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MODULE -I
INTRODUCTION TO CORPORATE PSYCHOLOGY AND
INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS
STRUCTURE
- Introduction
- Definition, Meaning of Corporate Psychology
- Scope of Corporate Psychology
- Role & skills important for a Corporate Psychologist
- Group dynamics – types of group
- The Nature of Groups
- The Dynamics of Informal Groups
- The Dynamics of Formal Work Groups
- Team work – Life cycle of a team, Ingredients of effective teams, potential team problems
- Team building – The process, Skills useful in team building, Self-managing teams.
- Teams In Modern Workplace
- Levels Of Conflict
- Sources Of Conflict
- Effects Of Conflict
- Negotiation skills
- Summary
- Suggested Questions
INTRODUCTION
Corporate psychology, also known as Industrial/Organisational Psychology, is the branch of psychology that applies psychological theories and principles to organizations. Often referred to as corporate psychology, this field focuses on increasing workplace productivity and related issues such as the physical and mental well-being of employees.
Corporate psychologists perform a wide variety of tasks, including studying worker attitudes and behaviours, evaluating companies, and conducting leadership training. The process of hiring employees can be vulnerable to bias, which is illegal, and industrial psychologists must develop methods for adhering to the law in hiring. Performance appraisal systems are an active area of research and practice in industrial psychology. The overall goal of this field is to study and understand human behaviours in the workplace.
DEFINITION
Industrial psychology refers to the applied organizational psychology used to study, analyze and understand human behaviours in the workplace, mainly how business works and how employees’ function. Industrial psychology uses a range of scientific methods, including quantitative and qualitative research. Most often it's applied when the company is going through a transition phase.
MEANING OF CORPORATE PSYCHOLOGY
One can think of industrial-organizational psychology as having two major sides. First, there is the industrial side, which involves looking at how to best match individuals to specific job roles. This segment of I-O psychology is also sometimes referred to as personnel psychology.
People who work in this area might assess employee characteristics and then match these individuals to jobs in which they are likely to perform well. Other functions that fall on the industrial side of I-O psychology include training employees, developing job performance standards, and measuring job performance.
The organizational side of psychology is more focused on understanding how organizations affect individual behavior. Organizational structures, social norms, management styles, and role expectations are all factors that can influence how people behave within an organization. By understanding such factors, I-O psychologists hope to improve individual performance and health while at the same time benefiting the organization as a whole.
According to Muchinsky's book, Psychology Applied to Work: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology, most industrial-organizational psychologists work in one of six major subject areas:
1. Training and Development: Professional in this area often determine what type of skills are necessary to perform specific jobs as well as develop and evaluate employee training programs. 2. Employee Selection: This area involves developing employee selection assessments, such as screening tests to determine if job applicants are qualified for a particular position. 3. Ergonomics: The field of ergonomics involves designing procedures and equipment designed to maximize performance and minimize injury. 4. Performance Management: I-O psychologists who work in this area develop assessments and techniques to determine if employees are doing their jobs well. 5. Work Life: This area focuses on improving employee satisfaction and maximizing the productivity of the workforce. I-O psychologists in this area might work to find ways to make jobs more rewarding or design programs that improve the quality of life in the workplace. 6. Organizational Development: I-O psychologists who work in this area help improve organizations, often through increasing profits, redesigning products, and improving the organizational structure.
SCOPE OF CORPORATE PSYCHOLOGY
Corporate psychology has a very wide and expansive scope. Its emergence was most felt after World War I, a time in world history when the study of psychology was beginning to emerge and develop great interest around the world. Seeming to build off of the Modernist movement and its belief that individuals are composed of multiple forms of motivation, corporate psychology (I/O) was concerned with the psyche of the worker, successful motivating elements within them, and how businesses can modify approaches in order to tap into this reservoir of productivity.
6. Study of Human Relation: Industrial psychology is the study or human behaviour in an industrial context. Being a branch of psychology, industrial psychology is particularly concerned with the observation and study, of human relations, about which it reaches conclusions experimentally and through other study. On the basis of these conclusions it tries to discover general principles which can be in improving social relations between the workers and the management.
