Table of Contents
Methods used to appropriately manage groups and teams
Introduction
The management of people in teams and groups needs a lot of personal commitment together with reasonable strategies to help the team to focus on the primary objectives. The leaders have a responsibility to develop creative ideas that can help the teams and groups to achieve the main goals. In addition, the leaders have the responsibility to ensure that the people in the teams and groups function accordingly (Chansler, et al., 2003). This paper will help in identifying the most appropriate ways to manage teams and groups.
Process of evolving a group into a team
A group undergoes through a series of stages to be evolved into a team that is meant to expand its operations in order to achieve the expected targets. The following stages are employed in evolvement of groups into teams:
The formation stage
This stage involves uniting the people together into a group that are focused on some collaboration with similar characteristics. These people have a similar objective hence have same undertakings, time schedule and allocation of tasks to ensure that they are able to achieve their objective. The people in the group each motivate each other to ensure that they are able to perform effectively. They work on activities such as gathering data, getting to know each other but do not fully concentrate on their activities (Hoang, 2011).
The storming stage
In this stage, the people that are in the group each get to be assigned a task together with an objective to achieved. In addition, the people in the group start sharing important information for their common objective. The members in the group start getting used to each other and therefore they open up to each other, stand up for each other’s thoughts and points. Raging may occur at this stage and can be argumentative to an extent that it needs a lot of understanding from all the members (SamitiAlbania, 2011).
The norming stage
This stage involves creating a number of shared qualities about how the members in the group can cooperate successfully. This will help the people in the group make decisions together on the right time to utilize available resources, the methods that they can use together with comparing on the types of tools that are most effective to use for example in communication whether to use emails or phones. The members are through to combine their efforts together since all of them have shared assumptions (SamitiAlbania, 2011).
The performing stage
This stage occurs after the group has built its standards and the members are operating together as a unit. This stage makes the members to cooperate effortlessly on important tasks. Members work together effectively; there is a lot of motivation, inspiration and trust among the members hence being able to successfully achieve success.
Importance of organizational culture
Organizational culture is significant in any group or any organization in a number of ways. In development of a group into a team, the organizational culture plays a number of roles. One, it helps in creating commitment among the members in the group. By following all the policies and practices of an organization, the members will be able to have the necessary commitment to achieve objectives. Another significance of organizational culture is that it helps to bring the employees together. The members in a group are needed to cooperate to achieve objectives and therefore it is necessary for them to work together (Human Resource Development Quarterly, 2008).
Leadership styles that are effective for managing groups and teams
For a group to develop from just being a standard group into an exceptional one, leaders need to employ a number of necessary strategies to ensure that all the implementation have been done successfully. One of the most suitable leadership style to employ in the effective management of groups and teams is the administrative leadership styles. There are a number of administrative leadership styles that can be used in managing groups and teams including the pacesetting leadership style, the legitimate pioneer leadership style, the affinitive pioneer, the instructive pioneer and the equitable pioneer leadership style among many more. All these leadership styles are important in a number of ways including managing the cultural differences between the members, having a united workplace and helping the members to understand the cultural differences (Riley, 2012).
Benefits and drawbacks of having groups or teams in terms of groupthink vs. team think.
There are a number of benefits that are achieved as a result in having teams and groups. One of the benefits is the group productivity benefits in which all the members of the group bring all their ideas together, innovate and employ technology to achieve the best of results. The groups cohesiveness benefits in which each of the groups in the group get along with each other bring ideas together and cooperate in all their activities. Similarly, there are some drawbacks that can be experienced including the group cohesiveness drawback including similarity and mindless when members try to make all the ideas to fit in or to cut down on the expenditure among many more. The group productivity drawback is another one in which members may turn unfriendly when some members are trying to expand their efficiency (Riley, 2012).
Conclusion
In general, effective management of teams and groups is key to the success of the members involved in any activity. A number of stages are involved in the development of the group into a team. A number of effective leadership styles are necessary to ensure that the groups and teams are effective.
- Chansler, P., Swamidass, P., & Cammann, C. (2003). Self-Managing Work Teams: An Empirical Study of Group Cohesiveness in “Natural Work Groups” at a Harley-Davidson Motor Company Plant. Small Group Research, 34(1), 101-120.
- Hoang, P. (2011). International Baccalaureate Business and Management. Edition 2.IBID Press.
- Human Resource Development Quarterly, (2008). Defining Team Roles and Responsibilities. [Instructor Guide]. Pennsylvania: Human Resource Development Quarterly.
- SamitiAlbania,( 2011). Patrick Lencioni: Five Dysfunctions Of a Team.wmv. [Online]. [Accessed 15 October 2014]. Available from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sqvWEI1CVg
- Riley, J. (2012). Leadership – Models and Styles. [Online]. [Accessed 15 October 2014]. Available from: http://www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/leadership-models-styles.html