The Result of Having Teams Within an Organization

The Result of Having Teams Within an Organization

Team working means working in groups rather than in isolation,

switching tasks as necessary and discussing ways of working more

effectively. (Adapted from Ian Macouse, Pg 412)

Team working is an attempt to maximise staff satisfaction and

involvement by organising employees into relatively small teams. These

teams may be functional or geographical.

There is a certain amount of evidence to support the idea that

individuals’ behaviour is influenced by the teams’. The Hawthorne

Studies showed that teams’ behaviour can influence workers’

motivation. (Adapted from

http://www.projectalevel.co.uk/business/teamworking.htm)

From a theoretical point of view, team working fits in well with

Mayo’s finding on group norms. It can also be traced back to Maslow’s

emphasis on social needs. In practical terms, modern managers like

team working because of the flexibility it implies. If worker A is

absent, there are plenty of others used to dealing with the job.

Therefore there is no disruption. (Adapted from Ian Macouse, Pg 412)

Team working also gives scope for motivating influences such as job

enrichment and quality circles.

Professor Charles Handy suggest in his book “Inside Organisations (BBC

Books, 1990) that “a good team is a great place to be, exciting,

stimulating, supportive and successful. A bad team is horrible, a sort

of human prison”. It is true that business will not benefit if the

group norms within the team discourage efforts.

Nevertheless, team working has proved successful in many companies in

recent years. Companies such as Rolls Royce, Trebor, and Komatsu have

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influence on employee commitment and identification with the business.

Cotton (1993) suggested that self directed teams have a strong effect

on employee attitudes.

In conclusion team working is not always possible and may not work

effectively, however. This may be because work cannot be redesigned

for a team. Managers may also fail to implement team work properly.

Also, certain employees may see team working as simply giving them

management responsibilities without the pay or power.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

v Macouse Ian, Business Studies 2003, Pg 412-5

v Wollard Matthew, 2003,

http://www.projectalevel.co.uk/business/teamworking.htm [ Accessed

28th Nov, 2005)

v Mullins Laurie J., 2005, Management and Organisational Behaviour,

Prentice Hall, Financial Times

v Hall Dave, Business Studies, 2001