Saturday, March 14, 2020
Educational Article A Better Way to Understand Teams and Roles
Educational Article A Better Way to Understand Teams and Roles Read about what a team is, what Belbin team roles are and how to make the work in a team effective. Team interaction and management is a core discipline in HRM studies and is a critical area of competence for any manager. The success or failure of the entire organization is dependent on how effectively the people within ità can work together. Of course, any management task involving people can be a little confusing, even messy; people do not neatly fit ââ¬Å"modelsâ⬠and prescribed solutions, and the challenges only grow as people are brought together into purposeful groups. In this article, some of the well-known important concepts of teams and the roles people play in them are presented to show how popular academic ideas are reflected in real life, and what approaches can be taken when people in teams ââ¬â as they inevitably will, pretty much all the time ââ¬â do not behave in quite the way our textbooks and lectures lead us to believe they should. Assigned to write a management essay? Learn what a management essay is: MANAGEMENT ESSAY What Is a Team? That sounds like a simple question with an answer that everyone should understand without a lot of mental exercises, but the ââ¬Å"teamâ⬠in ââ¬Å"team managementâ⬠is more often than not treated casually, or overlooked entirely. An effective team is not merely ââ¬Å"a group of people working towards a common objective but a community of practice, which has three ââ¬Å"crucialâ⬠characteristics domain, community, and practice. Dr. Etienne Wenger Domain.à The shared domain of interest ââ¬â in a work team setting, this would usually be the ââ¬Å"purposeâ⬠of the team ââ¬â gives the group a distinct identity, which may or may not mean anything to anyone else. As an example, Wenger describes how a street gangââ¬â¢s identity as a unit is formed by the shared domain of its individual members, even though that is ultimately probably not in their best interests or those of civilization as a whole. The key to the idea of ââ¬Å"domainâ⬠is learning: what starts out as just a common interest among individuals is refined and increased by learning through interaction. Community.à A community is characterized by joint activities and shared information, which contributes to the shared learning. The distinction between ââ¬Å"communityâ⬠in common sense ââ¬â such as a neighborhood, or a group sharing a common topic of interest on a Facebook page ââ¬â and community in the sense meant by Dr. Wenger is subtle and perhaps difficult to understand. It is easier to think of it in terms of where the intended benefits of the team interactions are focused by the team members; if the intention is an individual benefit, then the team is probably not a true community. For example, a neighborhood might not be a true ââ¬Å"communityâ⬠(although we may call it that), if whatever ââ¬Å"neighborlinessâ⬠practiced by the residents is primarily motivated out of self-interest for their own security and comfort. Practice.à What differentiates a ââ¬Å"communityâ⬠from a mere ââ¬Å"groupâ⬠is shared practice, or as Dr. Wenger describes it, a shared pool of intellectual resources ââ¬â stories, tools, experiences, and ways to solve recurring problems. A group of truck drivers trading stories over coffee in a truck stop are not simply being friendly and entertaining themselves, but are actually building a knowledge base and learning from one another. See also:à Managing Problems in Groups Dr. Wenger, who is a social learning theorist with a background in Artificial Intelligence, implies that a ââ¬Å"community of practiceâ⬠is the most effective when it forms organically. This actually makes sense, because the motivation both in having an interest in the first place and then in pursuing it is largely intrinsic. Talk to any random truck driver, for instance ââ¬â itââ¬â¢s nearly impossible to find one who doesnââ¬â¢t actually like being a ââ¬Å"truckerâ⬠, in spite of whatever day-to-day annoyances might be encountered. But knowing how effective team works as a ââ¬Å"community of practiceâ⬠does make it possible to form the team purposefully, so long as the team members chosen individually have two basic traits: Commitment to a common interest or aspiration, as long as it is a specific interest or aspiration. If the goal for the team is to develop a world-beating software application, then the people chosen for the team should be passionate about developing software; enthusiasm for the vague aspirations expressed in the companyââ¬â¢s Mission Statement or enjoying ââ¬Å"working with othersâ⬠is not enough, nor particularly relevant. Good communication skills, or specifically, the ability to coherently communicate the passion for the common interest in practical terms. This also applies to being able to interpret othersââ¬â¢ ideas. Naturally, finding the passionate, communicative people to build a team is only part of the puzzle; they still wonââ¬â¢t be able to accomplish anything if they do not have clear roles to play. Roles in Teams. Belbin Team Roles A popular ââ¬â and to be fair, not altogether useless ââ¬â theory that one will encounter at some point in management studies is the Team Role Theory of Dr. Meredith Belbin. Dr. Belbinââ¬â¢s research led him to develop a description of nine roles in teams, which should be represented in a balanced way for the team to be effective: According to Belbinââ¬â¢s website (the theory has become, not surprisingly, the basis for a multi-million dollar consulting business), the behavioral analysis that determines what individualsââ¬â¢ team roles should be ââ¬Å"Can be used to build productive working relationships, select and develop high-performing teams, raise self-awareness and personal effectiveness, build mutual trust and understanding, and aid recruitment processes.â⬠The theory is backed up by empirical research, and does, in fact, give insights into how people work in teams, but only after the team has been formed and interacts for a period of timeà when roles and attitudes begin to emerge because Team Role Theory has two big flaws: 1. GENERALIZATIONà some people are predictable, but most are not. The context of the team and the actual objectives the team is trying to achieve have a much greater part in determining how team members will act than the theory allows, because the roles themselves were developed from statistical results; results that furthermore did not allow for people to have aspects of more than one ââ¬Å"roleâ⬠in their personalities, which most people do. 2. OVER-THINKING à in any team, as a practical matter, there are only four roles that need to be filled: The Team Leader (organizes the team and keeps communication flowing smoothly) The Record-Keeper (keeps track of what the team is doing) The Worker (accomplishes the tasks the team needs to complete) The Progress-Chaser (conducts follow-up, testing, and monitors progress against the expected schedule) What Team Role Theory can do to help ââ¬â and why it is important to study and understand it, though it is not as practically useful as advertised ââ¬â is to give some insights into what roles, and to what degree of those roles, prospective team members are best suited to fill. At we have a team of professional writers and a friendly support team always ready to help you with any writing assignment. Place an order to inform the details of your assignment.
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