned tasks and the rest will be relatively weak. Teamwork allows sharing of every possible aspect of work that allows weaker links to feel empowered. They could contribute a little at start, but improve their performance with time. They will realize their strong points and how to integrate them with the overall output of the group (Gaffney 2).
Negation of Independent Approach
Teamwork is essential for nullifying the independence of employees in accomplishment of their tasks. They don’t promote or nurture their self-interest. Instead, they are willing to compromise their short-term benefits for achieving long-term team goals. The overall output reflects the betterment of the whole team and the notion of individualism is diluted. Self-compromise is a valuable asset for team for building mutual expectations and combined well-being. They must foster commitment to the aims and objectives of the group.
References
Chin, Roger J. "Teamwork in the 21st Century: Relevance and Challenges for Public Service Organizations." Claremont Graduate University School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation (2014).
Cohen, S. G. "The Effectiveness of Self-Managing Teams: A Quasi-Experiment." Human Relations 47.1 (1994): 13-43.
Gaffney, P. "The Nature and Meaning of Teamwork." Journal of the Philosophy of Sport (2015): 1--22.
Gallie, Duncan, Ying Zhou, Alan Felstead, Francis Green, and others. "Teamwork, productive potential and employee welfare." SKOPE Research Paper (2009).
Manzoor, Sheikh R., Hafiz Ullah, Murad Hussain, and Zulqarnain Muhammad Ahmad. "Effect of teamwork on employee performance." International Journal of Learning and Development (2011): 110--126.
McCallin, Antoinette, and Mike McCallin. "Factors influencing team working and strategies to facilitate successful collborative teamwork." NZ Journal of Physiotherapy (2009): 62.
Salas, Eduardo, Nancy J Cooke, and Michael A Rosen. "On teams, teamwork, and team performance: Discoveries and developments." Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (2008): 540--547.
Tarricone, Pina, and Joseph Luca. "Successful teamwork: A case study." Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (2002).
West, Michael A. "Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research". John Wiley & Sons (2012).