ROLE AND SKILLS IMPORTANT FOR A CORPORATE PSYCHOLOGIST
A workplace must operate smoothly and efficiently in order to foster success. In businesses where employees are happy and healthy, quality of life is a priority and the organizational infrastructure is strong. Conflicts, when they arise, receive swift and effective resolution. Corporate psychologists can help with all of these tasks, and more. If you like the idea of applying the study of human behaviours to the workplace, this could be the field where you thrive while helping others to do the same.
Role: The work of corporate psychologist is as diverse as it can include a wide array of tasks, a typical workday for someone in this occupation will vary. Many times, they will work within the human resources office of an organization. On a daily basis, they’ll apply principles of psychology and research techniques to help solve problems and improve the quality of life within all divisions of a company administration, management, sales and marketing and more. Below is a breakdown of some common tasks a corporate psychologist may carry out.
Employee screening This can include observing and making notes on employee work styles, then interviewing employees to get a feel for workplace morale. It can also mean conducting employee performance assessments and making recommendations based on the results. Personality tests can be implemented to get an idea of which employees might work best together. Sometimes screening current employees will lead to a psychologist’s recommendation to hire new, better-qualified employees. In those circumstances, hiring practices will be observed and perhaps modified.
Training and development Training sessions for employees are evaluated, then tweaked if necessary, to obtain more desirable results. New training programs may be developed in areas such as management, teamwork, leadership or instruction on new policies. An industrial and organizational psychologist will advise on how to best motivate the workforce based on earlier steps (like employee screening and interviews).
Policy planning and revision Where necessary, industrial and organizational psychologists may recommend changes to current policies and procedures that are found to be ineffective or lower morale among employees. In some cases, they may help rewrite certain policies or completely overhaul the entire company handbook.
Organizational restructuring and planning for the future This may include working with management to make changes within the company that improve worker productivity. Top-down restructuring, where officials and management are placed in new roles based on successful business models at other companies in the same industry may be necessary.
Once a new plan is implemented, psychologists are tasked with helping communicate it to employees and aiding in the transition itself.
Corporate psychologists who work as consultants may be given project work. This can run the gamut in terms of scope; they may be hired to simply observe, interview employees and make recommendations. Based on those suggestions, they could be brought on to help carry out a larger plan. Sometimes they are hired to ease major transitions, such as when corporate mergers take place.
Skills: Industrial-organizational (IO) psychology has been growing in relevance as we humans have begun to realize just how much of our lives, we spend organizing ourselves into various groups. IO psychologists are particularly concerned with how we behave in the workplace. A successful career in this field is dependent on one’s ability to employ a unique set of qualifications, including these five skills.
1. Emotional Intelligence : Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify one’s own emotions, as well as those of others, and respond to them appropriately. IO psychologists work with diverse groups of individuals in a wide variety of settings, so they must always appeal to unique personality and learning styles. Given that workplace and other organizational relationships are challenging to navigate, they frequently interact with people at their most vulnerable. The ability to balance empathy with professional boundaries is essential in this role. 2. Critical Thinking : IO psychologists are often called in when an organization is broken in some way. Some of their primary tasks include designing and implementing new training regimens, helping employees achieve a healthy work-life balance, and developing new systems for measuring achievement. All of these tasks require strong analytical skills, creativity, a focus on solutions, and the ability to think outside the box. Forbes published an insightful article diving deeper into the key mechanisms of critical thinking. 3. Data Analysis : IO psychology is one of those fields which is focused on both people and data. The success of their work is measured by both individual wellbeing as well as improvements in entire organizations. Whether it is employee workplace satisfaction, human capital retention, or effectiveness of training sessions, IO psychologists must be able to gather and analyze data on the outcome of each project they work on. Furthermore, they must be able to communicate to organizations how best to put that data into practice. 4. Adaptability : IO psychology is a highly dynamic field. Most IO psychologists contract out their services, meaning they work with multiple organizations at once, and they move frequently to new organizations. In other words, this is not the role for someone who prefers going to a nine to five job at the same place every day. On the other hand, it is the perfect role for someone who thrives on changes in environment, excels at time management, and enjoys working with a wide variety of individuals. 5. Technology : It is a digital world that we live in, and this is especially true for IO psychologists. Most of their data tracking and training programs will be online and technical. They must quickly learn to operate each organization’s systems and equipment. A strong foundation in technology and the ability to learn quickly are essential. Given the growing ease of remote employment, many of their interactions with clients will be exclusively online.
