Building a Teamwork Culture

Introduction

Organizations that anchor teamwork in their culture accrue many benefits both to the company and to their employees. Good teams refer to employees of different cultural background and capabilities joining hand to successfully complete a project. Each team member strives to improve the performance of their colleagues and uses their skills to ensure the success of their project. Through brainstorming exercises, team members are able to generate new ideas for solving the challenges they face. Teamwork also combines the strengths of different member s and helps minimizes their weaknesses. This helps to create more synergy for the organization which results in improved productivity. Since team members have to rely on others for the overall success of their project, they learn how to encourage others, build trust and foster healthy risk-taking. Hypothesis 1: Teamwork improves company performance

Hypothesis 1: The sum performance of a team is higher than the sum performance of individual employees.

Creating a workplace environment that is conducive for collaboration is a process that requires specific activities and a plan that anchor the new operational orientations. The plan must focus on the need to build teams and the specific expectations that the management has on such teams in as far as securing the long-term goals is concerned. The plan must also include a full package of culture with identifiable incentives, events, or rewards that solidify the prosperity of such a culture. For evaluation purposes, the progress of such a culture must be monitored. Any adverse occurrences should be readjusted immediately. Creating a teamwork atmosphere is an integral anchor of success in organizations currently because it instills the focus on the achievement of the mission statement.

There are notable advantages that come with teamwork that managers should understand before venturing into developing the culture. Primary among the advantages is individual commitment. Teamwork allows each individual to participate in the activities of an organization (Mustafa, Glavee-Geo, & Rice, 2017). When an individual is seen as a contributing member of a team, they begin to develop intangible benefits such as contentment, happiness, and self-worth. In the long-term, such values create the need to achieve more besides creating a platform for intellectual learning. Growth that emanates from individuals in organizations is necessary because that is what translates into the organization-wide growth.

The group atmosphere is also critical to the organization and the surrounding society. In an organization, a team consists of independent individuals who have different skills and variations in other factors such as cultural backgrounds (Driskell, Salas, & Driskell, 2018). Combining such varying sets of differences is what instills creativity. an entity with a strong teamwork culture stands a chance of being a market leader courtesy of the accompanying creativity and innovations. Ultimately, a teamwork culture is important to the society because it is what makes an organization relevant (Mustafa, Glavee-Geo, & Rice, 2017). In societies where diversity is a key factor, it is only through teamwork that a team can learn to be diverse enough and explore activities such as the development of supportive infrastructure, participation in communal events, and execution of volunteerism activities assigned to the groups participating. All the above benefits are what an organization need to succeed in the prevailing dynamic and competitive environment.

There are specific strategies that an organization must follow to build a sustainable teamwork atmosphere. Primary among the strategies is the creation of a team-oriented group. Creating a team-oriented group emanates right from the basis of teamwork principles (Driskell, Salas, & Driskell, 2018). That is while developing the mission statement and the strategic goals, the leaders and the management must consider teamwork to be core among such operational anchors. the managers should put teamwork among the organizational core values. Every individual must be made aware that the group supports the idea of independent teams that are motivated to make individual decisions that help in the collective achievement of the mission statement. Such a cultural aspect can be fueled by showing the individuals how serious a group is about teamwork. One strategy whereby seriousness can be shown is through according to teams the authority and commitment to complete their tasks without the influence of the management (Mustafa, Glavee-Geo, & Rice, 2017). More success can be achieved if such teams are allowed to accept the responsibilities for the results that they achieve. Put simply, a team-work culture must begin with the need of a group to have teams as the driving force in its operations.

Another strategy that can be employed to fuel building a teamwork culture is by assigning individual teams’ serious goals. The culture of teamwork is developed when the management and top leadership accord teams the goals that they deserve (Mustafa, Glavee-Geo, & Rice, 2017). Most managers make mistakes by letting all the serious goals under the custody of the top management thereby leaving the teams with nothing but simple tasks such as planning picnics. Teams should be included when a group is fully in distress and would like to make a change. Serious issues such as the need to create market research for a new product, a possible differentiation strategy, or the need to change an operational goal should all involve teams. Assigning teams serious goals should be accompanied by activities such as asking the team members to challenge the status quo or encouraging them to introduce new sets of conventional wisdom into the group (Driskell, Salas, & Driskell, 2018). It is important that the goals are rotated among different teams so that an image of fairness keep prevailing over the teamwork strategy. In the long term, a much more efficient team is developed when the employees are able to tackle some operational decisions without involving the top management.

