Collaboration in a department has an impact on the overall operation and performance of the business, which can be favorable or negative.
The contemporary business climate is dynamic, requiring managers and entrepreneurs to expand the abilities of their workforces by developing efficient groups and teams inside departments and organizations. Besides, business-focused groups in an organization help to build the department and prepare it for the complex and ever-changing business settings of the 21st century. Accomplishments in any workplace lies in the ability of the organization to build an efficient team as well creating an environment that allows each member to bring their ideas in a discussion.
Furthermore, these business-focused groups will support the organization to attain its goals as well as the departmental objectives in the long-term. Teamwork in an institutional environment is an immediate step to creating and generating a well-oiled personnel that will help the organization to realize its goals and complete its projects within the stipulated period. However, the success of a team or departmental group does not correlate with the establishment of the group or team within organization. A successful team will have a team leader who oversees all the activities, guides all the members to attain the corporation’s expected goals.
Moreover, each team leader of a group must ensure that the participation of all members in the group discussion is mandatory to boost the team morale and motivation. A successful group or team discussion is where all members participate in generating ideas through brainstorming of the problem on hand to come up with the best and most effective way out. Besides, teamwork in an organization can influence creativity within the departments as well as permitting the exchange of ideas from one unit to the other (Foss et al., 2009, p.871). Creativity is a crucial aspect in the development of an individual within a group as well as at societal level (Chua, Roth & Lemoine, 2015, p.192).
Recent developments in the business microenvironment are associable to the technological growth and advancement as well as information revolution that has created new institutional realities. Many successful organizations in the global arena are as a result of teamwork between and within the department (Foss et al., 2015, p.955). Consequently, continuous development of new ideas through active group or teamwork in an organization has proven to be the key to organizational success.
Team A majorly comprises of individuals who are incredibly smart and successful who are willing and ready to work together when a critical situation arises. For instance, they are experts within the organization who will wait until a topic of concern in their areas of expertise is raised by one of the team members or by the manager. They will discuss these issues or matters arising at length, explaining what each member of the group should undertake to help in coming up with a solution. The group is resourceful because they do not allow outside comments from any member especially when a speaker is in-charge of the discussion. For instance, when one makes comments that are out of the topic they would stop and remind them of the agenda. As a result, they ensure they discuss issues that are important to the organizational development. Besides, the group does not allow any room for chitchats and gossips that may prolong the duration of the meeting as scheduled. One of the advantages of this team is that they take the little available time to perform their discussion so that every individual gets back to their desks to perform other activities. Moreover, the team does not allow idle chatting among the members of the team.
However, team B has a different organization comprising of successful executives and middle managers with little professional achievements. Even though the team is organized in a uniform fashion between the two groups, there is a complete lack of direction during the meetings. For instance, group members jump in and out of discussions without clear guidance from a leader or speaker. Furthermore, individuals interject and complete one another’s thoughts and ideas during discussions, therefore, compromising the efforts and achievement of the overall team within this organization. Additionally, any member of the group would change the topic of discussion, and all the others would follow them off the agenda. Therefore, encouraging the act of gossip and time wasting while there are agendas that need immediate answers from the team.
Time is a critical resource in ensuring the objectives of a group, or an organization are attainable within the stipulated period. However, team B takes little time to discuss matters related to their team’s goals while more time talking about issues unrelated to the team’s objectives such frequent gossips and idle chitchats. The meeting does not end at the scheduled time because the team members indulge in gossips and talks related to the daily lives at work and home.
There is a significant incongruity between the groups on how they functioned. Group A members often focus on matters to be discussed within during the meetings taking the least time and get back to their desks to perform other duties related to their profession. A good team should allow the active and positive participation of everyone in the organization’s meeting. Besides, lets individuals to think carefully and come up with creative solutions to the problem at hand.
