BADM U5 IP

Organization Behavior Questionnaire

1. What is the main motivating factor within your group in the workplace?

2. Do you think the leadership style affects your ability to perform exceptionally within the group?

3. How would you rate your team leader’s leadership style? Do you think he/she has been able to motivate the group members to perform better?

4. How often do you experience conflict within the group? What strategies does the group leader employ to minimize such occurrences?

5. Do you think your group is an ideal group within the workplace setting? Why or why not? What are some of the things that can be done to improve the situation either way?

BADM Unit 4

Discussion Board (Answer).doc

Eddie Clark

Unit 4 Discussion Board: Population, Analysis and Measurement

Professor: Jodee Phillips

Colorado Technical University

3 May 2018

IP5 Summary

Introduction

The main purpose of this research project is to conduct a systematic review of teamwork challenges and interventions which in one way or another affect the general operations, performance, effectiveness, and success of different task-teams in an organization. In this case, teamwork is regarded as an important element of an organization which is dedicated to high performance and productivity. However, for this to be achieved, teams are organized in a systematic manner whereby there are well-defined roles, tasks, and communication channels which should be used effectively by every member (Renáta, 2007). Without this more teams in the different organizations will face different challenges which may include business failure.

My IP5 summary is as follows;

1. My business and organizational problem or topic: Challenges in team coordination and cooperation in different departments is a major concern in different organizations. This is attributed to the fact that the operations in different organizations greatly depend on the interaction and contribution of each team player. The main topic will thus narrow down to challenges experienced by organizations in building and enhancing team coordination and cooperation.

2. The problem statement: Small businesses and startups are faced with organization difficulties which impair leadership, management, training, motivation, and productivity of individual members of a team. When these difficulties are experienced by either the team members or a section of the team it usually leads to operational defects such as poor performance or even organization failure.

3. My research strategy which I used to explore the problem: The business research strategy is a field of practical study in which a corporation obtains data and research it needs in order to improve the management strategies of the business. To investigate this particular issue, the research strategy will involve interviewing 5 team members from different organizations who will be the main participants of the research. This will give first-hand information about the present experiences of employees who work in a team. This will be followed by a meta-analysis of various resources touching on teamwork effectiveness and cooperation so as to form more background information about the topic of discussion (McEwan, Ruissen, Eys, Zumbo, & Beauchamp, 2017).

4. Methodology: The research concentrates on specific characteristics of teamwork and tasks organization. It evaluates whether the team members are given a higher autonomy in their work environment and how teamwork affects their behavior and performance as far as their operations are concerned.

5. Measurement strategy: Resultant findings will be graded as either minimum, medium-sized/moderate, or maximum effects with respect to the various array of difficulties which will be discussed by the different sources. This will also be with respect to the several samples and interventions which will be revealed by the different sources.

Organization Behavior Questionnaire

1. What is the main motivating factor within your group in the workplace?

Interviewee I: Wages and rewards – According to this interviewee, their workplace mainly emphasizes on employee competition rather than a combined effort. Being a business in the sales and marketing industry, employees are given a commission for every business gained or sales made in a week. The higher the sales the higher the commission. Additionally, employees who are crowned as the employee of the month are each given a certain percentage wage increase.

Interviewee II: Team efficiency – The service industry is known to be one of the industries that really relies on teamwork and cooperation. According to this interviewee, the technical competences of every employee contributes to the overall success of the group. As such, the employees value each other’s contribution to making the group a success. The most coordinate team is then highly placed in the organization and this pride gives them the motivation to even work harder.

Interviewee III: Leadership – According to this interviewee, each of the group members is allocated different areas of responsibility making them the leaders of themselves. Even though they have an overall supervisor, each one of them gets to lead in different operations making them more committed to their tasks. Additionally, each member gets to communicate directly with the general manager which improves their confidence and loyalty to the business.

Interviewee IV: Group productivity – The response provided by this interviewee seemed to be a combination of the answer given by Interviewee I, II, and III. Working in the manufacturing business, the group members are each actively engaged in the entire production process with each heading different sectors. An increase in production places the different employees in better chances of receiving reimbursements and rewards which is done periodically (Jentsch, Bowers, Tannenbaum, & Salas, 2008).

Interviewee V: Training – According to this interviewee, each group receives regular training and education to enhance their skill and knowledge in different specialties.

2. Do you think the leadership style affects your ability to perform exceptionally within the group?

Interviewee I: Not really – According to this interviewee, the leadership style has a minimal effect on the employees’ ability to perform exceptionally. The main purpose of the leadership style is only to ensure that all the business operations are conducted without defects. Thus, it is upon the group member to ensure that there are no failures since failures make one vulnerable of suspension or getting fired.

