Working in groups at the work place

INTRODUCTION

Organisations all around the world provide remarkable but extraordinary workplaces for millions of people. The majority of workplaces require employees to interact towards other fellow employees and the public. Working together with other employees generates a group. There are many ways to define a group, “A group may be defined as a collection of individuals who are interdependent in some way” (Johnson and Johnson, p15; 2003). According to this definition, working at the same organisation is the event, which affects them all, and it initiates the individuals to work together. The natures of groups produce a relationship between each individual, which expands from the interaction with one another. Not everyone will get along or have the same opinions, but this teaches everyone to appreciate the fact that all individuals are different and to identify the various cultures. In the workplace when the group gets along, it should improve the effectiveness of the relationships between the people identified. This will help the group to have a high morale and will improve the company’s reputation.

Lenards, is a well-known poultry shop, which serves a variety of fresh chicken. “It is a multi-award winning company, considered to be one of Australia's leading fresh food retailers and a pioneer in the kitchen ready market”(Dias, 2002). I am currently working at Lenards located at Middle Park, and have been employed there for approximately six months. During these six months, I have particularly become close to two fellow employees, Donika and Nick. I have also formed a good relationship with my manager Ray.

The objectives of this report will identify in individuals such as personality and attitudes, behaviors individuals demonstrate that leads a person to believe that they have those personalities and attitudes, the level of morale existing between people in the workplace and the indicators of morale that are present and any cultural and social differences that has an influence on the relationships of these people.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Ray (Supervisor)

Ray is of great importance to the team at Lenards as he is in charge of the business’s daily operations. Therefore his personality and attitudes reflect strongly upon the business. “Managers need to be aware of their own attitudes, assumptions and beliefs, as well as being sensitive to their subordinates’ perceptions, needs and motivations.” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, & Coulter, 2003, p.11).

Rays duties reflect upon his personality, which makes his duties easier to perform. One important personality for managing is planning. Planning is where the decisions are made and are the “essence of a manager’s job” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, & Coulter, 2003, p.174). The decision making process is a set of eight steps including identifying a problem, selecting an alternative, and evaluating the decision’s effectiveness. Ray tries to be aware of the stores problems by making sure the employees are serving the customers the right way, and checking that all the procedures are carried out properly. When he identifies a problem within the team, he will usually inform the group about the problem so that no one else makes the same mistakes.

Organising is another major behavior for managing. This helps the business to be more organised with team responsibilities and also individual responsibilities. At the beginning of the day Ray sets out what he wants to be done, how it will be best to do it and when it should be done by. “The challenge for managers is to design an organisational structure that allows employees to effectively and efficiently do their work while accomplishing organisational goals and objectives.” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, & Coulter, 2003, p.274)

Leading, is concerned with the subject of behavior and the actions of people at work. It is important for managers to be good leaders so that they have good control over the employees and the business. These areas look towards “attitudes, personality, perception, learning and motivation” it also includes “norms, roles, team building and conflict” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, & Coulter, 2003, p.384). Ray is an understanding person, who tries not to judge. For example, if we are late for work and have a good reason for it he will understand and won’t go further into the situation by being nosey. He also gets along well with every customer and does not treat any customer differently no matter of their looks, or culture, etc.

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“Job satisfaction refers to an individual’s general attitude towards their job.” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter, 2003, p. 389). Ray’s high involvement as the manager of Lenards has made him extremely motivated and displays positive attitudes. “Organisational commitment is an individual’s orientation towards to the organization in terms of loyalty identification and involvement.” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter, 2003, p. 59). Ray participates in the workplace daily and he shows a considerably high commitment to the workplace.

He understands the different cultures of all employees and does not treat anyone different. “All managers are required to perform duties that involve people” ...

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He understands the different cultures of all employees and does not treat anyone different. “All managers are required to perform duties that involve people” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, & Coulter, 2003, p.11) Ray does his job very well by performing the duties that involve people at a great level, he interacts well with all the customers by starting conversation and offering bonus cards and cooking guides, he always tries his best to make every customer smile.

Morale is basically the need for a manager or supervisor to give their employees direction, guidance, support, encouragement, praise and recognition for work. It is understood that Ray’s morale is the highest out of all the workers in the business. He shows a cheerful attitude towards employees and is always willing to perform certain tasks for the daily operations.

Nick (High Employee)

As one of the main employees that make up the staff of Lenards, Nick contributes greatly in the food preparations and daily operations. His personality seems to be much more conversant compared to the rest of the employees. Nick is more tranquil, meaning that he is calm, easy-going and open-minded at the same time. He is always cooperative towards the group and the customers.

