Managing Teams

Sharing ideas plays an important role in high achieving teams as individuals feel more involved in the work as some may feel more valued because their ideas and queries are taken more seriously. At BMW team members will feel more confident and strong inside meaning they will feel more empowered because of their involvement in the work. They would not feel there in a hierarchical system whereby the workers would feel alienated from decision making, stifling initiative and leading to a dependency culture. This meets the strategic aims of recognising where their strengths lie because the involvement of their work makes the staff more motivated and encouraged to work harder and bring out all their skills they posses. However if high achieving teams have no involvement in the business when it comes to sharing ideas the business will fail as in the sense that no new ideas will be coming into the business leaving the business struggling on what to do next.

High achieving teams have a job rotation scheme which is when activities of a worker are switched around a number of work tasks. Advantage to this is that it lets everyone take part in every task that needs doing making things faster and more efficient. This is intended to relieve the tedium of the work, but has useful affects of ensuring that if one person is absent, others can cover the job without difficulty. At BMW using this scheme the staff can develop new skills broadening their own skills. This can lead to more experience and knowledge of the staff, learning skills may even have links with their own skills which they did not know about making them stronger in their specific job. Having job rotations can also leave the staff to have a better overview of the job their in, they can learn new things and importantly they would have a better idea of how things work in BMW leaving them with more knowledge of their work place. This meets the strategic aim of learning new skills and improve their strengths and making the best use of every opportunity as staff will feel more valued and needed because of this scheme as in some ones absence they will be needed and would feel appreciated in taking over a new task for the day as they would have the knowledge and experience. In someway they would feel special to the business. Without this scheme BMW will encounter problems as they may have to bring in new staff to cover the absence of someone else because the current staff has no knowledge or skills to cover the absentee. BMW will have to spend money on recruitment they do not need.

High achieving teams at BMW are able to deal with complex tasks as they are working together to accomplish the task given. Some of the team members who have had experience of carrying out a particular task before have the advantage when it comes to working with a team, this is because they are more likely to make a better team contribution than those who have not had experience. This meets the strategic aim identifying potential because if the team can work together to complete the complex tasks then the team do have potential in them to do anything and it will help the business to grow and succeed. However without high achieving teams completing complex tasks it will leave BMW with unfinished projects meaning no new products or services will offered to the customers making the customers leave and then making BMW unsuccessful.

Task2 (P2)

An effective team is a team that can work together properly and professionally. They meet all their deadlines and do this by good communication with each other, working as a team, helping one another, inputting all ideas and theories to make one decision. A team consisting of members with high skills and knowledge will become more effective and meet all deadlines and achieve all goals and objectives.

A group is simply a collection of individuals without a shared goal or commitment to each other. In contrast, a high-performance team is deeply committed to the team and to the goals set. For a team to become effective it needs to go through a number of key stages.

Tuckman's Theory

This method of developing an effective team is the theory of Bruce Tuckman and was first proposed by him in 1965 and has been used to help teams grow, face up to challenges, tackle problems, find solutions and plan and deliver work.

- Forming: Here a number of individuals are gathered together, they have no clear sense of purpose. The team meets and learns about the opportunity, challenges, agrees on goals and begins to tackle the tasks. The group slowly begins to develop some form of agreement about issues that arise and need addressing.

2 - Storming: The teams slowly starts to interact more by sharing ideas but still is not perfect for a real team as there are no real clear plans to take the team forward. However, internal conflicts start to be managed constructively. In some cases storming can be resolved quickly. In others, the team never leaves this stage. The maturity of some team members usually determines whether the team will ever move out of this stage.

3 - Norming: Here the group begins to share more ideas and start to take up the characteristics of a team and leadership patterns start to formulate. Team members often work through this stage by agreeing on rules, values, professional behaviour, shared methods, working tools and even taboos. Members start to conform to a given set of ideas and decisions start to take place.

