Factors Affecting Groups and Teams
Many factors can affect how will groups and teams perform. Among these are the degree to which individual members of the group can conform to group standards, the cohesiveness of the group or team, the level and intensification of competition and conflict, and – last but not least – the style and methodology of group leadership.
CONFORMITY
Conformity means “going along.” Group conformity is recognized when participants abandon a particular position contrary to other group or team members for the sake of a majority view. This abandonment, is called conforming, there are many reasons for conforming including: pressure to settle or compromise, logical or emotional enticement or persuasion, coercion, time constraints,
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Without augmenting and questioning the issues through productive conflict, groups or teams may make bad decisions that have not been completely analyzed or evaluated.
Cooperation and conflict can often go hand-in-hand. Productive conflict is one of many means by which teams or groups cooperate and lend each other a hand. By agreeing to debate, questions, test ideas, and evaluate proposals, members engaged in conflict can form a cooperative enterprise. however, competition within and between groups and teams is often counter-productive. Although in the short-term, competition may be triggering, motivating, or serve as a spark plug for improved performance, it is not good for groups or teams to use this strategy in the long-term as it has a side effects.
“A store manager initiated a contest by which every member of the department with the highest sales would qualify for an all-expense paid weekend at a beach condominium. In addition, within every department, the salesperson with the highest sales would qualify for a $500 gift certificate. Results were posted each Friday for six weeks. Notice that the store manager induced both within-group and between-group
Team building can be pursued through a variety of activities, ranging from the simple and basic, such as one off bonding exercises before or during meetings, to complex, multi-day simulations, trainings or retreats carefully organised by professional associations or companies specialising in such programmes. These latter full scale team building exercises or less intensive variations thereof may include seminars, workshops or conferences. Many team build ideas fall somewhere within this range and can also include an internally planned day out doing active outdoor pursuits such as paintball, rope courses or orienteering. Team building can also be achieved through healthy competition, such as baseball or soccer games organised against other companies or organisations; or through events such as community service projects, held for good socially worthy causes. Teambuilding is now widely recognised and accepted as being a significant and workable variable in many, if not most, group environments where performance is dependent on how well the group unit works together.
“One time I saw a tiny Joshua sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. ‘You’d be destroying what makes it special,’ she said.
Whilst conflict is inevitable Harding provides insight in describing conflict “as the beginning of consciousness”. Realistic group conflict theory (RGCT) offers a behavioural approach to conflict resolution demonstrated in Sheriff Robert Cave’s experiment. RGCT asserts that a real or imagined threat to one’s group interest often leads to conflict. Initially the situation presented with a competitive edge as the groups clamoured for the scarce resource .
Conflict resolution as a field of study as indicated has formed hypothetical bits of knowledge into the nature and source of conflict and how conflicts can be resolved through peaceful systems to effectuate a dependable settlement. Morton Deutsch, was the first to form and understanding into the helpful results of collaboration as a scholastic enquiry. In his view, various variables like the way of the debate and the objectives every group in a conflict goes for are crucial in deciding the sort of introduction a group would convey to the negotiation table in its endeavor to unravel the conflict (Morton Deucth, 1985, p.24). To him, two essential orientations do exist. These are competitive and cooperative.
The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort prevents team members from holding one another accountable. Dysfunction #5: Inattention to Results The pursuit of individual goals and personal status erodes the focus on collective success.
The external pressures significantly affect the formation of the team. Personal identity and complex interpersonal interactions result in a highly charged environment and a tense group
A individual use of conflict should be used by many strategies impacted by the culture of the organization or institution but also by the personal beliefs and values. “The variables surrounding the conflict must be examined to understand and alter the choice of a particular behavioral approach to conflict”(Thomas,1976). When deciding the choice of outcome of a problem you should examine the facts and stay away from the assumptions. When managing conflicts, strategies should be utilized and reviewed so that the conflict can come to an collective solution. Some strategies to obtain during a conflict is the first strategy which is understanding that rushing to end the conflict will cause you to not be able to gather the appropriate information.
The study of group dynamics provides a vehicle to analyse group communications with the intent of rendering the groups more effective (Davies & Newstrom, 1985) (La Monica, 1985). In the next section, this essay will be focused on the relationships and interactions between leadership behaviour and group dynamics. 2.0 BODY OF ANALYSIS There are many leadership behaviour that affects the employee effectiveness, commitment and group dynamics. According to (Folkman, Z., 2010) they have identified the nine behaviours that will have the greatest impact on employee: inspire and motivate others, driving for results, strategic perspective, collaboration, walk the talk, trust, develops and supports others, building relationships and courage.
In essence, teamwork can be defined as a group of people working in the same direction and for a common purpose. Teamwork requires individuals be a team player and to be able to work well with others; after all, there is no “I” in “Team”! As with any endeavour, we faced some initial setbacks. With this being our first college team assignment, we were all treading on unfamiliar territory.
Introduction Team leadership encompasses many things. It may seem like a simple and small task, but in a real sense, it is complex and comes with responsibilities, and commonly, it determines the success of any team or a group. However, the value of teamwork should not be overemphasized considering that all organizations need individuals and personnel who are willing to share ideas, listen to others and contribute to the problem solving of any given group or a company. Team leaders should have the ability, authority, and power to analyze data and information with a team of people with a common aim and objective as well as issues. The leader should understand the dynamic patterns, the connections and relations between paramount factors in these objectives, aims and issues that help in the analysis process.
The dictionary definition of teamwork is: 'the process of working collaboratively with a group of people to achieve a common goal. ' Our world runs largely on interdependence. Companies today know that effective products or services need multiple skills to be created and therefore better solutions, services, or products depend on better teamwork. More and more organizations nowadays assess teamwork skills before recruitment, yet our education has very rarely helped us to develop teamwork skills.
But if it comes only as a result of people holding back their opinions and honest concerns, then it’s a bad thing.” Dysfunction #3: Lack of Commitment When teams engage in productive conflict they can confidently commit and buy-in to decisions. What separates a productive team and one that is not is that, the productive team is able to make clear decisions and are confident that every one of their members are in favour of that decision. It is common for people to have the mindset to not be committed to something when they know their opinions and thoughts are neglected and excluded from the discussion. Having commitment in a team is more about making sure that every members’ opinions are heard and acknowledged rather than just having everybody’s consensus.
Introduction Conflict is unpleasant, but inevitable throughout life. In any situation involving two or people, conflict may arise. Conflict can be defined as, “any situation in which incompatible goals, cognitions, or emotions within or between individuals or groups lead to opposition or antagonistic interaction” (Learning Team Toolkit, 2004, pp 242-243). People come from different backgrounds and live through different life experiences therefore, even when working towards a common goal, they will not always agree. Major conflict that is not dealt with can devastate a team or organization (Make Conflict Work, 2008).
Lastly, the textbook tells us that conflict allows a more equitable balance of power (Bethel University, 2012). If your able to communicate an issue with your partner and the two of you work with a compromised agreement, this gives the person who was having the issue a sense of power in the relationship by the partner’s willingness to resolve the
Managers has total authority over everything. Since the managers alone would be making decisions groups may feel demotivated and may have difficulty completing a task if it is not going the way it should be going stated by the manager, groups may feel pressured causing them to make