GHANA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
(GIMPA)

GMBA 710: MANAGING ORGANISATIONS

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR EFFECTIVE TEAMS: A CASE STUDY OF THE TEAM DOTED (GMBA GROUP C)

DENNIS OWUSU - SEKYERE (215003500)

LECTURER: DR. BEN SARPONG MENSAH

DECEMBER 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS Content Page
Table of Content...................................................................................i
Introduction ..........................................................................................1
Group Profile & Overview....................................................................1
Group Formation Process .................................................................2
The Evolution from Work Group to Work Team.................................4
Critical success factors for Effective Teams.........................................5
Leadership & Power.............................................................................5
Effective Communiation........................................................................5
Motivation…………………....................................................................6
Group Diversity....................................................................................7
Decision Making…...............................................................................8
Climate of Trust and Collaboration.....................................................8
The Desire for Success.........................................................................9
Recommendations………………........................................................9
Conclusion…….………………........................................................12
References..........................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
A group may be defined as consisting of two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular goals or objectives (Robbins and Judge, 2013). However in order for groups to be successful, members need to work together and exhibit the qualities of teams.
Teamwork constitutes a fundamental part of all corporate environments with synergic effects thus making it very difficult to overlook its impact on organizational efficiency. Developing teamwork therefore involves creating a culture that places emphasis on collaboration and trust. In a teamwork environment, people understand and believe that planning, decision making and task execution are better when done co-operatively. People recognize and internalize the belief that the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its individual parts.
As members of our group, each of us believed we could create a culture of team work with dedication, commitment and mutual appreciation of our goals that could lead to the successful execution of team assignments throughout the session.
This report therefore seeks to reflect on my personal experience gained as a result of the management and processes of my group in the execution of our assignment in Managing Organisations (GBUS 710).

GROUP PROFILE AND OVERVIEW
My group was made up of five (5) members; three (3) of whom are males and the rest, females. We were formed during our first lecture in this course after an instruction by our lecturer to form groups of a minimum of four students in each group.
The members of my group were Theophilus Siaw, Samuel Adedayo Adebena, Dennis Owusu-Sekyere (writer of this piece) and Nadia Hannah Odjidja, Esther Rosemary Wilson. Name | Gender | Age | Marital Status | Background/Experience | Theophilus Aboagye Siaw | Male | 45 | Married | Procurement | Samuel Adedayo Adebena | Male | 34 | Married | Market Research | Dennis Owusu – Sekyere | Male | 33 | Married | Operations Management | Nadia Hannah Odjidja | Female | 35 | Married | Administration | Esther Rosemary Wilson | Female | 28 | Single | Marketing |

GROUP FORMATION PROCESS
The formation of our group, as Tuckman, (1965) postulated in his Five Stage Model of Group development went through the processes of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.
At the forming stage which constitutes the initial formation of the group and the bringing together of a number of individuals who identify the composition of the group and its terms of reference. The team came together as a result of the mere sitting location of members in class and proximity of residence to each other. Since we did not know much about ourselves, we introduced ourselves and exchanged pleasantries. This stage was characterized by shyness, uncertainty and indifference among members.
At the storming stage where group members get to know each other better and put forward their views more openly and forcefully. This stage is often characterized by intra group conflict especially with regard to who should lead the group (Robbins and Judge, 2013).
The extroverts were trying to push their ideas to the neglect of the views of the introverts. This manifested itself in the interactions that took place when Samuel Adedayo Adebena (Dayo), tried to induce the group to give our first presentation slides a more aesthetic look with colourful designs and diagrams at the objection of some members.
However, after careful consideration of who should lead us a unanimous decision was made in favour of Theophilus Aboagye Siaw because we saw him to be prudence.
During the third stage, which is the norming stage, the group established guidelines and standards and as well-developed our own norms of acceptable behaviour to help fulfil the purpose of the group. Through this, members got to know each other well, developed a sense of cohesiveness and accepted a common set of expectations as explained by Robbins and Judge (2013). At this time, we could all feel a strong sense of togetherness in the group. The group leader even went to the extent of providing food for members after some group meetings whiles those who had vehicles were more than willing to offer rides home to those who did not.
The fourth stage, performing stage, is where the group is likely to be most effective by concentrating on the attainment of its purpose after creating structures and cohesiveness to work effectively as a team. Members contributed to make sure the team executes its assigned tasks during class presentations and discussions as well as during the end of semester assignment. By this time the group had been able to overcome the conflicts or challenges it encountered in the preceding stages. This was primarily because of the strong sense of commitment and esprit de corps was developing among members. This commitment and the sense of belonging developed at this stage occasioned Miss Nadia Hannah Odjidja’s suggestion that we should use the initials of our names to form a group name. This gave birth to the name Team Doted which was hitherto named Group 10.

