Chapter-18: Team Building

1. Chapter-18: Team Building 18.1 Define an effective team 18.2 Recruiting team members 18.3 Building Team 18.4 Managing for Results: 18.5 Training and development 18.6 The HR function

2. 18.1 Define an effective team • A department within a company • individuals within a department team goals ↔ personal goals • supporting team members does not mean doing their share of the work for the mutual good of the whole team • No two members of the team are alike; they complement each other and work as one entity in the joint task which they are performing • Team: ‘a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable’. • A team is not just a group of people working together

3. working group ↔ team • a working group is driven by individual goals and measures, whereas a team focuses on team goals and mutual accountability • Different professors having research in Optics • Teams must have measurable goals, whereas this is not essential for working groups • The methods of arriving at solutions so vary between a team and a working group • conflict may frequently occur in a team which is striving to arrive at the most optimum solution. However, once this agreed solution has been obtained conflict is removed and the team commits to the result

4. 18.1.1 Stages of Development three distinct stages • Drifting stage • individuals come together and get to know each other • official role which each individual plays within the team is defined • The interests of individual team members are placed before those of the team as a whole • Gelling stage • Like minded individuals form into small groups • Each group starts to develop its own identity under an unofficial leader • unofficial leader may be dangerous, if self-interest comes first • Unison stage • whole team is behaving as a single, highly organized body, under a single leader • interests of the team match those of the individuals and there is no goal conflict

5. 18.1.2 Team Characteristics An effective team has several key characteristics: • Highly efficient and results oriented • High level of energy and enthusiasm within the team • All team members committed to the tasks being performed • Interdependency between individual members in achieving common goals • Sense of purpose; the team knows what it has to achieve • There is an excellent working atmosphere of trust and mutual support • Conflicts are resolved and lead to better solutions • The team has a strong leader who uses a participative leadership style to gain commitment and share responsibility

6. 18.1.3 Team Membership Different members play different role • Process managers: usually managers or leaders of the team who have to keep things moving along. • Conceptual Thinkers: team’s source of new and original ideas • Radicals: who propose new approaches to problem solving • Technicians: usually the specialists on the subject • Harmonizers: whose main aim is to ensure that there is good feeling and a sense of harmony between team members • Planners or Implementers: who drive for completion of team goals • Facilitators: ready to provide help and support wherever needed • Critical observers: stand back and observe the team: their activity is essential in keeping the team’s feet firmly on the ground, and stopping it from pursuing misguided objectives • Politicians or power seekers: who believe to be always right and aim to influence others: usually responsible for shaping the team’s views and moving them towards their common goal • Salespeople or diplomats:

7. 18.2 Recruiting team members • people are a company’s greatest asset • get the best people to fill the positions in the team • It is wrong to assume that the best team consists of like minded individuals • Every team needs a mix of personality types and experiences, and this include a mix of ages • Teams should be built from volunteers • The team leader should ensure that the team is composed of suitable members, and not people who have been moved from their present jobs because they were misfit or could be spared by their current functions

8. 18.2.1 Defining the Job • Some managers do not have a clear idea of the job requirements and tend to mould them around promising candidates • define each job to achieve the task, not to expect the job to change to meet the candidate • correctly structure the team so that the job meets two important criteria: • All jobs should be defined so that they can be performed by the average, well motivated, person with the right qualifications and skills. It is often mistaken belief that an over-qualified person will do the job more effectively. Such a person will also be more expensive to recruit, leading to mismatches in salary within the team • the job should be enriched, allowing scope for creatively, and not just the made more difficult

9. 18.2.2 Attracting Candidates • Candidates may be recruited internally, from within the company, or externally • an ideal team would consist of a mix of existing staff and new recruits • Several factors need to be considered when recruiting from outside the organizations • The compositions of the job advertisement • The method for advertising the job • The use of recruitment agents and head-hunters • carry out campus recruitment • Lectures and professors should be invited to visit the company’s plant • lectures of industry experts to undergraduates

10. 18.2.3 Selection Criteria Six factors to have a set of defined selection criteria against which to measure candidates • Generally health and physical fitness • Impact on others • Acquired knowledge and sills • Innate abilities (e.g. quickness in adapting to new tasks) • Motivation (self-starters) • Emotional adjustment (ability of candidates to stand up to stress at work) • Manager to decide, which factor is more important • Maximize strengths within a team rather than minimizing weakness • Technically expert but non social worker may be encouraged to become the thinker of the group

11. 18.2.4 The selection process • hit and miss affair, with no guarantee that the most suitable person will be chosen • Several techniques are available to help the manger in the selection process, • The application form: information, but no judgment of expertise etc • Psychological testing: provide an indication of the candidate’s personality types and the roles which they are most likely to adopt within a team • Assessment groups: the candidates have to go through group and individual exercises • Selection Interview: ????????