Team B is an example of an ineffective group. The team members spend most of their times discussing activities that are unrelated to the project or agenda of the day. At the end of the day, the team’s goals are not attained within the specified time frame proposed by the managers or the head of the department. Besides, the members of team B have no qualities of a good team member. A good team member should work for a consensus decision in the department as well as involving themselves in the decision-making process of the organization. Discussing matters and issues that thwart the organization from achieving its objectives and meeting its long-term goals in a bid to give solutions to the problems.
From the examination of these two groups, the best and efficient team is team A. The team members work smart with every individual participating positively to the agenda of the squad to allow them achieve their organizational goals. Besides, they use the least available time to address the important issues in their line of expertise wasting no time on gossips and idle chit-chats. Additionally, the team members do not engage in a win or lose undertakings when discussing the agenda of a meeting with other members a factor that often reduce the efficiency of teamwork in most organization.
The presence of a powerful speaker in their meeting makes it more efficient by pushing the members to focus on the agenda of the day when they shift from the main program of the day. Hence, helping the members to develop trusts, support and building a genuine concern for all the team members. Consequently, group A is an example of a good team, where views of all members of the group are respectable regardless of their differences provided they are agenda-focused. Also, it encourages each team member’s professional and life skills development. Finally, a business-focused team should have a leader that will oversee its activities towards realizing the goals and keeping the team on track when discussing the main points of a meeting. Team B has no leader making all the members shift their discussion away from the program of the day. In this second team, any team member can suddenly alter the topic and agenda, and everyone on the group follows them off the agenda. Consequently, at the end of the meeting no important agenda is discussed which impacts negatively on the performance of the team.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, teamwork is one of the significant measures that an organization can adopt to improve the performance of the organization, creativity of staffs as well as innovativeness of a given team (Perry-Smith & Mannucci, 2017, p.53). Efficient groups and teams are critical in addressing problems that require creativity through fetching various ideas from the sharing of each member. There is a great disparity within the two groups on how they functioned (Mustafa, Lundmark & Ramos, 2016, p.273). Group A members often focused on matters to be discussed within the required period taking the shortest time and get back to their desks to undertake other tasks related to their profession.
A good team should allow the active and positive participation of everyone in the group’s meeting. Besides, allows individuals to think carefully and come up with creative solutions to the problem at hand. Therefore, group A is an example of a good team, where views of all members of the group are respectable regardless of their differences provided they are agenda-motivated. Also, it encourages each team member’s professional and life skills development through exchange of ideas and experience. Finally, a business-focused team should have a leader that will oversee its performance towards a goal and keep the team on track when discussing the agenda. Team B has no leader making all the members shift their discussion away from the agenda of the day.
Q2. It is clear from the case study that leadership issues were evident. Briefly outline your understanding of leadership and indicate where in the case you felt leadership styles impacted on Julia a) during her period undertaking the MBA and b) during her time with Google.
Introduction
‘What is leadership?’ ‘What makes a leader?’ are some of the common questions asked by managers and entrepreneurs who start a business organization in this 21st century where the business environment is not static. With the business microenvironment ever-changing demanding managers to develop and employ leaders who can provide the right direction especially when there is a critical issue that requires quick decision making (Pervaiz et al., 2016, p.15). Leadership is an act of managing a group of individuals to achieving a given organization goals. Therefore, a leader is any person considered to have a vision and the capacity to explain their vision to the team members, clearly and mightily so that it becomes part of their imagination (Uzonwanne, 2015, p.288). The core role of any organization leader is to define the goals and objectives of the company, formulate the plans as well as to organize individuals to accomplish these aims through a well-worked execution plan (Solaja, Idowu & James, 2016, p.99) However, there are three-dimensions of a leadership chores. These include;
Vision: describing the purpose or what to do in an organization to grasp the goals of the company. A leader should have a vision and encourage their followers to pursue the same path such as defining the next product as well as finding new markets overseas.
