TEAM MANAGEMENT

The administration of a group of people assembled to work on a particular project or to

perform a particular function within an organization. Team management typically
involves setting team priorities and performance objectives, reviewing performance
and methods employed, and spearheading the team's decision making process.

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Team management
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Team management is the ability of an individual or an organization to administer and coordinate a
group of individuals to perform a task. Team management involves teamwork, communication,
objective setting and performance appraisals. Moreover, team management is the capability to
identify problems and resolve conflicts within a team. There are various methods and leadership
styles a team manager can take to increase personnel productivity and build an effective team.[1]

Contents
[hide]

1 Elements of a healthy and successful team

o 1.1 Cohesive leadership
o 1.2 Effective communication
o 1.3 Common goal
o 1.4 Defined team roles and responsibilities
2 Methods of team management
o 2.1 "Command and Control"
o 2.2 "Engage and Create"
o 2.3 "Econ 101"
3 Problems in team management
o 3.1 Absence of trust
o 3.2 Fear of conflict
o 3.3 Lack of commitment
o 3.4 Avoidance of accountability
o 3.5 Inattention to results
4 Resolving problems through team management
o 4.1 Building trust
o 4.2 Appraisals
o 4.3 Team-building activities
4.3.1 Back to Back Drawing
4.3.2 The Human Knot
 5 Leadership styles in team management
o 5.1 Autocratic
o 5.2 Democratic
o 5.3 Laissez-Faire
6 See also
7 References

Elements of a healthy and successful team[edit]

Cohesive leadership[edit]
In any functional team, cohesion amongst team leaders and decision makers is vital. Cohesive
leadership means that team leaders are acting together as a unit and making decisions as a
leadership team instead of each branching off into their own work and operating individually. This will
ensure that the team will be steered in one direction instead of multiple due to team leaders not
being concise and consistent with their instructions. Cohesive leadership will require team leaders to
have strong communication skills. [2]
Effective communication[edit]
There must be an effective channel of communication from the top to the bottom of the chain of
command and vice versa. An effective channel of communication will allow messages to be
transferred accurately without delay to the intended recipient, this will speed up decision making
processes and the operations of the team. Furthermore, effective communication will increase the
flexibility of an organisation and cause it to be less susceptible to changes in the external
environment; as a faster decision making process will allow organisations a longer time period to
adapt to the changes and execute contingency plans.[2]
Common goal[edit]
When team members first come together they will all have different ideas, however the key to a
successful team is the alignment of objectives within the team. It is essential that the team leader
sets a common goal the entire team is willing to pursue. This way, all the team members will put in
effort in order to attain the goal. If there is not a common goal, team members who disagree with the
objective in hand will feel reluctant to utilise their full effort, leading to failure to achieve the goal. In
other cases, team members might divert themselves to other tasks due to a lack of belief or interest
in the goal.[3]
Defined team roles and responsibilities[edit]
Poorly defined roles is often the biggest obstacle to a successful team.[4] If team members are
unclear of what their role is, their contributions towards the team will be minimal, therefore it is the
team leaders duty to outline the roles and responsibilities of each individual within the team and
ensure that the team is working together as an integral unit.
In a successful team, a team leader will first evaluate the mission of the team to understand what is
needed to accomplish the task. Then, they will identify the strengths and weaknesses of their team
members and assign roles accordingly. Lastly, they must ensure that all team members know what
each others responsibilities are to avoid confusion and to create an effective channel of
communication.[5]

Methods of team management[edit]

