The Importance of Teamwork - Essay Example

May 31, 2021

Introduction

In various work settings, people normally observe personnel working as part of a team. One could even surmise that an entire organization is actually made up of different teams working on a variety of functions, roles, and responsibilities. In one’s professional perspective, I work as senior planning engineer whose position is in the middle level in my department. As such, I manage junior engineers assigned in the function of planning and report to the planning manager. In my role and capacity as the senior planning engineer, I recognize the importance of teamwork to ensure that identified objectives, targets, and goals are achieved in the most effective manner. In this regard, the current discourse hereby aims to present essential information about teams and group development which further helps in building one’s awareness of a group through the reflection sheets. Subsequently, the insights gathered would be utilized to decide what action to take; as well as to reflect on the impact and what one has learned about one’s interaction with others.

Theories Applied

• Tuckman’s Five Stage Model

From one’s perspective as the senior planning engineer, I recognized that my position and role, as well as responsibilities in my department required the application of various theories on group dynamics. One of the most applied theories is Tuckman’s stages of team development, namely: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning (Stein, n.d.). My professional experiences confirm going through these various stages, specifically noting the following:

• Forming: The initial stage of team development during which each individual has not yet collaborated with each other. Everyone is trying to find their place in the team and determine who will be in charge and what are the team’s goals? Team members were observed to rarely interact between each other. I went through the forming stage as I worked for more than 4 years along with my boss. However, it took more time for our junior engineers as it was their first time to join our team.
• Storming: In this stage, the team started to share their knowledge, skills, know-how and how the task can be handled in the efficient manner. As the team member’s natural working styles are different from each member due to diversity in cultural orientation (one was a Chinese lady and other was a Chinese man) some conflicts emerged. We tried to overcome these indifferences partially through open discussion using the English language. Moreover, we begun to explore if there are somethings that may hinder us to work as a team.
• Norming: The team gradually move into this stage when members start to resolve differences, respect the leader authority and appreciate each other’s efforts. In addition, each team member was able to ask another for help and build strong commitment. In this stage, I tried to share my experiences and know-how with other team members. On the other hand, the Chinese man struggled to complete the task required as per our road map and I think this raised awareness on his capabilities before tasks were delegated. However, the Chinese lady coped well with its deadline dates and share her obstacles and what she needed to complete the task clearly. Thus, I believed we are still here in these accommodation stage for the time being until we enhance our performance as a team and find gaps which need to be closed prior to moving into the performing or adjourning stage.
• Lewin’s Three (3) Stage Process

Concurrently, I also recognize that as a senior planning engineer, I was expected to know how to management change. I confirm that there are several plans that need to be revised, depending on some factors that are beyond the team’s control. As such, according to Lewin’s three-step change model, I need to apply the unfreeze, change, and freeze steps while managing any change process (Morrison, 2014). For instance, in the creation of a project schedule with explicitly defined time frames, there could be external factors in the environment that affect the schedule and necessitate revisions of time frames. As such, members who were already acquainted with the original schedule should be informed of the reasons for the changes (unfreezing stage) and encourage them to participate by soliciting each member’s inputs regarding the most possible dates that the project activities should push through. Subsequently, members follow the new schedule (change stage) and recognize the viability of following the revisions that would be more beneficial to the achievement of the project’s goals (freezing stage).

• Belbin’s Theory Team Roles

The Belbin team role model illustrate that the people’s roles in a particular team have different strengths and weaknesses which need to be developed and managed. So it helps to improve how you can contribute to the team to create more balanced teams. If the teams have similarly delegated team roles, teams can become unbalanced. Whereas, all have the same team roles (strengths) or they have all the same team roles (weaknesses) that push them to compete rather than cooperate (Belbin, 1981). Belbin identified nine different team roles which can be reflected on our team to analyze the area of strengths and weaknesses (Fig:1).

Figure 1: Belbin’s Team Roles Analysis

Based on the analysis, I found that in terms of relationship, I prefer to work with a manager who is creative or who support me to influence others. I noticed that when I manage others and they do not respond well, I become nervous. However, I tried to overcome this through allowing others a sense of autonomy for their work to be done. From the action orientation roles perspectives, I strive to meet deadlines and goals. I give attention to details that lead to be perfectionism. From people oriented roles perspective, I attempt to guide others to make sure that they are working together effectively within the team. From the thought orientation roles perspectives, I strive to come up with new ideas to do things easier and faster. In addition, I try to undertake critical analysis of different options before coming up with the most viable decision.

In terms of the team role that make the most of the members contribute in the work place, I found that the power of team come from each of the member’s strengths which is quite balanced and distributed among members. From the strengths’ point of view, my boss is good at organizing in the team and tried to put ideas into achievable and executable tasks; especially when putting road map for the monthly requirements purpose. The other senior planning engineer is highly expert in the presentation tools and IT specialized knowledge that foster the team capabilities. For the Chinese man, he is highly task oriented who can facilitate the minor tasks that are considered as capstone for major tasks. The Chinese lady contributes as conciliator and improves intra-group communication; besides, she is also considered as a facilitator with other Chinese engineers among departments.