Strategy: explains the plans of how the visions of the company will be achievable. A leader should have good ideas on how to meet the company’s goals through restructuring the institution, product management among others.
People: A leader should be able to understand their subject and juniors to help them follow his vision and dream to ensure the organization attain its long-term and short-term goals
The role of a leader in any institution is to shape the way people think and behavior. Besides, these individuals influence an organization’s culture and effectiveness of the company in the long-term. Leadership in an organization allows the managers or leaders to set the context within the institution in which the employees strive to meet the organizational goals, excellence and build teamwork spirit (Belias & Koustelios, 2015, p.102). In most cases, leadership is known to shape the culture of an organization which in turn strengthens the leadership style in the same institution or firm (Kareem, 2016, p.08). Therefore, the culture of an organization and leadership adopted by the management board will either stimulate or thwart the overall performance of the enterprise. Leadership style is any tactic adopted or applied by any individual leading others in providing direction, implementing strategies as well as motivating their juniors (Singh, 2015, p.40). There are several leadership styles that one can take to lead others depending on the type of people they are in charge of.
However, the type of leadership style adopted by any group can have adverse effects on the employees, managers and the organization’s culture thus affecting the performance of the institution. Julia experienced various leadership styles while pursuing her MBA. At the University, she got assigned to a study group meant to foster bonding among the students particular during academic exercises. One motive of the study group was to enhance the spirit of teamwork among students as well as helping them to perform their assignments and projects. The formation of this study group under the leadership of Julia helped her to understand that teamwork is an essential spirit to construct among employees working in an organization. Besides, enabled her to acknowledge the need to have employees who can work within and appreciate the dynamics of groups in the current business environment.
The modern business microenvironment requires employees to be able to operate within the forces of teamwork and organizing groups to help them accomplish particular tasks within the institution. Therefore, the leadership of study groups at the University prepared Julia for a multifaceted world of business that concentrates on team spirit and teamwork learning. Besides, teams allowed each member of the group to share their experiences, consequently, making it easier to complete their duty with comfort. However, the failure of Julia’s group helped her understand that achieving the goals of the organization when working with a group of employees takes the group’s effort and not just an individual's effort.
Group leaders have a lot to offer in determining the direction of the team and supporting the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization. One challenge that Julia faced as a leader of one of the study groups was the lack of support from each of the group members which put her on edge. During their meetings, the members discussed nothing outstanding related to their readings. In most cases, they would argue aimlessly regarding the leadership role of Julia in the group and at times criticized each other’s ideas and opinions. These conflict of interest among the group members made it more difficult for the team to achieve its academic excellence. Besides, there were leadership wrangles among the members on who to represent the group in class, thus impact negatively on the performance and team spirit of members.
The implications of these wrangles made Julia careful not to say anything that would agitate more conflicts during the group meetings. Julia joined a business case-competition team after her first group failed to achieve its academic goals and objectives. These groups helped her to understand the dynamics of teamwork in an organization. The team involved a group of professionals with a broad spectrum of expertise and experiences who clicked fast and worked to enable the team achieve a lot despite their different educational backgrounds. They would brainstorm over crazy business ideas without anyone feeling left out in the discussion.
Google Inc. hires Julia and assigns her to their on-going Project Aristotle, meant to examine and assess the hundreds of Google’s teams and find out why most failed while some succeeded under the same environment. Julia realized that most successful teams and groups composed of not only friends but also strangers who often socialized outside the office environment. However, some groups sought to have active managers to help them attain their goals while others preferred administration with the less hierarchical formation and system. Julia and her team of researchers realized that some factors determined the success and failure of any group notwithstanding the type of experts and experience available. ‘Group norms’ was one of the factors that impacted on the success of any team of individuals working as a group.