1. Formal Groups and Informal Groups : An organization creates and maintains formal groups to fulfil needs or tasks that are included in its mission or organizational goals. In order to achieve its ultimate goal, an organization creates sub-goals which it assigns to different units or departments. These formal groups created by the organization itself are regulated by the organizational rules and regulations. Life of the formal groups may be permanent or temporary depending upon the specific objectives to be fulfilled. Examples of permanent formal groups are board of directors, managing committees etc. and temporary formal groups are exemplified by task force or temporary committees created to fulfil certain specified objectives.
Informal groups are created voluntarily and spontaneously due to the socio- psychological forces operating in the workplace. Individuals working together often develop liking for each other and socialize with each other to overcome the psychological fatigue, boredom and monotony associated with their work. Informal groups are formed as they satisfy the social needs of individuals while at work. As they are not created by the organization, the working of informal groups is not regulated by organizational rules and regulations. As informal groups are smaller in size as compared to formal groups group-cohesiveness is easy to maintain. In-spite of this, informal groups are not very stable.
The instability is primarily due to the personality differences between the members of the informal group. An individual having the capacity to fulfil maximum needs of group members emerges as the informal leader and remains till the members think him capable of it. They are neither formed nor abolished by the management, rather if the management ever tries to abolish informal groups, then it may lead to alienation of employees as a protest against the management’s actions. Jeff Lane was at his wits end. As a newly appointed production manager, he had tried virtually everything to get his workers to achieve the production targets.
The equipment was operating properly, and the group had the training and experience to meet expectations, yet it was not performing well. What was wrong? and what could he do to correct the situation? Managers and supervisors frequently face such a dilemma. What Jeff Lane and other managers/supervisors sometimes fail to realize is that within every organization there are often informal group pressures that influence and regulate individual behaviour. Informal groups formulate an unspoken set of standards establishing acceptable behaviour In Jeff’s department, the informal group may have established a norm below that set by the organization. They were working to reach the target set by their group as they had decided that the targets set by their managers was not acceptable to their group members.
2. Primary and Secondary Groups : Family is a primary group. Immediately after birth the baby comes in contact with the members of the family which is a unit of a group organisation. The baby’s first social life starts in the family itself and because of mutual interaction and direct contact with family members he is socialized by them and made typical member of a group. Upto the age of 5 by and large, the child grows in this primary group. His home can be called his internal environment and also a face to face group besides being a primary group. When the child enters the school, he comes in contact with the teachers, class mates, playmates and neighbours of the external environment and interacts with them.
In the process of interaction, the various psychological processes of his personality grow and transform. Family as a primary group fulfils the primary needs of a child like food, sleep, personal care and love. During the school hours and during play hours these secondary groups influence and shape the characteristics of his personality and socialization. The remaining period of the day is spent
in the family. Unless there is balance in the attitudes, values, aims and motives of the primary and the secondary groups conflict affects the child’s mind and personality. The process of socialization also suffers. The primary and secondary groups have no doubt their own norms, but these norms should not contradict each other at any cost and at any stage.
3. Ingroups and Outgroups : Once a group has been structured and formed with definite norms and goals a sense of belongingness and we feelings, the formation of in-groups and outgroups is visualized. Anybody who goes against the group norms, values and standards of the group, group’s goal and stands against fulfilment of common motivation is seen as an “outgroup”. On the other hand, members of the group who voluntarily go by the group norm and function for the cohesiveness and unity of the group, who like their group and have love, respect for it are said to be the members of the “ingroup”. In a particular group if there is fractionalise there may be one ingroup and one outgroup.
