Developing the Work Team Reflective Review Understand the nature of teams and the features of team roles and responsibilities including the advantages and disadvantages Q1. How does a team differ from a group? Give 3 examples of the differences. A team and a group are often classed as the same, but they are in fact completely different entities. Three of the main differences are Trust Leadership Working towards a shared common goal •Trust – In a team there are high levels of trust which enables members to express ideas and opinions freely and confidently.

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This allows feelings to be discussed and also will conflict can be resolved due to this. In a group there is usually a lower level of trust between members, due to roles not being defined so people will become suspicious of other peoples motives (why are they doing that, are they setting me up for a fall, will I be held accountable if I agree etc) and this will result in decreasing trust between members. •Leadership – In a team the leader is not defined, as each member will share the leadership roles and rotate the responsibilities.

In a group there is a defined leader who will assign work and delegate roles to the group members. •Working towards a shared common goal – In a team members will work together to achieve a common goal. This is achieved through discussion, exchange of ideas and experiences and there is an overall consensus on the overall solution. In a group the target will be met but the final decision will always be made by the leader of the group. Members will not exchange ideas as they are working for themselves and not a team. Q 2.

Leading the team is an important team role. Briefly describe 2 other roles that members of a team might fill using a recognised model. A recognised model which shows other roles within the team is Belbin’s Team Role Model. Belbin researched the behaviours of different individuals within a team. Through this research he discovered that there were certain categories that make up roles within a team. Using this you can ensure that individual’s strengths are used to enhance the team and there weaknesses can be managed. Belbin’s Team Role Model. Categories of individual roles within the team) Company Worker Chair Shaper Plant (Innovator) Resource Investigator Monitor Team Worker Completer Finisher Implementer

The two roles that members of a team may fill using the above model are Team Worker and Implementer. ?Team Worker – These individuals can ensure the team are working cohesively and effectively and offer support where needed. These individuals are effective communicators and promote a good spirit throughout the team. They are generally outgoing, which means people are often receptive to their ideas.

However these people can be overly optimistic and have a tendency to be indecisive when it comes to making a decision. ?Implementer – These are individuals who get things done. The have the ability to turn ideas and concepts into reality. They are generally disciplined and very well organized. The dis-advantage to these types of people are that they are often in-flexible and are resistant to change Q3. Describe the 4 stages in team development The 4 stages in Team Development, according to Dr Tuckman are – Stage 1 – Forming

Stage 2 – Storming Stage 3 – Norming Stage 4 – Performing Dr Tuckmans theory that if the development of a team was to be achieved, managers should focus on how a team approaches a task from formation of the team, to completion of the task. He found that all teams followed the four stages above. ?Stage 1 : Forming During this initial stage, team members will often operate as individuals. Each individual will want to impress their personality on the team while its purpose and organisation are still being established.

During this time people will try to find out each others attitudes, and also the aims of the team. They will be wary of introducing new ideas, as they do not want to single themselves out as radical or unacceptable to their new peers. With no established leader objectives will not be made clear. ?Stage 2 : Storming During this stage open conflict between members can be commonplace. There will be challenges to original objectives and rules. Through this targets can become more realistic and trust is created throughout the team members, which is beneficial in the long run.

There may be disagreements over issues within the team, with some members agreeing with one view point and while others agree with a differing view, causing a split within the team. Conflict can also manifest over leadership of the team. ?Stage 3 : Norming This can be classed as a settling-in period, where some agreement has been reached and trust has started to develop. People have started to think of themselves as a team, and new procedures and roles have been implemented and accepted, enabling the team to function and members to work together.

Ideas are exchanged freely and members are willing to listen and accept other member’s points of view. ?Stage 4 : Performing At this stage the team will be harmoniously and they will have resolved any task or personal issues. Inner related roles will be established, and any issues between members will have been resolved so all their energy can be put into resolving the task. When problems arise a solution is found and the team constructively puts all their efforts to perform its task effectively. Q4.

Briefly describe 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages for an organisation of using teams to organise people to produce goods and services. One advantage for using a team is that it enables members to train others in the team allowing them to broaden there skills and also share knowledge of different types of work to create a greater knowledge pool within the team. This will allow team members to become more flexible in the tasks they can do, which can lead to increased productivity and work loads decreasing due to more people having the skills to complete different tasks.

Another advantage is that teams are able to make decisions themselves, rather than waiting for a decision being made for them. This helps the team to become more efficient due to potential obstacles being overcome through collective decision making. Also a team like this would require less supervision due to people higher up trusting them, through the results they are achieving, decreasing costs due to the wages saved from not having a supervisor overlooking them. A disadvantage to using a team in an organisation is that conflict can arise between members of the team.

This can be caused by a clash of personalities between team members, a disagreement in a decision making situation or, as team members work at different speeds conflict can arise if someone is perceived as “not pulling their weight”. This will create a negative working environment and results and productivity will suffer as a result. Another disadvantage is that teams can become stuck in mindset of how to approach work and not entertain the idea of change. This can be caused by a team being established for a long period of time, and having their own way to work.

If an idea is pitched towards the team which challenges the way they work, they will discount it straight away, even if the idea could be beneficial to their area of work. Q5. Explain briefly why an organisation might want to carry out a ‘Training Needs Analysis’ of its employees. An organisation may carry out a training needs analysis, when they are trying to determine if the staff may have any gaps in knowledge that would require up skilling or training in order for them to be more efficient in their work.

If gaps are indentified appropriate training would be required in the form of coaching, individual training plans, and also group training. It is important to identify the correct training as it would be counter productive to put certain team members in group training when they learn at different speeds than the other team members, and would hinder the class, and also be costly to run a whole training group where 121 coaching would be more suited. Q 6. State 1 advantage and 1 disadvantage of each of the following ways of training your team: a. Going on a 1 day training course away from the workplace b.

Having a trainer come in and train them in the workplace c. You coaching them individually in the workplace a. Going on a 1 day training course away from the workplace:- The advantages of sending my team away from the workplace to train are that they will be able to learn in a quiet, distraction free environment that would usually hinder training when conducted at work. If they were at their workstations, they would be distracted by members of staff, and the general noise of the office. A disadvantage to this would be that some team members may see it as a day off work, and not give the content their full concentration.

This could lead to them not understanding how to implement what they learnt at training, resulting in them having to go through the training again, costing the company more money. b. Having a trainer come in and train them in the workplace The advantage of having an external trainer come and train my team in the workplace is that they will have a structured plan of what needs to be trained to the team, and will be focussed on the goal. Having no previous working relationship with team members allows the trainer to be impartial with feedback to individuals and also to myself as their team leader.

The disadvantage to this is that the trainer could be unfamiliar with our working practices, leading to parts of the training being irrelevant, or confusing. This could lead to the team becoming frustrated and not learning what they set out to learn. If training had to be extended for a longer period of time, it would not only cost the company money to do this, but also my teams day to day work would have to be covered by another team, which could result in backlogs of work or work being processed incorrectly and impacting the customer. c. You coaching them individually in the workplace

The advantage of me coaching team members individually in the workplace is that I can set out what is trained to show them exactly how to perform in their role. This would be done by observation and providing specific feedback on their performance. This would then be followed up by quality checks and 121’s. The disadvantage would be the distractions in the office e. g. noise interruptions from other members of staff etc. I may be called into meetings so the coaching would be sporadic leaving the individual frustrated as the training is taking a considerably longer than they were lead to believe.

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