4 - Performing: A clear, organised pattern is established, based on mutual respect, the sharing of ideas and the drawing out of plans and proposals from all members of the team. All members therefore contribute in the best possible way to the team process and implementations of action plans starts to take place. Team members become independent and by this time they are motivated and knowledgeable.

The final stage consists of the team reviewing and evaluating what they have achieved and then they may break up as the task has been successfully completed. If not they may go on and identify new approaches in ways of working together and tackling new problems.

If a team were to work under Tuckmans theory they will build an effective team because as they follow each stage in order they will be able to progress and develop on the teams to become effective. Eventually all team members will be able to understand each other and work together as one to meet their deadlines and achieve their goals and objectives.

Recruitment & Selection

Recruitment - This process involves mainly identifying what the new team members should have by looking at the skills and competences that will be required in the team. This is known as a job analysis and a person specification can be made up from this laying out the qualifications and qualities needed in that new team member.

Selection - This stage involves selecting the right team member that the firm would feel has potential to make the team with certain contributions that they might have. Selection identifies mainly the wide range of personality traits that a potential may have, these could be things such as communication skills, listening skills, the encouragement they may have on the group, motivation and contribution to the team.

After selection there are a lot of stages the new team members go through to become effective. These are:

Training - In training there are two approaches to train the people in team working these are experiential learning and counselling.

Experiential learning involves the members to carry out real tasks and learn at the same time, the tasks could also be simulated. Task which are involved are tasks which can be completed successfully with the team skills that are needed. Sometimes this could involve analysing case studies but mainly it is the tasks that are used. After the task is completed the team would analyse what they have done and what they have learnt from that exercise it is normally done with guidance. Counselling method on the other hand is more appropriate when it comes to management teams. The trainer plays two roles, one being a consultant and the other being an advisor. The trainer works with both the team and its individual members.

Coaching - For line managers and supervisors this is a valuable skill and can cover a long time span but can also be limited to a single session, coaching can be public meaning that groups of people can be coached.

Mentoring - The relationship of mentoring is less concerned with day-to-day work than with longer-term issues such as working relationships and career paths. It is a long relationship if intermittent as it is conducted in confidence in a one-to-one basis.

Both of these methods can be used to encourage team members and provide targets for them to achieve that are manageable, rewarding and motivating at the same time.

Motivation - As part of supervising and managing teams, motivation is an important role as they have to make sure that the team members feel part of the team, and that they are given the right training and development to ensure that they can contribute what they have learnt into the team.

Following this will make an effective team as team members are chosen to specific requirements and then are trained and developed individually or in a group to improve on their team working skills. This also helps them to broaden on other skills such as communication and listening as well as their own personal skills and implement that into the team.

Belbin's Theory

Over a long period of time Berlin investigated mixed management teams and he came to conclusion that any team member can play one or more roles. He devised a self perception inventory which is used by individual team members to determine what roles they are strong at and what they are weak at. These roles each have a positive and negative aspect which the members will have to recognise.

These roles are as follows:

Implementer - They take on what the other roles have suggested and they then turn them into positive actions. They are efficient and self-disciplined, reliable, can be motivated by the team to take on tasks that everyone else dislikes. But apart from al of this they do have a drawback and that is that they may be seen as close-minded and inflexible has they have difficulty deviating from their own plans.

Coordinator - They are more in the big picture as they become seen as a chairperson. They delegate tasks to the right person as they are able to recognise abilities in others. They are confident, stable and mature which is why they clarify decisions and help everyone focus on their task. As they are in the high picture they may be a perceived at some points being manipulative and delegate all work.

Shaper - This role is seen more as a team leader role, they put everyone in their places and provoke them into action. They prosper on pressure and challenge and charge through the hard work whilst challenging others to do the same. They will do whatever it takes to reach their goal which is why they may hurt someone's feeling.

Plant - This role is seen as more problem solving as plants are good at solving problems as they always have al the solutions to everything. They are creative and can generate a lot of ideas but being a plant it is hard for them to communicate ideas.

