Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Team Working

Successful team working
During my time in secondary school I had to do an assignment for citizenship which was to carry out an event of our own choice in a team of four students. For our event we all decided to do a bake sale during break and lunch times for the whole week. Before starting the event, we had to do a lot of planning and structuring so everyone within the team knew what their team roles were. We had a lot of different characters and personalities within the team and therefore managed to keep on going and complete all the planned tasks. For this assignment, one member of the team had to keep a record of all the activities that went on during the events. Team member A volunteered to keep record of the group diary and she was also the person who managed to motivate everyone and keep them all going. She tried her best to get everyone involved and make them feel as if they belong in a team. Team members B and C made all the cup cakes etc which was the main thing of the whole event because that is what we were trying to sell and make a profit out of. All four team members put money in so the ingredients could be bought. Team member D went out to buy all the ingredients with the help of a friend. He also took up some of his time to carry out some research on how to make the products and how to add more flavour in them. Due to the research that he carried out, team members B and C made a wide variety of traditional cakes which attracted a lot of the students and teachers during their break and they helped us make a profit by buying the cakes. All four team members took the time to set up the stall and sell the cakes. Team member A made us all create posters and flyer's to advertise the event so more people were aware of it. This ended up being a good idea because during lunch and break times, a lot of students came to the stall and they spend a lot of money which was better for us. The whole event was a success due to good team working skills and everyone getting along with one another.

I believe that the relevant theory that we all followed was Belbin's Team roles because we all carried out different roles within the team. Team member A was the Coordinator and the Team Worker as she looked after everyone and made sure that she listened to everyone's point of view and create something out of it so everyone's idea was involved. Team member B was more the Shaper because he challenged and pushed the other team member forward so the cakes could be baked in time. Team member C was between the Implementer and the Finisher because she took her time to think things through so she could get everything accurate and perfect. She also added all the finishing touches to the cakes such as adding sprinkles and icing. Team member D was the Resource/ Investigator as he went out to do all the research on how to make the traditional cakes etc. (Changing minds.org 2010)


Tuckman's theory on group development
Tuckman was one of the team working theorist who came up with a theory which involves five different stages called Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. The first stage which is the forming stage is where the group forms together and get to know each other but not to deeply to the stage where the group members have discovered each others personalities. The next stage is the storming stage and this is when problems could occur whilst getting to know other team members. Some people could even decide to opt out because they have managed to identify that they will not be able to get along with certain team members etc. Demotivation between people could also occur as a lot of confrontation will take place and the reason why some people might want to confront other is because they want to get certain tasks done before the deadline approaches. The third stage is the norming stage and this is when most of the problems has been sorted out and team members will try and work forward rather than doing nothing. During this stage there will be a lot of tension between team members as they will be trying to complete their assignments to a reasonable standard. Performing is the stage where the team members have solved everything out between themselves and are now adding the finishing touches to their work. This stage is important because this is what could help people get a better grade or award as it shows the judges that they were a good team and have understood each other by working well in a team. The final stage is adjourning and this is when all the given tasks has been completed and group members will start to move on with other tasks, maybe with another group. The adjourning stage may be sad times for some people depending on how close the group were with each other. (J.Mullins 2007)

For the "People and Organisation" module we all had to get into teams or groups of three to four people and do an assignment on either "Motivation" or "Organisation Culture." In my group there were three people in total which was group member A, group member B and group member C. We all got to know each other and I thought that my group was very friendly and that we could all get this piece of assignment done without a problem. By forming a group and getting to know each other well, we all passed the first stage of Tuckman's theory which was "Forming." There was no problem with choosing the topic for the assignment, but as we planned to meet up during our free time, group member C found it difficult to attend to any of our meetings which than increased conflict between us all. Before handing in the assignments, our lecturer advised everyone in the class to book an appointment to present what all the groups have done so far in a PowerPoint presentation. Group member A and B got together during enterprise week and worked on the presentation, but there was no sign of group member C so the other two group members had to do the presentation by themselves. We started to get really annoyed with the other team member as he didn't contribute much to the most important part of the assignment. That was the storming stage for our group because we confronted team member C that we didn't appreciate him missing all those meetings, and we also let the teacher know about the problem that we had within our team. We got to the norming stage, the minute we got hold of team member C and we all sat down and talked about what we all had to do for our part of the assignment. During this stage we also managed to develop some positive communication skills as that was the only way we could get something done for this piece. We didn't reach the performing and adjourning stage as we didn't really get together to put all of our work into one piece. It was only team member B who got hold of all of our work and sat down to put everything together. As we ran out of time, we didn't get the chance to double check everything which is why the result of the assignment was not very good. I think that we would have passed all five stages if team member C attended to all of the meetings that we held in the university library and if we all worked together as a proper team, we could have discussed how to put together the whole piece rather than just letting team member B do all of that.

The times top 100 companies to work for

An organisation called "Penna" is a global human resource consultant group who help other businesses to improve their performance through their employees working for the business (Penna 2010). The employees who work for Penna are formed in teams and they all treat each other like family which brings them closer together and enables them to work with each other. The colleagues within the team help each other and make sure that everyone understands what they are getting on with. They try to make their job as fun as possible so they don't get bored of their job. The reason why this organisation believes that creating small teams to help other businesses is because when they go and help another organisation, the colleagues don't feel isolated when they are in a different working environment. The manager wants all the employees to feel that they belong and if they struggle with anything, they can always rely on the other team mates (Times online 2010)

Another organisation called "White Stuff" is also a success due to good team working. This business sells clothing products for men and women. (Whitestuff 2010). This business has 716 employees all over Europe and each store this business has opened, there are small teams who help each other and the manager to make the business better. The store managers have tried to make the working environment as fun as possible so the employees enjoy working there. In this business the colleagues also feel as if their part of a big family in their teams and they all enjoy and socialise outside of work. According to a staff survey, the colleagues enjoy their team members accompany and they all have fun together as well as caring for each other. This has made them feel like they belong with the organisation which has also made them want to work there in the future (Timesonline 2010)

Conclusion
Over all team working could bring success to a business because a lot of people prefer working in groups as they can ask for help from their team members if they struggle with anything. When people work in teams, the team members feel as if they belong in a group rather than being on their own and this could motivate. However the negative side of team working is that some people might be more independent and like working on their own, and if they are put in a team they might be shy or feel de-motivated. If people work in teams, they can share the activities or tasks between them so the work load can be reduced.

Reference

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1 comment:

  1. Mary31 January 2010 at 07:13

    A good blog. I especially liked your analysis of the group you worked with for the cake stall. Well done

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