Benefits of Teams in Workplace
The use of formal work teams is commonplace in modern organizations. But why we have teams? What are the benefits or advantages that teams provide for organizations and employees? Do we really need to adopt formal team structures and use team-building approaches in organizations? Read this article to explore and learn the benefits of having formal teams in organizations.
There exist several organizational and individual benefits of using teams. These include increased workplace productivity; improvements to product/service quality; a reduced management structure; lower levels of absenteeism; reduced employee turnover; and increased industrial harmony, with all these benefits ultimately leading to improved workplace performance. It also enhances the quality of work-life (QWL) for employees and leads to increased work satisfaction. Teams are found in many workplace environments, including corporate, government, and education because they allow the organization to:
Organizational Benefits of Teams:
1. Workplace Productivity:
Having structured teams eliminate problems, waste and errors by removing variation in the work system by bringing individuals together to resolve work-system problems. The removal of variation in the work system produces a more productive system. Teams ensure that the work continues in the absence of a human ‘part’ by building ‘redundancy of parts’. This ensures that the system will not malfunction due to the absenteeism of any individual employee and will continue to perform without interruptions. Hence the organizations adopting team structures will have a higher level of labor productivity than firms that do not have these team structures.
2. Product/Service Quality:
As teams function to remove variation from a working system, resulting in the output being consistent and reliable. For example, in a production line work structure, employees focus on their individual ‘part’ in the system with quality generally inspected at the end of the production line. In the case of teams, a group of workers attends to whole tasks thereby ‘empowering’ such workers to take responsibility for their work and adjust work processes to improve the quality of their output. Hence the quality gets effectively ‘built-in’ to the process and therefore the organizations adopting team structure will gain higher levels of product/service quality than firms that do not have these team structures.
3. Lower Cost Management Structures:
By having teams, the responsibility for resolving work problems becomes collective and there is less need for external supervision. This reduced need for external supervision may result in a reduced number of levels in the hierarchy.
4. Lower Absenteeism:
Team structures provide an increased level of autonomy and responsibility and employees enjoying the social structure of teams are more likely to attend work. Thus, organizations with team structures will have lower absenteeism than firms that do not have these team structures.
5. Employee Turnover:
As with absenteeism, the social structure of teams is reported to positively impact employee turnover. If the quality of work-life is improved for employees when teams are present then a reduction in employee turnover is a likely outcome.
6. Industrial Harmony:
Teams actively encourage employees to present the results of problem analysis to management for approval regarding proposed solutions and this encourages improved labor-management interactions. Hence teams enable employees to have a closer working relationship with management which enables firms with these team structures to have a higher level of industrial harmony than firms that do not have these team structures.
7. Accomplish Big/Complicated Tasks:
Many organizational tasks and projects are too huge for an individual to do independently. Having team structures ensure that individual geniuses of the persons are collectively used and mammoth tasks are completed.
8. Brainstorm More Solution Options:
Different people looking at the same problem will find different solutions. A team can review ideas and put together a final solution that incorporates the best individual ideas. They can generate commitment for the final solution and work together to collectively pursue the same.
9. Review/Detect Flaws:
A team looking at different proposed solutions may also be in a better position to catch pitfalls that an individual might miss. This ensures that the final solution is much stronger and qualitative.
10. Build a Workplace Community:
Members of effective teams can form personal bonds which are good for individual and workplace morale. In the organizational setting, employees on teams may form bonds that extend beyond the work-place.
Individual Benefits of Teams:
1. Diversity:
Team structures provide exposure to different points of view. As the employees get exposed to methods and ideas that others have, they learn different ways of approaching a problem.
2. Enhanced Communication Skills:
Through teamwork training and practice, employees learn to actively and effectively listen to their team members to understand their viewpoints and concerns. A member needs to effectively articulate his ideas or your concerns to others to ensure they are taken care of or addressed. Members get genuine constructive feedback from each other and develop presentations, negotiating, and other related communication skills.
3. Critical Thinking and Evaluation Skills:
Team members must use these skills to evaluate the complex issues of team project goals and to formulate appropriate solutions and plans.
4. Conflict Resolution Skills:
Where there exists a diversity of ideas, there will naturally exist conflicts, but, with the right support and training in communication skills, team members can learn the skills to facilitate solutions to conflicts so that the team remains functional.
5. Higher Moral/Less Stress:
When things on the team are functioning well, it often results in higher morale and less stress at a personal level. Teams provide social support to team members and they can take help from each other in case of complex issues or other workplace-related problems.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
Reasons behind Wastage of Time
Under-utilization of time may be due to the faulty system or faults of manager/officer/leader or due to lack of planning. There could be many factors driving the procrastination behavior like system issues, personal work habits, and lack of delegation, personality traits, and bad working habits of the leader, failure to tackle interpersonal conflicts, obstacles, and lack of far-sightedness.
-
In its simplest sense, decision-making is the act of choosing between two or more courses of action. Decision making is a key skill in the workplace and is particularly important if you want to be an effective leader. When decisions have to be made, there are several stages that you should go through to reach a practical solution. Understand the meaning and importance of decision making and how to look at it as a process.
-
Creating Highly Effective Teams
How do we create effective teams? What comes to mind when you think about an effective team? High performing teams exhibit accountability, purpose, cohesiveness, and collaboration. It is a team that works seamlessly as a whole. Everyone brings unique talents and strengths and support each other to bring out the best in everyone. How do you create one?
-
Team leadership theory is a recent leadership theory that does not discriminate between the leader and the other team members. The approach considers contributions from each team member to be critical for organizational success. This approach focused on the overall team effectiveness and team problems are diagnosed and action is taken to remediate weakness. This approach provides for taking corrective action when the leader deems necessary.
-
Have you ever noticed how we express ourselves or interact with each other? Have you ever wondered what communication is and what role it plays in our lives? One may wonder if communication is so omnipresent and integral to our lives, why study communication at all? We need to study communication because it is a complex process that consists of many elements and is also beset with a number of barriers and there is a need to remove the barriers so that the communication process is effective.
-
Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. The best time management techniques improve the ways you work. Time management refers to managing time effectively so that the right time is allocated to the right activity. Learn more about the five steps for effective time management viz. study, identify, analyze, decide, and implement.
-
Listening is the foundation for good communication. It is also the hardest skill to master. Do you listen to confirm what you already know, or do you listen to explore and learn new things? How can we create receptive communication as a listener? The real art of listening involves awareness and sensitivity to the feelings of the speaker because it is at the feeling level that genuine connection, relationship, and healing occurs.
-
Team Development by Building Trust
As your team begins to work together, you need to establish a way each team member can exchange ideas and build mutual trust. Successful groups are built on trust and collaboration. A free exchange of ideas, in an open environment, will allow your team to get to know each other and enable you to check on how they work together. Learn some tips to help build team trust and establish personal bonds.
-
Generating Ideas using Brainstorming
The brainstorming technique was developed by Alex F. Osborn in 1957 and brainstorming means where a team of members generates a large amount of alternative fruitful ideas on a specific problem without any criticism and then evaluates each idea in terms of their pros and cons. Brainstorming techniques fall into four broad categories: visioning, exploring, modifying, and experimenting.
-
Teams are part of the modern organizational culture. Whether you are a team leader or a team member, having a better understanding of how teams work, and being able to identify where the team is in the process, is a critical part of ensuring the team is ultimately successful. Start with the basics and understand what a team is and what role they play in an organization.