Those who support the group goal and group norm form the “ingroup” and those who oppose the ‘in group’ arc said “outgroup”. Further when two different groups are competing with each other for the solution of some common problems and fulfilment of some common goal, one becomes the outgroup to the other. The example of two competing cricket teams, football teams, cinema producers, yatra parties who are rivals and compete with each other develop ingroup and outgroup feeling. Though the ingroup and outgroup feeling between two separate, but rival groups is desirable to a certain extent, only for the purpose of competition (as competition raises performance), unhealthy rivalry and jealousy is not desirable and conducive.
By avoiding unhealthy competition, jealousy and tension between two different groups, the ingroup and outgroup feelings can be avoided to a great extent. But when one group is divided into two sub groups, i.e. one outgroup and one ingroup due to jealousy, rivalry, love for power, prestige and selfish interest, the team spirit deteriorates, and the group function is affected. No wonder, the group may finally disintegrate. It is therefore advised that the leader of the group and other members should take immediate action to maintain the loyalty, morale and team spirit of the group. Problems should be solved at the initial stage before they grow too difficult. Intra group conflict and tension among the members should be resolved through direct communication. Gap in communication and misunderstanding is one of the major reasons for development of outgroup feeling within a group.
4. Autocratic and Democratic Group : A group coming under the star pattern is said to be a dictator or authoritarian group. The existence of the group depends upon ‘B’ who is the leader of the group. If ‘B’ disappears the whole group would disappear or disintegrate. A dictatorial group is characterized by the autocratic style of functioning of the leader. Thus, in dictatorial group each member knows the other indirectly only through the leader. Members have no direct connection with each other but only through the leader. The role of the individual is minimum as the leader is the fountain head of all responsibilities.
An autocratic leader can be of two types: Hard boiled autocrat and Benevolent autocrat.
- Hard boiled autocrat: The hard-boiled autocrat is very rigid and believes that praise will improve the members efficiency and loyalty in group. He is very much status conscious and does not usually trust the initiative of employees. Because of such behaviour the group members feel tensed, insecure, aggressive and egocentric. According to Kakar (1971) the autocratic leader is an ideal image of the Indian employees.
He may be an ordinary member of a group and may not follow actively the norm and standard of the group. His subjective sense of belongingness to another group called the reference group modifies and changes his behaviour.
Certain reference groups of the world indirectly and psychologically influence us though we are not directly the members of such group. A person who has affiliation for another group develops an “in groups” feeling towards such a reference group.
The activities of such groups directly or indirectly influence our behaviour though we are not members of such group. You are not the member of UNESCO, but you share the activities of UNESCO and relate yourself to its functions and performances.
So, it becomes a reference group for you which directly or indirectly influences your behaviour and activities. Thus, it is clear that although a person is not a member of a group, but it influences his behaviour and he identifies with it, it is a reference group for him.
These groups serve as a standard and a source of group norm. A reference group always acts as a yard stick or standard for assessing the magnitude of relative deprivation, for comparing one’s status and position in his membership group with the reference group where he is not a member. Several studies conducted by New Comb (1958) show that social clubs and college communities are considered important reference groups for college students.
Similarly, studies indicated that the middle-class mothers use medical child psychologists, experts and paediatricians as their reference groups in developing attitude towards child care whereas working class mothers follow their own mother’s attitude as references. It is also found that middle class people follow middle class norms and higher-class people follow higher class norms. Reference groups are usually positive in nature. But in some exceptional cases it may be negative.
Occasionally an individual may be influenced by a group which he dislikes. Children who rebel against their own parents and reject it as their primary group, sometimes become a member of a group or political party opposite to that of their parents like the mother belonging to the BJP and the daughter belonging to the Congress party.
According to Sherif (1948) “ In many cases (perhaps in all) the referring of social attitudes to one group negatively leads to referring them to another group positively or vice versa so that the attitudes are dually reinforced.” But nevertheless, a reference group may not be completely positive or completely negative.
NATURE OF GROUPS
The word group can be explained as two or more people work or interact together for same purpose. When a group of people work together rather than individuals, the aim of the organisation can be simply achieved. However, working together is a multifaceted task. Group dynamics refers to the communications among the members of a group. Working together as a group in any organisation is the most essential for the social characteristics of workers in that company.
