...Humans have a unique advantage compared to any other species in the world, and that benefit is teamwork. Everything that we see today in society is a direct or indirect result of some level of teamwork. From the cars we drive, to the doors we open, to the elevators we ride to the 100th floor of the freedom tower, were built using teamwork. The main focal point of teamwork can be described in four words I will refer to as the four c’s. One of the most important c-words is communication. Almost everything man-made takes deep and complex communication known as language. The ability to take a thought from your head and relay that exact thought to someone else is done quite easily with language. Although the origin of language has been widely debated, the importance of it has not. All experts agree language has single-handedly set us apart from any other animal in the known universe. Many societies throughout history believed that language is the gift of the gods to humans. The most familiar is found in Genesis 2:20, which tells us that Adam gave names to all living creatures. This belief predicates that humans were created from the start with an innate capacity to use language (The Origin of Language, Edward Vajada). Communication goes further than language. One of the revolutionary ways humans have to communicate is telegraphically. Phones, mail, e-mail, text, satellites, television, all are superior ways we as the dominant species have to communicate to one another...
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...these skills. Transformational leadership is the motivation, morale, and performance of followers through a variety of techniques. The best way to achieve transformational leadership in NASCAR is teamwork. Teamwork is essential in a business with so many varying elements; a driver needs a pit crew, vehicle engineers, a crew chief, and many other behind-the-scenes team members. But it takes much more than just the crew members for a racing team to be successful. The key to high performance in this industry is finding a racing team that has positive norms, cohesion, and innovation. One way to develop a high performance team is to look at the business as an open system. This means that the entire industry of NASCAR can only sustain itself by interacting with its environments and each team should view itself this way as well. NASCAR crews must be aware that their environment is constantly affecting the elements of racing. With new technologies, cars have evolved and crews need to be able to keep up with the ever expanding technologies that are available. These teams need to be innovative with their engineering not only to make faster cars, but also safer cars. New technology has given NASCAR teams incredible capabilities with not only the cars, but every aspect of the race. Teams are able...
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...of effective teams: a literature review Characteristics of effective teams: a literature review SHARON MICKAN AND SYLVIA RODGER Sharon Mickan is a PhD student and Sylvia Rodger is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Occupational Therapy at The University of Queensland. Sharon holds a NH&MRC Public Health Postgraduate Research Scholarship. Abstract Effective healthcare teams often elude consistent definition because of the complexity of teamwork. Systems theory offers a dynamic view of teamwork, in which input conditions are transformed via optimum throughput processes into maximal output. This article describes eighteen characteristics of effective teams across input conditions and teamwork processes, which have been identified from the literature. Background Research into team effectiveness has traditionally searched for characteristics of effective teams. Quantitative evaluations of specific interventions have largely been inconclusive and emphasised the need for further research (Schwartzmann 1986). The complexity of team functioning precludes reducing teams to their least number of components. Rather, a systems theory approach recognises the relationships and interdependence between and within teams. Given the importance of teamwork to delivering healthcare, a better understanding of how teams function effectively will be invaluable for educating and developing teams. This article will summarise and evaluate characteristics that create and maintain teams in healthcare...
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...Homogenous vs. Heterogeneous team Homogenous team is one in which the group members have a similar shared value and attributes. On the other hand heterogeneous team is one in which the group members have a diverse orientation. There are advantages and disadvantages of both teams that I will outline in the next section. Advantages Heterogeneous - Diverse thinking - perform better on complex tasks - more creativity Homogenous - Less conflict -better coordination - advantage of cohesion - high satisfaction - better performance on cooperative tasks Heterogeneous - Agreements are difficult - more conflict - coordination is problematic Disadvantages Homogenous - Groupthink - decisions that do not respond to changes and contingencies - no innovative ideas The cohesion among homogenous group may translate into high productivity and goal accomplishment. They would all be thinking the same way so conflict would not be an issue for such a team. Heterogeneous team would be the best bet for strategic planning and research where creativity and diverse thinking is a necessity. Which type of team do you prefer working with if you had a choice? Homogeneous Vs. Heterogeneous Teams By Louise Jones, eHow Contributor The makeup of a team, including the mix of cultures and personalities, can make or break its effective output and viability. A homogeneous team would include people who are as similar as possible, with similar points of view, learning abilities...
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...controlled by separate “chimney” organizations, and power allocations must be made for each subsystem. The problem was, in this vehicle program, when the requirements of all the chimneys and teams were added up, they equaled 125 percent of the capacity of the alternator. Keith, who had recently taken over as head of this vehicle program (which had made changes in direction and was behind schedule to begin with), called a meeting of the Program Steering Committee designed to resolve this conflict and reach a compromise. However, many of the chimney representatives who were members of the team came to this meeting with instructions from their bosses [who, incidentally, did their performance appraisals] not to make any compromises, but to make certain that their chimney “got what it needed” and “didn’t lose out.” After Keith presented the group with the problem and the need to reach a compromise solution, their response surprised him: “It’s not our problem,” they replied, “it’s your problem.” Questions: 1. What advice would you give Keith for dealing with the Program Steering Committee? According to the paragraph, this case is a cross functional team. When Keith is a leader of this vehicle program, Keith needs to overcome the challenges of cross-functional team. As a complex cross-functional team, I suggest that Keith need to modify...