12. 18.3 Building Team • the real team building work begins, with the definition of team goals • Select team members to meet the task requirements (each person should bring some special skill or strength to the team) • Ensure that during the formation stage every opportunity is taken to get people to work together and to mix socially • adopt a participative leadership style in goal setting & decision making • Build trust first and work with the team in formulating detailed goals and tasks • Ensure that all team members have the same interests and aims • Jobs may overlap but responsibilities must be defined • work load in the team must be evenly distributed • Identify group norms: (which is what the group accepts as normal behavior) • Ensure: there are measures of success associated with each task • Show the importance of the work being done by the team, to the organization, senior managers and publicize

13. 18.3.1 Creativity • Creativity is normally considered to be the ability to produce new and useful results • Creative people normally have the following characteristics: • are usually non-conformist (unconventional); sometimes considered to be difficult to mange • want to be original and deliberately look for different solutions to problems • able to think laterally around problems • approach all problems with curiosity • have lots of ideas, many of which may not be practical • have a high level of confidence in their ability and prefer to work on their own with minimum supervision

14. Creativity • To encourage creativity in the team, a creative environment is essential, as follows • A flat organization should be used to ensure that the level of supervision is reduced • Creative members should be given the opportunity to spend less time on activities such as administration. • The team should be encouraged to accept those • There should be good facilities for study and research • Individual creativity should be encouraged, recognized and rewarded: as the ideas always start with an individual and are then developed by the team

15. 18.4 Managing for Results • To obtain the highest level of performance from the team, each team member must have the following information: • Clear targets, so that they know what is expected of them. In setting targets any constraints must be taken into account and the levels of responsibility clearly defined. • Clear standards of performance, along with the methods used to measure the targets. • A system of feedback, so that team members know the progress which is being made. • Managing by Objectives (MBO) is a targets setting and measurement technique to mange teams. Here the superior and subordinate jointly identify the subordinate’s major areas of responsibility in terms of results expected, and use these for operating the unit and for assessing the contribution made by each of its members

16. 18.4.1 Target setting • Any target setting operation has the objective of moving the corporate strategy to the individual level • There may be year on year improvement in targets and goals by changes in technology, training and perception • Targets or objectives within the MBO must have the following characteristics: • They should be significant and not trivial (unimportant) • They must be results oriented • They should be very clearly specified and understood by both the manger and subordinate • Targets should be documented and singed by the manger and the subordinate • Subordinates should have been involved in developing their targets. • The targets should be attainable within the time frame specified and with the resources available • The targets should be measurable, so that subordinates know whether they have succeeded and how well they have done

17. 18.4.2 Reviews • Reviews may deal with tasks or activities: and may also be concerned with individual and team performance • The day-to-day informal review • Management by Walk About (MWA) • Meeting at lunch etc • Formal reviews, held regularly at frequent intervals • such as a weekly progress report/presentation, in a formal or informal meeting • personal issues may also be discussed • Formal annual review • usually a personal appraisal (assessment), discussed next

18. Personal Appraisal • stress for both the subordinate and the manager • probably the most important task which a manager can do • will build a strong bond between the manager and the subordinate • May be a formal form which needs to be completed at the appraisal interview (uniform process) • provides a record for future promotions and protect the company against a charge of unfairness or discrimination • can be given to subordinates as their personal targets for the next period • accumulation of the performance against individual targets will have to be weighted • appraisal method based on targets may indicate how well subordinates have done their present job, but don’t not show whether they have the qualities for promotion to another job

19. Personal Appraisal • main activities at the appraisal meeting • personal targets ↔ team goals or corporate objectives • Following performance assessment the opportunities open for the subordinate are discussed. These include: • training, coaching and assignment to widen the subordinate’s experience • Rewards, such as promotion or salary increases • Actual salary increments, however, usually depend on the overall rating of other staff, and the total pot of money available for the next period • Agree the subordinate’s targets for the next period

