How Groups Behave Differently to Individuals Within an Organization Essay Example

internal structure, there is then the issue of what the group stands for.

What kind of behavior and contribution is acceptable and what isn't? Members explore behind the power processes of storming and begin to form some idea of the group's identity: the "group in the mind". This is rarely done explicitly, of course, and it can readily slip back into Storming, Performing: after all that, the group can begin to get some work done, on the basis of a relatively stable structure. Adjourning: This is about completion and disengagement, both from the tasks and the group members. Individuals will be proud of having achieved much and glad to have been part of such an enjoyable group. They need to recognize what they've done, and consciously move on. Some describe stage 5 as "Deforming and Mourning", recognizing the sense of loss felt by group members.

Groups form a common goal, purpose, sense of loyalty and trust, in a group they develop norms that all members follow. The relationships of the groups affect the outcome. In a group more risks are taken because each individual in the group has more confidence than if they were alone. Also decisions made by the group the performance.

Groups behavior is different to individual behavior in organization because groups can share ideas meaning there is more knowledge with in a group than one person for example if one person in the group has an idea the other people in the group can l grow on that idea whereas an individual would only have one idea.

Groups are a characteristic of all social situations and almost everyone

in an organization will be a member of one or more groups. Members of a group must co-operate in order for work to be carried out effectively, and managers themselves will work within these groups. People in groups influence each other in many ways and groups may develop their own hierarchies and leaders. Group pressures can have a major influence over the behavior of individual members and their work performance. (3)

Every individual is different from another and can be complex; the challenge of an effective organization is in successfully matching the task. In an ideal situation, a manager would analyze the task, and then determine the skills need, and they assemble a team that complement each skill, thereby creating an enriching and conflict free team.

Individual behavior is largely affected by a variety of organization system and resources: Physical facilities: - the physical environment at a workplace is the arrangement of people and things so that it has a positive influence on people. Some of the individual behavior is affected by noise level, heat, light, ventilation, nature of job and number of people in the organization.

Reward System: - the behavior and performance of the individuals is also influenced by the reward system established by the organization to compensate their employees.

Abilities of a person can be classified by mental and physical and different tasks require different levels of the two. Mental abilities represent the intelligence person’s reasoning and memory. Physical abilities include muscular strength and stamina. An individual self-awareness of his own abilities determines how he/ she feel about the task.

Race and culture influence both workplace and

society. Stereotyping and attributing behavior based on race and culture are common mistakes that influence individual behavior. It is important for both management and the staff to learn about different cultures, their values.

4.2 What factors could an organization introduce that would help to promote team work, and what factors should we be aware of which may inhibit (prevent) team work.

Team meeting provide a face to face contact at regular intervals. They are valuable for both social and business purpose. The social value of meeting should not be underestimated as trust, respect; team identity and familiarity with one another’s way of working are all developed here. Whereas for business purposes, meeting include: Information-sharing among team members, leading to the team agreeing future actions Decision-making – including assessment of options as well as final selection Work allocation – identifying follow-up actions and responsibility for them. Meetings can be valuable as a deadline for individuals to produce information needed by others. They can also be a waste of time. If there are no overriding social reasons, meetings should be called only when decisions and actions are needed. (4)

Although the relationship that the team members share in the workplace is completely professional and work oriented, but then it is human to seek some 'play time' in the midst of workload and team targets. Organizations should include some fun activities in the team at regular basis. You can introduce some interesting games wherein your team can interact in an informal basis. You can even give away some prizes and coupons to the winning pair, or conduct inter team competitions. The sense of winning as

a team informally will also motivate the workers to work together to achieve their goals in a formal way also.

In order to have a successful team, each and every member should be clear in terms of what is expected of him when it comes to contributing for the team success. There should be an inbuilt commitment to perform at the best of their capabilities all the time. But in order to be clear, committed and consistent, the management or the team leader should make sure that there are regular meetings taking place to keep the team members updated and motivated. Compete with other teams to bring in a sense of competitive spirit so that the employees may give in their best. And make sure that you make sure to give all the employees any kind of help and support that they need to improve their performance.

