Components of Effective Teamwork

There are many components of effective teamwork such as communication, cohesiveness, commitment and collaboration among members to confronting problems directly, coordinating efforts, managing conflict and making decision via consensus, which requires some time compromisation (Heineman,1994). According to Zander,1994,team goal are “desirable” state of affair members intend to bring about through combined effort. A clear understanding of group’s objective through well-articulated goals is the most common characteristic of successful team (Larson and LaFasto, 1996).The team member had never been together before the assignment given. The team established a common purpose that is decided to complete the given task with the allocated time. The team member was randomly selected and joined together, the members undergo the 5 stages Tuckman theory, accomplishing group assignment.In every team, there are team composition needed for a team to work well. According to Guzzo & Dickson (1996), composition refer to the nature and attributes of team members.Whereas there are large and small groups or team within organization, the important point the composition of the groups or teams. According to Hackman, 1987 the effective team need members who have relevant expertise, interpersonal skills and moderate differences in their background. In a way, there is no point of including many people into a team or group if they do not have complementary relevant skills to contribute to team’s goals. Other than that, in many group or team, what generally happen is that individual get appointed onto team where they feel they are wasting their time in the meeting rather than being a contributing member. Thus, it is imperative that a team has combination of the right mix of workforce, expertise & right people skills. In discussion of the group assignment, there are different value embed in three main ethics in this group(Malays, Chinese and Indians) including non-assertive, good manners, cooperation and harmony; trust and relationship building. These values will to some extent influence group norms and cohesiveness (Abdullah and Low, 2001).

Apart from that, it is imperative that members understand their roles in their teams or groups. Roles are expected behavior pattern attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit (Robbin & Judge, 2007).There are many roles that member that members can play within their team or group. According to Margerison and McCann (1990), there are nine roles commonly played by group. Robbin and Judge nine roles include Linker, Creator, Promoter, Assessor, Organizer, Producer, Controller, Maintainer and the Advisor. Each team role has particular strengths wan weakness which is essential for team member to identify themselves and more importantly they need to match the roles with their skills and preference for compensating each other weakness with their strength.

Moreover, cohesiveness will bring about positive effect to satisfaction and communication. In teamwork context, it is important that all team members build cohesiveness through understanding and respects of each other’s roles and contribution trying to accomplish the group task and goals. People who are part of cohesiveness groups are more satisfied than are member of non-cohesive group(Hackman1992).Group cohesion also helps to reduce stress because members are supportive to each other .Effective team work have norms that support high quality performance and a level of group cohesiveness that provide social support to its members.

Effective leaders are those who personal qualities enable them to articulate a vision for a given group.

“It is therefore important that the leader, by his [or her] behavior manifest a loyalty to the needs and aspiration of group members. These things must matter to him [or her] in ways that to view because such evidence of good faith & sincere accessible serve to elicit greater acceptance of influence”. ( Hollander,1964,pg231;).

In addition, Hollander found that, “In order the group to function as effectively as possible, the leader needs to be attuned to the need of followers, the perception and expectancies,”(1995,pg75).In other words, when followers trust a leader, they’re willing to be subjected to the leader action’s, for they are convinced that their rights and interest will not be neglected.

Besides effective leadership, an affective membership is also important to achieve successful teamwork. Team membership performs its task then is better able to perform the next task assigned to it. The main reason in forming a team is to complete given task. Not only that, it is also helping maintain good social relations, promotes its members personal and professional development. Therefore, it is essential for member require the right type of people, good internal group process and understand team dynamic to work towards a common goal. This is the social relations, group maintenance, or viability aspect of teamwork (Sundstorm, 1990).For creating effective membership, there is necessary diversity of knowledge and skills. Management teams with members of different backgrounds are more innovative that homogenous team. (Guzzo and Dickson, 1996)