20. Counseling • manager provides the subordinate with feedback on performance and discusses strengths and weaknesses • Three methods may be used in counseling: • The tell and sell method: • managers views on the subordinates performances and future plans are thrown to ….. • subordinates have no opportunity for commenting the assessment • leaves the subordinate with a sense of frustration and injustice • He may consider the appraisal meeting as a vehicle for fault finding

21. Counseling • The tell and listen method: • Managers give their views and then ask the subordinates to comment • the subordinate is expected to agree with ……….. • puts the subordinate on the defensive • The ask and discussion method: • managers adopt the role of helpers • manager is sharing ideas with the subordinate and is not just giving advice • Helps to identify the subordinates strengths and how these can be better utilized • builds a strong bond between them and provides a very effective counseling technique • Manager must avoid the danger of ….

22. Managing Conflict • caused by an incompatibility of goals, interests and ideas • can occur between individuals or between groups • can occurs in appraisal or counseling situations between the manager and subordinate • must be accepted as a fact of life within an organization: can often be very useful • lose-lose situation: if conflict resolved using authority or ignoring it. neither one is happy • Win-lose situation: if manger takes sides • Resolving the conflict is dependent on the characteristics of the people involved

23. Managing Conflictin the following ways • Avoidance: if the two parties recognize and pull away from the brink • Negotiation: both parties look for compromise, (if both parties) • Confrontation: two parties head on, if the two are equally matched, • If one is clearly much stronger, the other will withdraw gracefully • for equally matched parties confrontation helps to define the problem and the differences sharply (can either adopt an avoidance mode of a negotiation mode) • if they both share the same goals, they will collaborate to come up with a joint solution. This is the best resolution of conflict, leading to a true win-win situation

24. 18.5 Training and development Various reasons for training • To improve performance in the present job • To ensure that subordinate is ready for some future position. (educational) • To ensure that all team members share a common vocabulary • To ensure that team member have the same basic knowledge • Because the advertising leaflet on the course looks good (person who can be spared)

25. The aim of all training and development programs are: • To provide the student with knowledge: • A specialist knows more and more about less and less and A generalist knows less and less about more and more • To develop specific skills in the student • To affect the students attitudes and values • difficult to do, since attitudes have been build up over many years • Courses which aim to change attitude are best held away from the normal work environment • likely to take a relatively long time

26. 18.5.2 Self Development • People cannot be taught: they must learn • A person must be motivated to train or develop: Several activities need to be carried out • Planning, to determine the areas which need improvement • Selection of the triaging or development methods • Making time for self development • Seeking feedback • Creating opportunities for self development • Interest not directly related to one’s work are also useful for self development. Examples are joining the local committee of one’s professional institute: presenting papers at conferences; and acting as a visiting lecturer in a local college

27. 18.5.3 Learning theories • studies dealt with conditioned behavior showed that a dog could be conditioned to perform certain actions at the expectation of food • John Watson postulated that human behavior can be defined in terms of two items: • a stimulus (any change in environment ) • a response (behavioral reaction to the stimulus) • Operant conditioning learning theory, in which behaviour is obtained, eliminated or maintained depending on the outcome of the behaviour carried out. For example, if every time engineers make suggestions, they receive a negative response from their managers, then they will learn not to make suggestions

28. 18.5.4 Learning and development methods • Education teaches the student to be confident in an uncertain environment • It must be learned and cannot be taught • Training is usually applied to a much more specific aim and environment, • and it can be taught • Common techniques for management training: Classroom lectures Programmed learning Case Studies Role planning Business games Sensitivity training or T-Groups Job rotation Job shadowing

29. 18.6 The HR function HR is usually responsible for: • Being aware of legislation and making sure that the company works within these in all its actions • All industrial relations matters, such as negotiations with ……. • Setting policies on terms and conditions of employment • All health and safety matters • Talking the lead in organization matters and ensuring that the company exhibits organizational effectiveness. • Administrating the company’s grievance and disciplinary procedures • Internal communications within the organization • Assisting the line manager on personnel matters

30. Assignments • Device a form for the personal appraisal of your staff. Elaborate each point • What are the possible reasons of conflict between individuals • What are the possible reasons of conflict between groups