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All the individuals in a team should not be free riders instead they should be actively involved in the activities of the team. We were all keen in delivering a project that will have a great legacy in the future. At first we were harmonious as a team but we were still being faced with many difficulties in communication and team work. As a group we improved our working skills and developed a positive conflict which enabled us not to be any more limited in thoughts and we were also able to generate a grater variety of innovative ideas.
As a group we started meeting regularly because we found out that the reason as to why we avoided conflicts is because we had not known each other for long and feared embarrassing each other. Some of the members in our team are non-native English speakers and as a result some of us who are native English speakers communicated with our external beneficiaries. As an individual I became more motivated as compared to before and instead engaged in thorough research to enable the team get potential partnerships for our group to communicate with. This was not yet enough and as result I proposed identification of more than one charity and finally all members became more involved since the deadline was approaching and as a result we were successful in creating legacy with UK online centers.
As a group when working together you should all have some personality that should help in making the team grow in the right way. There is a need to develop team working skills, have positive conflict in your team so as not to be limited in your thoughts and also to enable you generate great variety of innovative ideas. You should not avoid conflict in fear of embarrassing each other but instead you should learn to respect other peoples’ idea. Issues in the team should be raised up and also problems in the group because failure to do this can lead to even greater problems in the process of delivering the project. Interested people in our group contributed in various ways in the growth of the team, partnering with the UK online Centers enabled us generate legacy with the Career Services Centre and Volunteering and this enabled the team to further promote the project and pass it on to people outside the group who were willing to contribute to the project.
The people interviewed at the career Services Centre regarding to our project expressed interest in the project in that they believed our idea to be successful as it created a legacy in continuing with the project. The interviewees found it fascinating in that it not only provided a great social impact but also a learning opportunity. When people express interest in your work as a team you get to know whether they are confident in you or not and in return do not hesitate in giving you a credit, for instance when the UK online Centers expressed interest in our project and believed that we had the ability to deliver the project as a success since we had the skills and methods necessary for that particular project. Getting such commends from people whom we have partnered with was of great importance and motivated us even more and in return we became more efficient in carrying out our duties since someone was having a great interest.
Contributors to the group activity also have an impact in the way the group is run. This is because you get to know better the kind of clients you are working with and their expectations. After we had an interview with a contributor to our community project we could better detect the mentality and true feelings of the people who are directly involved in our services. If you get a response you are likely to get more motivated and even improve you activities. When you get this information as a group you can decide on what step to take next. We can say that all the people who are involved in any activity in the organization have different roles to play thy have different abilities, behaviors, feelings, plan and they react differently to outcomes. Organizations can be social, cultural or even business oriented and are made up of individuals who are involved in different activities in the running of the organisation. People in an organization have different relationships among themselves depending on how they know each other and the extent to which they interact with one another. This gives rise to team dynamics. Team dynamics can be described as unforeseen forces that operate in groups of people who are in teams and are engaging in the same activity. Team dynamics in organizations can strongly influence the way a team reacts to situations and this can have either a positive or negative effect in the team. (Woodman, 1993).
Knowing one another in a team or not having knowledge of one another can have effects in the way the organization undertakes its activities. I and my team mates met with each other only for a short duration of time prior to our project .This made us act courteously and in a polite manner and as a result we always compromised with one another easily when one of the group members raised an idea and as a result our thoughts were limited hence restricted from generating a variety of innovative ideas the reason being that we did not want to embarrass each other. This in return made us face a lot of hindrance in delivering the project.
Existence of diversity among team members can also be a source of dynamics within the organization. In our team we had people from different nationalities and also people with different mentalities. People of different diversity always have different opinions on matters, this is the reason as to why we found it difficult to understand each others’ opinion because we all see things form different points of view because of the difference in cultural difference. Individuals who have diversity and are working together are supposed to try their best so as to understand each others’ thoughts better and this can be achieved by taking time to know one another better where by during the meetings each individual is given an opportunity to express ideas and the whole team to engage in discussion so as to decide on whether to take the suggested idea or to ignore it.
Forms of communication that a team uses while communicating among the members can also be a cause of team dynamics. Teams should put into practice formal communication methods which are vertical, horizontal or diagonal in nature. Where informal communication methods are used the team can suffer negative team dynamics. If a team allows grape vine which is either in form of gossips and rumors, individuals involved in the gossips may get discouraged if the rumors were negative and they are likely to withdraw from the team which may cause a great lose to the team.
Communication barriers which may be in form of language, failure to listen and time can have effects to the team. In our team English which was the language of communication was a second language to some members in the team and as a result it became a barrier in our communication and as result we had to rely on native English speakers in communicating with our external beneficiaries where else the non-native English speakers used the non-verbal forms of communication which includes writing and sending emails. Lack of a common language of communication can be a cause of misunderstanding among team members and as a team you can have problems in making of important decision that concerns the whole team. Where there are communication barriers the team members are likely to fail to understand one another hence there may be difficulties in making some important decisions that concern the team.
As a member of the team I realized that the wide organizational context is highlighted by processes, values, timings, business logics and various ways through which things are done in the organization and as a result Team dynamics in an organization must be recognized so that the concerned persons should put emphasis on positive dynamics which are likely to improve the organization and instead avoid negative ones which can affect the organization in a negative way. To recognize team dynamics, as a team you need to put into consideration forces within the team that may influence the team in terms of its behavior.
PART 3
An organization is a formal or informal place in which all the factors of production normally are integrated and coordinated; they include materials, human resources, machines and the management which has a main aim of ensuring that the organizational objectives are met. This organizational process is continuous in nature and changes with time. Organizational Dynamics are evident in all forms of organization and focus on conflicts, problematic behaviors, challenges, concerns pertaining to change, communication and team dynamic which is difficult to handle. Leadership and staff issues interfering with individual’s productivity in addition to organizational goals form part of the organizational dynamics. (Kotter, 1973).