The last stage, the adjourning which is primarily for permanent work groups is for wrapping up activities and preparing to dissolve ((Robbins and Judge, 2013). Team Doted, cannot be said clearly to have reached this stage in its formation yet because the team has just completed its first semester assignments. It is much likely that the group will work together on other assignments for the rest of the academic programme.
The management of the group was improved after going through the Bruce Tuckman’s five stages of group development and this group even became our private study group.

THE EVOLUTION FROM WORK GROUP TO WORK TEAM
Mullins (2007) defines a workgroup as “any number of people who interact with one another and are psychologically aware of one another and perceives themselves to be a group”.
According to Robbins and Judge (2013), work group is a group that interacts primarily to share information and make decisions to help member perform within his or her area of responsibility whereas work team is group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individuals input. Robbins and Judge (2013) continues to argue that “work teams generate positive synergy through co-ordinated effort”. Conversely, they argue there is no positive synergy that creates an overall performance which is greater than the sum of the inputs made by individual members of the group.

My group developed into a team when all the members realised that the collective results of our coordinated performances (efforts) will be greater than the sum of the individual input (Robbins and Judge, 2013). We were therefore more than willing to contribute to group discussions and assignments in order to ensure they were done properly and on time as a result of this realisation.

KEY SUCCESS ELEMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE TEAM DOTED
The Team Doted was effective in carrying out assigned tasks during the semester due to the following reasons;
Leadership and Power
Leadership as defined by Robbins and Judge (2013) is “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of vision or set of goal”. Northouse (2007) also states leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.
Notwithstanding the fact that we had a substantive leader, various leaders emerged at the various stages of our assignments during the semester to ensure the achievement of our goals especially in this mini project. For example, I led the team during the literature review of this mini project and presentations on understanding organizational power and politics and accounting as well. Samuel Adedayo Adebena also played his part well during our meeting for questionnaire design, data analysis, structuring and editing of the final work.

Communication
Communication is defined as the act of sharing information with other people with the intention of achieving desired goals or reaching a common understanding (George and Jones, 2008).
The group’s ability to use the right media mix in communicating ideas was a focal element in the team’s effectiveness as in most human organisational activities. Team members at all material times used different appropriate means of communicating effectively during team assignments even though they were all informal.
Mobile phone calls, text messages and e- mails, and ‘WhatsApp were used quite often to communicate meeting times as well. A group was created on WhatsApp (an instant phone messaging social platform) to expedite information sharing.
Team members also conveyed verbal messages and received responses during our numerous meetings.

Motivation
The term Motivation has been defined as ‘’a person’s active participation and commitment to achieve the prescribed results’’ Helepota, (2005).
I reckon that our level of commitment to the group originated from our desire and expectation for individual successes through the team’s effort as posited by Vroom (1964) in his expectancy theory of motivation that” people are motivated by how much they want something and how likely they can achieve it”. As shown in figure 1, Vroom suggests that an individual will be motivated to exert high level of effort when he or she expects that: a. Effort will lead to a good performance appraisal, and then b. A good performance appraisal will lead to organizational rewards, and then c. The organizational rewards will satisfy his or her personal goals.