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...crucial to emotional ties. Encouraging the expression of love and increasing the understanding of the benefit of communication can strengthen family communication. Family members can provide emotional, tangible, and spiritual support, which can foster family closeness. Excellent parenting skills and family nurturing can help the military better deal with the separation. Family adaptability is how family adapts to the separation and deployment and be flexible to different situations (Meredith et al., 2011). Unit resilience factors discuss the factors from a team level. Positive command climate is “facilitating and fostering intra-unit interaction, building pride/support for the mission, leadership, positive role modeling, and implementing institutional policies” (Meredith et al., 2011). A leader in a team needs to be proactive and supportive of the subordinates and the team. Only when the team has teamwork spirit, can the team achieve unit...
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...Topdog PF321 E4WW Prof: Susan Burriss September 14, 2008 Teamwork Teamwork, what is a team? A team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources, and skills and who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal. There are many different types of teams. We have an order entry team, a credit team, a packaging team, an inspection team, and a shipping team. There are so many different teams. According to (Thompson) there are five key characteristics of teams. • Teams exist to achieve a shared goal. • Team members are interdependent regarding some common goal. • Teams are bounded and stable over time. • Team members have the authority to manage their own work and internal processes. • Teams operate in a social system context. There are three general kinds of teams that organizations use: Work teams: teams that form natural work units, doing the day-to-day work of the Organization Task teams: teams that address a specific problem or opportunity Management teams: teams drawn from people who direct operation or organization Units Once an organization has decided on these three teams they can better deal with customers, employees, and the business world. Are teams always better? Teams are not the answer for all problems. Sometimes the word teamwork is misused. It is sometimes used as a euphemism for suppressing legitimate disagreement with the manager’s viewpoints or submitting to the will of others at all cost...
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...Introduction 1. Background of the Study In this age, for most of us, teamwork is a part of our everyday life. Whether it is at home, in the community, or at work, we are often expected to be a functional part of a performing team. Having a strong team benefits any organization and leads to more successes than failure. In order to understand the competencies needed to build and lead high performance teams, it is helpful to first define a team. Here is a simple but effective description from The Wisdom of Teams (Harvard Business School Press, 1993.) "A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable." The Work Team is defined by many great practitioners in different sense. According to Griffin and Moorhead it is a “small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, common performance goals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” A group of employees that works semi-autonomously on recurring tasks are called work teams. Work teams are most useful where job content changes frequently and employees with limited skills and a specific set of duties are unable to cope. A group of employees that works semi-autonomously on recurring tasks are called work teams. Work teams are most useful where job content changes frequently and employees with limited skills and...
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...leadership role that also is heavily integrated into team projects. This balance of leadership and equal producer allows me to stay engaged and balance the needs of my reporting workforce. The new organizational culture requires managers to develop new skills in order to lead, direct and motivate groups to act synergistically (Barsade 2008). However, group dynamics is a concept that many managers do not yet understood. Consequently this can lead to bad group dynamics resulting in negative synergy, reduced productivity and wounded morale (Levi 2008). Managers are obliged to rectify this by building cohesion and trust between group members (Carron & Brawley 2009). Some group efforts are more successful than others? Group members, group size, level of conflict and internal pressures to conform are all factors that affect the level of cohesiveness in a group. In order to enhance a groups competitive position and benefit from different viewpoints, organizations today increasingly rely on cross-functional teams composed of members from different functional backgrounds. Based on personal experience groups tend to yield better more formulated results. Studies performed by Edward Randel suggest that employees of a corporation who had participated in training for effective teamwork reported their performance was higher in groups than alone. (Randel, E. 2008) The surveys found that groups brainstormed only half the ideas of the individuals. If teams are formed to increase competitiveness but...
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...and a receiver. It is critical for teams to encourage open communication flow between team members to operate most effectively (Solas, 2008). Healthcare is complex and unpredictable. Professionals from different disciplines are involved in providing care and each provider have their own ideas about what the patient needs. Differences in education and culture between professionals result in different communication styles. Communication issues with physicians are a contributing factor in medical errors. During acute care stays, communication failures lead to medical errors and increase the length of hospital stays. Studies showed that 36 percent of procedures had errors, not because of inadequate skills but, due to lack of proper communication and teamwork (Manser, 2008). Effective communication and teamwork are essential for hospitals to be able to bring out the best treatments and health outcomes. Regardless of education, background, and culture, healthcare teams need to have effective communication skills, and be on the same page with each other. In healthcare, patients’ health outcomes depend on the team...