“Human or interpersonal skills represent the ability to work well with and understand others, to build cooperative effort within a team, to motivate and to avoid conflict.” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, & Coulter, 2003, p.11). Nick has developed many skills over the many years that he has been employed at Lenards for. This makes him more conversant meaning that he is much more experienced compared to the rest of the group. Nick is someone that the group members rely on if Ray is not around. The team is very reliant upon Nick because of his great knowledge towards the business and the skills that impact upon the business.

A person, who is tranquil, is easy going and calm towards many situations. It is important for group members to portray tranquility so that they can keep there cool at times of frustration. Nick is an outgoing person but at the same time he stays calm and on task.

Cooperation is important within a group and a business’s customers. Instead of an individual completing there own duties on there own, the group can work together as a team to complete all the tasks in an organised way. This means that each individual can get help from others where needed. “The primary goal is to get along sufficiently well to achieve the goals and do the tasks.” (Birchall & Colwill, 1996, p70). Nick cooperates well with every team member by helping everyone complete tasks, and by identifying and informing us of something we are doing wrong. He also cooperates well with the customers by coming to a conclusion with a customer who has a problem. Nick, being a thinking and also a feeling person, tends to be logical but always considers others’ feelings, having both feeling and thinking dimensions giving strength. He is always organised and also understanding. Nick shows that he is a well-organised employee. He always asks questions like “are you busy or do you need any help at all with that?” He is careful with his words (as to not offend or dishearten other co-workers) and always likes to help other people if they are in need.

Organisational commitment is how much a person contributes in doing task and the loyalty towards the business. Nick, having work there for over 5 years, shows that he is loyal towards the business and always contributes as much as he can, thus is highly committed.

It is understood that Nick is very spirited within the business as he has considerably high morale. Morale is the mental or emotional condition of a person or group, as indicated by the level of enthusiasm, confidence, cheerfulness, or the like. Nick shows morale through his confidences and cheerfulness at work, where he loves to interact with others. He always shows that he wants to work and is very confident in doing daily tasks.

Donika (Employee)

Donika shows great deal of personality and is possibly the most complex employee at Lenards. She is an extremely outgoing person she loves interacting with others but is not always aware of people and/or things around her, this becomes one of her weaknesses, feeling. Other than this she is perceiving, but has equal strengths.

A feeling person is a person who is more aware of people, problems and situations around them than being logical and objective. This means that the person places more value in people and their life. Donika does not show a lot care for much more than just the job she does, but she likes to know about other employee’s weekends, problems and loves interacting. At times she can be a bit judging towards people, for example, she may comment about customers after they have left, such as saying something like, “That person had stinky breath”.

Perceiving is where an individual always thinks twice before acting or always want to know more about the task given or problem before making solutions for the problems or task. Perceivers like to take in new ideas and perspectives with others but tend to have a weakness in planning and organizing within the workplace. For example, Donika is a less organised employee by not putting her full effort into a task. For example, when it comes to the end of the day and we have just had a rush of customers leaving all our duties out the back unfinished, she will do a lazy job by not washing thing properly so that she is not late to leave work.

Having equal strengths with intuition and sensing means that the person can see possibilities, likes new ideas, enjoys solving problems, can work in complicated situations, likes to establish facts and has minor errors. Having balanced strengths in this dimension could give a person great personality to work with. An example of this can been seen in the workplace at Lenards where Donika likes to invent and discuss new ideas and would like to question others’ opinions on whether or not the new ideas would be successful if implemented. One day Donika noticed that where the knifes are placed could become a hazard. The knifes are placed on a magnetized holder, Donika suggested that we purchase or create something which would be more safe which the knifes would not fall out of. When she came up with this idea, she informed the management after suggesting it to the rest of the employees.

It is understood that Donika has a high morale towards the business organisation as a whole. Morale as said before is a state of individual psychological well being based upon a sense of confidence, usefulness and purpose. The confidence she shows is considerably high. She also likes to motivate and encourage others to work faster and effectively. Donika holds a cheerful attitude towards the job.

Deema (Employee)

During the six months which I have been employed at Lenards for, I have formed good relationships with the employee’s and the manager. “Human or interpersonal skills represent the ability to work well with and understand others, to build cooperative effort within a team, to motivate and to avoid conflict.” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, & Coulter, 2003, p.11) This makes my job enjoyable and bearable to anticipate. I differ from the group at Lenards in many ways, but I can relate to the employees in many ways. My culture becomes some of the many differences that I have with the group. My family background is stable and has brought me up to be understanding, friendly, cheerful and easy to talk to. On the other side of my personality I can be impatient, unmotivated and unorganized at times.