Fig.1 Model of Vroom’s Expectancy theory
Our desire to get the expected results accounted for the level of energy, direction, and persistent efforts of team members on all tasks. Members at our first meeting came to a conclusion to put in their best since all of us were jointly and individually responsible for the success or failure of the team. This inspired all members to sacrifice for the success of the group; attend to group meeting after class was regular especially on Saturdays without absenteeism. For instance, I sometimes went to bed around 1 o’clock am (1am) working on group assignments, all because of the expectation for group success which invariably results in my individual success.

Group Diversity The diversity in knowledge, abilities and experiences of members in the group had positive impact on the project. The abilities of team members is very central to the success of any team.
“In fact, part of a team’s performance depends on the knowledge, skills and the abilities of its individual members” (Hirschfeld et al., 2006). Team Doted was successful because it could draw from the diverse knowledge, skills and abilities of its members during discussions, and presentations in class. Members had knowledge and experiences in fields such as Marketing, Procurement, Administration and Operations Management. The divers knowledge of members were clearly brought to bear at all phases of this project especially during the data analysis. Samuel Adedayo Adebena who works with a research firm was very instrumental in the data analysis.

Decision Making
Harrison, (1987) defined decision as a moment in an ongoing process of evaluating alternatives for meeting an objective, at which expectations about a particular course of action most drives the maker to select that course of action most likely to result in attaining that objective.
The team’s ability to take logical, relevant and purposive decisions at all material during meetings was one of the critical factors that led to the team’s effectiveness. For instance, during a meeting after our third Organisational Behaviour lecture to select a firm as our case study, our choice of Agate – Mabot Company Limited was because availability of information, the staff strengths of the Company, proximity of the Company office to city Campus, the nature and number of clients they serve and the possible magnitude of effects of decisions made by Management on employees.

Climate of trust and collaboration
Team Doted was effective because there was an atmosphere of trust and collaboration among team members. Despite the fact that, the Team Doted had a mixture of both males and females with different backgrounds, members were often willing to co-operate with each other on the various assignments given and even more importantly, willing to carry out the instructions from occasional leaders.
The Desire for Success
The group also made sure to go the extra mile to always ensure the get the best materials as inputs for our assignments. Members were usually tasked to solicit for good inputs in order to enrich our delivery on assignments. A particular case was during our presentation on understanding Politics by Jeffery Pfeffer, when Miss Esther Rosemary and Mr. Theophilus Siaw went beyond the study material given to obtain articles on the same topics by the same author to enhance our understanding and presentation. The group by dint of our hard work became one of the enviable groups in the class.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Although Team Doted was largely effective in carrying out its assignments, the teamwork amongst groups and especially Team Doted can be enhanced forthwith for better delivery of assignments and other projects if the recommendations made below are fully utilized.

Formation of Groups and Diversity
First and foremost, it is essential that groups or teams with specific objectives are properly constituted to make them more effective. I believe that my Team is quite fortunate to have a unique blend of members from diverse areas with unique abilities. It is therefore important to form groups based on few criteria. “Infact, part of a team’s performance depends on the knowledge, skills and the abilities of its individual members” (Hirschfeld et al., 2006).

Leadership
To increase the likelihood that team members will work well together, leaders need to understand the individual strengths of members and what each person brings to the team and allocate tasks that suit member’s skills and abilities. This will ensure effective group performance. It is also a fact that teams cannot function if they cannot agree on whom to do what, and ensure all members share the workload; this requires leadership and structure. (Judge and Robbins, 2013)
The emergence of a leader at the beginning of the group’s formation empowers team members by delegating responsibilities, playing the role of a facilitator, and making sure team members work together, not against one another” ( DeChurch and Marks, 2006). The

Improving Communication Communicating among members even though was effective, it could have been much effective if the team had set rules to guide the communication process especially giving deadlines to acknowledge any electronic mails request from other members.
Occasionally, the team can use conference calls as a media to get issues addressed faster. Conference call is where by three or more people converse on a phone at the same time. This will give members more opportunity to seek immediate clarification on issues even before meetings. Enhancing Team Motivation I recommend that our leadership going forward adopts strategies to raise the self-efficacy of members (Robbins & Judge, 2011) to motivate individuals intrinsically. This is because the more confidence we build in ourselves, the more energize we become as a team for higher performance. Once this is done, team spirit can be improved.