Resource Investigator - They have all the links in the outside world and at the beginning of a project they would send enthusiasm into the team as they pursue new contacts and opportunities. They are a maker of possibilities and an excellent net worker. They can easily lose momentum towards the end of the project and can forget small details.

Monitor/Evaluator - They are seen as observers and judges of what is going on and can see the available options with great clarity. They will always come to the right decision almost all the time as they do work slowly and analytically. However it is hard for them to inspire others and themselves to feel good about their work.

Team worker - They can keep the team in place and running as they are good listeners and understanding. They can help everyone understand each other without any confrontation. Without them the team would be arguing and small important things start to cease. In their case the only holdback is that they can not take any decisive action when it is needed.

Completer/Finisher - They are the perfectionist in the team, their role is to check that everything is right by double checking everything twice. They have a good inward sense of accuracy but they may frustrate their team mates as they want everything to be perfect they will worry about the small details.

Specialist - They specialise in their own field of work as they have greater depth of knowledge in one subject then many. They improve on their skills all the time and will find the answer to something they may not know. They bring a high level of concentration to the team along with ability and skill but this is only narrowed down to what they are good at and can only contribute to that. They will intend to be uninterested in anything which lies outside their specialised subject.

This will be a good way of running a team as everyone would have their own label so they all know what they are doing. It is a test used to gain an insight into an individual's behavioural type. Setting everyone their own position will motivate them into doing more work and keeping the team in place, their will be more productivity and the team will be more effective as everything will be going to precision.

Task 3

What is Task & Process

Task is what needs to be done, the workers need to know what to do and have to have a simple schedule or plan to get everything correct for the outcome to be perfect.

Process is how the team works together and how the employee interacts with the customer. Without a team cooperating and communicating with each other there will be lack of confidence in the team leading to deadlines not being met, lack of concentration and focus.

Task and Process are the two main elements in working in a team, if the task is done badly then there are negative outcomes and if the process is poor then employees will not be able to work together and do their job right. Both the task and process is important if the team were to be an effective team this is because an effective team have the right skills, communication, motivation, sharing of ideas and knowledge to get everything done perfectly and on time. If the team knows what they are doing then there is no confused team member and everyone will be doing their set jobs, this being the task. If the team can work together pulling off all tasks by communicating with each other and solving each others problem then the tasks will be done more quicker and deadlines will be met, this being process.

Elements of Task & Process

Task:-

* Proposes the objectives

* Clarifies goals

* Seeks information and opinions

* Keeps the group on track

* Summarises ideas

* Suggests ways forward

* Evaluates Contribution

Process:-

* Supports other group members

* Ensures all team members are involved with the work

* Makes suggestions and compromises

* Monitors the groups progress

Qualities of Effective Team Members

Each individual member must have qualities within them to help the team become effective. Without members being highly skilled or having qualities the team will be unsuccessful due to the lack of inequalities in the team.

For an effective team member they should be able to:

* Communicate with one another - members should be able to communicate with one another by being able to speak to other members respectfully and give their views on what needs to be done and what they feel is wrong they should be able to speak to put their point across

* Have great listening skills - teams need members who can listen actively and take in all the information and understand points given by others. Members need to learn how to listen first before speaking as this reduces the amount of debating within a team.

* Take instructions from team leader - each individual member should be able to take instructions from their leaders as this keeps the work effective and everyone on task. Without following instructions it can leave a team in a critical position.

* Respect each other - members should treat each other respectfully with courtesy and consideration at all times. Members nee to learn how to look out for each other by providing the right support to get the work done if members are need of help. Most importantly members should be able to have fun while working but to a certain extent.

* Show commitment - members need to be committed to the team in what they do and how they do things. They need to show up on time everyday with their full concentration on the work and give the work their best effort and should encourage other team members to do the same.

* Functions as an Active Participant - members always come prepared and are engaged in their work. They show up for team meetings and share their thoughts and ideas and take in others ideas as well. Members like this intend to take the initiative to make things happen and volunteer for assignments.