Managers can also build a teamwork culture by encouraging informal teams. Most groups depend on informal teams to be successful. It is agreeable that more work is accomplished by informal teams than the formal teams in the current organizational settings (Mustafa, Glavee-Geo, & Rice, 2017). Informal teams translate into easy relationships between employees. Normally, when there are proper interpersonal relationships between employees, chances are high that they will not be obliged to form formal teams to work. Instead, such employees will automatically find themselves clicking into some small teams that help in accomplishing tasks. The presence of informal teams in organizations also come with efficiency in communication. Groups that build stronger teamwork cultures are often motivated to develop effective communication channels. It is important for employees to communicate freely both vertically and horizontally. Such communication channels trigger the automatic formation of informal teams. The management also indicates its commitment to encouraging informal teams by introducing a divisional structure (Driskell, Salas, & Driskell, 2018). As opposed to a hierarchical structure where communication only travels vertically, communication in divisional structures is multidirectional. Hence, a divisional structure is what allows for free interactions and communication between individuals no matter the section or positions of different employees. Put simply, groups build the culture of teamwork principally by creating platforms for informal teams. Aspects such as the organizational structure and the communication channels should aid in the formation of the informal teams that eventually grow to anchor the culture of formal teams.

Building the culture of teamwork in groups is also dependent on the ability of the management to cross-train employees. Training is an important prospect in as far as making employees understand the nature of operations within an organization (Landon, Slack, & Barrett, 2018). The training must include aspects such as understanding the organizational culture, structure, mission statement, vision statement, and values amongothers. The importance of cross-training is evident when the employees develop by understanding what is required of them while in the organization. Importantly, it is the cross-training practices that trigger the sense of collectivism among employees (Mustafa, Glavee-Geo, & Rice, 2017). Some organizations have enhanced the cross-training techniques by even allowing employees to switch positions just to help them in understanding the nature of operations within such an entity.

One tool managers can use to develop better team and entrench teamwork culture in their organization is to use Beblin test. This test classifies team members behaviors into nine different clusters which when combined creates a more complete team and functional team. Each of the team roles has its own responsibilities and roles in the team and when all of them are effectively combined, they lead to a better team. This test classifies employees into the plant or the innovators who are usually very innovative in the group, the team worker who enjoys working in the group and helps bring cohesion, the resource investigator, who helps solve problems faced by the team, completer who ensures the team completes the tasks allocated to them. Some team members may combine different roles in the team. This tool can help managers cultivate a teamwork culture in their organization.

Building a teamwork culture can only be successful if the organization provides resources. No matter how diverse or talented employees within an organization are, teams can only perform when they are offered adequate resources (Landon, Slack, & Barrett, 2018). Primary among the resources are the leaders. Teams need leaders to be more resourceful. Leaders direct the team and emphasize the focus on the main objectives of the team. Teams also need places where they can convene their meetings. Traditionally, teams met within designated organizational facilities where they would execute their tasks. In that sense, organizations must be capable of providing teams with the required meeting facilities. In the current operational environment, some groups support virtual meetings among team members. No matter the nature of the meetings, all the team members must be resource-enabled to attend and contribute to the meetings. If need be, teams present budgets that they should be given and be allowed to use as they deem fit for the organization (Mustafa, Glavee-Geo, & Rice, 2017). Remember, all the resource allocations must be accounted for and teams must show course for their expenditure. The group can complete the package by offering motivational packages when the teams excel. Generally, having adequate resources for teams isa starting point in building the teamwork culture within organizations.

To conclude, every group has the capability of building a strong teamwork culture within its premises if adequate strategies are followed. As noted, the building process must start with an analysis of why the organization needs teams. Various advantages come with the teamwork culture that if analyzed effectively can land an entity into viable solutions. The analysis should be followed by teamwork building strategies such as the provision of team resources, cross-training of employees, and encouragement of informal teams. Other integral strategies include the creation of team-oriented organizational settings and assigning serious team goals. With such strategies in place, any organization should manage the proper development of a teamwork culture within its operations.

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