Enhancing Team Performance

Enhancing Team Performance

            Managerial responsibility calls for commitment towards crucial management activities, which aid in realizing organizational capability. As a manager in today’s world where technological and social changes are taking place rapidly, one is expected to adapt to perform effectively towards achieving the organizational goal. Performance can be described as the achievement of an organization in relation to the business objectives. It includes the milestone accomplished towards the achievement of the organization’s strategic objectives, either through individual or team contributions. Performance is an impact that includes both economic and behavioural outcomes. Performance cannot be randomly attained but involves a sequence of set sub-goals and measures that lead to the realization of the ultimate organizational goal. According to (Katzenbach and Smith 2015), organization management thus uses various concepts and theories to improve team performance and realize the desired results. Over the year’s theorists have been developing the most suitable forms of business concepts and theories, which are most appropriate for different business settings. Although some theories were developed centuries ago, they are still relevant in today’s business environment (Hawthorne and Demand 2013). The aim of this paper is to discuss various concepts and theories relating to team working and performance management.

Management Theories for Improving Teamwork and Performance

Scientific management theory

Fredrick Taylor, who was an American mechanical engineer, pioneered the scientific management theory. He is one of the earliest management theorists to study work performance scientifically. In his theory, Taylor emphasized that forcing employees to work hard is not the best approach to optimize performance. He recommended that business organizations must aim at breaking down tasks into smaller units in order to improve productivity. Although scientific management theory was concerned more about output rather than employee motivation, it encouraged business owners to work with their subordinates to increase productivity and efficiency. In the modern business environment, the theory organizations use Taylor’s theory to standardize tools and techniques to complete various tasks. Because the team members operate in the same mechanistic approach, it improves predictability, consistency and reduces errors. As such, it is easy for the management to replace workers in the team and retain high performance.

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The Maslow hierarchy of needs was pioneered by Abraham Maslow in the 1940s. According to his theory, people tend to strive to seek higher needs when they have fulfilled their lower desires (Poston 2009, p.348). As such, individuals will only move to the next level only after they have satisfied their previous wants. Desires are thus motivators until they have been met. Abraham attempts to create a reason among different levels of motivation, indicating that motivation needs range from basic physiological needs to individual growth. He also identified that human motivational factors influence what n individual aspire for and are in a systematic order. As such, if individuals are struggling to meet their basic needs, they will not be motivated to better themselves, but when each need is fulfilled, the desire to grow will also develop.

McGregor’s Theory X, Theory Y model

According to this theory, there are two ways to manage and motivate individuals.  In this theory, McGregor suggests that managers often tend to move towards theory X, which mostly results in poor outcomes (Lawter, Kopelman and Prottas 2015, p.85). On the other hand, smart and successful managers use theory Y, which yields better performances and outcomes, allow employees to grow and develop in their roles.

Expectancy Theory

The expectancy theory was pioneered by victor vroom in 1964, producing a systematic theory of motivation in the work environment. It demonstrates the connection between expected outcomes and rewards. According to vroom’s theory, employees become will become what you expect from them (Parijat and Bagga 2014, p.3). For instance, when managers praise a project team and treat the members as a valuable contributor, it will most likely lead to high performance. However, continued criticism will often lead to low morale, which has a negative impact on the team’s performance.  In this sense, the management must come up with achievable objectives which can inspire the team members, and develop suitable rewards to tie to those objectives.

Teamwork Theory

Teamwork theory was first brought forward by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. It involves various stages, including forming, storming, norming and performing. It is one of the most important team development theories, which has formed the basis for many further ideas since it was established. The theory focuses on approaches in which a team can tackle various tasks from the initial stage of forming the team through to completion. According to (Shearer 2012) this theory is very important to team building challenges as its various phases pertains to the completion of any task undertaken by a team (Shearer 2012). One critical aspect of team building activities is that team members have the opportunity to observe their behaviour with a measurable timeframe. In most cases, teams work in projects which might last months or years, which can be difficult to understand experience in the context of completed tasks.

John Adair’s Action Centred Leadership Model

John Adair’s leadership model provides an important framework for leadership and management of any team. It is a simple leadership and management model, which allows organizational managers to remember and apply, and to adapt to their own working environment. Good business managers must have the capacity to follow the model blueprint ensuring they adhere to all the three main parts and use each element according to a specific circumstance. Doing this helps to keep the right balance, get desired outcomes, improve employee morale, improve quality and develop high performance and successful teams.

Strategies to Improve Team Performance

Maintaining Communication and Continues Feed Back

Marinating communication by providing immediate feedback, ensure that all team members understand what is required of them. Creating a communication friendly environment in the workplace is crucial for team performance. To communicate effectively, a manager must show a certain level of patient and allow his subordinates to express their opinions. In addition, feedback is a critical skill that every leader must possess. It is not just about giving feedback to the team members, but also receiving feedback is crucial for the efficient sharing of information within the team. According to (Shearer 2012), providing regular feedback keeps all team members on track and helps the team to avoid costly errors by creating a clear and honest flow of information during team collaborations. This also helps save time due to errors caused by miscommunication between team members. Therefore constructive feedback is an important tool for creating a healthy work environment that boosts overall performance and productivity, achieving better outcomes.