There are different types of groups which are created to get some specific results in any organisations. The team members agree to a general task, become mutually dependent relative in
their action, and work together with each other to support its success. There are three views on the nature of act between team members. The first is normative, which explain how to carry out performance and manage the team. The second view is including of a set of method, group building, role play, self-managed groups and sensitivity training of the members. The third is referred as a team dynamic from the point of sight that the internal nature of any groups.
From the moment of birth, a human being lives in the family which can be called a group, a unit of social organisation. It is in this group, the child learns group norms, social values and “dos and don’ts” of the society through interaction.
No individual has any existence apart from his group. From birth till death he is a member of some group or other and his behaviour is constantly influenced by the group to which he belongs at that time. Family as a primary group exerts vast influence on the process of socialization and growth and modification of personality.
Subsequently, secondary groups like neighbourhood, school, playground, peers, playmates and various clubs and organisations influence the growth of the individual and determine his behaviour, action and performance as a whole in the society. Thus, the topic of group has a place in the heart of social psychology.
Groups are formed informally or formally for fulfilment of power, prestige, recognition, satisfaction of social needs like friendship, approval, affiliation, security etc. Groups also help in the development of special gifted abilities like art, music, painting, dramatics etc.
DYNAMICS OF INFORMAL GROUPS
Informal groups almost always arise if opportunities exist. If management prescribes production norms that the group considers unfair, the group’s recourse is to adopt fewer demanding norms and to use its ingenuity to discover ways in which it can sabotage management’s-imposed standards. Thus, they counteract the tendency of the organization to get more output from the workers.
Informal groups have a powerful influence on the effectiveness of an organization. But the informal group’s role is not limited to resistance. The impact of the informal group upon the larger formal group depends on the norms that the informal group sets. So, the informal group can make the formal organization more effective, too.
A norm is an implied agreement among the group’s membership regarding how members in the group should behave. From the perspective of the formal group, norms generally fall into three categories- positive, negative, and neutral,’ In other words, norms either support, obstruct, or have no effect on the aims of the larger organization.
For example, if the informal group in Jeff’s shop set a norm supporting high; output, that norm would have been more powerful than any attempt by Jeff to force compliance with the standard. The reason is simple, yet profound.
The norm is of the group members own choice, and is not one imposed upon them, there is a big motivational difference between being told what to do and being anxious to do it. If Jeff had been aware of group dynamics, he might have realized that informal groups can be either his best friend or his worst enemy. He should’ have been sensitive to the informal groups within his
to affect the leadership and harness the power of informal groups. One quick and sure method of changing a group is to cause the leader to change one or more of his or her characteristics. Another is to replace the leader with another person. One common ploy is to systematically rotate out of the group its leaders and its key members.
Considering the rotational nature of leadership, a leader may emerge who has aims similar to the formal goals of the organization. The supervisor can attempt to ‘co-opt’ informal leaders by absorbing them into the leadership or the decision-making structure of the formal group and thereby make the formal organizations more stable. However, a leader may lose favor with the group because of this association with management, and group members will most likely select another leader.
7. Communications Network- the Grapevine : In the informal group, a person who possesses information vital to the group’s functioning or well-being is frequently afforded leadership status by its members. Also, the centrally located person in the group is in the best position to facilitate the smooth flow of information among group members. Knowing about informal group communication the supervisor can provide a strategically placed individual with information needed by the group. This not only enhances the stature of this individual perhaps elevating him or her to a leadership position but also provides an efficient means of distributing information. Providing relevant information to the group will also help foster harmony between the supervisor and the informal group. By winning the cooperation of informal group leaders the supervisor will most likely experience fewer grievances and better relationships. 8. Group Cohesiveness : Another characteristic of informal groups is group cohesiveness-the force that holds a group together. It is the degree of unity in a group. The more is the unity between the group members, more is the power associated with the group. According to Walker, “Cohesiveness may be defined as the resultant power of a group to think and act as a single unit in pursuit of a common objective.” According to Likert , “Cohesiveness is the attractiveness of the members to the group or resistance of the members to leaving it.” According to Seashore ,” Group cohesiveness is the attraction of the members to the group in terms of the strength of forces on the individual members to remain active in the group and to resist leaving it.” A cohesive group is one in which all the members work towards a common goal by taking responsibilities voluntarily and leave no stone unturned in their efforts to achieve their common goal. An effective leader plays a major role in keeping the members close knit, thereby increasing the group cohesiveness.
