This paper proposes a various general models for team building, which enable leaders to build coherent teams rapidly and fairly for the term projects of organizations in general. Moreover, the models can also be used to build teams for any type of project, if they are inexperienced on a certain subject. The proposed model takes leaders' preferences and the staff's considerations into account when a team building process is required for any type of course. Executives, managers and organization staff members universally explore ways to improve business results and profitability. A team is a small group of people with similar skills working toward a common goal. A high-performance team has members with a clearly defined and shared purpose, mutual trust and respect, clarity of roles and responsibilities, high levels of communication, dedication to team success and cooperation, ability to differ and acknowledge conflict, and a supportive leader who challenges the team. Teamwork is considered a critical factor in delivering high-quality, although research on the evidence base for the effectiveness of teamwork and communication across disciplines is scarce. The organizational growth, development, motivation, morale, and satisfaction of the employees in the system combined with the best image projection of the organization to its various constituents, account in turn, for continued organizational health, viability, and growth which accounts for the organization's effectiveness. Successful team building, that creates effective, focused work teams’ requires various attentions which are discussed. Effective team building, will help organizations to identify the teams strengths and weaknesses, increase productivity and efficiency, improve the way the team members interact, improve support and trust levels in the workplace reduce stress levels in the work place, and thereby develop healthy inter-group relations.
Organizing work in multicultural teams has gone from rhetoric to reality, leaving organizations with challenging tasks and little strategic guidance. A wealth of multicultural team research reaches the conclusion that management matters, but less is known about team leadership. Drawing on recent leadership research, we focus on leadership models and multicultural team composition. Companies are continuing to reexamine their business and finding a way to provide more value to customers, shareholders and employees. [Banerjee, 1995] However, we believe that how human resources are managed is crucial to the long term value of a company and ultimately to its survival. Our definition of value includes not only profits but also employee growth and satisfaction, additional employment opportunities, protection of the environment, and contribution of community programs [Fisher, 1995]. Managers must take decisions about how to allocate resources properly across the different organization functions, including marketing, production, finance, accounting, information systems, and human resources, and how to ensure that they contribute to the achievement of the company's goals and strategies [Hall, 1992]. The HRM profession and practices have undergone substantial change and redefinition. It does demonstrate that companies need to ensure that their HRM functions are creating value aided for the firm and team building. Certain types of firms which are influenced very little by technological, market or product changes can profoundly adopt the mechanical systems, characterized by centralized decision making at the top a rigid hierarchy of authority will but narrowly defined job responsibilities, especially at lower levels, and exclusive rules and regulations which are explicitly made known to employees through written documents [Bejamin, 2014]. It will be discussed as how the management of human resources can help corporate to meet the effective team building process for competitive challenges.
A team is a small group of people with similar skills working toward a common goal. A high-performance team has members with a clearly defined and shared purpose, mutual trust and respect, clarity of roles and responsibilities, high levels of communication, dedication to team success and cooperation, ability to differ and acknowledge conflict, and a supportive leader who challenges the team. The complexities of human resources require high-performance teams working together well to meet expectations, and team leaders who know how to build those teams. With good teambuilding skills, the leader can unite employees around a common goal and generate greater productivity. Without them, leader limits himself and the staff to the effort each individual can make alone. Team building is an ongoing process that helps a work group evolve into a cohesive unit. The team members not only share expectations for accomplishing group tasks, but trust and support one another and respect one another's individual differences also. Leader's role as a team builder is to lead a team towards cohesiveness and productivity. A team takes on a life of its own and leaders have to regularly nurture and maintain it, just as they do for individual employees. Pick team members who are motivated to demonstrate their skills and make a difference [Liemhelcharat, 2014]. Each individual in the team should have an interest in the overall objective of the team, and be accountable for his or her own performance in relation to the team's performance as a whole. Members are no longer individuals, but rather, they each play an integral role in the team's overall objective, and each must now rely on the others in order to complete the final goal. In order for a team to be successful, each team member should understand what his personal responsibility is and how important it is in relation to the overall team goal. Institute a team leader, and make sure that, that person is highly motivated towards team goals, and that he shares your mission for the business. Ensure too, that the leader has knowledge and skills above and beyond the other team members [Lee, 2011].
