USA: +1 415 256 4347 
Sign in
Question
Imagine that you are a leadership teamwork consultant tasked to work with 9 other team members. The new manager of a company has hired you to create a new theme for the company’s teamwork training.
Your client, the new manager, has always coached individual members of a team in the past, but now the manager has less time and has hired you to help with the training. The executive management believes that the purpose of coaching or training is to work with the entire team at the same time.
You will work with the team from the beginning to define a new theme for training. Brainstorm to devise the type of theme that you would like to use for the company’s new teamwork training. Consider the manner in which you would direct the team members to develop this training and the roles that you would assign the different members of the team.
Write a five to seven (5-7) page paper in which you:
Suggest two (2) key ways in which the proposed teamwork project would affect organizational performance.
Recommend where the company should set limits on spending and on using company assets for socially responsible projects. Predict the main effect that socially responsible projects could have on the company’s overall bottom line.
Propose two (2) approaches geared toward introducing the topic of ethics or ethical behavior in the teamwork training project.
Examine two (2) aspects of teamwork training that change a person into a transformational leader. Justify your response.
Predict your possible reaction to a team member’s suggestion of another theme that does not relate in any way to the theme that you have proposed. Provide a rationale for your response.
Answer
Consulting for a Team
Creating a theme is a crucial first step towards the success of a company’s teamwork training program. As a leader of such a program, the theme that I would choose is titled: “prioritization of team effectiveness over individual skill development”. I would encourage individuals to work on enhancing those skills that increase their value to the team and those whose development can be contributed to by all team members. Although it is possible to coach team members in their individual capacities, it is advisable to consider the contributions they will make to the team once they have been coached or trained. Thus, the skills that individual members develop must be influenced by two equally important factors: their unique abilities and the ability by other team members to contribute meaningfully to the development of those skills (Leggat, 2007). It is only through such an approach that individual employees can acquire the necessary competencies without jeopardizing team cohesion. Team cohesion can easily suffer if individuals are allowed to pursue their interests without any consideration on the collective needs of the team. This theme would give team members an opportunity to contribute to the development of the training process because skill development for each member becomes a collective responsibility. The development of skills would be influenced by the team’s pursuit of the specific competencies it needs to achieve its objective. At the same time, members would be given an opportunity to harness the team’s existing competencies in the development of their own individual skills.
Two Ways in Which the Proposed Teamwork Project Would Affect Organizational Performance
The project would affect performance through increased productivity and enhanced team cohesion. By placing the need for team effectiveness over individual skill development, a company can benefit in terms of increased productivity. A team leader who focuses on the whole (team effectiveness) is likely to achieve more in terms of overall productivity than one who focused on the sum of its parts (individual team members) (Salas et al., 2009). By focusing on the skill development needs of individual team members, a team leader can easily lose sight of the overarching organizational objectives for which the team was established. Moreover, focusing on the team as a collective entity creates a platform for the production of outcomes that are beyond an individual member’s capacity. Salas et al. (2009) use the term “wisdom of collectives” to refer to the improved organizational outcomes that accrue from constant interactions among team members throughout the training period.
At the same time, a training theme that places equal emphasis on both individual skill development and team competencies is likely to achieve a greater level of cohesion than one in which the needs of individual members are placed above those of the team as a single entity. The resulting benefits arise due to the emergence of mutual performance, team orientation, and supportive behavior (Salas et al., 2009). Mutual performance occurs because individuals are able to follow up on other team members’ activities while at the same time doing their own work. The objective is normally to ensure that all procedures are being followed correctly. On the other hand team orientation occurs through a tendency by individuals to coordinate and interact with other team members with a view to share task inputs. In a training or mentoring theme that encourages the team leader to focus on one individual at a time, team orientation may not be easily achieved. Similarly, supportive behavior is a core manifestation of team cohesion. This behavior emerges because individual members get used to a training practice whereby they come together to solve problems that may arise, for example, inequality in workload distribution.
Recommendations on Limits of Spending on Socially Responsible Projects
During the training process, companies should set limits in the way money is spend on socially responsible projects. If financial aspects are not properly evaluated, socially responsible projects may have a negative impact on the company’s bottom line. In the contemporary business environment, there is growing emphasis on social reporting, sustainable business practices, and codes of conduct (Frynas, 2005). The resulting situation is one where companies are dedicating more resources to socially responsible projects and community development schemes. However, there is a limit to the amount of resources that can be channeled into these projects without hurting the bottom line. Similarly, teams tend to be negatively affected when an organization focuses too much on projects that not directly linked to organizational goals. Over time, this practice can lead to a tendency for team members to neglect their own skill development needs and team effectiveness in preference for community-oriented initiatives.
