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How does diversity affect team effectiveness
Features of an effective team
How does diversity affect team effectiveness
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Teams play a vital role in the activity of the companies and organizations. To form a high performance team one need to know what elements influence team performance. The most important elements of the teams are its members. It goes without saying that all of them have different personalities. And here lies the question: how to select those individuals, who will make you team successful?
Most leaders are of opinion that the more diverse and versatile the team is, the higher the possibility it will achieve a long-term success. This diversity does not imply gender, religious, cultural and other differences. It is all about different work styles or, in other words, how people think, organize, and cope with tasks. Moreover, teams perform better when they consist of individuals with
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For instance, a team where everyone is serious, strategic, disciplined and careful will be incapable of creating new and innovative product. On the other hand, if a team consists of enthusiastic, imaginative and outgoing personalities, then there is a huge possibility they will run out of budget and will never meet deadlines.
So, is there a recipe on how to cast the right personalities to appropriate roles? In 1980s, after series of Dr. Belbin developed a hypothesis of how the ideal team should look like. According to his management team model, the ideal team should include individuals who can perform nine team roles that he had singles out. At the same time they do not need to fulfill only one role – the team can contain 5 individuals and some of them will need to take two or three roles. Thus, according to Belbin’s model, the members of an ideal team should fulfill the following roles:
• Coordinator is mature, confident, balanced and people oriented. They command considerable respect for the team, help clarify team goals, promote decision making and are calm, confident and
Dave is in a different category of team development as his requirement forms from a specific need or objective. The selection of team members does not follow the same structure as that for Kyle and Steve whereas Dave must form team dynamics based on who is provided to the team, not necessary based on expertise but on who is available at the time. With this deviation from a normal talent pool to a modified experience pool, precise responsiveness for encouraging members' team identification is leadership (Huettermann et al., 2012). Knowing the experience pool of potential team members is dependent of availability of personnel requires the leader too quickly and activity combined level of followers' self-concepts, abilities, and aptitude to achieve the project goals there forth strengthening the team’s identification and stimulating team-oriented efforts (Huettermann et al., 2012). This type of team building leadership requires a strong understanding of personalities and personality types. This is one of Dave’s strengths and is the underlying concept of his position. Strong interaction with differing personalities requires a skilled leader to communicate in ways that will not hinder the process as opposite personalities begin forming and norming in group dynamics (Bell & Smith, 2010).
...ces that has landed her in this coaching position. Getting more involved with the players and showing them that female leadership is identical of what a male can do over time with bond the team and its players and build a relationship of player and coach that will result in more organized practices and better skills.
The purpose of creating teams is to solve a problem or issue through the use of diverse ideas and solutions. There are many times in life, whether at work or at school that one will encounter a diverse mix of personalities. Workplace diversity is everywhere, from the small corner business to the fortune 500 company, and is one of the most important challenges facing companies today. This mix of diverse personalities, gender, race, experience, and culture is what makes a team successful. This is an example of a heterogeneous team. On the other hand, a team with the same make-up, or homogeneous, has limitations on creativity, viewpoints and ideas. This paper will look at cultural diversity and demographic characteristics, specifically age, gender, expertise/ experience and how each plays an integral part in the construction of a high performance team.
Groups are defined as two or more people who work regularly with one another to achieve common goals (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2005, Chapter 9). For a group to become a high-performance team, the team needs to be able to use their collective skills and behaviors to become an efficient model working towards a common goal. Having a common goal will make each team member accountable for the success and failure of the team. Since each team member is accountable to the team, each member's behavior will have an effect on the team. Cultural diversity and demographic characteristics affect an individual's behavior. Behavior caused by diversity and demographic characteristics will be a determining factor whether or not a group can be a high-performance team.
There are a number of elements that are necessary for the creation of any team. These include: two or more individuals, a common team goal, and the necessary resources of time, materials, space, and perhaps money needed to accomplish and then sustain the goal. High Performance teams learn and demonstrate behaviors that are not exhibited by most teams. In most organizations teams are formed to either make decisions or implement decisions. High Performance Teams are expected to both decide how change is to occur, and implementing the change. High Performance Teams need to take this dual role into consideration and choose both individuals who are thought to be leaders and influencers in the organization and individuals who have varied backgrounds and experience. While High Performance Teams can be implemented to achieve any significant business purpose, they are most often formed to achieve dramatic improvements within the processes. However, High Performance Teams need to take into consideration the effects demographics, and cultural diversity will have on the overall success of the team.