DYNAMICS OF FORMAL WORK GROUPS
A group is formal when it is purposely designed to accomplish an organizational objective or task. It is created via formal authority for some defined purpose. A formal group can be a command group or a functional group that is relatively permanent is composed of managers and their subordinates who meet regularly to discuss general and specific ideas to improve product or service.
The formal groups usually work under a single supervisor, even though the structure of these groups may vary. For example, in one form of a group such as in production, the members of the workgroup depend on each other as well as on the supervisor and in another form of group, such as salesforce,
the members of the group work fairly independently, and their common contact may be the district sales manager.
Other types of formal groups include task forces and committees. The task forces are temporary in nature and are set up for some special projects. The committees can be permanent, such as a planning committee, a finance committee or a budget committee and may become an integral part of the organizational structure.
A committee can also be temporary such as a special task force that is set up for a particular purpose and is then disbanded when the purpose is achieved. For example, the committee to re-elect the President is temporary in nature and is disbanded after the election. The formal groups are formed to fulfil any of the following purposes: To capitalize the expertise of each individual towards the accomplishment of complex tasks. To make use of synergy, i.e. collective efforts of group members yields better results than an individual working separately. To facilitate a proper decision-making, as with many people in a group the conflicting ideas and thoughts arise that could be considered to formulate a better decision. To help others in the group to learn new skills and to know about the details of the organizational environment. To satisfy the personal needs of social affiliations, i.e. need to get accepted by others.
TEAM WORK – LIFE CYCLE OF A TEAM, INGREDIENTS OF EFFECTIVE TEAMS, POTENTIAL TEAM PROBLEMS
The sum of the efforts undertaken by each team member for the achievement of the team’s objective is called team work. In other words, team work is the backbone of any team. Every member in a team has to perform and contribute in his best possible way to achieve a common predefined goal. Individual performances do not count in a team and it is the collective performance of the team workers which matters the most.
Team work is actually the collective effort of each and every team member to achieve their assigned goal. No member can afford to sit back and expect the other member to perform on his behalf. The team members must be committed towards their team as well as their organization to avoid conflicts. Nothing productive comes out of unnecessary conflict and in turn diverts the concentration and focus of the team members. Every member should adopt an adjusting and a flexible attitude. One should consider his team members as a part of his extended family all working together towards a common goal. The team members must be dependent on each other for the best to come out.
Life Cycle of a Team: Psychologist Bruce Tuckman first came up with the memorable phrase "forming, storming, norming, and performing" in his 1965 article, " Developmental Sequence in Small Groups ." He used it to describe the path that most teams follow on their way to high performance. Later, he added a fifth stage, "adjourning" (which is sometimes known as "mourning"). Let's look at each stage in more detail.
1. Forming: In this stage, most team members are positive and polite. Some are anxious, as they haven't fully understood what work the team will do. Others are simply excited about the task ahead. As leader, you play a dominant role at this stage, because team members' roles and responsibilities
Fairness in Decision-Making: Ideally, teams will make decisions by consensus. When consensus is not feasible, teams will use fair decision-making procedures that everyone agrees on.
Creativity: Effective teams’ value original thinking and will produce new and unique approaches to organizational problems.
Accountability: Members must be accountable to each other for getting their work done on schedule and following the group’s rules and procedures.
Purpose and Goals: Every team member must clearly understand the purpose and goals for bringing this particular group of individuals together.
Action Plans: Help the team determine what advice, assistance, training, materials, and other resources it may be needed.
Roles & Responsibilities: Teams operate most efficiently if they tap everyone’s talents. All members understand their own duties and know who is responsible for what.
Information Sharing: Effective discussions depend upon how well information is passed between team members – hoarding information cannot be tolerated. A proliferation of new technologies has made this easier than it has ever been.