Lack of cohesion can take place within a team, this can affect many factors of working as a team and can also affect the business projects as a whole.

Lack of cohesion can consist of factors such as:

Team goals are poorly defined: If people do not know what the goal is it will be hard for them to achieve it. This leaves everyone confused and working in the wrong direction.

Little opportunity for career progression: Some members may not be as committed to the team as others would this is because they want opportunities for personal development and progress in a career.

Weak or authoritarian team leadership: Weak leadership means a team can lose its direction. Under an authoritarian leadership individuals or even teams are frightened to voice there ideas and innovation is stifled.

Internal challenges to team leadership: This can cause confrontation between team members and they will begin to lose focus on the team goals. Situations like this is even more out of control when there is potential or actual conflict between members which already exist which is why individuals intend to concentrate on individual difference rather than team goals.

Personal Problems: Individuals may not be able to focus or concentrate 100% on their work due to the high amount of personal problems they may have.

Most of the factors above are factors which could affect a team from being effective which is why it is important for the business to employee the correct staff who can bring the right positive attitude into a team.

Qualities of an Effective Team

Teams are important because it reduces the workload and increases productivity that one person cannot do. The qualities of an effective team are important as it holds responsibilities between teams and in that team everyone has responsibilities. Due to this everyone is more calm and relaxed in their work as they are concentrating in more of their own field of work rather then something they cannot do and brings out more independence within the staff. To achieve aims and objectives every team member needs to look out for each other by supporting one another and offering help when needed.

As everyone has their own job to do when working in a team it keeps the team effective as deadlines are met as team members concentrate more to achieving the aim then anything else. Team members can make decisions to what is to happen in the team but the leader of the team needs to be informed about these ideas and decisions as he is the one to make the last call.

Productivity falls due to the failure of job rotation being in place, this is needed for a team to be effective. When a team member is absent his job needs to be done, this is when job rotation comes in. It involves another member of the team to fill in the place of the absentee, but the member filling in must know how to do the job properly and making sure they keep that level of productivity they are at.

BMW have an effective team in place as the case study says that the teams are able to make decisions with a high working job rotation scheme in place being able to meet their aims and objectives. This shows that the team can work together as they are able to help each other using the job rotation scheme and with their knowledge, skills and ideas put in place they are able to make decisions which could possibly make greater changes to the team and the business itself.

Another quality which BMW have is the ownership role and referring back to the case study it says that management does get involved in working on the production tasks as well as the ideas from the staff have managed to save BMW a lot of money. This indicates that everyone has ownership one way or another, on the production tasks the members have ownership in what they do during production giving them a bit of independency. Managers do get involved with this but mainly to help the staff solve tough problems which waste a lot of time on production. The managers getting involved keeps the production line flowing as their involvement speeds up processes.

BMW introduced team talks where the staffs ideas and suggestions can be heard. This is effective team work as it shows a sense of motivation and involvement which the staff can feel. Their ideas are taken into consideration and can help the business be more successful. The saving on money from ideas that was out across by the staff shows that the team is effective.

Task 4

In this part of the assignment I will be talking about leadership and the different types of leadership skills there are. I will be explaining what leadership is, the skills needed for a positive leader and what effects an unskilled leader has on a team.

Leadership

What is Leadership:

Leadership means working with and through people by providing them with a vision of the future which is meaningful to them and motivating. Leadership is both strategic and pragmatic and encourages all members of a team to deliver their best as an individual and as a team member. By having a good leader means more work will be done and there will be a high level of productivity. Being a leader does not necessarily mean being a manager. Mangers work to carry out aims of the business the leader intends to make new aims and change old ones and take upon new courses of action.

Leaders provide that bit of encouragement into a team by keeping them on their feet, setting each individual aims, plan what the staff need to do in order to achieve the goal and keep the manger happy and leaders also have problem solving mind as they always find ways to solve problems to improve even better on their work and also the work of the team. A leader works with others to make changes to make a difference within the business.

