Experience at a Research organization
After completing the Semester, I was lucky to have an opportunity to work at a research organization over the summer. At the organization, I was surprised by how the organization carries out organization work. The motivation in the organization was based on task completion rather than how work was done. Everyone in the firm is focused on working with complex individuals; from the first time I set foot in the organization, I was quickly introduced to what I was to do and deliver results. No team works in the organization that works closely, but I could see groups operating on similar tasks.
Since I had never worked in a research organization with a great team and professional individuals, there was a learning curve when it came to an understanding different organizational practices when I initially started. I began by doing fundamental literature research to understand better the overall subject, which made it simpler to dig into the organization’s particular mission. The task initially appeared complex; as a new member, I felt lost working within the organization and realized how hard-working individuals could be; it became much harder to get started and get to the findings of new research as expected.
Summary of week six topic
During week six of learning, I assessed group and leadership dynamics at an organization. My assessment majored in teamwork advantage in a work environment over group dynamics. I reviewed this assignment’s elements that make up high-performing teams over group work. The research showed that teamwork is essential to work organization, focusing on achieving common goals and emphasizing each member’s strength. In an organization, team members must have skilful experts to keep up with the rapid evolution in the industry. Leaders must be committed to showing what is expected and encouraging feedback to encourage team members towards a common goal. High growth is not achieved by work effort alone; leaders and followers must be passionate about it.
According to Sharma & Aparicio (2022), the study reviewed paper during this assignment showed that modern organizations face more information security-related problems due to telecommuting and remote working. Organizations must create a team culture with accountability and creativity to address these issues. Team leaders act as the organization’s compass for people working towards a common objective. The study also reflected on various organization theories, such as Bruce Tuchman’s theory which incorporated different leadership styles to their application in organizations. This was a critical assignment to understand the concept and analyze the work of various scholars about organizational behaviour.
According to the study in that week’s work, Davidaviien et al. (2020) argue that geographically distributed teams increasingly perform knowledge-intensive work. Teams that allocate a significant portion of their members’ time to the focus team serve better. Still, groups that include members who actively participate in more teams also do better. The benefits of giving the focus team more time are more significant for teams that collaborate digitally. Still, the advantages of providing other groups more time are more effective for physically collaborative teams.
Analysis of the problem using class concepts learnt
Teamwork is a critical organizational behaviour that drives many organizations to perform better and dominate the market for the long term. From class course book readings, I was well equipped with reliable information about task roles, social roles, team roles and boundary roles that resulted in understanding team design characteristics. Organizations with teams are faced with strong working relationships. This significant problem can lead to forming factions and decreased productivity and efficiency.
While working at a research organization during the summer, the lack of teams in various departments significantly impacted their performances. Research tasks are sometimes complex to crack. Therefore, they require collective ideas to explore them. Studies in the discussion have highlighted that individuals who are more aware of team roles and behaviour perform better than those who do not. This concept is critical to tackling poor organizational teamwork, especially the virtue team.
Teams also vary in how they are led, despite having leaders at the research organization I was involved in; the leaders were less involved in the work process. From the team leadership and autonomy section, most of the teams in this organization lack self-management. Organizations with self-managed can only solve problems by consulting the top leaders, who are primarily unavailable or busy, leading to task completion delays.
Factors that contribute to lack of teamwork in an organization and solutions
Ineffective leadership is a significant factor in poor teamwork at any given organization. Teams require leaders who can direct them, provide their perspectives, and consistently promote collaboration if they are to work together effectively. Therefore, bad leadership is the leading cause that teams feel disengaged and unmotivated, negatively affecting how well the research organization members cooperate. Goal confusion is another notable factor that contributes to a lack of teamwork. People in the organization run into problems if they can’t agree on or adequately comprehend their job goals. The communication gap is another factor in poor teamwork in the organization.
According to Shaik & Makhecha (2019), a team’s performance will undoubtedly be impacted by a lack of cohesion in the workplace due to unneeded stress and tension among coworkers. Inequitable decision-making was also a notable factor in this organization; in the research organization, variable working conditions are frequently caused by specific team members who are more outgoing, have more developed skills, or tend to work independently.
To deal with situations of ineffective leadership, I would hire leaders capable of handling such circumstances by providing more opportunities for teamwork, assisting team members in developing their talents, and figuring out how to reward effective collaboration. According to Rahim (2023), having a team leader who can take the lead from the contingency approach can be vital for an organization. In a situation of confusion about goals, leaders develop strategies to explain the organization’s motives and objectives to team members. I would create a systematic process for establishing goals, evaluating them, and laying out the workflow to accomplish them quickly.
Borrowing from class concepts, communication in an organization is the primary key to its performance. Therefore, in an organization that lacks communication, I would hire Professionals with excellent communication skills to connect with coworkers, share their perspectives, listen to others, and relay expectations when working with other team members. For a business to perform well and thrive, communication is a crucial element. Effective customer and employee communication is essential for most companies to increase sales and promote expansion. Poor communication typically results in organizational mismanagement and unfavourable business outcomes (Kalogiannidis,2020).
Setting also a self-directed team could have also been my main objective. This means allowing the teams to have the authority to achieve their research goals with the necessary waiting for the green light from senior leaders. Team members with the power to control tasks to make decisions feel a sense of belonging, eventually leading to better work relationships. It also implies allowing the team to have a leader coordinating the members with the larger organization. Teams frequently encounter challenges that render their attempts at collaboration fruitless. Teams may collaborate more successfully to produce high-quality work by realizing their challenges and knowing how to overcome them.
Employing leadership skills in the organization could have helped the organization remain competitive in the research industry for a long time and expand. Professionals on a team frequently need to trust one another and build respectful relationships through which they have confidence in each other’s talents. Doing so could help employees to work together toward a standard set of goals. Having typical times also improves quality, reduces costs, and meets deadlines.
To sum up, the organization behaviour class has been essential and educative to future organizational leadership opportunities. Learning different leadership styles, work ethics, and other behaviour allows one to embrace the work environment and team performance, respectively. Understanding team design characteristics (chapter 9, p. 400-428) and the experience acquired at the research organization have been helpful in future career endeavours. I look forward to working in an organization driven by team efforts and unity.
References
Shaik, F. F., & Makhecha, U. P. (2019). Drivers of employee engagement in global virtual teams. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 23.
Rahim, M. A. (2023). Managing conflict in organizations. Taylor & Francis.
Kalogiannidis, S. (2020). Impact of effective business communication on employee performance. European Journal of Business and Management Research, 5(6).
Sharma, S., & Aparicio, E. (2022). Organizational and team culture as antecedents of protection motivation among IT employees. Computers & Security, 120, 102774.
Davidavičienė, V., Al Majzoub, K., & Meidute-Kavaliauskiene, I. (2020). Factors affecting knowledge sharing in virtual teams. Sustainability, 12(17), 6917.
write