Good Data: With information sharing comes the requirement for good data. Teams that use good data for problem-solving and decision making have a much easier time arriving at permanent solutions to problems.
Meeting Skills and Practices: All team members must commit to a common method for conducting meetings. There is no ‘best’ method, but everyone must be on the same page.
Decision Making: This is really a subset of the ‘Skills & Practices’. There is no ‘one way’ to reach a decision, but it must be a recognized path and transparent to all team members.
Participation: Since every team member has a stake in the group’s achievements, everyone should participate in discussions and decisions, share a commitment to the team’s success, and contribute their talents.
Ground Rules: Groups invariably establish ground rules (or “norms”) for what will and will not be tolerated within the group. Many members will want to skip the laying of ground rules, but in the long run investment up front will head off major issues down the road.
Clear Roles: How we apportion the team purpose will in large measure determine the- team synergy. High-performing teams leverage individuals’ different roles against collective work products. Therefore, it is essential that every team member is clear about his or her own role as well as the role of every other team member. Roles are about the design, division, and deployment of the work of the team. While the concept is compellingly logical, many teams find it challenging to implement. There is often a tendency to take role definition to extremes or not to take it far enough.
Accepted Leadership: High-performance teams need competent leadership. When such leadership is lacking, groups can quickly lose their way. Whereas a common, compelling task might be the biggest contributor to team effectiveness, inadequate team leadership is often the single biggest reason for team ineffectiveness. In most organizational settings, it is the leader who frames the team purpose and facilitates discussions on its meaning and nature. The vision, commitment, and communication of the leader govern the optics through which individual team members see the team purpose and become aligned to it. Effective Processes: Teams and processes go together. It would never occur to a surgical team, construction crew, string quartet, or film crew to approach tasks without clearly defined processes. The playbook of a football team or the score sheet of a string quartet clearly outlines the necessary processes. Business teams have processes as well, which might include solving problems, making decisions, managing a meeting, or designing a product.
Solid Relationships: One of the biggest misperceptions in the world of teams and teamwork is the belief that to work and communicate effectively, team members must be friends. In fact, the diversity of skills, experience, and knowledge needed to divide tasks effectively almost precludes high levels of friendship, which is most often based on commonality of the way people think, their interests, or beliefs.
Excellent Communication: Communication is the very means of cooperation. One of the primary motives of companies choosing to implement teams is that team-based organizations are more responsive and move faster. A team cannot move faster than it communicates. Fast, clear, timely, accurate communication is a hallmark of high levels of team performance. High-performance teams have mastered the art of straight talk; there is little motion wasted through misunderstanding or confusion.
Potential Team Problems The busyness of a project manager’s day-to-day business means problems are often brushed aside with the hope that they will just disappear – which they rarely do. Be proactive instead. Address any issues and create a successful project team. Here we list some of the most common problems that project teams face. By confronting these – and therefore improving project outcomes – you can boost your own career, while working better together benefits everyone on the team.
1. Lack of trust: Trust is crucial to teamwork, and it starts with people knowing each other. Team members absolutely need to be acquainted, both professionally and personally, particularly in projects where tensions will run high at some point. Otherwise members won’t understand each other, they won’t want to engage because they haven’t made that human connection and they won’t fully trust each other. 2. Conflict and tension: Conflict or a difference of opinion can be healthy and, if carefully managed, can trigger useful debates. It can make people think differently, expanding knowledge and insight; innovation can happen and results flourish. Different opinions are not a bad thing. It’s how we handle the conflict that makes a difference. 3. Not sharing information: Knowledge is not power unless it’s shared. Project team members all bring a unique set of skills, knowledge, experience and wisdom to the table. Effective project teams fearlessly share regularly and generously for the benefit of everyone and for the benefit of the project’s success. This makes the capability of the whole team grow and gives the team more power.
If you want to create a great project team, pay particular attention to behaviours. How we behave has an impact on others and affects how they behave. It’s when we change our behaviours that we can achieve transformational change.