Leadership Styles

There are 5 different styles in which a leader may work in, it are the style that suits them the best and the style that keeps the team running in all businesses, and these styles are:

Democratic

In a Democratic style, the manager allows the employees to take part in decision-making: therefore everything is agreed by the majority. The communication is extensive in both directions (from subordinates to leaders and vice-versa). This style can be particularly useful when complex decisions need to be made that require a range of specialist skills: for example, when a new ICT system needs to be put in place and the upper management of the business is computer-illiterate. From the overall business's point of view, job satisfaction and quality of work will improve. However, the decision-making process is severely slowed down, and the need of a consensus may avoid taking the 'best' decision for the business.

Autocratic

An Autocratic or authoritarian manager makes all the decisions, keeping the information and decision making among the senior management. Objectives and tasks are set and the workforce is expected to do exactly as required. The communication involved with this method is mainly downward, from the leader to the subordinate, critics such as Elton Mayo have argued that this method can lead to a decrease in motivation from the employee's point of view. The main advantage of this style is that the direction of the business will remain constant, and the decisions will all be similar, this in turn can project an image of a confident, well managed business. On the other hand, subordinates may become highly dependent upon the leaders and supervision may be needed.

Paternalistic

A more Paternalistic form is also essentially dictatorial, however the decisions tend to be in the best interests of the employees rather than the business. A good example of this would be David Brent running the business in the fictional television show The Office. The leader explains most decisions to the employees and ensures that their social and leisure needs are always met. This can help balance out the lack of worker motivation caused by an autocratic management style. Feedback is again generally downward, however feedback to the management will occur in order for the employees to be kept happy. This style can be highly advantageous, and can engender loyalty from the employees, leading to a lower labour turnover, thanks to the emphasis on social needs. It shares similar disadvantages to an authoritarian style; employees becoming highly dependent on the leader, and if the wrong decisions are made, then employees may become dissatisfied with the leader.

Laissez-faire

In a Laissez-faire leadership style, the leader's role is peripheral and the staffs manage their own areas of the business; the leader therefore evades the duties of management and uncoordinated delegation occurs. The communication in this style is horizontal, meaning that it is equal in both directions, however very little communication occurs in comparison with other styles. The style brings out the best in highly professional and creative groups of employees, however in many cases it is not deliberate and is simply a result of poor management. This leads to a lack of staff focus and sense of direction, which in turn leads to much dissatisfaction, and a poor company image.

Consultative

There are two Consultative leadership styles; the first involves the leader sharing the problems with the relevant team members individually getting their ideas and suggestions without bringing them together as a group. Then the leader makes the decision that may or may not reflect the team member influence. The second style is similar but the leader shares problems with the relevant team members as a group not individually and comes to a decision after gathering all their ideas and suggestions.

Interview with Louis Strover

Louis Stover is the Head of Business & IT at John Ruskin College. He is responsible for managing the Business & IT team. He has gone through a lot of education to get to where he is now at college he took BTEC National Diploma in hospitality then later on in a college in Bristol he took up another Higher National Diploma course in hotel and catering management. With these degrees he then went on to University of Sheffield where he done a BSC Hons in Hospitality Management and then took up a Post Graduate Certificate in Education in further education and got his teaching qualification. He did not give up after that, he then carried on with his studies and took on an Accounting for Managers, MGT course in education where he qualified and later put him in the position of where he is now.

He has been teaching for 12 years and within them 12 years he has been swapping and changing roles. He has been a lecturer for 3 years teaching hospitality and won national awards for that. He then progressed to course leader and then later was employed at John Ruskin College (JRC) where he was an IT teacher then later progressed to head of IT and Maths for 3 years and then 2 years ago he progressed to ICLT manager.

Strover's Responsibilities & Duties

Louis Strover has many roles and responsibilities as a manager:

* Support and manage his managers - he has to keep his managers up to date on programmes and schemes and new things that arise everyday, make sure their happy with his plans before he goes ahead with anything.

