HR Powerpoint
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ManagingTeamIssues.pptxManaging Team Issues
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Work Function
Work teams are established to improve focus on specific organizational goals.
Members of a work team prepare an action plan to use their expertise in a collaborative manner.
High-performing teams have strong communication and defined work relationships.
The marketing team is expected to collaborate with the manufacturing department to drive up the sales (La Rocca et al., 2016).
Customers also expect the marketing team to provide feedback.
The concept of work teams has been advanced in recent years by offering a group of individuals a single task to focus on for a given period of time. In organizational management, teams have a set of goals that are achievable after collaborative application of their skills. Teams that yield the highest performance define each member’s responsibility and work collaboratively to complement each other’s strengths. Work teams should have a strong system of communication and collaboration to avoid failure. The marketing team is one such group centrally placed between two vital stakeholders in a business setup. The manufacturing department expects the marketing team to drive up sales by reaching many customers in the market. The customers expect the marketing team to deliver their response to the manufacturing team for relevant preferences to be addressed. . Customers interact with the marketing team on the field as they pitch sales to them. The marketing team describes the qualities of the products being sold while the customers describe their most vital concerns. The work function of the marketing team is incomplete until customer’s feedback is taken back to the organization and their concerns addressed by the relevant departments. The marketing team has to communicate frequently between these two stakeholders for sales to be made and customers to be satisfied with product’s characteristics.
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Data Collection Methods
The marketing team has to collect data from the customers in the field.
The marketing team also has to obtain sales projections from the manufacturing department.
The most applicable collection methods in this case include:
Manufacturing reports
Interviews
Questionnaires
Focus group discussions
The marketing team acts as an intermediary between the organizations manufacturing department and the customers. They are expected to gather data from each stakeholder in this business relationship for each party to express its concerns. Nonetheless, most of the collection of data occurs in the field where diverse methods have to be applied to obtain any relevant information. Within the organization, the marketing team will obtain information through reading of the manufacturing reports. The financial report and sales report are part of the documents with relevant information from the organization’s side. In case clarification is required from within the manufacturing department, an interview can be conducted with the department’s manager. Interviews offer first-hand information to the marketing team about sales projection as well as clarity on other issues. On the other hand, the market is wide and the marketing team needs to gather as much information as possible. The use of questionnaires in the field really helps the marketing team to collect a wide data base that will influence the manufacturing process. Apart from questionnaires, focus group discussions can be used to collect information when a small group of customers gather around the marketing team to listen to a sales pitch. The focus group offers ideas that are noted down by the team and sent back to the organization.
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Development Plan
The purpose of a development plan is to provide manufacturers with a product design and developmental budget (Lagat &Frankwick, 2017).
The levels of functioning will be diagnosed according to the development areas in the organization.
The marketing team will need to understand these three areas of the development plan;
Product development
Market development
Organization development
The development plan is essential for business because it allows the organization to focus on specific functional areas. In the marketing context, a development plan describes the product’s design, its manufacturing process, its marketing process, the company structure, and the budget necessary to accomplish product development. Essentially, the marketing team has to understand the three functional areas that make up the critical parts of the development plan. These three functional areas include; product development, marketing development, and organizational development. The marketing team should understand the operations that occur in each functional area developed because they play the vital role of linking up these different levels. At the bottom of the development plan is the product development functional area which involves the manufacturing process. Products are designed with specific characteristics expected to meet customer needs and offer consumer satisfaction. The marketing development involves targeting a specific population that will consume the manufactured products. At this functional level, the marketing group has to show that the products create the desired value to the target market. The top functional level is organizational development. At this level, the products are consumed widely in the market such that they have a brand identity, which forms the company’s image.
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Development Activities
Members of the marketing team are expected to develop individual expertise to improve the whole team.
Development activities build the capabilities of team members with the vision of strengthening goal attainment (Cosby, 2014).
There are several types of development activities that would be used to improve performance of team members.
At each functional level of the development plan, these development activities will take place.
Members of a team are assembled in a work team for their individual expertise to benefit the group as a whole. Nonetheless, the individual team members can undergo development activities that boost their capability to serve the group’s purpose. A team member who is engaged in development activities is an improved asset to the group and the organization as a whole. Therefore, development activities are important to sharpen the skills of team members working at different functional levels. Some of the relevant development activities in the marketing context include; cross training, formal training, matrix training, mentoring, position enhancement, and special development assignments. Cross training involves learning a new skill that is related to an individual’s current responsibility to enhance job flexibility. Formal training consists of taking lessons on one’s current responsibility to sharpen skills in performing that particular task. Matrix training is where team members form focus groups that share information and expertise within a specific task force. In mentoring, senior group members share their experience with junior members to improve their decision-making capability. Position enhancement is a development activity that enlarges an individual’s responsibilities to modify the way they operate in the task force. Special development assignments are career specific learning activities that direct a team member to broaden their knowledge. Providing team members with development activities increases their skills, strengthens collaboration, and expands an individual’s knowledge.
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Communication Channels
Managing communication with group members and key stakeholders is important to high team performance.
Success in a team project is based on the channels of communication and how efficient they are in delivering the intended message (Abudi, 2013).
Communication works best when it is two-way, the marketing team will also need channels to receive feedback.
Effective communication ties the entire team’s effort and brings the group closer to attaining set goals.
The issue of communication with stakeholders and group members is vital for high performing teams to achieve set goals. Identifying the right modes of communication and the preferred time to send messages to each stakeholder determines the success of project communication. The communication modes and styles are important in the marketing discipline because the recipients urgently need to know what the team has to offer. Therefore, the team has to first understand what the product development team has addressed through the product design. For communication with group members, a continuous mode is preferable to allow members to send feedback immediately. One-on-one meetings, virtual meetings, and chat technology are preferable means of communication within the marketing team. Chat technology allows group members to continue engaging each other on urgent matters concerning the team’s objectives. When communicating with department heads in the organization, email communication is preferable for formal record keeping of conversations. Project newsletters and interdepartmental meetings are also applicable in communication within the organization. The customers are also key stakeholders that the marketing team has to communicate with from time-to-time. The company website and social media handles is the best way to communicate with customers online. The marketing team needs to also engage customers with physical face-to-face conversations during marketing activities and product promotion events.
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References
Abudi, G. (2013). Managing communications effectively and efficiently. Project Management Institute.
Cosby, D. M. (2014). Sustainability program leadership for human resource development professionals: A competency model. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 18(2), 79.
La Rocca, A., Moscatelli, P., Perna, A., & Snehota, I. (2016). Customer involvement in new product development in B2B: The role of sales. Industrial Marketing Management, 58, 45-57.
Lagat, C., & Frankwick, G. L. (2017). Marketing capability, marketing strategy implementation and performance in small firms. Journal for Global Business Advancement, 10(3), 327-345.
