Institutions and organizations are progressively becoming unstable and dynamic. Teamwork is an essential determinant of achievement of desired goals and targets. Teamwork is especially beneficial when it comes to problem solving, healthy competition, and developing relationships just to mention a few (Parker and Glenn, 6). The team consists of two or more individuals performing independent tasks, having specific roles and adaptable to share a common goal. In order for a team to work effectively, they have to share specific knowledge and skills relevant to their job positions (Parker and Glenn, 7).
With a classic experience of teamwork at my previous workplace, I will discuss on the relationship between context, behavior, outcome, and how team performance may differ across different work settings. I worked with a sales and marketing agency by the name Royal marketers where both the management and employees worked together towards the realization of excellent results in sales and marketing. At Royal marketers, we believed in teamwork as a primary virtue for achievement of work efficiency, accountability, competition and growth of the agency in the long run. The departmental manager held frequent meeting with all employees in his department to discuss the various ways on how to improve on teamwork for improved organizational performance. He believed that without teamwork, individual efforts are futile and that the strength of a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. He came up with the acronym “ Together Everyone Achieves More.” The weakness and flaws of one member of an organization or a typical workplace setting are supported by stronger members who will not compromise on the performance of the organization. With teamwork, work gets done in time and helping friendships and relationships are formed.
Teamwork behaviour is yet another important aspect of organizational performance. Good teamwork behaviours help improve relations between workmates, create dynamic, collaborative efforts and increase productivity (Cartwright, 23). At the same previous workplace, teamwork behaviour was manifested in various ways as explained below: -
- Collaboration-interdepartmental collaboration in the sales and marketing department saw the realization of the continued overall improvement in the sales margin over the years.
- Constructive criticism-giving comments and opinions without being judgmental to others is sometimes not easy. With constructive criticism, it proved easier to correct fellow workmates without hurting their ego.
- Integrity-with high integrity, one’s actions are not doubted. It is of vital importance that professionalism and high personal standards be part of teamwork behaviour so that mutual trust is developed to avoid negative behaviours such as gossiping at the workplace.
- Empathy- at Royal marketers, empathy is being upheld as a teamwork behaviour up to date. If a part of a project of a fellow workmate was not doing well, the departmental manager used to understand the situation and by encouragement, the connection created respect and effective relationship amongst all colleagues.
Teamwork outcomes are simply the positive effects of organizational teamwork that includes the following:
- Ability to focus different mind on the same problem
- Increased efficiency
- Mutual support
- High-quality performance and outcomes
- Development of helping relationships and friendship
- Motivation and support
- Accountability
- Creative solutions
- Growth and competition
These are the major teamwork outcomes that are as a result of collaboration in the workplace.
Team performance may differ across settings. This is because of the following reasons as stated below: -
- Diverse experience-workers with diverse cultural backgrounds bring different beliefs and experiences with them, which might not be the same as those of college workmates. This compromises on team performance because of the dissonance brought about by different belies and attitudes.
- Communication issues-communication diversity in a negative way dampens the productivity of team performance because of misunderstandings and misinterpretations of thoughts and ideas among team members.
- Integration issues-formation of social groups and social affiliations and integration at the workplace can affect team productivity and performance in a negative way. This is because of informal divisions of staff members. This hinders effective sharing of skills, knowledge, and experiences.
In conclusion, the study of psychology of the workplace deepens the understanding of how teamwork directly or indirectly affects the performance and how teamwork negatively or positively affects on productivity of an organization. This understanding is of vital importance in the management and formation of teams and groups at both the departmental and organizational level in the workplace.