"Command and Control"[edit]
The method Command and Control as an approach to team management is based on the concept
of military management. Command and Control was a commonly used system in the private sector
during the 20th century.[6] In this method, the team leader instructs their team members to complete
a task and if they refuse, they will yell or punish them until they no longer refuse and comply with the
instructions. The team leader has absolute authority and utilises an autocratic leadership style.There
are considerable drawbacks to this team management method. Firstly, the team morale will be
lowered due to team members being constantly belittled by the team leader at the slightest mistake;
punishments will also lead to a lack of confidence in team members resulting in poor performance.
Second, in modern organisations roles are often specialised, therefore managers will require the
expertise of the employee, elevating the value of the employee. Implementing the Command and
Control team management method will lead to a high rate of employee turnover. In addition, in large
organisations managers dont have the time to provide instructions to all employees and
continuously monitor them, this will impede an organisations performance as managers are not
spending time on their core responsibilities.[7]
"Engage and Create"[edit]
Due to the limitations and ineffectiveness of Command and Control, managers developed an
alternative management strategy known as Engage and Create. In this method team members are
encouraged to participate in discussions and contribute. Furthermore, they are advised to engage
with other team members to build a stronger sense of teamwork and unity. This will lead to
increased productivity and accountability of each team member, driving the team towards success.[6]
"Econ 101"[edit]
In the Econ 101 method of team management, the team leader makes the baseline assumption
that all team members are motivated by reward in the form of money, and that the best way to
manage the team is to provide financial rewards for performance and issue punishments for failure.
This method of team management uses material gains in the place of intrinsic motivation to drive
team members. This is similar to Taylors theory of Scientific Management where he claims the main
form of motivation for employees is money.[8][9] The main drawback of this method is that it does not
take into account other forms of motivation besides money such as personal satisfaction and
ambition. Moreover, by using reward and punishment as a method of team management it can
cause demotivation as everyone is motivated by different factors and there is no one way to satisfy
all team members, the negative effect is further compounded by punishment leading to
demoralisation and lost of confidence.[7]

Problems in team management[edit]

Absence of trust[edit]
In Patrick Lencionis book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the absence of vulnerability-based trust
where team members are comfortable being vulnerable with each other, trust each other to help
when asking for guidance, and are willing to admit their mistakes within a team is detrimental to a
team. Team leaders have to assist each other when they are vulnerable and also allow team
members to see their vulnerable side, which is contradictory to the orthodox belief. If a team lacks
vulnerability based trust, team members will not be willing to share ideas or acknowledge their faults
due to the fear of being exposed as incompetent, leading to a lack of communication and the
hindering of the team.[10][11][12]
Fear of conflict[edit]
Contrary to the general belief, conflict is a positive element in a team as it drives discussion. The
fear of conflict is the fear of team members to argue with one another and the fear of disagreeing
with the team leader. If team members hold back and are afraid of confronting the leader or their
teammates, then the concept of a team is non-existent because there is only one person who
contributes and no new ideas are generated from discussions.[10]
The fear of conflict in a team stems from an absence of trust, more specifically vulnerability based
trust. If team members are afraid to be vulnerable in front of one another, disputes can be
manipulative and a means to overthrow and shame the other team member. However, if team
members trust each other and are comfortable being vulnerable in front of one another, than
debates can be a pursuit of a better and more effective method to achieve a task.[10][11][12]
Lack of commitment[edit]
When team members dont provide input on a decision, it shows that they do not agree or approve of
the decision, leading to a halt in team activity and progress. Furthermore when team members dont
express their opinions, views and potential ideas are lost, hurting the project and the company.[10][12]
Avoidance of accountability[edit]
The avoidance of accountability in a team is the failure of team members to be accountable for the
consequences of their actions. When team members do not commit to a decision, they will be
unwilling to take responsibility for the outcomes of the decision.[10]
In addition, if a lack of trust exists within the team then there will be an absence of peer to peer
accountability; team members will not feel accountable towards their team members and hence will
not put effort into their tasks. The team must trust and hold each other responsible so that the
intention will always be for the benefit of the team and for the team to succeed.[10]
Team leaders who are afraid of confrontation might avoid holding team members accountable when
in fact they have made a mistake. Team leaders must develop the confidence to hold team members
accountable so that they will feel the sense of responsibility and entitlement to the team, and learn
from their mistakes. If not, then errors will not be corrected and might lead to worse problems,
causing a defective team.[10][12][13]
Inattention to results[edit]
If team leaders and team members do not hold each other accountable then they will not be
concerned about the outcome of the team and whether they have achieved their goal, as they do not
have a drive to obtain great results. Inattention to results causes a loss of purpose and brings into
question the existence of the team.[10]