Therefore, to improve the Google’s team, there was a necessity to understand the specific norms that made these teams successful. However, some of these standards varied a lot from one successful group to the other. For instance, a group pattern that made one team active often contrasted sharply with a different but equally successful team. Consequently, the team of researchers looked into the critical norms that would make any team successful irrespective of the members and their experience in the leadership of the group. Her leadership at Google enabled her to understand that the success of any team depends on some factors such as ‘group norms.’ However, the group norms that may make one team successful could sharply contrast with another active and prosperous team. These made her appreciate why the study group she led at University was not successful. The group norms were not clearly established to help them succeed in their education leaving her more exhausted as compared to the business case-competition group she later joined. The team spirit she established at the University helped her a lot in working with her juniors at the Google firm during Project Aristotle. There are various and a dozen behaviors that mattered most to the success of any group or team of employees.
In a nutshell, leadership is an act of managing a group of individuals to achieving a given organization goals. Therefore, a leader is any person considered to have a vision and the capacity to explain their vision to the team members, clearly and mightily so that it becomes part of their resourcefulness. The modern business microenvironment requires employees to be able to operate within the dynamics of teamwork and organizing groups to help them accomplish particular tasks within the institution. Therefore, the leadership of groups prepares individuals for a multifaceted world of business that concentrates on team spirit and teamwork learning. Besides, teams allow each member of the group to share their experiences, therefore, making it easier to complete their task with comfort.
Q3. As Matt embarks on the management of his new team, describe how he might use Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles to help him achieve his task.
Matt is one of the employees of Google who has worked for the company for approximately twenty years. He started working at Google as a member of security team; however, he later left to be electronics salesman, then landed himself as a midlevel manager at Google. As a manager, Matt oversees the work of a team of engineers who guarantees the company’s website and servers do not go down. He has been managing this team for over an extended period despite having no engineering knowledge. Nevertheless, one characteristic that makes him successful as a manager of this team is the talent he has in working with technical staffs. When the findings of Project Aristotle are presented by the team of researchers led by Julia, he decides to embark on managing this team of engineers by acknowledging the recommendations of this investigation.
The findings of the research revealed that his team gave poor scores despite feeling satisfied in running the team and praising them for having the spirit of teamwork. He embarks on management by adopting appropriate strategies and plans to manage his department. If Matt begins new administration of this team of engineers it may be advisable to use the Mintzberg’s managerial roles to help him accomplish his assignments like a good department leader (Jamali, El Dirani & Harwood, 2015, p.125). Henry Mintzberg proposed ten managerial roles sub-divided into three groups namely interpersonal contact, decision making and information processing. These functions include; a figurehead, leader, liaison, monitor, disseminator, entrepreneur, spokesperson, disturbance handler, negotiator and resource allocator.
Interpersonal Contact
Interpersonal contact entails maintaining close contact and relationship between the leader and the individuals within his environment. The following management roles require interpersonal contact:
Figurehead
As the manager of the team, Matt is expected by his juniors as well as the overall administration of the company to carry out his symbolic duties. Matt represents the organization as well as the department both externally and internally on all formal matters touching on the organization. As a figurehead of the unit, he has to ensure that all the employees under his docket are working in harmony to enhance the team spirit among them. He also has to be a source of inspiration to the junior employees because they look at him as an individual with authority.
Leader
Leadership is an act of managing a group of persons to achieving a given organization goals. Therefore, a leader is any person considered to have a vision and the capacity to explain their vision to the team members, clearly and powerfully so that it becomes part of their dreams (Giousmpasoglou, 2014, p.147). As a leader, Matt can develop good leadership styles that are appropriate for his team of engineers. One of the tasks that he has to undertake to ensure the team achieves its goals and objectives is to promote teamwork through motivation and to enhance a positive working environment for all personnel. Matt has the task of coaching his team members on how to manage a group of technical experts despite having no certificate or degree in such profession. He also has to offer support to his juniors as well as assessing them to ensure they achieve their individual goals in the organization.
Liaison
Managers in any organization act as a link between the external and internal environment of the organization. Besides, serves as an intermediary between the high and lower level of the management of the company as well as network on behalf of the company at all ranks.
