Essay On Teamwork

An individual’s contribution towards teamwork is a hidden factor towards high performance that not many people understand until they have had significant experience working with various teams. While interdependence amongst all team members is something people are familiar with, one tends to undermine the necessity and intensity of individual contributions. Hearing Professor Hutchinson’s lecture he made me realize that there is an “I” in team which motivated me further to improve my individual performance on the team (“Building Effective Teams”). Our first team deliverable was the Team Contract which encompassed all our goals, expectations and formal rules that would govern our team’s performance. After delivering our team contract, every team member had a clear understanding as to how our team would function. We had a common goal and very organic values and ideas.

One would assume that clear communication, realization of interdependence and providing additional support to every team member would minimize conflict. Also, we all knew that we had the right to terminate a team member in certain circumstances, but we had no idea that we all would have to exercise this right. Unfortunately we had to terminate our previous team member Rina because she plagiarized her part on the team contract. Three sections of our team contract specifically stated that this was not expected of any team member. Even though this was a harsh step, our team was left with no other choice but this in order to reinforce team trust amongst the remaining team members. We as a team engaged in a session of brainstorming, where we weighed the pros and cons of this action and took a decision. We wanted our team to function on either knowledge based trust or id...

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...ly in the future I want to be mentally prepared for extra workload and the possibility of conflict in any given situation.

Appendix

Works Cited

1) Hutchinson, Paul. "Building Effective Teams." OB 221 Lecture. Boston University School of Management, Boston. 12 Feb. 2014. Lecture.

2) "Leadership in Organizational Settings." The Dynamics of Leading Organizations and People. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, 2013. 288-301. Print.

3) MBTI Form M Self-Scorable. Peter B. Myers and Katharine D. Myers 1998. Print.

4) "Team Dynamics." The Dynamics of Leading Organizations and People. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, 2013. 136-56. Print.