Creativity and innovation can help organisations get the advantage in the competitive market and adapt to the uncertain external environment. In the early research by Gassman (1467), he illustrated that although diversity in the team result language barriers and cultural differences occur frequently, some benefits can still be found, for example, opening up opportunities. Another experiment in problem solving creativity found that, the team which composed of people with different attitudes and perspectives were much better than the team which composed of people with similar attitudes (Triandis). Although diversity in team members has shown some advantages for creativity and innovation, there is still some research and experiment that demonstrated that there are no relationships between team member diversity and team performance or the diversity in team members have negative impact on creativity and innovation. Ochse (1990) illustrated that creativity may be impeded if the team member is quite knowledgeable in their own area.
A high school girls’ basketball team is made up of many different individuals with very different personalities. These different personalities lead to different roles on the team. These roles are evident on most teams, and each personality type contributes to the function of the team; however, some roles are not as beneficial as others.
Teams should not appoint members who lack skills or motivation, but the manager should manage the team depending upon its members skills set and motivations, and ensure the size of the team is as required – not too small or large to complete the tasks.
Team players have started to reduce in the modern sports era. Many players have become self-centered, even in team sports. High school athletes always want their names in the paper or want to get acknowledged by coaches or friends, but true team players do things that many people do not see. They may lead by example during practice or do little things that make a difference in the game. Linemen, on a football team, are great examples of this because the quarterback, running backs, and wide receivers get all the credit for great plays and touchdowns, while linemen have to block the three-hundred-pound man in front of them every time, or the play will get blown up. Team players don’t do things for themselves, they do it for the benefit of the team.
Teams are important to a company simply because they motivate transformation and expansion. While teams play a key role in the expansion process of a business; the entire process can be delayed, if not disabled altogether due to a lack of participation on individual levels of commitment. Studies show that if a team is constructed and managed effectively they are 30-50% more productive. (Williams, 1995) Whatever the reason behind the formation of a team in a business it is always wise to take the proper approach to overcome any obstacle.
In a team-oriented setting, everyone contributes to how well the group succeeds overall. You work with fellow members of the group to complete the work that needs to be done. Having the right people in the correct roles is an important factor in measuring the success of a team, where you are united with the other members to complete the main goals. Every group is made up of definite strengths and weaknesses. Our team's 3-5 major strengths necessary to work accordingly consist of Informer, Summarizer, Orienter, Piggy-Backer, and Encourager. One of our strengths as a team is that we get input from everyone involved. Every member of our team is a leader in some way. Part of being a good leader is knowing how important it is to receive the best ideas from each member of their team. We attend group meetings where we discuss any challenges, issues, and problems. At these meetings, we often exchange ideas or brainstorm new ones with each other and come up with the best and most creative team solutions as potential answers to those perceived problems.
Many businesses place an emphasis on the importance of teamwork. A good team consists of people with different skills, abilities and characters. A successful team is able to blend these differences together to enable the organisation to achieve its desired objectives.
The components of a good team should be considered. First, a high-performance team must have strong core values to guide attitudes and behavior consistent with the team's purpose. The members should know why the team is created and why he or she is on the team. Secondly, a team should have specific performance objectives. Members should know exactly what they are trying to accomplish. This also includes having standards for measuring results and ways of obtaining performance feedback. A good team will make members realize the importance of collective efforts. Third, a high-performance team has the right mix of skills. These involve technical, interpersonal, decision-making, and problem-solving skills. No one needs to know how to do it all, but each member should be able to contribute to the group....
It is important that members of a group be knowledgeable and skillful in their positions, the degree to which those members can work harmoniously and cooperatively together is equally important and will form into a high performance team. Effective team management plays a high role in building high performance teams. It should always be a question as to what management can do to actively promote successful work teams.
Teamwork is defined as, “the process of working collaboratively with a group of people in order to achieve a goal.” (Business Dictionary, n.d.) Ultimately, it provides us with a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of unity amongst each other. It allows us to create healthy relationships, and bond further with our peers, and generally, it’s a necessity for our lives. Teamwork aids us with developing imperative life lessons and skills. It also helps us gain a new perspective, and discover our strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I believe that I work well in a team, and I possess the skills of a good leader. Regardless, some individuals