As a corollary to this, I would like to make two recommendations. The first one is the introduction of company guidelines detailing innovative limits on team engagement in community development activities until minimum performance targets have been achieved. The second one involves directing team leaders to prioritize on those socially responsible projects that will translate into a confluence of interests for both community members and the business organization in the short and medium term. As much as members of the local community deserve to benefit from a company’s projects as important stakeholders, the company also has a duty to maximize profits for its shareholders and its own survival. Without survival and profitability, team members can no longer boast of a platform on which to acquire training on how to undertake socially responsible projects.
Proposed Ways of Introducing the Topic of Ethics in the Teamwork Training Project
There are two useful approaches that a coach or trainer can use to introduce the topic of ethics in a teamwork training project; namely observing the team members’ behavior and defining the concepts of ethics before encouraging team members to highlight potential ethical issues that may arise during teamwork activities. By observing the behavior of individual team members, a trainer can easily draw the trainees’ attention to the different anxieties and tensions that characterize ethical dilemmas and how best to deal with them (Rothwell & Sullivan, 2005). This method is highly recommended because it helps individuals examine the issue of ethics from multiple perspectives. Through information sharing and discussions, team members can come up with a list of possible ways of resolving an ethical dilemma. Similarly they can attempt to put the knowledge into practical use by coming up with a code of conduct governing the operations of all team activities.
The second approach requires the trainer’s initiative in terms of defining the concept and initiating a discussion on the various situations where an employee may be said to have acted unethically. An advantage of this this approach is that there are many examples of ethical issues in the contemporary corporate environment. Examples include bribery, corruption, job elimination, relocation of employees, sale of dangerous commodities, and environmental degradation. All team members in a typical business organization can readily relate with most if not all of these ethically problematic activities.
Aspects of Teamwork Training That Change a Person into a Transformational Leader
The two aspects of teamwork training that mold a person into a transformational leader are shared values and propensity for change. To enhance team effectiveness, team leaders must also promote shared values (Gillespie & Mann, 2004). These shared values and the resulting interpersonal trust play a central role in increasingly the likelihood of some of the team members developing into transformational leaders. Similarly, propensity for change is a common feature of teams that have already started operating effectively (Schraeder, Tears & Jordan, 2005). Teams that have succeeded in harnessing collective competencies are highly likely to be motivated to pursue organizational change. Within this context, the individuals who champion this change end up becoming transformational leaders.
My Possible Reaction to a Team Member’s Suggestion of an Opposing Theme
If team members propose a different theme, I would be keen to listen to their justifications before responding. For example, I would expect some team members to propose the introduction of the theme that prioritizes individual skill development over team effectiveness and overall performance. In this case, I would oppose the proposal by reiterating that the interests of the team are above those of the individual. Moreover, I would point out that the negative effects of foregone or delayed individual skill development are outweighed by the benefits of team cohesion, shared values, propensity for change, and improved organizational performance.
Conclusion
The analysis presented in this paper has provided useful information regarding the need to create a theme for a company’s training program. The best theme is one that places team effectiveness above individual skill development. The resulting teamwork project can affect organizational performance in a positive way through increased productivity and enhanced team cohesion. On the other hand, the paper’s recommendations on how to limit spending on socially responsible projects are justified by the need to strike a balance between community engagement and a company’s bottom line. Finally, team effectiveness can be further enhanced by integrating aspects of ethical behavior and transformational leadership into a teamwork training project.
References
Frynas, J. (2005). The false developmental promise of corporate social responsibility: Evidence from multinational oil companies. International Affairs, 81, 581-598.
Gillespie, N. & Mann, L. (2004). Transformational leadership and shared values: The building blocks of trust. Journal of Managerial Psychology; 19(6), 588-607.
Leggat, S. (2007). Effective healthcare teams require effective team members: Defining teamwork competencies. BMC Health Services Research, 7, 17-29.
Rothwell, W. & Sullivan, R. (Eds.) (2005). Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Consultants. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Salas, E., Rosen, M., Burke, C. & Goodwin, G. (2009). The Wisdom of Collectives in Organizations: An Update of the Teamwork Competencies. New York, NY: Routledge.
Schraeder, M., Tears, R. & Jordan, M. (2005). Organizational culture in public sector organizations: Promoting change through training and leading by example. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 26(6), 492-502.
