Introduction
Group effectiveness refers to the capacity of a team to achieve the objectives or goals that are given by an organization or authorized individuals (DeChurch & Mesmer-Magnus, 2010). A group involves a collection of people who depend on each other in their duties, view themselves to be a unit that has an objective to do in an organization and share their duties. Various research in European countries shows different issues about teamwork and the way it has developed, as well as its role in the performance of organizations. In this paper, I will discuss how groups can be more effective and enhance the performance of organizations, starting with its definition.
Teamwork Definition
It is hard to get to a single definition of the term teamwork or group work. Many perceptions exist, and various researchers in different working fields differ in their views on the meaning of the term teamwork. The work organizations that use the term can be defined as having a wide range of possibilities, such as cross-functional teams, quality cycles, virtual teams, or self-management teams (Dionne, Yammarino, & Spangler, 2004). Numerous employers deliver teamwork that has varying degrees of autonomy.
The term teamwork depends on the specificity. Of the duty According to Hacker’s definition, a distinct feature of group work in the association line is the successive work activities to gather various product parts. However, in a place where the objective is to improve the process of production, group teamwork is about communication, integrative work and complexity. Thus, in this discussion, teamwork takes a wide context without taking a distinct between work groups and teams (Robertson & Huang, 2006). Therefore, it includes employee groups having certain collective tasks, whereby the members of the team are authorized to control jointly the collective task executions. Group work refers to the common tasks that require interdependent work, integrative actions or successive.
High-Performance Workplace Organizations
Currently, the greatest challenge that many companies experience is quick delivery as well as flexibility in new services and products when responding to changes in the client’s demands and greater demands. Specialization, as well as standardization, describes traditional work groups; the work is classified into various segments, starting from preparation to support duties, where the workers specialize in maximizing the company’s productivity. Routine, specialization and control are right when a continuous standardized product demand applies. However, in situations where there is a constant change of demands, this method does not apply well and can result in coordination rigidities as well as problems. Therefore, companies are forced to look for different types of work organizations (Oh and Labianca, 2004).
A workplace with high performance centres on increasing the influence of people on a business and the impact of the process, the physical atmosphere, methods, and the tools and technology enhancing their work. HPWO also implements the holistic organization method or approach that refers to job rotation, hierarchical structures, multi-tasking, self-responsible teams, and the involvement of all employees in the organization in decision-making. A high-performance company focuses much on human resources and always supports their social, technical and innovative skills. This results in the development of good interpersonal associations and relationships that are advantageous to the company. This is a different type of organization, unlike the Tylorist Work organization, which involves the pyramid hierarchal structures, responsibilities centralization and task specialization (Hoffman, 2011).
Teamwork A Core Element In The New Forms Of Work Organization
According to the company dynamic view, group work can be considered as one of the elements that can result I organizations change. From the view of various studies, group work is a critical factor that is directly proportional to the quality of the employee’s working life and affects the employee directly. It may be for this reason group work is considered to be one of the most progressive elements of existing organizational practice (Romero and Pescosolido, 2008).
Teamwork performance is higher than individual work performance, especially when this work requires a wider scope of judgment, knowledge, and opinions. The group work advantage is a substantial productivity tool in situations that require creativity in solving difficult tasks, operational management, and a high degree of adaptability (Burke, Stagl, & Klein, 2006). At the same time, group work creates an environment that is suitable for information and knowledge exchange as well as knowledge sharing. Other advantages include the increasing innovation skills that may result in the addition of value in the services and product quality as well as moving them into a small price-sensitive market. In addition, the ability of work organizations new forms to increase workers’ employability through higher competence acquisition and multi-skilling in communication, teamwork, and communication will aid market adaptions and support the various forms of regeneration and regional and local economic growth. Therefore, group working results in greater responsibility accomplishment, high job contentment as well and much job autonomy. Many recent research studies refer to this as the positive effect of teamwork on company efficiency and productivity.
Role In Organization Change
The attitude of an organization toward teamwork introduction is critical in the implementation as well as the transformation process of the work organization. Group work is not a solution to all of the problems of the company, organizational change always need intervention at all stages within the company. For instance, if an organization wants to introduce teamwork to its workplace, it is important for the company to integrate the whole enterprise’s organizational structure. This structure needs to be adapted to the current model. The absence of this consideration will result in a loss of teamwork effectiveness.
The standard conditions are enough autonomy groups as well as direct team member participation. For a team to be beneficial and innovative in work, it must have the right team climate. The participation of all individuals in the group must be emphasized as well, and multi-skilling is a significant team effective precondition. In the multi-skilling groups, the boundaries between various job divisions are broken down, fostering employees to widen their knowledge as well as skills. The reorganization of the management function in a style that forms space for autonomous groups is also a vital and increasing productive precondition.
German research that was done by the Sociological Research Institute at the University of Gottingen confirms these assumptions. This research also emphasizes the significance of correct as well as comprehensive implementation of group work.
Impact On Productivity And Efficiency
Teamwork can result in the effective performance of an organization when it is incorporated in the right way. For instance, a Spanish research study evaluated the effectiveness of 2 plants of an organization in the sector of steel. These plants practice two approaches that are unlike group work. Plant A did not show any work effectiveness. The work organization in the line of production made informal contact establishment impossible. Secondly, group work training was only offered to the senior individuals in the company. At the same time, this training did not take into consideration the requirements of the plant (Brown & Trevin, 2006). Finally, the hierarchal organization weakened the flow of information within the various processes at the business level. Therefore, this weakening resulted in diminished performance.
On the other hand, plant B created a group work structure that resulted in an extraordinary work performance. This was possible because, after including group work, the Swedish and Japanese models of production were added to them as learning material for all team members. This model was based on technological and economic development. They demonstrated a flexible, flat, and decentralized system that aided in quick marketing. The Swedish model aided in ways of improving information flow: formal, open, and information to the team members.
Another example is a relationship between a workplace with group employees and a workplace where individual work is at the centre (Brief & Weiss, 2002). A survey conducted by the Employment and ETNO work in Dutch labour reaction survey showed the effectiveness of teamwork on productivity. It was found that many organizations with high performance had their employees organized into groups. However, that was not the only key factor that led to high performance; a corporation of other organizations formed.
Individual Employee’s Perspective On Team Work
According to many specialists in different fields, group work should aid in both improving the performance of the company and the well-being of employees. Teamwork that does not affect the autonomous decision-making, it enhances the motivation as well as the interest of the employee. This results in employee job satisfaction. This results in high productivity performance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, teamwork is a very crucial instrument that affects the performance of an organization. From the various definitions, the main role or objective is to bring people together to obtain a common goal. The evaluation of different research mainly promotes interdependence among various employees and aids in developing their innovation and other skills that benefit an organization. Evidently, teamwork results in higher productivity than individual work. However, for a team to be beneficial and innovative in work, it must have the right team climate. From various research studies, it is evident that teamwork alone cannot result in the high performance of an organization (Antoni, 2005). Therefore, teamwork needs the appropriate climate or environment to result in the effective performance of an organization.
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