By understanding people’s situations, it helps them to feel comfortable to interact with one another. When there was a new employee, I understood his situation as I had been in the same place before, so I tried me best to help him and make him feel comfortable in his new work place. When others interact with me, I try to put my self in the same situation so that I can understand what they are talking about. By being understanding upon people’s situation is one of the aspects of friendliness. By being friendly towards the group I feel that I enjoy work much more by interacting with one another. By being friendly towards the customers I have realized that they become happy with the service and tend to come back.

From being impatient, certain situations become irritating to handle. For example, when customers are picky with what they want, while there are many other customers waiting behind them. While being at work I have to try my hardest to be patient with customers, and try to ignore the irritation I get.

Many of times I can become unorganized by coming late to work but other than that I tend to work hard and motivate myself by interacting with the employees and customers.

Morale is the spirit of a person’s mind where the person can be affected by confidence, cheerfulness and willingness as stated above. I always work with a cheerful attitude, but may sometimes have the will to conduct certain tasks; rather I may need to be instructed to do so. I do not have full confidence in all assigned task so I can sometimes be unsure of what to do in certain operations. The morale I have mainly comes from my enjoyment of interacting with the group and customers.

CULTURAL AND SOCIAL DIFFERENCES

Culture and society can single everyone out from each other. Culture, can be defined as “A deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concept of universe and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people the course of generation through individuality and group striving.” (Samovar & Porter)

The cultural differences within Lenards are of great importance to how people act and explain things. People are raised with different cultures and these changes the way we act, explain and differentiate between different cultures. “Culture serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviour of people.” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter, 2003, p. 559) As we go through the workers it is understood that the manager and employees have certain cultural differences within the business.

All the employees at Lenards have different backgrounds, I am from Iraq, Ray is Australian, Nick is from New Zealand and Donika is Italian. This proves that a group can work together regardless of each others backgrounds.

Having a different social status between workers could really contribute in the way workers act within the organisation. Ray, being the manager of the business organisation uses his status to influence others in the workplace. He acts controlling at times to express that he is dominant but does care for employee’s opinions. As for Nick, he always respects all employees and customers. He listens well to what everyone has to say, when consulting the manager he always asks relevant questions and discusses any problems in a very formal way. Donika appears to talk naturally to anyone with any social differences within the business; she cares less of what status you are as she thinks that all people are equal in the workplace. Deema, being the least experienced in the organisation tends to respect all people and talks formally and respectfully towards every worker within the business.

After going through and analyzing the social differences between the workers, it demonstrates that there is a considerably high difference between them. They all show different attitudes to different social statuses within the workplace.

The group at Lenards is all different from one another. We all have our own beliefs, cultural and social differences, but it does not stop us from interacting with each other. There are times when we all agree on things and times when we don’t. For example, Ray and Nick always leave the radio on Triple M, and myself and Donika always ask to change it to B105. It never causes a fight because we all understand that we like different types of music and we all share the radio stations.

CONCLUSION

All organisations require for employees to work in a group. For this to be effective, the members in the group should all get along, understanding each others differences which may relate to culture or society. “Just because people work together in the same work group does not mean the share common interests” (Birchall & Colwill, 1996, p4). All individuals may share many qualities with other people, but they still have their differences, the majority of these come from cultural and social beliefs. It is important for groups to accept each others beliefs so they can interact with each other. Good morale associates with group performances and makes the workplace a happy place. For employees to have good morale, they need to enjoy their job, and when employees enjoy their job they then demonstrate a great attitude towards customers, to influence the return of everyone who is served.

I believe that the group at Lenards has a high morale. This is due to the fact that we all get along well; pressure is not put on to anyone, and no one ever seems to complain about working. The customer response is good and we have many regular customers, who very rarely complain. I think that a great influence for the group’s high morale is from Ray. Most reasons why employees have low moral is if they don’t like their employer. Ray is easy going and does not boss us around, and all of us get along well with him.

“Human relations is a process by which management brings workers into contact with the organization in such a way that the objectives of both groups are achieved.” (Hodgetts, 1987, p6) Overall, it is vital for group associations to accept each others differences so they can interact together with good team work to produce a good morale to the society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Richard M. Hodgetts, 1987, Modern Human Relations at Work – third edition, Florida International University, New York.
Luft, J. (1970, 2nd Ed.) Group processes; an introduction to group dynamics. Palo Alto, CA: National Press Books
Georgia Birchall & Jenni Colwill, 1996, Working Relationships, Alice Graphics, Melbourne.
David W. Johnson & Frank P. Johnson, 2002, Joining Together – Group theory and group skills, Pearson Education, Inc. USA
Stephen P. Robbins, Rolf Bergman, Ian Stagg, & Mary Coulter, 2003, Management – third edition, Pearson Education, NSW
L. Dias “” 2002