Work group and team respect to Management - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Work groupand team respect to Management. Answer: Introduction The last few decades have noticed a remarkable change in the organizational work groups and teams, all across the world. Even though there are some strategic, technological and economic imperatives driving the whole transformation, one of the most compelling factors has been the ongoing shift of organized works around the individual jobs to the team based working structures. According to Adams (2014), the ever increasing global consolidation, innovation and competition create a pressure upon the emergence of the teams as a building block of the organizations. Such pressures assist in driving a need of diverse skills, experiences and expertise. They help in necessitating more adaptive, flexible and rapid responses. Work groups and teams enable such characteristics. Moreover, many organizations operate globally through mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, expansion and more, which helps in increasing the importance of mixed culture teams as well as cross cultural work groups. In addition to this, advanced communication and computer technologies have been successfully providing new and innovative tools for linking the individuals better with their teams as well as enabled the teams to be virtual in nature, that is, distributed in space and time. The purpose of this report is to discuss about the relationship between work groups and teams with conflicts and negotiation. The company selected is Microsoft, in order to understand the workgroups and conflict management. The report highlights the benefits and drawbacks of working groups or teams in association with conflicts and negotiation. Different topics like team composition, team effectiveness and processes, team motivation and leadership, team socialization, development and formation and lastly team conflicts and negotiation. Moreover, the work teams or groups generally comprise two or more individuals. They share common goals and objectives and perform organizationally relevant assignments. In addition to this, the work groups or teams are encouraged to interact socially and responsibly. Ineffective communication can lead to team conflicts, which mar the progress of any organization. Literature review Background of the Company Microsoft Corporation is one of the leading American multinational technology companies, which is best known for software products. Headquartered at Redmond, Washington, the company manufactures, develops, supports, sells and licenses computer electronics, computer software, personal computers and other services. As of 2016, the company is recognized as one of the most valuable companies and the largest software maker of the world (Microsoft.com 2018). Management In an organization, managing and leading people are regarded as an important factor. Managing is associated with leading and a significant part of managing the employees includes guiding them to give their best performances. As per Alexanders (2013) opinion, leading and managing people are often identified with team work, as effectively leading a team can yield better outcomes. Managing an effective work team or group is both immensely simple as well as difficult at the same time. This is the fundamental reason why majority of the team members face difficulties in getting the task execution, relationships and interaction right. On a whole, the success of a team is completely dependent on these particular factors (Li and Lams 2013). However, like every coin has two sides, working in a team can be both advantageous and disadvantageous as well. In many organizations, work groups perform so well and in some, they remain dysfunctional. According to Belbin (2012), each and every team members carry a baggage with them, for good and for ill. Given the complicacy of forming a team, developing an interaction procedure can help in having an effective as well as efficient functioning team. Block (2016) opined that work teams can succeed to a huge extent if they are provided with proper support and appropriate nurture. In addition to this, a number of diverse individuals work with different life and work experiences along with different success degrees for covering a new aim or mission. Such an approach can prove to be beneficial for any organization. Microsoft Corporation on work groups and teams Microsoft Corporation is the worlds largest software maker and has been successfully leading the segment. According to leaked information, it is found that the employees are quite happy, working in groups or teams, which in turn benefit the workplace. It has contributed a lot to the organizations overall development. Working a team is considered to be immensely crucial for the effectiveness of the Microsofts business. The company current chief executive officer, Satya Nadella mentioned that it is highly important that each and every team members are working in groups by giving their best under any situation. An effective work team comprises individuals who try to cooperate with other team members, by using their abilities and skills and also giving a constructive feedback, barring the team conflicts. According to Coghlan and Brannick (2014), work teams or groups must have a common goal or mission, which is agreed upon by all the team members. The clarity of the team is reinforced at certain times, when the organizations have crystal clear prospects and expectations from a specific teams work, accountability, outcomes and goals. Cummings and Worley (2014) mentioned that a work group or team can create a specific environment of working, where the members of the teams will be able to cope up with reasonable risks in advocating positions by taking necessary actions as well as communicating with other team members. Most importantly, team members must be able to trust each and everyone in the group. However, Daft (2012) stated that there are several disadvantages as well, while working in a team. Ineffective communication among the members of a team can lead to the downfall of any company or organization. In such cases, the leader of the organization needs to take full care of the employees, so that they can share their issues and opinions, without any hesitations. Microsoft Corporation consider its team members to be a unique group of individuals who work together and contribute a lot to the organizational success, with their exceptional opinions, knowledge, points of view and experiences. The CEO of the company believes that the work teams do not behave, but the individuals do. However, they do so because they create a team level phenomenon (Katzenbach and Smith 2015). The individuals are often nested within the teams and the groups are linked to a bigger multi level system. This hierarchical