Team Performance And Strategic Objectives Management Essay

In the present era organisations are faced with several managerial problems. Managers and Team Leaders decisions revolve around encouraging and nurturing employees to gain competitive advantage. In today’s organizations managers must empower, encourage and support the employees. This present study gives an overview of team performance measurement system and team-based organizing. It also provides an overview of how teams perform within the organization to achieve the organisation’s strategic objectives. (Susan T. Beyerlein, 2003)

According to me the Team performance has an important role to play in an organisation. Team performance is directly linked with the achievements of the team’s strategic business objectives. It is like a bridge between the team and business performance results.

Team performance management is based on three principles

Team behaviours vary from individual behaviour: Most projects include teamwork, but the outcome dependents on the individual work within a team, not what a team does collectively together.

The behaviours that make a team successful vary: The team approach is different from team to team and also the time periods are different from time to time. For example in a company the design team behaviour for success is different from the financial audit team success.

By using team performance management process team behaviours can be changed: Performance management involves in basing behavioural goals to know the gap between current and desired behaviour. In order to close the gap planning, implementing and monitoring takes place.(www.teamtechnology.co.uk)

1.1.1 Influences on team performance:

It is necessary to look the critical factors influencing team performance before we design a team performance management system.

There are some factors which influence team performance.

Alignment with strategic objectives

Knowing the desired outcomes

Performance measurement system existence

Team skills and abilities like education, ability to tackle problems etc.

Organization management and support such as training , development, rewarding and motivating

Team type like task force, project, work.

1.1.2 The main strategic objectives for the team performance:

The team should analyse the organisation to know the goals and objective of the organisation.

The team needs to know about the measures that are important to the organisation.

The team should be able to monitor whether they are helping the organisation to achieves its goal and objectives. (www.teamtechnolgy.co.uk)

1.2 Tools and Techniques available to set team performance targets

1.2.1 There are many tools used by performance management:

Performance management and development review: performance management systems are not used in many organisations they operate appraisals in which individual’s manager regularly records performance, potential and development needs in a top-down process. This appraisal system had some defects so it made to develop performance management systems and development review meeting.

Learning and development: employee growth and development makes the organisation to improve the organisational performance which in turn requires an understanding of the processes and techniques of organisational, team and individual learning.

Coaching: it is an important tool in development and learning. If persons skills and knowledge increases then the persons performance towards their job improves this method is called coaching. Coaching is important tool for many line managers in the organisation.

Objectives and performance standards: objectives in organisations are goals achieved by individuals, departments and organisations over a period of time called as targets to be met.

Competences and competencies: competences and competencies as components of performance management. What people need to perform a job well is competences and dimensions of behaviour that lie behind competent performance.

Measurement: By knowing the past and current performance the performance can be improved. Performance is measured by knowing past and current performance. Measurement provides the basis for providing and generating feedback.

Performance related pay (Pay): performance related pay is an important element in performance management. It is a process where the people are rewarded for their contribution.

Teams: working in teams is also an important part of the performance management system. Teams are mainly concern with output.

360 degree feedback: 360 degree feedback consists of performance data generated from a number of sources, who can include the person to whom the individual being assessed reports, people who report to them, peers and internal and external customers.

Performance problem solving: Performance management is positive process but every management has its pros and cons. The poor performance will also exist; the remedy is using problem solving techniques like trailblazing etc.

1.2.2 MTR- I Methodology:

MTR-I methodology for improving team performance. it makes the team into high performing team because it is one of the available robust team model. Most rigorous statistical techniques available.

Different teams are recognised in different ways to succeed.

It is closely integrated with team performance management

It is fully compatible with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

1.2.3 Balanced Scorecard:

Balanced scorecard is a tool used by the leaders to achieve real cultural change throughout the organization.

Balanced scored card consists of

Business strategic objective.

Four related aspects to achieve the desired target.

Financial aspects of the company.

Business processes

Learning and development

The customer

For each aspect there are four components

Objectives.