* Develop plans to move the college forward - so what can be done to make the college progress in technology, can he add new software, bring in new staff, new programmes and schemes etc.

* Monitor progress against targets - he has to keep an eye on the progression of his team and make sure they are working towards the goals and targets that have been set.

* Manage and allocate resources within budget - he has to spend money responsibly not waste it on unnecessary material, what he feels is going to be needed to help the college progress should be brought.

All the above Louis Strover has to do so being a manager is not an easy job, there is a lot on his plate and it does take a lot of time and effort to get there.

What Skills are required?

As a manager Louis Strover feels that there are a lot of skills that need to be required for a manager as well as a team leader to be effective, these are:

* Interpersonal Skills - he feels that all team leaders should have the ability to get on with people this is because the members will need to trust him as a team leader and without communication there is no sense of trust being built.

* Analytical - feels that managers and leaders need to have that urge to analyse all problems to find out the key issues that are holding back the work or the business from progressing.

* Solve Problems - Strover feels that to be an effective leader the leader needs to be able to solve both human and technical problems. He should put a positive vibe to his members so that they feel confident to come to talk to him with their problems so he can help sort it out in a professional and confidential matter. He also feels they need to be able to sort out technical problems such as computer failures, productivity levels etc so that the company can progress and the quicker the problems are solved the more productivity there is.

* Good Written and verbal Skills - this is required as the leader needs to be able to explain things in writing format that the members will understand clearly. Verbal is needed as the leader will be speaking a lot so he needs the skill to be able to speak clearly, fluently and explain tasks and ideas etc without mixing his words up. He needs to be clear in both of skills.

* Work in Teams or Individually - the leader needs to be able to work in a team as well as individually this is because there are some people out there that cannot do both as some like to work in teams where there is a bit of noise and others like working alone in quiet. Leaders need to be able to work in both situations as there are times when the team will need help so the leader will need to get involved and there are times where the leader will need to do his own paper work and so on.

* Diplomatic - leaders need to be diplomatic meaning that they need to be able to tell a member politely without hurting their feelings if there work is not to standard. There are leaders where they are blunt and get straight to point and this can hurt a members feeling so being diplomatic is a big advantage as it will build reputation for the leader.

* Innovative for new Ideas - leader needs to be able to create new ideas for the business and the team. They need to be able to think ahead to the future and create ideas which will help the business grow and the team to become more effective.

* Influential - the leader needs to be influential meaning that he needs to be able to talk his way into the minds of the team members and persuade them to agree with him so that they can buy into his ideas and plans he has for the future.

The above are all the skills that Louis Strover feels that a manger or a team leader need for them to be effective and to create an impact on the team. Without the presence of these the team could be failing and will not be ass effective as other, there will be low levels of productivity and the business will eventually fail if there is no action taken to prevent this.

Interpersonal Skills

These are the skills that enable one another to get on with each other and it promotes positive relationship skills in the workplace. It measures a persons ability to operate inside business organisations through social communications and interactions.

Having interpersonal skills is important for a leader as it shows commitment to the team as the leader is able to communicate and interact with all his members of the team. This shows the members that the leader is respecting them and the members will feel that they are able to look back at the leader for help and advice when issues arise. Communication is a major issue in a business and without it businesses will be failing to succeed as it might increase conflict with one another. Interpersonal skills being in place enable one another to reduce conflict and increase participation or assistance in obtaining information or completing tasks.

Effects on Having a Leader with Weak Interpersonal Skills

Having a leader with weak interpersonal skills can lead to a lot of misunderstanding and problems within a workplace built on teams. Above I talked about the interpersonal skills a leader should have, I will now talk about the effects it will have if a leader does not have those skills required and will be relating it back to BMW.

