Teams have a certain power that is good for the performance of any company or organization. Several significant features characterize the nature of effective teamwork. Firstly, the individuals in any team need to come up with integrated personal action. The particular roles of various people must conform to the common goal of achieving collective success. The causes of failure in organizational teams may not be necessarily due to failures of individual workers but rather may occur because of the inability to synchronize and establish coordinated individual contributions.
Secondly, teams are expected to operate in complex, diverse environments. Organizational teams in the modern society include many stakeholders who at times experience agenda clashes, have a higher change tempo and information load. There is a rapid change in the modern organizational environment. This calls for adaptive condition of member actions. Effective performance in teams is an important feature for organizations. There are certain individuals that have the responsibility of making major decisions in the organization. Effectiveness in performance of teams depends on how efficient and successful the leader of an organization is in the provision of directions that can enhance progress. It is evident from the article that processes of leadership need to be effective in order to assure the organization of success. Team processes serve to moderate the appropriate behaviors that are essential and efficient in specific circumstances.
The article discusses the effects of leadership in the performance of teams. The article reveals that the leadership mechanisms have influences on the affective, motivational, coordination and cognitive sets in team performance. The extent to which such factors account in influencing the success of an organization is boosted by the environmental, team and organizational characteristics. The leaders influence all the aforementioned team sets in various ways that have an overall effect on the organizational success.
The evaluations of the dynamics evident in leader-team perspective are based on certain core assumptions in the article. The structure of management in the organization is assumed to be hierarchical with a leadership whose roles are well defined. This is necessary for accountability purposes. The article also focuses on the performance of actions and the people involved especially the production team. There are several team forms in any organization that may dictate the leadership activities that prevail. The assumption here is that the major leadership functions cut across all the various forms of team sets in the organization under discussion.
The writer of the article shows that leaders have a responsibility of preventing and solving problems of the social nature. Such problems may act as barriers to group attainment of the organizational objectives. A good organizational leader must always be in a position to generate quickly and make plans for finding and facilitating the implementation of solutions. It is not helpful for leaders to retain powers within themselves while serving for the overall good of the company. There is a significant improvement in the achievement of the organizational objectives when the top management can coordinate well with others and enhance team work. The article reveals that when the company in question, had all the powers vested in the leadership, it performed dismally. When the other workers of an organization feel that they are suppressed, they tend to perform tasks with negative attitudes that lower their efficiency. Less task performance efficiency decreases the overall productivity of the organization as well as the profitability. Team work, on the other hand, enhances the attainment of goals of the organization. This is true because in delegation of duties and coordination of effort, a lot is done per unit time.
In teams of top management, involving higher environmental complexity more than for junior leaders, uncertainty minimization is required. Weakened authority interactions can be resolved easily through the contribution of lower employees in significant patterns identification in the organization. This illustrates the fact that effective teams can also positively contribute to organizational leadership effectiveness.
Team motivation is crucial in organizational success. Team leaders have a core responsibility to increase team efficacy. When members of the team have confidence on the ability of their team to accomplish certain tasks, they will no doubt feel motivated. The team will, therefore, pursue the task in question. Successful leaders are able to establish models that dictate cordial patterns of interaction the team. The article attributes the success of the company under the study to the ability of leadership that led to a promotion of exchange of ideas, constructive criticism and good mutual support among the team members. Leaders who encourage their members to do well through hard work are unrewarding to the organization. There are personal level identification of team members purposely for collective goals and this is promoted by their commitment towards attainment and completion of such goals.
The article illustrates vital components of team effectiveness. The leadership theories and dynamics of teams minimize contributions of the illustrated components on each other. The limitation thereof, makes the understanding of collective performance and decision making incomplete. As several companies and organizations shift from ancient hierarchical construction to a team centered structure, the influence of teams poses a crucial influence on organizational effectiveness. The influences thereof require consideration and careful modeling to add value to organizational and strategic leadership theories.
References
Alfini, J. J. (2001). Mediation theory and practice. New York: LEXIS Pub.
McCorkle, S., & Reese, M. (2005). Mediation theory and practice. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