Measures of achievement

Targets

Initiatives

1.3 Measuring Team Performance:

The difference in the past and current performances due to technological changes in the systems should be measured. Evaluation and adjustments of the plans results some measurement of outcome.

The team results are measured in three dimensional

Behavioural: measures absenteeism, turnover and safety

Attitudinal: measures outcomes of employee satisfaction, commitment and trust in management

Performance effectiveness: measures quantity and quality outputs such as efficiency, productivity, response, innovation.

1.3.1 Measuring team performance using workbook:

The workbook contains the data of our own team and the data within which team is working. it will help us to set objectives in these three building blocks

Process objectives

Team objectives

Organisational objectives.

We need to know how the three objectives are performing against their related objects .all measurements cannot be measured in numbers. Different objectives are measured in different quantities.

TASK 2

2.1 Analyzing required performance against current performance

The required and current performance of the team can be compared in gap analysis. The performance gap is the difference between the required or current performance. The figure below indicates that there is a performance gap which can be measured.

fig 2.1 gap analysis

(www.nwlink.com)

To analyse the future requirements, we should know the present performance and future requirement. The difference between the present and future is the performance gap.

Using this gap analysis we can measure the soft skills of the team and development of the team.

2.1.1 Key Performance Indicator (KPI’s):

A performance target is a powerful management tool that can deliver the strategic changes in many organisations. The top-level objectives of our strategic plan can be implemented through departmental goals, and setting targets based on KPI’s. (www.businesslink.gov.uk)

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2.2 Individual commitments in team performance

There is a need to encourage individual commitment in team performance in achievement of organisational objectives and goals. Rewarding the individuals is one of the important motivator to accomplish strategic objective. Team performance in many frameworks dependents on individual performance. Individual success is achieved when the right team role is used for right circumstances.(www.teamtechnology.co.uk)

Money plays a big role in rewarding good work. Many organisations have different types of compensation schemes rewarded for accomplishment of strategic tasks and programs. The each rewards dependents on the extent of which:

The individual completes the project on time and within the budgeted cost.

The individual meets or exceeds the objective

The entire team meets its financial objectives.

The individual shows his cultural values and positive behaviours to accomplish the goal

The impact on each factor dependents on the tasks allocated to the individual and the time allocated to the task and the eventual results.

Non-financial rewards also play major role in encouraging individual in team performance.

(Susan T. Beyerlein, 2003)

2.3 Application of Delegation, Mentoring and Coaching to achieve organisational objectives.

Delegation, coaching and mentoring helps to achieve organisational goals and objectives.

2.3.1 Delegation: according to me delegation means a task given to person in a proper authorization to get best results. In other words taking help of team and subordinates i.e. others power and work to achieve the objective. Taking help of other person makes the task accomplish easier and faster.

Delegation of work is important because delegating our work to team members will make our targets achieve successfully by keeping the time factor in mind. If we are able to delegate work to our team members successfully then we can be considered as successful delegator.

(hubpages.com)

Delegation in an organisation will rescue us and helps our team members grow as a result of our mentoring and coaching. Best practicing of delegation helps us to become better delegate and more effective project manager. By effectively applying delegation concepts in the organisation will reduce our project management stress and improve our project management effectiveness.

2.3.2 Coaching and Mentoring

Coaching and mentoring are similar but not same. Both perform their work on similar skills sets. Effective mentor uses coaching skills during the mentoring process.

Mentoring

Mentoring is a relationship which provides an opportunity for people to grow in the process by sharing their personal and professional skills and experiences. It depends upon the encouragement, openness, respect, willingness to learn and share mutual trust and constructive comments. Mentoring is a tool that organizations can use to nurture the employee development. For example, newcomers of the organization can obtain more knowledge if paired with the experienced employees. (www.eeo.nsw.gov.au)

Benefits of Mentoring

Mentoring cam enhance the self-confidence and competitiveness of employees in the organization.

