Team Building

Every organisation is a big team having a large number of employees who are trying to achieve a common goal. All people are divided and organized in smaller teams for effective functioning of organization. Organizations try to maximise the performance of teams. A team can achieve more than sum of its individual members. Even then, many teams do not functions effectively. However, performance of any organization is dependent upon teamwork of its employees. In general, it is observed that team work is poor in Indian companies. Therefore, every organization is trying to improve teamwork. The purpose of team building is to increase group functioning. 

Self Examination  of Team 

Self examinations refers to assessment of functioning of team. In other words, it is an attempt to know how team is functioning at any given time. Any team of an organization for example sales team, may be functioning properly or it way be ineffective. It may face various types of problems. To make an assessment of team, it is desirable to know what is a good team and what is an inefficient team. 

Symptoms of Ineffective Team 

Firstly, there is high degree of frustration among its members. Every individual who joins the organization has certain needs and expectations. He tries to satisfy these needs and expectations while working in the organization. However, as organization becomes large, the opportunity for satisfaction of needs gets reduced. Many times managers become frustrated. It has negative consequences for employees performance. 

Under conditions of frustration employees show poor performance, loose their interest in job, and develop negative attitude towards organizations. It is known from research and experience that positive attitude to job  and organization leads to higher performance at three levels namely, individual, group and organization. Secondly, some members of team show grumbling and retaliation. They do it privately - for example, discussions in canteen. Thirdly, many experience unhealthy competition characterised by back-biting and politics. A team should have trust and openness among its members. On the contrary, it is seen that members have mistrust and suspicion. They do not like to share their ideas. Lastly, many employees show lack of motivation and creativity. If these symptoms are seen in one or two employees, it can be ignored but if more and more employees show such feelings, it indicates that the manager should think how to improve the team. 

Symptoms of Effective Team 

In an effective team there is feeling of trust and openness among its members. Employees can express themselves openly. Mistakes are faced openly and there is an attempt to learn from mistake. Members support each other. Meetings are productive and contribute to achievement of goals. Members like to discuss new ideas and make use of them. Boss-subordinate relationship is not based on fear. Managers provide help and guidance to their subordinates whenever they face any problem. All members have high commitment to goals of team as well as goals of organization. All these characteristics indicate that people can enjoy work. They do not approach work as burden. Thus, effective team has following symptoms : 

• Clear objectives and agreed goals, 
• Openness, 
• Support and  trust, 
• Conflict resolution, 
• Supportive leadership, and 
• Healthy interpersonal relations.