Organizational dynamics also refer to evolutionary change that take place within an organization and are in response to other external influences. They include organizational product or growth lifecycle, strategic plan changes, market forces, work place reform and work trend changes. Recognizing organizational dynamics is important especially as pertains to the impact they may have on career development path of clients hence a corrective action should be taken in good time to eliminate chances of adverse effects in the organization.
Organizations have formal structures, processes, values, timing and patterns of interacting. As a member of a team you should know the kind of structure that the organization you work for has and also its components. This will enable you know the constituents of the organization you interact with and the dynamics that may arise within it and the effects of this to the whole organization. Like any other religious, social, and cultural organization a company has its set objectives. This is of most importance because the set objectives determine management pattern and sales of operations. The organizational structure should be built up in a way such that it will fulfill the objectives relating to the particular organization. Structures differ from one organization to another and their implementation give rise to organizational dynamics because the various activities concerned in ensuring that the set objective is met is exposed to very many determining factors. (Allcorn, 2005).
Each organization has principles that it uses in directing the efforts of the employees or team members. Each organization has a different organizational structure and as a result the principles governing one organization may be different from the other. Although the guiding principles of a particular organization may be different from the other Henri Fayol laid down some principles that are applicable to all the organizations and once an organization follows them it becomes possible for it to run its affairs smoothly. These principles include;
- Subordination of an individuals’ interest to the common good of the organization
- Division of labor
- Discipline
- Authority and responsibility
- Unity of command
- Unity of direction
- Order
- Justice
- Hierarchy
- Remuneration of team members
- Centralization
Organizational dynamics may arise when the management attempts to administer various principles in order to be in the same path with organizational structure which comes along in different ways. These are;
- Line or scalar organization- authority originates from the top in this organization, it then flows to the subordinate executives through the various departments.
- Functional or staff organization- Authority originates from the top and flows functionally to the subordinate executives.
- Line and staff organization- It’s a combination of the two types of organization; scalar and functional or staff and line or scalar organization. Line organization is for departmental set up and defining lines of authority used in the organization. The functional organizational provides advice and assistance which is done by staff officers though this falls outside their main duty.
Team work should always be operated at an intelligence level well below individual work the reason being that team learning is hindered when the team employs defensive routines and as a result teams should aim at preventing to incur it. Conflicts in teams are always evident and are essential elements as they encourage creative thinking. Different approaches that teams employ in handling conflicts and defensive routines indicate competencies of that particular team. Defensive routines are habits for which most people get used to not revealing their real way of thinking so as to prevent embarrassments. This habit becomes reinforced in an organization and it eventually becomes part of that organisational culture.
Defensive routines should be criticized as an obstacle against the groups collective learning. Some recommendations that can be used to reduce defensive routines includes mutual inquiry and self- disclosure for which the individual is supposed to reveal his real thinking to the group members as well as motivating one other to do the same. Team members ought to be aware of defensive routine signals, and then try to discourage the bad habit so that the team can learn and advance team goals.
I and my team mates had various choices available, in order to deliver a sustainable project we were to take some and leave others behind. First there was a need to develop team working skills and stop compromising with each other when one of us raised an idea .Having conflicts amongst ourselves was also necessary if the project was to succeed, there was also a need to contribute ideas especially during the initial stages of our project. A clear leader was also required for the team. These choices were for various intended outcomes though some other unintended outcomes also came about.
When working with a team you are supposed to encourage efficiency and effectiveness in the team work, encourage the team in moving on especially during critical moments and there is a need to assure that as team mates work is completed in good time so as to avoid delaying the schedule. As a group when working together you should all have some personality that should help in making the team grow in the right way. There is a need to develop team working skills, have positive conflict in the team so as not to be limited in your thoughts and also to enable you generate great variety of innovative ideas. You should not avoid conflict in fear of embarrassing each other but instead you should learn to respect other peoples’ idea. Issues in the team should be raised up and also problems in the group because failure to do this can lead to even greater problems in the process of delivering the project.
PART 4
The most important lesson that I have learnt from this project is that when choosing a team to work with I should identify a co-operative team that is positive in nature so that during the time when I will be working with it we will be able to set and work towards the achievement of our set objective. As an individual I should be in a position to take action should there arise a need that am able to take care of. (West, 2002).
For instance when we were doing our community outreach project as a team we had a difficulty situation of locating any form of organization that could be positive in co-operating with the team during the specified period of time you wanted. Even after communicating with a number of potential charities, as a team we found that we did not get a positive response instantly from them and realized that we had limited time. As an individual I became more motivated as compared to before and instead engaged in thorough research to enable the team get potential partnerships for our group to communicate with. This was not yet enough and as result I proposed identification of more than one charity and finally all members became more involved since the deadline was approaching and we were successful in creating legacy with UK online centers.
As an individual am not actively motivated in the first place when am assigned to complete something, though if under time pressure I can become participative than before. This should not always be the case because if I be inactive in the beginning of an activity that am supposed to accomplish in the long run I may suffer in that some of the activities that I was supposed to have accomplished at the beginning may not be done and this can result to problems in the team am working with and some objectives may not be met. Work should also be delegated to the people who are supposed to carry it as the activities of the team begin.Methods and processes of communication between the team members should be specified to ensure that the work assigned is completed effectively and within the time limit. Lastly every team member should be actively involved in the activities that the team engages in to ensure that all team members are motivated to continue belonging to the team that they all benefit from the effort that are collectively made by those who are much involved in the team.
