Team Working Essay
Introduction Education has helped to break the monopoly of organizations as more entrepreneurs establish new businesses everyday. There has also been a development of a mature market which clearly outlines their needs therefore, demanding provision of sophisticated products. The aftermath of this is increase in market competition which demands high performance of organizations to be able to strive in the stiff competition. Therefore, organizations have taken an extra step in ensuring they emanate effective management strategies that ensure development of good employment relationship which advocates for employee engagement. This enables them to stimulating team working to enable maximum utilization and protection of the organization’s resources to increase the work output of employees. In the event the performance of the organization improves and employees gain satisfaction from development of their careers.
Therefore, the coordination and correlation of team members is very crucial as it can positively or negatively affect the performance of an organization (Giddens et al., 2006). In this report I will elaborate the efficiency team working in reference to my project team in my current employment.Formulation of the Project Team I am an employee at ‘D’ ; ‘C’ Foods Company limited which manufactures food products suited for babies from the age of one month to four years. Due to the stiff competition the company faces it is under no obligation but to produce new products in a span of six months that are of higher quality and effectively satisfy the needs of its customers. The company implemented a new organizational structure with new defined roles of employees to enable it increase its performance and thus target a larger scope of customers. The company aimed at opening more branches in South America as it was only situated in North America.
My colleagues and I who worked in the production unit were designated the task of formulating new products for the company. The group has been efficient and its hard work reflected in the improved performance and growth of the company. The group was first formulated on a temporary basis in 2005 but because of its persistence and aggressiveness the Chief Executive Officer and the Board of Directors permanently incorporated it into the structure of the organization in the second term of 2007.
Basing on this factors the team has been in operation for a period of two years as a permanent project team and will definitely be in operation for the next five years to enable the company balance its production with the rapid growth it is experiencing (Campbell ; Samiec, 2005). Furthermore, the team was certified with ISO 2007 because of the high quality of standardization we maintain in the production processes and the good employment relationship that we have established with employees working in the production unit. At the moment the team comprises of four mangers who managed production lines, two team leaders from the production lines, two market researchers and two employees who worked in the quality control department. However because of the increased demand for the company’s products and rapid growth of the company there is a higher possibility of increasing the group members to diversify on skills and reduce the work load which overburdens us. This will be necessary because it will help us to further improve on our efficiency and work output which seems to have stagnated because of the various duties that we perform. Although when the group was formulated the boards of directors had intended it to have fixed membership policies so as to enable them cut down on costs and minimize the time we would use in decision making. This is because a larger group of members would take more time formulating ideas and therefore affect the competence of the group (Giddens et al.
, 2006).Functioning of the Project Group As a team that has been designated a very crucial task we aim at formulating products that will be beneficial to the company at manageable costs. Our main goal is to foster positive and confident attitudes which are achieved through the communication skills that we have employed. Also we as the group members are proud of the company and thus emanate personal motivation because of the positive career growth that is depicted through structural change of the company annually. Furthermore, we have managed to stimulate work dynamics by establish networks with project teams of other companies in the world stock exchange market to learn from their experiences and implement some of their advices in our decision making strategies. Therefore I can attribute the success of the project team to the high collaboration and correlation that we have within us (Giddens et al., 2006).Functions of the Project Group First and foremost the project team is supposed to formulate new products that the company can provide to the market in a span of four months.
This we manage by doing thorough market research to determine the area that other companies have not ventured. For instance for the past term we discovered that babies of this generation desire snacks more than food therefore we manufactured sweets made from protein, vitamin and carbohydrate fibers containing vanilla essence to improve their tastes, which performed very well in the market boosting our reputation as more parents and kids demands the product. This year we have a better surprise that will enable the company to venture into the market of the countries surrounding us. Furthermore, we monitor and control the manufacturing process to ensure the produced products are in accordance to the formulated procedures while still maintaining high hygienic measures as mandated by ISO 2007 (Campbell & Samiec, 2005).
Leadership in the Group The project team aims at formulating new products in each production line therefore relies on the ad hoc dimension of leadership because different expertise is required. Therefore, the selected leader manages the team in the duration of formulating products that are under his area of qualification. The other reason why we opted for this dimension of leadership is to enable each team member to be responsible hence stimulates immediate response in emergency situations. In the event we are able to support each other because we perceive ourselves as having equal ranks thus perpetuate the spirit of team working and indirectly motivate ourselves (Campbell & Samiec, 2005). As a team we believe we are all qualified and competent as depicted by our performance. Therefore, we stimulate the delegative style of leadership where each team member is allowed to make decisions because our task involves analyzing, formulation and determination of which ideas need to be implemented and the strategic mechanisms to use.
In reality this leadership style helps us to trust each other and increase our confidence in the team. However, in cases where marketing skills are required we implement the participative leadership style where we contribute our ideas but leave the final decision to the market expertise. We rely on this leadership skill to help the marketing team members to come up with better decisions that are rational and effective. While managing the production process authoritative leadership styles are implemented as we direct the employees in the production unit on the procedures to use and conditions to observe and adhere to (Campbell & Samiec, 2005).Management Communication in the Group We believe to be one team working with the same aim of achieving one common goal. Therefore during group meetings the delegated leader uses a two way communication system which allows us to effectively dialog and prioritize our activities in accordance to their importance. Moreover, we are able to establish the impact of our efforts within the company and externally by gathering information from all group members.
In the event this helps us to adopt good leadership skills that perpetuate recognition and active listening of employee’s comments and grievances thereby earning their trust (Burns, 2002). The two way communication system has helped our group to respect each other’s decisions and ideas. In the event we have managed to encourage maximum participation of all team members and thus enable members to carry out their assignments with expertise.
However, because of the diversification of team members from different departments we are curbed with conflicts of personal interests as each member demands to prove their efficiency and competence in their line of expertise. In most cases this conflicts have been solved through the use of mediation from other group members to come up with conclusive decisions that are in the best interest of the concerned individuals. Being a quality analyst I ensure hygienic measures and all the stipulated standards in the ISO 2007 are adhered to by the group members and the employees in the production line (Burns, 2002).Conclusion It is evident that our group has been successful because of relying on ‘groupthink’ however; it portrays a disadvantage in that at times it makes us formulate hasty decisions especially when on pressure which ends up costing us because of poor planning. Therefore in the future we should aim at dispelling this norm so as to uplift our cohesiveness and innovation abilities.Word Count: 1500Reference ListBurns, R., (2002).
Making Meetings Happen: A Simple and Effective Guide to Implementing Successful Meetings. Australia: Allen & Unwin.Campbell, S. & Samiec, E.
, (2005). 5-D Leadership: Key Dimensions for Leading in the Real World. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing.Giddens, A., Mitchell, D. & Appelbaum, P.
R., (2006). Essentials of Sociology. NY: W.W.
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