Team-Working Is the Most Effective Means of Organising People Essay

Team-Working Is the Most Effective Means of Organising People - Essay Example Team-working also leads to greater diversity of ideas strengthening the problem-solving process. For this reason it can be argued that team-working is a powerful organizational tool which enables the management to organize human resources in such a manner as to maximize its value to organizational performance. Because the external environment is characterized by a fast pace of change, an organization has to change accordingly in order to remain competitive. This objective can be achieved by incorporating the notion of team dynamics. Team dynamics are defined as interpersonal forces which affect team performance. Therefore the top management can make use of team dynamics to organize their people in the most effective manner. The team dynamics determine how the communication process takes place. Communicating in teams and organization is one of the critical success factors in building high-performance teams, defined as those teams which are characterized by superior performance managem ent systems. Because the performance in these teams is measured continuously, the organization can continue to deliver superior business results in an ever-changing external environment. For this reason, team-working is an effective means of organizing people according to the prescribed deliverables. Because of the continuous process of change occurring in the external business environment, an organization cannot afford to remain still. In that case it will not be able to sustain its competitive advantage. According to the strategy formulation framework developed by Michael Porter, a business organization can implement the strategies of cost minimization, focus and differentiation to develop a competitive advantage. However this advantage is only temporary because the competitors can also implement the same strategies to attain an identical level of performance. Thus the original organization does not have a competitive edge any more. However, if the competitive edge is based upon o rganizing people, then it can be sustainable because this is related to the organizational culture and the culture of each organization is unique. For this reason team-working is one of the critical success factors in the present day business environment. Team-working enables the management to organize the people in such a manner that the organizational culture becomes the source of the organization’s competitive advantage. When the organizational culture is based upon team-working, it focuses the management’s attention on creating an effective communications structure. Creating a well-functioning communications structure is the key to creating high-performance teams. Unless there is a free flow of ideas between the team members, the performance of the team will be affected negatively. Communicating in teams and organization ensures that each team member fully believes in the team behaviors and values. Only then can the teams reach their goals of high performance. Howe ver team-working provides a framework for organizing people in the most effective manner. If the management wants to implement the continuous improvement process, then organizing people into high-performance teams is the best solution. It creates a flexible organizational