coupling and nesting is a major characteristic of the organizational systems, which necessitates the usage of multiple levels, that is, individuals, teams, higher level context and others. This is done in order to gain an understanding and investigating the overall team phenomena (DuBrin 2015). As per Microsofts CEO, the overall purpose of the team formation is considered as an important factor for taking full advantages of the differences in them. In fact, the more a work group is able to bring out different factors, the better it can be presented as well as supported with the facts and evidences. Moreover, Nancarrow et al. (2013) mentioned in one of his researches that innovation, different points of view and creativity are always expected and encouraged by the team and organizational leaders. At times, team members have a tendency to raise issues and comment that we have already done it in this way, or what a stupid concept; this will not work, anyhow. It is immensely crucial that the team members change such mindsets. Leaders of the organization should not support or encourage such statements. In Kozlowski and Bells (2013) opinion, for improving or motivating team spirit, the organizational leaders should create something innovative and exciting as well. However, a work team or group must be able to examine themselves constantly and continuously improve their processes, interactions and practices with other members of a team. Nytimes.com (2017) suggests that such practices will help in introducing diversity among the procedures and policies of an organization. In addition to this, work teams must hold regular meetings for assessing the team members competencies as well as in-competencies. Furthermore, the leaders of the organization must support and encourage the team members to work better and give their best. It is evident that if the team members receive adequate commitment and support from the leaders, they will have an interest to work for the betterment of the organization. According to Thetimes.co.uk (2017), for accomplishing and communicating the progress and success of the team, organizational leaders should provide the team members with constant support and motivation. Work teams and groups make high quality decisions together, and with adequate support and motivation from the leaders, they can yield better outcomes for the company. If a work group gets all the organizational factors correct, they can lead the organization to its betterment. In Turners (2014) opinion, if the team members get all the success ingredients correct and incorporate those in a right manner, the organization will succeed to a huge extent. In addition to this, organizational leaders can conduct several events and corporate gatherings for gaining an understanding of the team members issues. As per Alexanders (2013) opinion, work teams and groups are embedded in the context of an organization and the teams enact the context for their respective team members. The broad area of the organizational context is characterized by the structure, leadership, technology, climate and culture, which drive the teams and in turn, influences their response. The teams also present a specific proximal context for those individuals who construct them. The work teams and groups tend to operate in an interactive context, which are created by virtue of their responses, interactions and attributes. Team level shared perceptions; normative expectations as well as compatible knowledge are commonly generated by the individual interactions. The dynamic team processes create a contextual structure which constrains subsequent team procedures or processes. Galegher, Kraut and Egido (2014) opined that, a team context is generally considered as a joint product of both the top down as well as bottom up influences. Currently, with the ever increasing globalization, the organizations and companies are changing their way of working. Such working styles and natures have helped in yielding new team types on the basis of culture. Those aspects are; cross cultural, transnational, mixed culture, virtual teams and others. For instance; the overall challenge of the cross cultural and mixed cultural teams is to break all the barriers related to different cultural assumptions, fundamental values, stereotypical thoughts and others. This will help in successfully coordinating as well as jointly performing within the group, by maintaining peace and harmony. For instance, Adams (2014) presents a particular model of intercultural relationships, in which he specifies how the individuals and work groups are affected by higher level relationships, while interacting. Essentially, the interactions within the individuals or work groups are highly affected by their cultural factors and identities and relative standing, which are immensely crucial for team interaction. In addition to this, Daim et al (2012) suggests that the variation in the work groups help in dealing with higher level linkage and affects the overall quality of group interaction as well as potential group effectiveness. Identifying these factors can help in designing a specific working environment as well as operational segments, which will further improve the team effectiveness for various team or work groups. Conflicts and Negotiation In Blocks (2016) opinion, it is true that work teams or groups offers the employees with various advantages, however, there are few pitfalls as well, which mars the organizational growth or progress. Organizations need to be aware of such pitfalls, at the time of implementing a working spirit among the work groups or teams. Firstly, the most important thing is unequal participation of the work teams. Members of the team have a tendency to let others work, while they just sit and rest. This causes workplace conflicts which in turn, mars the progress of the team work. Rue, Byars and Ibrahim (2012) recommended that in such cases, it is the duty of the business owners to recognize the efforts of the team members who were responsible for the tasks completion. At times, the business owners fail to understand the team members efforts and admire the whole team for their success. Such issues can give rise to conflicts among the members. Taking full care of these factors can prove to be beneficial for any company; otherwise it will hamper the overall team morale. Another important factor, as mentioned by Hoch and Kozlowski (2014) is that some of the workers have a tendency of working alone. They cannot function well as a part of the work team. These individual workers can excel if they work alone, but when it comes to team work, they are regarded as loners. This results in workplace conflicts, which are not easy to handle. In addition to this, these individual workers may face certain issues while fitting into the environment and culture of the