TEAM BUILDING – PROCESS, SKILLS USEFUL IN TEAM BUILDING, SELF MANAGING TEAMS
Team building is a management technique used for improving the efficiency and performance of the workgroups through various activities. It involves a lot of skills, analysis and observation for forming a strong and capable team. The whole sole motive here is to achieve the organization vision and objectives. Forming a great team requires a lot of skills and presence of mind. Usually, some managers specialize in team-building skills and are hired by the companies on this parameter.
The manager responsible for team building must be able to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the team members and create the right mix of people with different skill sets. He must focus on developing strong interpersonal relations and trust among the team members.
The manager must encourage communication and interaction among the team members and also reduce stress with the help of various team-building activities. He must clearly define the goals and objectives of the organization to the team members. He must also specify the role of each member in the team to direct them towards the achievement of the organizational goals.
Team Building Process Team building is not a one-time act. It is a step by step process which aims at bringing a desirable change in the organization. Teams are usually formed for a particular task or project and are mostly for the short term.
1. Identify the Need for Team Building: The manager has first to analyze the requirement of a team for completing a particular task. It should find out the purpose of the work to be performed, required skills for the job and its complexity before forming a team. 2. Define Objectives and Required Set of Skills: Next comes the chalking down of the organizational objectives and the skills needed to fulfil it. 3. Consider Team Roles: The manager considers the various aspects, i.e. the interactions among the individuals, their roles and responsibilities, strengths and weaknesses, composition and suitability of the possible team members. 4. Determine a Team Building Strategy: Now, the manager has to understand the operational framework well to ensure an effective team building. He must himself be assured of the objectives, roles, responsibilities, duration, availability of resources, training, the flow of information, feedback and building trust in the team. 5. Develop a Team of Individuals: At this stage, the individuals are collected to form a team together. Each member is made familiar with his roles and responsibilities within the team. 6. Establish and Communicate the Rules: The rules regarding the reporting of team members, meeting schedules, and decision making within the team are discussed. The individuals are encouraged to ask questions and give their views to develop open and healthy communication in the team. 7. Identify Individual’s Strengths: Various team-building exercises are conducted to bring out the strengths of the individuals. It also helps in familiarizing the team members with each other’s strengths and weakness.
8. Be a Part of the Team: At this point, the manager needs to get involved with the team as a member and not as a boss. Making the individuals realize their importance in the team and treating each member equally is necessary. The team members should see their manager as their team leader, mentor and role model. 9. Monitor Performance: Next step is checking the productivity and performance of the team as a whole. It involves finding out loopholes and the reasons for it. This step is necessary to improve the team’s performance and productivity in the long run. 10. Schedule Meetings: One of the most crucial steps is to hold purposeful meetings from time to time to discuss team performance, task-related problems and discuss the future course of action. 11. Dissolve the Team: Lastly, the manager needs to evaluate the results and reward the individuals on their contribution and achievement. Finally, the team is dispersed on the fulfilment of the objective for which it was formed.
Skills useful in Team Building:
1. Communication: If you are helping to unite a team, you need to have strong communication skills. Using both written and verbal communication skills, you will have to explain company goals, delegate tasks, resolve conflicts between members, and more. It is important that you are able to clearly express ideas in ways that others can understand. In order to problem solve and make sure every team member feels heard, you will also have to listen. You will need to understand the concerns of every member so that they each feel that they are being considered and appreciated. Clarity Specificity Facilitating Group Discussion Interpersonal Active Listening Reading Body Language (Nonverbal Communication) Written Communication Verbal Communication 2. Problem Solving: When team building, you will need to solve problems. These might include issues related to the group’s goals. However, these might also include interpersonal problems between group members. A team builder must help to resolve both. He or she needs to be a mediator who can listen to two sides of a problem and help everyone come to an agreement. The goal of a team builder is to solve problems in a way that helps the team achieve its goals and keeps its members working well together. Brainstorming Achieving Consensus Conflict Resolution Mediation Negotiation Problem Sensitivity Analytical Skills Flexibility 3. Leadership: Being a team builder often requires assuming a leadership role for a team. You need to make decisions when there is conflict, establish group goals, and confront team members that are not producing their best. All of this requires leadership and management. Aligning Team Goals with Company Goals Decision Making