There are many challenges that affect our performance as a team. The members could not be able to change rapidly with the work environment. In addition, the team may lack toughness when facing conflicts that emerged from the cultural diversity with other Chinese engineers. The team lost direction when there are new tasks that were encountered suddenly without any triggers. The team’s members have a difficulty thinking about the predicted future from the strategic point of view and depend totally into technical aspects.

Personal Insight on Team Viability

The satisfaction level to work as a team is different from one member to other. One junior planner thought that it is better to increase group meeting and open discussions with advanced agenda to share our experiences and knowledge before starting new tasks. As noted, the junior engineer is committed to follow the instructions and procedures and to see the value of working as a team. However, other junior planners are not fully engaged with the team. Some are very task oriented with little contribution in the integration of tasks.

I have potential to serve as a motivating force within my team. The challenging situation is how to effect and influence others and how they react when trying to influence them. As I am in the position, where I have to report to my manager and have to influence and manage my colleagues in our hierarchy structure, I attempt to depend on influencing others by my knowledge and skills in the form of expert power; especially in terms of forecasting the uncertain and preparing to look ahead of schedule for the next steps to reduce the conflict and rework activities. On the other side, I found that the reward power of my boss is very interesting and motivating me toward do the best.

Whereas people have different viewpoints and under any circumstances may escalate issues about conflicts. The peak point of conflicts appears in the project when we decide to put the coding system and zoning structure for the project schedule. The conflict raised at this point as each of us have different experiences and background. Especially, in case of there are members who worked as a construction engineer prior to be

Personal Awareness on Team Effectiveness

An effective team can support company to achieve incredible results. Through reviewing the reflection sheets which I fulfill with my team members and colleague regarding to the team effectiveness, I found that the team has shortfall of needed skills and knowledge to carry the sophisticated works, the leadership roles are confused that cause lack of stability, teams lacks direction, guidance or coordination for some areas that relate to the clients’ contractual requirements. From the objectives perspective, the team commitment to the tasks is high and the team is purposeful and focused. From the roles and task clarity, junior planners argue regarding the distribution of work which was deemed to be unfair as they have repeated tasks that did not add value to them and believe that they have few contributions to the essential tasks required. From the interaction and open emotion perspective the team work processes are efficient and have excellent tools for planning. In addition, the team agreed on an overall approach of doing the job required and the communication is open and in an honest manner. From the feedback and learning perspective, the team has no clear methodology to measure results, the team is not growing in capability and knowledge which tends to exhibit repeated tasks and mistakes as a team.

Situational Awareness

I had been working as a senior planning engineer for a considerable length of time. Therefore, in one’s capacity as a middle manager, I have learned to work with various people from all walks of life. Moreover, our organization has supported cultural diversity in its philosophies and core values. Likewise, although there are clear roles and positions that evidently exude power, according to French & Raven’s (1959) bases of social power, I strongly believe that power in the organization is imbibed and delegated within the bounds of appropriate authority. For instance, as a senior planning engineer, I was vested with legitimate power, as well as expert power (French & Raven, 1959). As emphasized, “cultural values constitute one common basis for the legitimate power of one individual over another” (French & Raven, 1959, p. 265). In the Arab culture, for instance, team mates who share similar cultural orientation as I am significantly acknowledge the authority that the senior planning engineer has. As such, junior engineers treat me with ample respect and acknowledgement of authority. For Westerners, my position could be perceived as a matter of role and I would be treated as an equal with informality in name-calling being accorded.

Action

The areas that one needs to work on to enhance the viability and effectiveness of the team I currently work with are as follows: (1) managerial competencies, specifically designing strategies that motivate junior engineers to maximize their potentials and effectively perform tasks in the most cost-efficient manner; (2) skills of introspection where I need to discern the amount, level, and extent of authority to govern junior engineers given that there is another senior planning engineer within the department, (3) problem solving skills, especially in encountering events that are considered unfortuitous, and (4) assuming other managerial functions, other than expertise in planning; such as organizing, leading or directing, and controlling.

Conclusion

In retrospect, after being made aware of the various theories that were essential to be applied to the current team I am working with, including Lewin’s three-step change model, Tuckman’s stages of team development, and French & Raven bases of power, I strongly believe that despite acknowledging strengths through identified skills as a team member, there are still are areas that need to be improved. From the interactions with various members of the team, I recognize that due to the diversity in values, beliefs, and preferences of members of a team, knowledge of the essential theories would help in avoiding or resolving conflicts, as well as in managing changes, as needed.

Concurrently, the experience of evaluating one’s insights, personal awareness and situational awareness enabled the identification of strengths as well as areas for improvement. At this point, I recognized that learning is indeed a continuing process. We learn, not only from theoretical frameworks, but also from practical applications of these theories and concepts. Likewise, through shared experiences, as well as from the values, beliefs, and norms of different team members, especially those from other socio-cultural orientations, we are accorded with immense opportunities for enhanced and advanced learning usually observed from best practices.