Leaders need to be able to work in teams, without this type of skill it can lead to low productivity levels as members will not know what they will need to do and may struggle in accomplishing a task if the leader is not helping. Also it can result in dispute as members may not like the way the get treated by the leader because of his skills in working with teams, this can lead to members leaving and may even lead to members having dispute with one another. At BMW before they changed from a production line format to a team based approach there was a lot of disputes with one another "The motor manufacturing industry in the UK has suffered from a poor reputation as a result of the disputes that seemed to occur every week". Having this skill present is vital for a leader as it would not result to disputes and hate. Instead teams will be stronger and will feel they can work together as a team with the help of their leader and can lead to encouragement and build trust in each other.

Leaders also need to be able to have strong problem solving skills, without this it can lead many misunderstanding matters and without anyone being able to fix problems which arise within the company the production level will decrease. If there is a problem with the machinery used, leaders need to be able to know how to contact engineers as soon as possible or if they know how to fix it then fix it immediately. Looking back at the case study of BMW it says that "The 'us and them' culture created misunderstanding, communication problems, poor productivity and a reluctance to change that led to many car manufacturers in the UK falling behind their competitors abroad" The problem solving skill needs to be within a leader as it will not result in all these problems that BMW have stated, if a leader had strong skills they will be able to sort all these problems out and everyone will be able to work together in peace knowing that if something goes wrong someone can fix it.

A leader who is able to create new ideas for the team is a strong leader without the presence of this skill a team may not be able to function as well as they could. Bringing new ideas into a team is like bringing life into the workplace. New ideas allow members to communicate more, have motivations towards their work etc, without this teams will be bored eventually of the workplace as they will be doing the same thing day in day out. BMW made changes to their work place, looking back at the case study, and it says that "since the programme started three years ago, BMW has put into practice over 8,000 ideas from its staff, saved £6.3 million over the past year as a result and seen production targets exceeded by nearly two thirds". This shows that ideas will not only effect the team but it could also effect the company as a whole and that way the business will be able to climb to the top of the market and be the best out there.

Finally a leader needs to have strong verbal and writing skills so that he can explain facts and issues that arise to the team clearly and making sure they understand the first time round. As leader there is a lot of talking involved and without strong verbal skills a leader can confuse the team as they may not know what he is on about. At BMW it shows that "The organisation also introduced fortnightly team talks where plans, decisions, suggestions and points of views could be aired". A leader will be present at these team talks so it is his time to listen to the ideas of his team and write them down and later on he ill have to explain his thoughts on what has been discussed by giving a presentation. Having strong verbal and writing skills is important because it will make the team feel more clever and good about things as they know what they need to be doing and have knowledge of new information about the business as a whole.

Task 6

Recommendations

Looking back at what I wrote in this assignment I can see that there are many factors which could effect a team who under performs. There are ways in which a team can raise its performance for the team to become effective and I will talk about a few points which can be taken into consideration.

Having a Clear purpose

Teams frequently fail when they lack clarity of purpose. Without it, the level of effort and motivation suffer and disagreements or conflicts arise more easily. One test is to ask different team members to summarize the collective goal. If answers differ widely, the manager or a team leader needs to explain things more clearly.

A Well-defined structure

An organizational structure that clearly demarcates different functions, roles and responsibilities allows the best use of resources. It should take full account of competencies required for each job, the overall workload and the need for stability and backup. As a business expands new materials and staff will be required, while other roles become less important. So, the structure should be flexible to ensure that changes do not cause disruption or lead to a section being snowed under and another over-staffed. An ill-defined structure can create tension and frustration over roles and make it more difficult to spot where key skills are lacking. Teams work best when each member knows their prime function.

Showing Strong support

To be consistently effective, a team needs support, resources and rewards. These come from different points in the organization but, most importantly, senior management such as head of departments, directors and chairman's etc, must provide what is needed to make performance much better so that high productivity is presence. One of the most important ways is by designing a suitable reward system but these rewards do not have to financial. Recognition from colleagues, celebrating milestones or educational opportunities can serve as team-centered rewards, this will motivate more members of teams and they will be more than happy to put that bit of extra work in to be rewarded at the end of it.