Interviewee II: Yes – According to this interviewee, the leadership style has a moderate effect on how the group member performs. This is because the tasks mainly depend on the experiences of the individual employee to perform.

Interviewee III: Yes – The leadership style has a maximum effect on the employees’ ability to perform because all the operations are guided and overseen by the respective leaders. The different production processes are each addressed by different leadership style because the situations are each unique.

Interviewee IV: Yes – According to this interviewee, the leadership style has a maximum effect on individual performance because each member is expected to contribute to the general outcome of the group. As a result, as an employee, he is expected to follow the leadership of the respective coordinator, supervisor, or manager.

Interviewee V: Yes – According to this interviewee, the leadership style has a moderate effect on the team members’ ability to perform exceptionally. The leadership style, in this case, is mainly focused on employee development whereas the employee is mainly responsible for his or her performance in the work environment.

3. How would you rate your team leader’s leadership style? Do you think he/she has been able to motivate the group members to perform better?

Interviewee I: Minimum – According to this interviewee, the leadership style of the team leader has never changed. Due to this, the competition between different group members has been the main source of motivation for us to perform better.

Interviewee II: Moderate – According to this employee, the team leader has always focused on encouraging work efficiency. As a result, group members work to match the standard requirement provided by the group leader.

Interviewee III: Maximum – According to this interviewee, it is through the different leadership styles by the team leader that the group has been able to improve its performance and productivity.

Interviewee IV: Maximum – According to this interviewee, the leadership style of the team leader highly influences group productivity. The leader assigned to each production department has been able to influence the team members to improve their efficiency in executing their tasks.

Interviewee V: Moderate – According to this interviewee, the team leader is actively engaged in developing the technical capabilities of the team members. By doing so, team members are motivated to perform better so that one day they may be in the same position as their team leader.

4. How often do you experience conflict within the group? What strategies does the group leader employ to minimize such occurrences?

Interviewee I: “Group conflict is experienced on a moderate level since each of the team members is commissioned on specific tasks which may sometime never coincide with the other. However, the group leader emphasizes on everyone remaining in their workstations to reduce incidences of cheating or disagreements.”

Interviewee II: “Group conflict is experienced on a moderate level since each most of the task depending on the technical knowledge of each member. As such, there is frequent communication between members which may sometime lead to misinformation and disagreement. The group leader, in this case, coordinates the activities of each member to ensure satisfaction of each member and a collective efficacy.” (Morey, Simon, Jay, Wears, Salisbury, & Dukes, 2002)

Interviewee III: “Group conflict is experienced seldom since the whole operations are headed by the group leader. To prevent any unprecedented conflicts the group leader, adjust his leadership style to suit certain situations. For example, a leader will focus on role delegation to ensure that there is no conflict arising because one member is being over-worked than the rest.”

Interviewee IV: “Group conflict is experienced on a moderate level since each member is considered an important member of the team and thus has to be heard in case of a disagreement. To minimize the occurrence of such conflicts, the group leader emphasizes more on group cohesion such that each of the group members is concerned with each other’s welfare and contribution to the team.”

Interviewee V: “Group conflict is experienced seldom since most of the group members are in the process of career development and each value the contribution made by the other team member. To minimize any cases of conflicts, the group leader emphasizes on participative learning and teaching models.”

5. Do you think your group is an ideal group within the workplace setting? Why or why not? What are some of the things that can be done to improve the situation either way?

Interviewee I: “No. This is because the workplace setting focuses mostly on individual performance rather than group performance making it challenging to achieve group goals. However, this can be changed if rewards could be issued to performing groups since team members feel cheated when only one member is rewarded for a work they contributed.” (Tohidi, 2011).

Interviewee II: “Yes. This is because each group member is actively involved in improving their experience to boost the general group performance. This can be improved by encouraging team cohesion through collective training or workshops.”

Interviewee III: “Yes. This is because the exchanging of roles challenges each team member to improve their competence in different team operations which encourages a healthy competition. This can, however, be improved by ensuring that each group member is appointed as a leader in different sectors no matter how small.”

Interviewee IV: “Yes. Group productivity is the best approach to employee motivation in the workplace since every team member gets to learn from each other. However, this can be improved if individual efforts were rewarded to challenge team members who might be hiding in the shadows of their superiors.”

Interviewee V: “Yes. This is because continuous career development has had a positive impact on the overall productivity of the team. However, this could be improved if a more competitive work environment was created such as reward packages for the best performing team members.”

References