The effectiveness of organizations is of great importance. It is no use pouring resources in an organization, which is not effective. Weeds have no place in a garden. So it is only natural that the study of Organizational Effectiveness (OE) has attracted more and more interest over the years. OE concerns not merely the owner of organizations, not merely those who are employed by them, but it is also a vital social issue and a problem for the governments. OE reflects how effectively the organization can discharge its obligation with respect to all its constituencies in its internal and external environment, including employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, government agencies, and the general public. The growth, development, motivation, morale, and satisfaction of the employees in the system combined with the good image projection of the organization to its various constituents, account in turn, for continued organizational health, viability, and growth which, accounts for the organization's effectiveness [Liu, 2014; Markaki, 2012].
People in every workplace talk about building the team, working as a team, and my team, but few understand how to create the experience of team work or how to develop an effective team. Belonging to a team, in the broadest sense, is a result of feeling part of something larger than you. It has a lot to do with your understanding of the mission or objectives of your organization. Team building refers to the various activities undertaken to motivate the team members and increase the overall performance of the team. A team is a group of people working towards a common goal and is therefore a management issue. Team building is an important tool in creating a well-developed and efficient work environment, from simple bonding exercises to bespoke workplace simulations.
In a team-oriented environment, employees contribute to the overall success of the organization. Employees work with fellow members of the organization to produce the results. Even though people have a specific job function and an employee belongs to a specific department, employees are unified with other organization members to accomplish the overall objectives. The bigger picture drives employee's actions; employee's function exists to serve the bigger picture. Employees need to differentiate this overall sense of teamwork from the task of developing an effective intact team that is formed to accomplish a specific goal. Developing an overall sense of team work is different from building an effective, focused work team when leader considers team building approaches. Characteristics of team members are considered to be as shared leadership roles, develops own scope of work, schedules work to be done and commits to taking time allotted to do work, develops tangible work products and members are mutually accountable for work products.
Traditionally, a team goes through five stages of development. Each stage of team development presents its own special challenges to a group of people striving to work together successfully by forming a cohesive team. The team and the organization can take specific actions at each stage of team development to support the team's success in accomplishing the team’s mission. At each stage, the behavior of the leader must be adapted to the changing and developing needs of the group.
A group of people come together to accomplish a shared purpose.
Disagreement about mission, vision, and approaches combined with the fact that team members are getting to know each other that can cause strained relationships and conflicts.
The team has consciously or unconsciously formed working relationships that are enabling progress on the team's objectives.
Relationships, team processes, and the team's effectiveness in working on its objectives are synching to bring about a successfully functioning team.
The team is performing so well that members believe it is the most successful team.
The team has completed its mission or purpose and it is time for team members to pursue other goals or projects.
Not every team moves through these stages in order and various activities such as adding a new team member can send the team back to earlier stages. The length of time necessary for progressing through these stages depends on the experience of the members, the support the team receives and the knowledge and skill of the team members.
When assembling a team, it is very important to consider the overall dynamics of the team. To build a successful team, five dynamics are fundamental which are as follows:
Successful teams are made up of a collection of effective individuals. These are people who are experienced, have problem solving ability, openness to addressing the problem, and action oriented.
For a team to be successful, the members of the team must be able to give and receive feedback.
An effective team depends on how focused and clear the goal of the team is: A relaxed, comfortable and accepting environment and finally, an open and honest communication.
Effective team leadership depends on leadership competencies. A competent leader is: focused on the goal, ensures a collaborative climate, builds confidence of team members, sets priorities, demonstrates sufficient "know-how" and manages performance through feedback.
The climate and culture of the organization must be conductive to the team behavior.
Executives and staff members universally explore ways to improve business results and profitability of the organizations in a short term. Many view team-based, horizontal, organization structures as the best design for involving all employees in creating successful business. No matter what we call through a team-based improvement effort, continuous improvement, total quality, lean manufacturing or self-directed work teams, leaders are striving to improve the results for customers. Few organizations, however, are totally pleased with the results of their team improvement efforts produced. If team improvement efforts are not living up to the expectations, this self-diagnosing checklist may notify the organization. Successful team building, that creates effective, focused work teams, requires attention to each of the following:
Has executive leadership clearly communicated its expectations for the team's performance and expected outcomes? Do team members understand why the team was created? Is the organization demonstrating constancy of purpose in supporting the team with resources of people, time and money? Does the work of the team receive sufficient emphasis as a priority in terms of the time, discussion, attention and interest directed its way by executive leaders?
Do team members understand why they are participating in the team? Do they understand how the strategy of using teams will help the organization to attain its communicated business goals? Can team members define their team's importance to the accomplishment of corporate goals? Does the team understand where its work fits in the total context of the organization's goals, principles, vision and values?