Setting Clear Goals and Expectations

In the first stage of teamwork, the theory requires that leaders come with clear and concise goals and expectations. Teams without clear goals and expectations will be naturally aimless. Managers have to provide them with clear, achievable objectives, ensuring there are measurable standards put in place to evaluate performance. For example, coaches ‘ performances are evaluated through their win and loss records, while performance by CEOs of different organizations is assessed through the outputs received. Group goal setting and a learning goal orientation compared to performance goal orientation lead to higher performance (Lunenburg 2011, p.3). Managers thus use goal setting as a means of improving performance. Individuals who have been provided with the mandate to attain specific complex goals perform better than those provided with easy or nonspecific goals (expectancy theory). The expectancy theory by victor vroom supports this concept that workers and team members must have a clear understanding of what is expected of them, which in turn yields the desired performance levels. Setting clear goals also involves defining and communicating team and organizational vision. This paints a clear, long-term and measurable picture of the future of the business and the team. If a team has no vision, team members might end up working hard, but important outcomes might still not be achieved. Having a clear vision will bring the team together, to work under a common objective and not just working aimlessly. The strategy gives the team and their managers the capacity to know where exactly they are within vision at a specific time and whether they are getting closer to achieving their goals.

Resolving Conflicts

People have different perspectives, and in certain circumstances, they might escalate to conflicts. It is upon the mangers to come up with appropriate approaches to ensure the conflict works to the advantage of the team (Cloke and Goldsmith 2011). Conflict in the team is not necessarily a bad thing. Healthy and constructive conflict is an important component of high-performance teams. When a member of the team has varied experiences, skills and opinions, they can combine their efforts to achieve what an individual could not accomplish. As such, it is important for the team members must be open the opinion differences and not let them blow up into disputes. In the leadership model, John Adair provides an explanation of how managers and leaders can enhance emotional discipline among team members. Therefore the manager must have the ability to understand various viewpoints that are key to solving a conflict. The important thing is for the manager to initiate a balance of constructive differences of opinion and avoid the negative side of a conflict (Cloke and Goldsmith 2011). According to Tuckman’s theory, it is the responsibility of the manager to come up with solutions. To maintain performance, the managers should, therefore, have well-developed skills to keep the conflict positive and healthy.

Motivation and Adapting To Changes

According to McGregor, smart and successful managers use theory Y, which yields better performances and outcomes, allow employees to grow and develop in their roles.  According to (Shearer 2012), shared responsibility give the team members a positive working environment without constant blame.  To build and maintain high-performance teams, managers must focus on motivating addressing employees as a group and not individually. This important, especially with the modern business environment changing rapidly. Organizations managers must look for ways to help employees adapt to these changes. Changes such as  (new technology, mergers, new priorities, reorganization, as well as downsizing and reassignments) may affect the functions of an organization and may bring forth stress, fear, or criticism. These effects brought forth by changes may determine how the organization relates to its employees and how they deliver. A redefining moment is thus required. Employees should be proactive, open to change, problem solving, and creative in today’s work environment, since learning goal orientation is relevant.  As the manager, one is entitled to use organizational renewal models to impose discipline and other management sanctions (Shearer 2012). This will help bring forth high performance in organizations.

Conducting Performance Appraisals

Organizational effectiveness as a measure towards achieving organizational goals is essential. It is the duty and mandate of every manager to ensure that they are maximizing the outputs while minimizing the inputs of an organization (Shearer 2012). Effective performance appraisals are essential in evaluating how resources are used for goal achievement. Several factors, though, should be considered when using behaviourally centred scales to conduct a performance appraisal system. This is so since appraisal affects not only the victim, but it is bound to encourage the manager to give feedback that is behaviourally consistent, thorough, and specific. Appraisal provides a platform where an employee is integrated into the organization’s culture. This helps improve teamwork and increase positive attitude change since areas that cause stress such as harshness, prejudice in areas of gender, race, and age are identified and addressed. This results in increased high performance.

Conclusion

Effective management is the backbone of any business organization. To build a high-performance team, managers must consider several theories that deal with motivation and employee management.  Employees should also recognize and accept the importance of teamwork.   Theories such as leadership theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, theory Y model, Teamwork theory and Expectancy theory are crucial in building a working team.  Team members should also acknowledge and embrace teamwork. Applying proactive strategic management concepts will also help keep the team cohesive.

References

Cloke, K. and Goldsmith, J., 2011. Resolving conflicts at work: Ten strategies for everyone on the job. John Wiley & Sons.

Hawthorne, M. and Demand, M., 2013. Management theories & concepts at the workplace. Demand Media, Chron.

Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K., 2015. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.

Lawter, L., Kopelman, R.E. and Prottas, D.J., 2015. McGregor’s theory X/Y and job performance: A multilevel, multi-source analysis. Journal of Managerial Issues, pp.84-101.

Lunenburg, F.C., 2011. Goal-setting theory of motivation. International journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), pp.1-6.

Poston, B., 2009. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Surgical technologist, 41(8), pp.347-353.

Parijat, P. and Bagga, S., 2014. Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation–An evaluation. International Research Journal of Business and Management, 7(9), pp.1-8.

Shearer, D.A., 2012. Management styles and motivation. Radiology man