Navigating Teamwork Challenges in the Workplace

Summarise the presentation

From the research that has been carried out, we can conclude that team work can be defined as a group of individuals with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set common performance goals, and adopt an approach allowing the team members to hold themselves mutually responsible for the performance of the team. (Sanyal and Hisam 2018).

This presentation analyses 2 teamwork problems:

lack of trust

Overemphasizing abstract goals.

The discussion of each of the problems identifies common causes and effects on teamwork and gives an example of situation where these problems can appear in the workplace and can affect teamwork.

Lack of trust: trust is a crucial element in the performance of a team at the workplace. Lack of trust can sprout from acts such as blackmail among members and cause disintegration and demoralization of teamwork. For instance, one member of a team may take advantage of teamwork to conduct unlawful activities such as pilferage at the workplace.

To effectively build trust, the manager should build effective communication among team members in order to allow members to share their problems and also communicate risky behaviour for quicker mitigation (Alghamdi and Bach 2018).

Overemphasizing abstract goals: goal setting is a crucial aspect in motivating teamwork in pursuance of clearly set goals (Alghamdi and Bach 2018). However, overemphasizing abstract goals demotivates the team members who see no value in working as a team. For example the goal of the team may be better performance, but in no specific focus. This is an abstract goal.

To mitigate the challenge of abstract goals, the manager should focus on building transformative leadership which will offer direction and adopt SMART goal setting that will motivate teamwork’s commitment to pursuing specific, measurable goals (Algatawenh 2013).

On the other hand, despite these challenges, team work in the workplace can be a better answer for success. Here are presented some of the benefits:

Potential benefits of team work

Promotes innovation: working in a group implies working more creatively. When working in a team , individuals are normally more confident and they can expose creative ideas and combining these unique perspectives from each other can help to arrive to effective and functional solutions for problems (Tinuke 2013)

improves communication skills: increased communication gained by working in a group will facilitate a conflict resolution as the team requires to work collectively towards a common goal (Algatawenh 2013)

increases skills and knowledge: teamwork enhances the sharing of knowledge and skills which helps members learn and acquire more skills from the fellow member leading to increased productivity (Tinuke 2013)

knowing more about yourself

increased productivity and performance

enables flexibility

Predicting trends

The idea of team work in the workplace continues to expand every year, almost 81 % of employees are working in teams and according to Dom Price 90 % of the organizations claim that they need a team to solve complex issues . Many organizations embrace the power of teams because is the only way to build a successful business (Sanyal and Hisan 2018).

Diversity and cultural differences among staff make teamwork difficult to achieve (Mickan and Roger 2000). Building tolerance among team members is a concrete solution for enhancing teamwork.

Technology advancement in the modern workplace is discouraging teamwork. For example, international organisations embrace the idea of virtual meetings against face to face meetings citing its effectiveness (Sanyal and Hisan 2018). The productivity and success at the workplace should be driven by common vision and goal.

In this demanding and culturally diverse environment, it is essential to promote the development associated with team work and communication skills at an international and intercultural level (Escudeiro, 2011).

Reflections on personal experience: group presentation

From this experience, we learnt that is very important to have a timetable plan and to set clear agendas from the beginning and for this purpose we create a WhatsApp group that helped us to keep in touch all the time. We tried to create a supportive and effective environment for group work, setting up meetings and reviewing the purpose, the roles and ground rules. We were open to criticism in a constructive way that helped us to improve our work. Our commitment was crucial in achieving the final outcome of the presentation.

After this experience we can agree with Henry Ford, who said “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

Reference list

Escudeiro N. F.,Escudeiro P.M.,2011, Multinational Undergraduate Team Work

Alghamdi A and Bach C. 2018. Developing Teamwork at Workplace. International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI) ISSN (Online): 2319 – 8028.

Mickan, S. and S. Rodger. 2000. The organisational context for teamwork: comparing health care and business literature. Australian Health Review, 2000. 23(1): p. 179-192.

Sanyal S and Hisam M. 2018. The Impact of Teamwork on Work Performance of Employees: A Study of Faculty Members in Dhofar University. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) e-ISSN: 2278-487X

Tinuke F. 2013. Towards Effective Team Building in the Workplace. International Journal of Education and Research. Vol. 1 No. 4

Alqatawenh A. 2018. Transformational leadership style and its relationship with change management. Verslas: teorija ir praktika / business: theory and practice. issn 1648-0627 / eissn 1822-4202

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