organization, which results into utmost dissatisfaction. If such issues are not handled carefully and appropriately by the organizational leaders, it may lead to conflicts among the work groups. According to De Wit, Greer and Jehn (2012), the work teams and groups can also limit the creativity of team members and innovative thought processes. Working in a team can restrict the team members thinking procedure and at times, the members are so engrossed in team works that they forget to impose their creative opinions and ideas. They try to fit in the concept of work groups, but at times, when they cannot fit, it gives rise to conflicts. It also results into the lack of innovative thought processes. Moreover, these factors prevents the organization to move forward and results into stagnation. In such cases, work teams or groups can take a bit longer time to yield proper results or outcomes. Hoch and Kozlowski (2014) mentioned that generating a work group may require certain processes that include the selection of team members, organization and socialization, in a way which will help in completing the tasks in hand. Team formation can also result into some added expenses as they tie up enormous resources like money, equipments and manpower. In addition to this, Bendersky and Hays (2012) mentioned that when a work team or group is selected for working on a common target or mission, some internal conflicts may occur. This usually happens when different members of the team raise various opinions and views. Contrasting personal styles as well as thought processes may clash and the members of the team may have issues in accepting those. Peer pressure, ego and other factors comes into play, which gives rise to team conflicts. Moreover, such conflicts will hamper team morale and in turn, mar the progress of work groups or teams. De Church, Mesmer Magnus and Doty (2013) mentioned that in team work, there remains a chance of indulging into a blame game at times, when things go in a wrong direction. It usually happens when crisis takes over team performance and the leaders face difficulties in identifying the team members in-competencies. Several times, the team members often resort to the blame games in order to save themselves from troubles. Such issues can even cause among the best of friends. It affects the organizational progress and in turn, gives rise to workplace conflicts among the members. Individual workers often feel reluctant to work in groups for avoiding conflicts. According to Bendersky and Hays (2012), organizational leaders must be aware of such issues and take necessary actions in order to negotiate with the members. For instance; taking Microsoft Corporations case into consideration, it is found that the company is facing a decline in their sales, which hampered the productivity of the company. The CEO of the company found out that the sole reason for this is lack of communication among the employees, which gave rise to workplace conflicts. He understood that communication plays a major role in resolving workplace conflicts. However, it is considered as both the cause as well as remedy of work groups conflicts. He felt that it is immensely crucial for the team members to gain an understanding of how to communicate efficiently and effectively among the work groups. He started conducting training sessions for imparting knowledge on communication as well as conflict resolution skills, in order to create peace at the workplace. He believed in Blocks (2016) opinion of recognizing and addressing the factors can help in reducing the conflicts and in turn, increase the productivity of the workplace. He applied that theory and saw great change at the workplace. According to De Wit, Greer and Jehn (2012), the common sources of workplace conflicts are unclear definition of responsibilities and duties, limited resources and conflicts of interest. In some occasions, team members fail to divide or segregate their duties or responsibilities within the team. This leads to workplace conflicts and if the organizational management fails to take necessary actions, this will mar the teams productivity. Moreover, limited resources like time, money, space, materials, equipments and supplies are considered to be very crucial and immensely necessary for the overall development of the organization. Competition for these resources may lead to interdepartmental and interpersonal conflicts. In addition to this, individual members may consider their personal goals to be more important and forget about the common organizational goals, which is very dangerous for organizational development. Such factors can lead to severe consequences and in turn, hamper the future of the organization. Apart than all these, Bradley et al. (2012) suggested that working in a group or team is immensely important for the success of the organization. Team members must learn to cooperate with other members and communicate effectively. It is immensely crucial for each and every work groups to take part equally and the tasks must be distributed evenly. However, adoption of such procedures will enable a team spirit among the members. In addition to this, Carton and Cummings (2012) mentioned that organizational leaders should be more aware of such issues. If they find out that some members are man-handling the problems, necessary actions must be taken against them. Therefore, it is the duty of the leaders to resolve the issues of the team members, along with their conflicts, in order to build a successful organizational culture and team morale. Conclusion To conclude, while forming a team, the leaders of the organization must be able to gain an understanding of the team members competencies and in-competencies. Moreover, the behaviors and attitudes of each and every member need to be taken into consideration. It is to be kept in mind that ineffective communication among the work groups can lead to severe consequences later, which in turn, will mar the progress of the organization. In addition this, the members of the team must be provided with proper trainings and education on team work. This will help in getting better results. Furthermore, it is evident from the overall report that the team leaders must not let anything hold their respective teams back. They must lead their teams to success. Different work teams and groups have some specific expectations and requirements, which needs to be addressed and acknowledged. At times, it may even occur that a team member may outshine the rest. These factors may create a communication gap among the team members and often cause negative consequences. In addition to this, performing in a dysfunctional group can become a source of enormous stress. None of the team members will succeed if the overall work team is inefficient and ineffective. 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