Improving Decision Making
Effective planning and decision making, especially at the formative stages of the group will ensure effective team work and performance. A Team that establishes a clear sense of what needs to be done and how to do it will consistently perform better (Mattieu & Rapp, 2009).

Minimizing Conflict
I recommend that members develop active listening skills and use their powers of observation to ensure conflicts within team are managed better. Conflict in a team is not necessarily bad, in fact some level of conflict is absolutely necessary to perform effectively (Robbins and Judge 2013). For instance, disagreements among members usually about task content rather stimulate discussions, promote critical assessment of problems and can lead to better team decisions and results. Team Doted was not entirely without conflicts when assignments were given. Some of the conflicts were necessary to spur members on to work even harder towards team goals.
On the other hand, relationship conflicts, that are based on interpersonal incompatibilities, and bitterness towards fellow team members are usually dysfunctional and injurious to team success and should not be encouraged. Developing mental module of tasks
I also believe that in order for Team Doted to improve its performance, it is important for team members to develop clear, accurate and proper mental models of tasks (Robbins and Judge, 2013). It seemed that in the discussions leading to the completion of the final team assignment for the semester, members did not share a common or similar mental model for completing the task; although this was addressed later on. Team members must therefore develop ideas as to how to complete task and what they are responsible for in the team to avoid malingering or social loafing as Robbins and Judge, (2013) put it.

CONCLUSION
The effectiveness and efficiency of a team is pre-requisite for the team’s success. In this regard I suggest that the team members from the formation stage identify and apply key factors like leadership, communication, cohesion, motivation, decision making, etc. that could lead to the team’s success until the team adjourns as was the hallmark of Team Doted.

REFERENCES 1. DeChurch, L. A. and Marks, M. A. (2006), Leadership In Multiteam Systems, Journal of Applied Psychology 91, no. 2, p.311- 329.

2. Dulye, L. (2006), Get Out of Your Office, HRMagazine, July, p. 99- 101.

3. George, M. J. and Jones, R. G. (2008), Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior, 5th Edition: New Jersey: Pearson Education.

4. Harrison, E.F. (1987). The Managerial Decision-making Process. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

5. Helepota, H.A. (2005) ‘Motivational Theories and their application in construction’, Cost Engineering, Vol. 147, No.3 p 14-35

6. Hirschfeld, R. R., Jordan, M. H., Feild, H. S., Giles, W. F. & Armenakis, A. A. (2006), Becoming Team Players: Team Members’ Mastery of Teamwork Knowledge as a Predictor of Team Task Proficiency and Observed Teamwork Effectiveness, Journal of Applied Psychology 91, no. 2, p 467- 474.

7. Mathieu, J. E. and Rapp, T. L. (2009), Laying The Foundation for Successful Team Performance Strategies, Journal of Applied Psychology 94, no. 1, p. 90- 103.

8. Mullins, L. J. (2007). Management and Organisational Behaviour (7th Edition ed.). Harlow: Pearson Educational Limited.

9. Northouse, G. (2007), Leadership Theory and Practice. 3rd Edition. Thousand Oak, London, New Delhe, Sage Publication, Inc. pp 3.

10. Robbins, S. P. and Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior: International Version, Pearson International. 15th Edition.

11. Tuckman, B. W. (1965), Developmental Sequences in Small Groups, Psychological Bulletin, June, pp. 384- 399

12. Vroom, V. (1964) ‘Work and Motivation’, Wiley, New York.