It focuses on the development of employee skills, thus enhancing the diversity of workforce to reflect client groups.

Mentoring is conducted in-house for the development of the staff, in-turn to meet the needs of the organization.

Mentoring helps an employee to understand their roles effectively. It is an approach to develop culture and better understanding of the organization’s rules (www.wikipedia.org).

Coaching

Coaching is a process of training an individual or a group to achieve certain goal or problem solving skills. Unlike mentoring, coaching rarely offers advice. Instead coaching helps participants find their own solutions, by asking questions that give them insight into the situations. Organizational coaching forms an important intervention designed to assess strengths and weaknesses and improve performance of an individual or a group. Coaching helps to maximize an employee’s potential with an existing employer or achieve greater balance with their work and home lives. (www.coachingnetwork.org.uk)

Benefits of coaching:

Entrepreneurship and Initiative coaching: Coaching helps the employees to become more self-directed, to take initiatives, and to achieve higher responsibilities.

Coaching – Bridge of Transition: It connects the old structures as they change over to new and also helps to integrate in times of downsizing and expansion.

Facilitates and reduces the adjusting time for all.

Builds Better Teams: Coaching helps a team to work effectively, free from politics and power issues in a very short tenure. (www.prosper-group.com)

Conclusions

Both the methods of coaching and mentoring enable the individuals and the organizations to achieve full potential by focusing on the enhancement of the individual morale and also motivating them. Coaching and mentoring helps in the development of the productivity by reducing the staff turn-over as the employees feel valued by the organization and also connected in case of any changes in the organization. In any organization, some of the internal problems can be solved by mentoring and coaching the employees.

2.4 Team performance plan to meet organisational objectives

Team based organisation model:

Fig. 2.2. Team based organization

The team based organisation (TBO) model presents Managing a team based organisation. This model is much common in many organisation designs. It starts with the company strategy i.e. goal, it includes an initiative like how, performance is measured i.e. outcome and feedback loops to redirects to strategic and operational issues. In successfully Team based organization the complete focus is not only on teams but also highlights the essential role of the managers.

Form a strategic vision:

Rapidly growing technology and global competition are making the organizations implement new ways to gain competitive advantage. In this new technological era one company masters a new technology and the other company makes the technology advanced. So there is need to catch the flexible changes in the market to meet the customers expectations which is essential in drafting organizational strategy.

First process of team based organisation is to form strategic objectives.

Goal and objectives:

The goals and objectives are can be given shape from strategic vision. The long term planning like five year or year ten product and profits plans, communicates strategic objectives to the organisational community. These plans are useful in day to day decision making.

Identifying core competencies:

The organizations internal and external factors are analysed. This strategy involves in analyzing the industry, market and competitors. The internal factors like strengths, weakness, and external factors like opportunities, threats, and competitors are analysed.

Establishing teams:

Many companies are involving in increasing the teams in their business transformations. Companies often initiate multiple changes in their organisations. Due to this there are major changes in processes that involve both people and technology. These changes results in number of companies using teams as a socio technique to integrate the rapid changes in the environment.

Invest in support systems:

An organization that wants their teams to develop into high performance teams (katzenbach & smith .1994) must also recognise the need to develop environmental support , providing the resources and direction they need to achieve their goals.

Types of teams:

Work teams: These teams are responsible for producing goods or providing services. These teams involve work units. e.g.: audit teams, maintenance teams, distribution teams.

Parallel teams: These teams are used for problem solving and improvement activates. These teams analyse the process and make recommendations to the management. e.g.: scrap reduction teams, inventory accuracy teams etc.

Project Teams: These teams are also used for problem solving but different from the parallel teams. They work for specific goal and once the goal is achieved they return to their actual group. Output is highly unpredictable; they usually have a mandate of innovation. e.g.: new product development teams, project implementation teams.

Management teams: These teams coordinate with other teams to provide direction for an organisation or unit. Usually these teams are top level management who are responsible for overall performance.