Having Positive relationships

Personal tensions or strained relationships among team members can make life difficult. The cause is often mistrust or competition and may stem from a misunderstanding of what the team is expected to achieve. In such cases, it is vital to intervene and listen to both sides of the story. Only then can a decision be made on how to re-establish good relations. Having meetings can help members to build on their team spirit and show commitment to the team.

Efficient Information

For many organizations, managing information needed for optimal performance is a major challenge. Without this, decisions get postponed and everyday business can grind to a halt. To be sure a team has the information needed to perform; the leader or manager must be able to review the speed and effectiveness of all their standard communication channels regularly. This includes a look at which meetings are useful and which can be modified or dropped.

These 5 factors can be vital to assess a team's performance and to stay on track. If you analyze problems thoroughly and pinpoint the difficulties, it is possible to take steps toward a workable solution. By doing so, the business can ensure their teams operate at peak efficiency and achieves its goals.

Task 7

The Importance of Interpersonal Skills to Achieve Targets

Relating back to the BMW case study and my notes I will talk about how the importance of interpersonal skills helps the achievement of targets.

One interpersonal skill that will help achieve targets is having diplomatic skills. Being diplomatic keeps the team strong and together as members will not have to worry about getting in trouble if they do something wrong. The leader will simply talk to them about what they done, politely. The draw back to this is that if the leader does not show a bit of attitude, then the workers may take advantage of the leader knowing that he will not do anything. Looking back at the case study of BMW it says that "The whole workforce is now seen as being less divided and more cohesive with a greater degree of respect all round and a willingness to contribute and be involved." This shows that the team are all together showing respect and motivation towards work due to the fact there is some diplomatic skills involved and targets will be met.

Having the interpersonal skill of being able to solve problems is important in meeting targets as leaders and members need to be able to analyse problems around the work place in order for the teams and the business to function properly. Without this skill problems will never be solved and could leave teams in a situation and the business not producing enough. Relating back to the case study "The teams can make production decisions, have job rotation schemes, and put the responsibility for achieving plant wide targets in the hands of those teams." Here it shows that working as a team can help a team come to decisions, this is in someway solving problems as the teams will be together analysing problems and try to fix them.

Communication is also an important skill to have as communicating allows the workforce to get along with each other without any disputes and staff will have fun to a certain extent whilst their working making the day go quicker. A drawback to this is that too much communication may result in production delays as it may take longer for information to filter through to the right persons. The way in which communication is conveyed can be a problem if workers feel they are not involved in decisions or problem solving issues relating to their work. This can prevent staff from doing their job properly. This is what was said in the case study of BMW "Each team therefore has more stake in the way the business develops rather than a hierarchical system where workers feel alienated from decision making, stifling initiative and leading to a dependency culture." Here it shows that without communication staff will feel they are alone in their work place with nobody to get along with, because of this will not find that the job is right for them resulting in them to leave. So having communication skills is important to achieve targets such as producing more products in a year.

These interpersonal skills are the most important in a business in order to achieve set targets. Without these skills the teams in the business will not be as effective as they would if they had the skills. Having these skills raises the performance of a team and of an individual. There most useful when meeting targets such as survival, growth, maximising profit etc as without the teams producing there is no goods or services to sell and without that there is no business.

Bibliography

Books & Notes

Class Notes

Case Study - Mind Your Business 09 February 2004 BMW

BTEC National Business - Rob Dransfield, Catherine Richards, Philip Guy, David Dooley - Edexcel

Complete A-Z Business Studies Handbook 5th Edition - David Lines, Ian Marcouse Barry Martin

Websites

www.bmw.co.uk

www.bmwgroup.com

http://edina.ac.uk/eig

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4155.html

www.humancapital.doe.gov/pms/leader.pdf

www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html

www.changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/leadership_styles.htm

www.reading.ac.uk/SOAR/Interpersonal_skills.htm

http://www.impactfactory.com/p/interpersonal_skills_training/snacks_1753-2103-19512.html

Unit 22: Managing Teams

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