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...Abstract When working in a team conflicts are bound to happen. Conflicts can range anywhere from the inability to agree on a topic to the lack of participation of team members. In order to be an effective team member and agree on the content of the project, team members need to be open minded and flexible. When students are a part of a team the end result should be the same for all of those involved. However, this is not always the case. Conflicts are thought of as being negative responses to someone else’s ideas or suggestions, but conflicts can help different team members open their minds to new approaches and tactics. Team members have the opportunity to grow and learn to appreciate how others work. However, since each team member has their own distinct way of learning, they also have their own way of dealing with conflict. There are different types of conflict and within each type of conflict there are different methods of conflict styles. The three types of conflict are; Substantive, Procedural and Affective Substantive conflict takes place when team members disagree over each other’s ideas. Substantive conflict happens when a team argues over the details that could stand in the way of the final goal of the group. For example, when a topic or idea is presented and no one can agree with each other. This disagreement can stand in the way of the completion of the project. Procedural conflict takes place when the team members disagree about the process taken to complete...
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...integrity, and benevolence” are evaluated, the level of trust in a person or persons can change. Groups that lose trust in each other lose the cohesive ability to tackle the issues or tasks at hand. How to develop and keep trust among team members is a problem that many organizations face. Interpersonal interactions begin with assumed trust between individuals. This basic trust is a cautious one that is quickly put to the test. In a team setting, the majority of people begin their interactions with team members by assuming that everyone will perform to the best of their ability to aid in the group’s success. If a person determines that their fellow group members have proven their trustworthiness, the level of trust deepens because it has been earned. Just as there are varying levels of trust earned, there are also different levels of trust betrayal. Minor offenses may result in the “victim” withholding information or support to the offender in the future so as not to be “taken in” again by deceit. In the middle of the spectrum, the victim may play a passive-aggressive role by superficially cooperating with the team member but not giving his or her full support or attention. As the severity of the offense grows, the perceived betrayal can lead to escalating conflict and the possibility of ending the...
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...Be a Team player in the workplace? MGMT 591 September 24, 2014 Introduction Pathpoint was founded as a “Work Training Program” for adults with disabilities and disadvantages. Pathpoint is a non-profit public benefit corporation and its mission is to provide comprehensive training and support that empowers people with disabilities to become valued members of the community by being able to live and work more independently. The company slogan is “Connecting People, Purpose and Community since 1964”. My role at Pathpoint is that of a Program Coordinator, some of my responsibilities include: the hiring and training of staff, assigning monthly training schedule, approval of community based activities, assist in the management of fiscal operations, setting a staff work schedule and maintaining compliance with licensing regulations, make sure building cleanliness is maintained, communicating important information to staff and clientele. Pathpoint serves a diverse population of persons with disabilities and their families and providing a team of supportive staff to meet their needs is vital to the success of the program and the future of the clients. Factors affecting Teamwork What are the factors involved that prevent an experienced, knowledgeable and valued employee from acting as a “Team Player”? Some of the factors I am looking at in this paper have to do with internal and external factors. Internal factors being derived from ideas of self efficacy. External factors include...
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...Team and Team Processes Shelitta Myers MHA601: Principles of Health Care Administration Dr. Bob 2 July 2012 Team and Team Processes In the following paper I will identify a minimum of three interventions to recommend that address the concerns expressed by Nurse B. The following are the three interventions that I will speak about: conflict management, role conflict, and striving toward the same goal. In closing I will support the recommended interventions with justification/explanation. A group consists of two or more people who interact with each other and share a common purpose (Erofeev, Glazer, & Ivanitskaya, 2009). A team is a type of group (Erofeev, Glazer, & Ivanitskaya, 2009). Teams are an essential part of any organization, especially within the healthcare organization. Each individual on a team plays a vital role in ensuring that all needs are met, task are completed daily and patients are being cared for properly. Teamwork and collaboration between all health professionals results in high quality clinical care, and increased job satisfaction for staff (Begley, 2009). When team members do not agree on the same goal, conflicts will arise. It is important for healthcare managers to control and management all conflicts within the organization. The key to successful conflict management is for both sides to try and solve the problem instead of trying to prove the other side wrong. In the case study presented, Nurse B voices concerns about working...
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...effective team-based health care is having the entire team's actions adoptive of a group's shared goals as well as good conflict, collaboration, and both levels of diversity (deep and surface). Other factors and elements found across the definitions we reviewed as an effective team include the patient and family as team members, collaboration, close coordination and consistency across all settings, and clear communication and feedback channels. Having good teamwork will lead to better serve patients with higher performance as well as make the experience at Gundersen more satisfying and rewarding for employees themselves. There are three main predictors to help team effectiveness which are team composition,...
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