Measuring Team Performance:

To improve the process and solve problems more quickly time to time performance has to be measured. Rapid changes in the organisation will increase efficiencies, reduce cost, or increase the market share. So it is recommended to measure the team performance time to time using the techniques.

Monitory the goals and objectives:

The team outcome is measured to know whether the team is on right path with the company strategy. The last element in this Team based organisation TBO model questions whether the team has met its required goals and objectives. For this, accurate measurement should be done using measurement performance tool. If the teams meets its goal then a feedback loop cycles back to the strategic objective and core competency elements. Otherwise the feedback loop returns to the support system element. (www.cipd.co.uk)

TASK 3

3.1 Monitoring team performance

Individual or the team success depends on the assignment of the proper team role relative to the circumstances. A group of people involved in a particular task can be conceptualized as a ‘Team’. In general, a group of employees are integrated and assigned to a common task and the process of delivering the task is shared leading to team dynamics. The team should be able to identify the goals, be clear about the roles assigned to them, work in common, motivate others, commitment towards the work and possess cooperative attitude. Team performance can be monitored through the following aspects (Susan M. Heathfield):

Clear Expectations on performance: As a part of monitoring, the executive leader should be able to see if the expectations are clearly communicated with the team for the expected outputs, if the members of the team are able to understand the purpose of the team, is the organization supporting the team with the required resources like time, money and people, and also emphasis on the priorities of discussion, interest, time and attention for the teamwork under the guidance of their executives.

Context: The executives should be able to monitor if the team members are aware of the purpose of their participation in the team and their right position in the whole context of attaining organizational goals and values. The strategic development of the organization through team effort to attain the business goals can be attained by the team performance.

Commitment to work: Participation of the team, their commitment towards the accomplishment of the assigned tasks, interest of the team members in developing their skills for individual and team development as well as taking up challenges are part of mentoring the team performance.

Communication: Are the team members able to communicate effectively can be monitored through the performance feedbacks from the team members. Executives need to keep track of providing important information regularly and also address the conflicts raised by the team members.

Collaboration: Management needs to monitor the effective team work in resolving the problems, and the team approach for improving the process, measuring and setting the goals together through team meetings and discussions.

Coordination: The team should be coordinated by a leader in assisting the group to attain success. Departments need to be allocated with all the resources and given priorities.

3.2 Team performance against agreed objectives

Team performance can be improved by collaboration of the staff with management. Enhancement of the performance is recurring often involving the analysis of the process (Ryan Leibowitz).

Motivating the individuals:

The executives need to find the strengths of the individuals and encourage the team members to get motivated for efficient work performance.

Setting the goals:

It’s on the part of the manager or the team leader to direct the members of their team towards the achievement of the organizational goals and visions. It is important for the team to know that they are the part of the organization and its development and not that they are just hired to work for it.

Appreciation and Rewards:

Appreciating the team members not only for their individual work but for their team performance and rewarding them for their team effort do increase the performance of the team.

Regular feedback:

Obtaining the regular feedbacks from the team regarding their problems among the team members and other organizational issues may reduce the misunderstandings, stress and other aspects thus leading better communication and development.

Managing Resources:

Being a leader as well as a part of the team based on the situations will lead to effective resource management and better understandings to achieve their goals.

3.3 Impact of team performance in meeting strategic objectives

Team performance leads to success of the organization through quick and better outcomes. Individual who does not appropriately adapt to the team roles might not achieve the high performance, which can affect the performance of the team on the whole. The cause can be diversification of some of the efforts from productivity to accommodate the individual (Business Co-Pilot). Team performance is helpful in meeting the strategic objectives of the organization by:

Improving the productivity:

Performance and the productivity of the organization can be improved through team effort. Working in team reduces the amount of work and time required by the individual team members thus enhancing the productivity. Discussions lead to exchange of thoughts and improvement of performance.

Enhances the morale:

Effective communication between the team can improve the morale and also provides better understanding between the team members.