Informational Category
These managerial responsibilities entail information processing by the person in-charge. These include;
Monitoring
In any organization, the managers have the responsibility of observing the progress of their junior employees to ensure they are working towards accomplishing the long-term goals of the company (Srivastava & Nair, 2010, p.314). In this role, Matt will regularly find out information regarding the organization as well as the industry to help him monitor the changing trend in the industry. Furthermore, he has to oversee the team of engineers regarding the productivity as well as their well-being.
Through management mentioned above role, Matt will be able to understand the changing trend of the engineering profession to help him employ staffs with the necessary and up-to-date skills needed to meet the dynamic of changing market. Besides, gathers all the required information to the organization both from external and internal sources. Additionally, this role helps the manager to arrange, assess and analyze this information to identify weaknesses as well as the opportunities that are available to the organization or department.
Disseminator
One of the characteristics of a good manager and a leader is the ability to communicate and pass significant information to others within the organization or department for decision-making. Giving information requires managers to adopt the appropriate skills and approach that will help their juniors to understand them. Therefore, the success of any research findings can be beneficial to the overall organization if a manager utilizes the best communication channel to pass the information to other employees. Calling for group meetings and conferences can be the best and appropriate technique to disseminate either external or internal information to the team or department. Research has revealed that unseemly communication channels at Inter or intra-departmental levels have led to disastrous outcomes to the productivity of the general organization. Consequently, Matt should adopt an appropriate communication strategy that all these engineers can easily accept with no vengeance.
Spokesman
Managers have the responsibility of acting and speaking on behalf of the organization or department. Besides, they represent the company interests to the outsiders on matters touching on policies and treaties, performance as well as other suitable information for the parties from outside. In this role, Matt has the task of passing relevant information concerning the organization to the outsiders. Also, he acts in PR capacity by informing other managers of the progress of his department as well as keeping the key stakeholders of the company up-to-date regarding the organization’s productive capacity.
Decisional category
The decisional category requires the managers to use the information gathered to improve the performance of the company or department. The managers use this information to carry out decision-making process.
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur and manager plans and develops changes meant to make the organization realize its goals and objectives. Moreover, Matt should be able to identify new ideas as well as instigating improvement designs for the department. Identification of opportunities to help improve the team spirit through motivation can also assist the department to achieve the company objectives (Thomas, Rothschild & Donegan, 2015, p.307). Consequently, as a leader, Matt has to generate and control the changes that occur within his department this will support him to solve management related problems, creating and implementing these new business ideas.
Disturbance handler
As a manager, Matt has to have skills and experience in dealing with situations that are likely to lead to conflict within or outside the departments. In situations where the team or an organization meets a roadblock, the manager has to take charge and provide the right action and direction for the department (Pearson & Chatterjee, 2003, p.07). He provides solutions to unforeseen events as well as operational breakdowns within the department. In addition, the manager acts as a mediator to settle disputes among workers within his departments.
Resource allocator
In this role, the manager ensures that all the resources needed by the employees are available. He also controls and authorizes the utilization of the company or department resources. Additionally, allocates funds, materials, assigns employees and other resources to ensure proper coordination of the organizational activities.
Negotiator
Managers should be good diplomats to the company, department or team, taking part either directly or indirectly in management of the organization. Through such negotiation, managers represent the interest of the company to the outside people such workers’ unions and the government.
In summary, a successful manager of any organization in the modern business world must build the spirit of teamwork among the employees. Managers can utilize the Mintzberg’s management roles in controlling an organization. Henry Mintzberg proposed ten managerial roles sub-divided into three main categories specifically interpersonal contact, decision making and information processing. These functions include; a figurehead, leader, liaison, monitor, disseminator, entrepreneur, spokesperson, disturbance handler, negotiator and resource allocator. These roles can be applicable to any manager irrespective of the type of people he or she is working with.
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