Resolving problems through team management[edit]

Building trust[edit]
An approach to resolving fundamental trust problems within teams is to build trust amongst team
members. A team leader can build trust by persuading team members to ask questions and seek
guidance from other team members, so that they are more familiar and comfortable in being
vulnerable with one another, questions such as May you teach me how to do this or You are better
than me at this. However, in order to achieve vulnerability based trust within the team the team
leader must be vulnerable first, if the team leader is unwilling to be vulnerable, nobody else in the
team will be willing to follow.[10]
Appraisals[edit]
Appraisals can be a way for team members to provide feedback to one another or for team members
to provide advice to the leader. This will allow individual members of the team to reflect on their
performance and aim to do better by amending their mistakes; furthermore appraisals create an
environment where the chain of command is non-existent and team members can be honest
towards one another. This is effective in a way that the team can provide progressive feedback
towards other members and can advise the leader on how he or she can improve their leadership.
After each member reads their appraisals, they will understand how they can strive to improve,
benefitting the team in reaching its objectives. The commonly used forms of appraisals
are performance appraisals, peer appraisals and 360 degree feedback.[14]
Team-building activities[edit]
Team-building activities are a series of simple exercises involving teamwork and communication.
The main objectives of team building activities are to increase the trust amongst team members and
allow team members to better understand one another.[15]
Back to Back Drawing[edit]
A team building activity where two members of a team sits back to back. One member is given a
picture while the other is given a blank piece of paper. The member with the picture has to describe
to the other member what the picture includes and the other member has to sketch what is
described. At the end of the game, both members compare the picture and the drawing to see how
closely similar they are. This game aims to improve verbal communication between team
members.[15]
The Human Knot[edit]
A team building activity where team members stand in a circle and grab hold of the hands of other
participants that are not immediately next to them. The objective is to unravel the circle of entangled
hands. This game, through the physical touch between team members will allow them to feel more
comfortable with each other. Furthermore this game can improve the verbal and physical
communication between team members and enable the team to identify which communication
process is the most effective within the team.[16]

Leadership styles in team management[edit]

Autocratic[edit]
Autocratic leaders make their own decisions without consulting employees or other team members.
They hold absolute authority over the team and team members are expected to obey and comply
with the decision that is made by the leader. Autocratic leaders use one way communication, which
is that they will instruct team members without expecting feedback in return. The benefit of this
leadership style is that decisions can be made quickly, especially if the team is in crisis, considering
the views of all team members will be time consuming and impractical. However, this can lead to
over dependency on the team leader as all decisions are made by him or her and it can also lead to
a low team morale as the input of team members are not valued.[17][18]
Democratic[edit]
Democratic leaders will consult with employees before proceeding to make a decision. Democratic
leaders will take on a two way communication approach where team members can provide input and
voice out their opinions aside from the team leader issuing instructions. Team leaders who take on
this leadership style will require excellent communication skills to express to the team members what
is expected of them and to respond to and understand their concerns. The benefit of this leadership
style is that team members will feel more valued, leading to an overall increase in productivity in the
team. However, a drawback is that since employees have a greater involvement in decision making
it might slow down the decision making process.[18][19]
Laissez-Faire[edit]
Laissez faire is a leadership style where the team leader will allow the team members to carry out
their duties on their own and at their own pace. There is little to no management and authority
implemented by the team leader. This style of leadership is applicable to product design or
advertising teams where flexibility and freedom provides a more suitable environment to stimulate
creativity and is expected to generate positive results. The benefit of this leadership style is that
team members who do not like to be controlled and closely monitored can prosper and fulfil their
potential as this is the environment in which they function best. The limitation of laissez faire is that
team members might make poor judgements due to a lack of supervision and they might not work as
hard because of the absence of a superior.[18]