To help promote team work, individuals goals need to be fulfilled or they will eventually get demotivated, which would eventually affect the teams goals and targets. Therefore the management should constantly remind the team on how their success contributes towards their individual goals.

To help promote a successful team, there should be a balance as stated by Belbin “Meredith found that each of the behaviors were essential in getting the team successfully from start to finish. The key was balance. For example, Meredith Belbin found that a team with no Plants struggled to come up with the initial spark of an idea with which to push forward. However, once too many Plants were in the team, bad ideas concealed good ones and non-starters were given

too much airtime. Similarly, with no Shaper, the team ambled along without drive and direction, missing deadlines. With too many Shapers, in-fighting began and morale was lowered.” (5) The Team Roles are:

Shapers are people who challenge the team to improve, by finding the best approaches for solving problems. Implementers are the people who get things done. They turn the team's ideas and concepts into practical actions and plans. Completer-Finishers are the people who see that projects are completed thoroughly. They ensure there have been no errors or omissions and they pay attention to the smallest of details. Coordinators are the ones who take on the traditional team-leader role and have also been referred to as the chairmen. They guide the team to what they perceive are the objectives. Team Workers are the people who provide support and make sure that people within the team are working together effectively.

Resource Investigators are innovative and curious. They explore available options, develop contacts, and negotiate for resources on behalf of the team. The Plant is the creative innovator who comes up with new ideas and approaches. They thrive on praise but criticism is especially hard for them to deal with. Monitor-Evaluators are best at analysing and evaluating ideas that other people (often Plants) come up with. These people are shrewd and objective and they carefully weigh the pros and cons of all the options before coming to a decision. Monitor-Evaluators are critical thinkers and very strategic in their approach. They are often perceived as detached or unemotional. Sometimes they are poor motivators who react to events rather than instigating them. Specialists are people who have

specialized knowledge that is needed to get the job done. They pride themselves on their skills and abilities, and they work to maintain their professional status.

One problem that may inhibit team work is a lack of training, people with different aims, people working as individuals and not as a team. Another example that may inhibit team work is people with different personalities cause conflicts because it can affect the way a team works together. One example of this is role conflict. If there is no role assignment, members become dissatisfied and role conflict results. Suppose you have two people in a small group that both have strong leadership characteristics. The two individuals might bump heads, argue, struggle for leadership of the group, or have countless other problems that will cause inefficiency within the team. If there was some way to discover this beforehand, these problems might be eliminated. Some possible options might be to split the two individuals up, assign both with leadership roles so they know what their role is and that they must share it, or allow one to be the leader and have the other back him or her up, depending on how strong their leadership skills are.

4.3 Evaluate to what extent technology has had an impact on the ways and the effectiveness of teams within a given organization. Over the last the few year technology has grown rapidly, which has affected teams in the workplace. The use of new technology can improve and in some cases hinder team functions. As technology changes teams must update and maintain their knowledge in order to function effectively. Technology which have

improved team functions:

E-mail allows asynchronous communication which means team members do not need to be in the same place at the same time in order to communicate effectively. E-mail also has it's negative aspects in terms of managing e-mail and the misuse of e-mail. Mobile phones have come a long way from the yuppie bricks of the 1980s and there are now more mobile phones in the UK then there are people. Mobile phones allow teams to communicate even when team members are out of the office, on the road or otherwise unavailable. Sometimes having always access to team members can hinder team functioning.

Groupware enables teams to plan meetings, collaborate, delegate all within a virtual environment which can often be accessed remotely from anywhere in the world. Personal computers allow team members to carry out various tasks and communicate more effectively. Laptop computers allow you to do this anywhere. They are now lighter, more powerful and a longer battery life. In Oticon technology has helped the effectiveness of teams as they now have 15 new products launched this was because they worked as a team and communicated to create new product but also the company started introducing new technology which helped to make the new product.

Without new technology, communication and team work. Before the change in Oticon there were hardly any products made because the depend for inner ear hearing aids where not being made by Oticon where as other companies like Panasonic and Sony joined the market and started making inner ear hearing aids, these meant that Oticon had to increase their depend by being in new technology.

Although technology is good in many aspects, when technology break nothing works for example in Oticon if their machines stop working do they people know how to make hearing aids.