Do team members want to participate in the team? Do team members feel that the team mission is important? Are members committed to accomplish the team mission and expected outcomes? Do team members perceive their service as valuable to the organization and to their own careers? Do team members anticipate recognition for their contributions? Do team members expect their skills to grow and develop on the team?
Does the team feel that it has got the appropriate people participating? (As an example, in a process improvementis each step of the process represented by the team?) Does the team feel that its members have the knowledge, skill and capability to address the issues for which the team was formed? If not, does the team have access to the help it needs? Does the team feel that it has the resources, strategies and support needed to accomplish its mission?
Has the team taken its assigned area of responsibility and designed its own mission, vision and strategies to accomplish the mission? Has the team defined and communicated its goals; its anticipated outcomes and contributions; its timelines; and how it will measure both the outcomes of its work and the process the team followed to accomplish their task? Does the leadership team or other coordinating group support what the team has designed?
Does the team has enough freedom and empowerment to feel the ownership necessary to accomplish its charter? At the same time, do team members clearly understand their boundaries? How far may members go in pursuit of solutions? Are limitations (i.e. monetary and time resources) defined at the beginning of the project before the team experience barriers and rework? Is the team's reporting relationship and accountability understood by all members of the organization? Has the organization defined the team's authority? Is there a defined review process so that both the team and the organization are consistently aligned in direction and purpose?
Does the team understand the group process? Do members understand the stages of group development? Are team members working together effectively and interpersonally? Do all team members understand the roles and responsibilities? Can the team approach problem solving, process improvement, goal setting and measurement jointly? Do team members cooperate to accomplish the team charter? Has the team established group norms or rules of conduct in areas such as conflict resolution, consensus decision making and meeting management?
Are team members clear about the priority of their tasks? Is there an established method for the teams to give feedback and receive honest performance feedback? Does the organization provide important business information regularly? Do the teams understand the complete context for their existence? Do team members communicate clearly and honestly with each other? Do team members bring diverse opinions to the table? Are necessary conflicts raised and addressed?
Is the organization really interested in change? Does it value creative thinking, unique solutions, and new ideas? Does it reward people who take reasonable risks to make improvements? Or does it reward the people who fit in and maintain the status quo? Does it provide the training, education, access to books and films, and field trips necessary to stimulate new thinking?
Do team members feel responsible and accountable for team achievements? Are rewards and recognition supplied when teams are successful? Do team members spend their time pointing fingers rather than resolving problems? Is the organization designing reward systems that recognize both team and individual performance? Is the organization planning to share gains and increased profitability with team and individual contributors? Can contributors see their impact on increased organization success?
Are teams coordinated by a central leadership team that assists the groups to obtain what they need for success? Have priorities and resource allocation been planned across departments? Are cross-functional and multidepartment teams common and working together effectively? Is the organization developing a customerfocused process-focused orientation and moving away from traditional departmental thinking?
Does the organization recognize that the team-based, collaborative, empowering, enabling organizational culture of the future is different than the traditional, hierarchical organization it may currently be? Is the organization planning to or in the process of changing how it rewards, recognizes, appraises, hires, develops, plans with, motivates and manages the people it employs?
Does the organization plan to use failures for learning and support reasonable risk?
The first rule of team building is an obvious one: to lead a team effectively. Leader must first establish relationship with each team member. Remember that the most effective team leaders build their relationships of trust and loyalty, rather than fear or the power of their positions.
In the paper, the authors have discussed various methods and steps of team building for effective functioning of an organization. The growth, development, motivation, morale, and satisfaction of the employees in the system combined with the good image projection of the organization to its various constituents, account in turn, for continued organizational health, viability, and growth which accounts for the organization's effectiveness. A competent leader must focus on the goals, ensure a collaborative climate, build confidence of team members, set priorities, demonstrate sufficient knowledge and manage performance through feedback. Those are the few norms that leader and the team can establish to ensure efficiency and success ultimately. The team should perform so well that members must believe it is the most successful team. That leader should know that the standards for success are going to be; that leaders have established clear time frames; and that team members understand their responsibilities. The team has taken its assigned area of responsibility and designed its own mission, vision and strategies to accomplish the final mission of the organization. When it comes to successful team building, it is important that all members know what is expected of the team as a whole and how the overall purpose of the team reflects a plan directly related to the company's mission. When members understand the significance of their performance, and when they see that each member is accountable for their personal responsibility, they will be motivated to executing plays that meet that ultimate goal. Along with building team camaraderie, these models and methods will develop employees' skills including strategic planning, decision making, leadership, and mental ability.