Work teams Essays

Work teams Essays Work teams Essay Work teams Essay The main focus of the study is on the factors that are likely to influence the level of learning of team members of a multinational organization that has influence on how the teams will perform and relate within the organization. According to the research analyses that have been carried by various researchers in the area of organizational learning and performance of teams, the factors that affect the learning process of teams in a multinational company and in turn affect the organization’s performance are grouped into two group; those that are within the organization itself and those that come from outside. The factors within the organization in this case considering a subsidiary of a multinational organization include the differences in the backgrounds of the employees of the organization like the cultural backgrounds, religious backgrounds, racial background, gender and age among others, the attitudes of the team members, the organization’s processes of production, and demographics among others. All these factors within the organization affect the learning of the team members in a way that if the management of the organization considers all this factors and offers support to them team members then the learning process will be easy and performance standards will improve a great deal as compared to the organizations where such a consideration is not given to the team members. As concerning the factors out of the control of a multinational company, not may researches have given conclusive results for those external factors because the area of research is more wide making research more difficult. Though that seems to be the case the external factors like structure of the multinational organization, global integration of firms in the business environment, worldwide learning and the local responsiveness of a subsidiary of an organization among other factors in the external environment of a multinational affect the learning of teams in an organization and its performance levels. When the organization is coordinating its activities well with other businesses, when it encourages individuals to learn from others in the other organizations, the subsidiaries are able to support themselves in the production of goods and services and when it is able to make their structures flexible to the different geographical locations team learning will be supported and this will also improve on the performance of the teams in the organizations. The conclusions that than be made from the analysis of team learning, team performance and relations is that when the learning of individuals is supported by using various support techniques available in the organizations they will be able to use the knowledge that they have acquired to improve on their interpersonal relations in the organization creating strong bonds in their teams and work for the best of the organization in that manner improve the performance of the organization. Nhung T. Nguyen, Anson Seers, Nathan S. Hartman (2008). Putting good face on impression management: team citizenship and team satisfaction. Institute of behavioural and applied management, 148-168. In this article the relationship between an individual trying to create a positive image of him or her to the team members and to the organization as a whole and how this is likely to influence the performance of an organization is analyzed. In some if not most cases individuals working in an organization will want to be seen as good employees, by the management and the members of the organization that they associate with. The effects of individuals wanting to portray such good images either by faking them or being real are being questioned a lot. When a person is trying to create a good image of himself or herself he is likely to attract many people around him or her that will automatically form some kind of a group in an organization. The effect will be that his good characters   will influence the members of his team to work for the best interest of the organization provide the team members believe in the image that you have portrayed to them. People will want to associate themselves with those who are being praised in a positive way in the organization. To be identified with that person you have to be able to act and adapt to the way the person who inspires you is behaving. Then impression management will be said to build working team that will cooperate to improve on the organization’s performance. On the other side the implications that may arise from a person wanting to create a good image of himself or herself will be that if the person is doing that for his own selfish interest and the other members discover that it will create mistrust among the members which will lead relationships within the employees the result in lack of coordination in carrying the activities of the organization leading to poor performance. The recommendations that can be made for this study is that the employees should be informed on the need to portray their real images and make positive image improvements for the good reasons only as that will be the only way others will be positively influenced to act for the best of the organization. Anat Drach-Zahavy, Anat Somech (2000). Team heterogeneity and its relationship with team support and team effectiveness. Journal of educational administration, 40, 1. Retrieved online: emeraldinsigth.com/0957-8234 As discussed in the article individuals who work in an organization are not all the same they have differences that will help to identify each person as unique. People in an organization have different work experiences, academic qualifications, perspectives, gender, religion, capabilities among other things that can differentiate people working in an organization. All these differences in people working in an organization if well managed will help an organization to carry out its activities well because people will be assigned to work on duties and tasks that they will be able to carry out well. When differences that exist in people in an organization are well managed the organization will encourage good interpersonal relationships between its employees who will encourage each other to work efficiently and effectively for the good of the organizational goals and objectives. Because organizations also differ in the nature of activities that they carry out the way heterogeneity in the members of their teams differ as well as the results that will be achieved by the organizations. Heterogeneity in an organization can be classified into two groups; one that relates to the tasks a team can perform and the one that is based on the relationships that the team members have. When the differences are associated to the tasks that team can perform in an organization this will support the team members to work for the organizational goals because they will be integrating and complementing each other in carrying out their duties well. In a case where people are forming groups because of the special relationship interests that they have with each other then there is a problem in this as they are likely influence each other to an extent that they loose focus on the main goals and objectives of the organization. Another issue that has been discussed concerning the heterogeneity of teams in an organization in this article is the one that relates to how to improve the performance of teams in an organization. Much emphasis has been made to making sure that the groups are well integrated and this is supposed to be done when forming people into groups by ensuring that the members can be able to cooperate with each other. The teams also should be assigned to the jobs that they can be able to carry out considering their capabilities. Constant monitoring of the teams in an organization is also advocated for if the team effectiveness is to be achieved. By monitoring the teams constantly the organization will be able to determine the different problems that the teams are facing in carrying out their duties, will be able also to determine the level of influence that the teams have on their members and on the outcomes of the organization. The organization can also use the past experience it has had with different work teams to set a suitable support mechanism for all its teams as this will build strong team bonds that will work together in harmony to achieve the best for the organization In concluding team management and support should be given attention in an organization because all the members of an organization belong to one or more teams in an organization and giving them support in their efforts of carrying the activities of an organization will be able to encourage them to work well and do the right thing all the time while in the organization. Anat Drach-Zahavy, Anat Somech (2000). Team heterogeneity and its relationship with team support and team effectiveness. Journal of educational administration, 40, 1. Retrieved online: emeraldinsigth.com/0957-8234 The authors of the article from Mount Carmel Haifa in Israel used several research analyses that have been made in the educational institutions to discuss how the differences of team members can be handled so as create good relationships in the teams that will encourage them to work together in harmony to achieve the best results for the organization. They analyzed several factors within the organization that are likely to affect and influence team performance like team building and selection of individuals to the specific groups. Mary Z. Bruhn, Cristina Gibson (2006). Multinational organization context: Implications for team learning and performance. Academic management journal, 49, No 3, 501-518. The researchers from university of Minnesota and California used data that has been collected concerning how team learning in an international organization can impact the way that its work teams carry out their activities. Variables like the organization environmental factors and other factors that are in the surrounding environment are discussed in this article and the way that the factors influence learning and performance of teams in the organization also considered in the article. Nhung T. Nguyen, Anson Seers, Nathan S. Hartman (2008). Putting good face on impression management: team citizenship and team satisfaction. Institute of behavioural and applied management, 148-168. The authors from Towson university, Virginia commonwealth university and John Carroll university discusses in this article about how different would want to attract people by trying to be nice to others and the different reasons why people could do that. Through the analysis of the data that was collected their hypothesis were tested to explain how impressions that people give about themselves acts as a communication media for forming teams in an organization, the kind of teams that will be formed and the level of commitment to tasks that will be achieved by the teams that are being formed in the organization.