Better employee management:

Team performance can provide better management through assignment of team roles and distribution of work. Executives can effectively manage the team by assisting them in their work and providing required information.

Development of the organization:

Organizational development is better supported by team performance. The main context of the team performance is to attain the goals and visions of the organization through team effort.

Managing changes:

Any changes within the organization can be managed easily with less effort and cost.

Team motivation:

People can be motivated and managed to work at any time.

TASK 4

4.1 Commitment – Influencing and persuading methodologies:

Executives believe that the team implementation has an influence on the interests and morale of the individuals which as result has an affect on the productivity and development of the team and also the business organizations. Individuals might even intend to quit if they are not committed to the work (James W., Dow Scott k.).

Individual Satisfaction: Individual should be satisfied with the manager or leader as well as the organization. Conflicts with the supervisors have the high influence both on the commitment of the employees to work.

Adequate Resources: Employee should have access to all the resources required to perform the requested job. Individual performance might be affected by the lack of adequate resources. Business organizations have the responsibility to provide the employees with all the materials and necessary resources to complete their work.

Interdependence: Interdependence of the individual with other members of the team to complete the tasks assigned. This has a positive impact on the individual commitment towards the work.

Conflicts in thoughts: The degree of which the orders or request received by the employee conflict with the managers or peers might leave the individual dissatisfied and uncommitted to the tasks assigned.

Team satisfaction: The extent of satisfaction of the individual with the team members may have significant impact on the job commitment.

Commitment of the individuals significantly influences the productivity of the team. Individual commitment can be enhanced by:

Providing special training sessions and arranging meeting to discuss the requirements. Attention is laid on every individual employee to understand their problems and requirements. It also enhances the individual communication skills.

Encouraging and motivating individuals to perform better and supporting them to enhance their skills at the weak levels.

4.2 Individual Dynamics, Interests and Organisational Politics

Many factors affect the individuals in securing the commitment to a course of actions. The impact of individual dynamics, interests and organisational politics results in these factors effecting individuals.

4.2.1 Individual dynamics:

The individual dynamics are the forces which are unseen but affect the team to achieve the goals. individual dynamics can strongly influence how each individual reacts, behaves . Suppose in small team two people have strong friendship which is a natural force and this friendship may influence the team in positive or negative manner which results in changes in the team performance.

Let us see the impact of friendship in both positive and negative way.

The positive effect of the strong friendship the individual dynamics in the team might be more communication between the friends which could make others team members drawn into their discussion and this could make the group social which results in improvement of commitment and motivation to the team members.

The other side of the coin is the negative effects of the strong friendships might cause other people varied from these people which could lead the team into sub-groups which would result in miscommunication and misunderstanding leading to poor collective performance.

4.2.2 Individual interests: In the similar way the individual interests vary from person to person which could affect the individual as well as the team performance in achieving the goals and the objectives.

4.2.3 Organisational politics: every organisation follow strictly their own well defined system which leads to scope for power play and politics. It is therefore necessary to understand the politics in an organisation. The factors which lead to politics in an organisation can be internal or external factors. The variations and changes in the organisations systems and procedures lead to lot of politics.

A number of factors can lead to politics in an organisation. if there is lack of clarity in organisational policies and presence of over ambitious individuals in workforce is high , there are more chances of politics.

The following are the reasons and characteristics for politics in the organisation

It is outside one’s job requirements.

It is an attempt to influence the decision making process.

It may involve in give and take strategy.

It is usually devoid of morality and ethics.

The both internal and external politics in an organisation will effect the individual commitment to achieve the task.

(www.unesco.org}

Reflective statement: According to me I have learnt many new topics and learnt how to manage a team and what are the problems associated with teams. Moreover I learnt how to plan a team performance plan to meet the organisational goals and objectives. I have learnt how to set the target for a project containing team and how to evaluate the performance at each stage. This assignment made me to research several websites and books which I have learnt more than the required tasks given in this assignment.