Teams and Organizations
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The effects of teams upon the organization utilizing them are many, some of them good others not so good. While teams are a distinctly American phenomena in the organization, their existence is a relatively new development on the corporate landscape in the sense that teams have been formalized. There have been many reasons for the development of teams in the continuously changing environment that is modern corporate America. Stronger competition (on a global level), stalled and eroding profit margins, more demanding consumers, and shorter product development cycles have all impacted the need for the team approach. Adding to these are the vertical structure of the traditional corporation becoming more horizontal, greater complexity mainly from technology in all aspects of the corporation, a greater need for effective communication, and an effort to exploit greater productivity from human resources through empowerment, “The big difference is that teamwork now has become formalized. The chief driving force is competition to get new [products] on the market faster and at lower costs. By pulling together all of the necessary experts into a single group and freeing them to make decisions together, the idea is to knock down time and money wasting barriers. It’s called ‘empowerment,’ and it quickly has become the industry’s favorite buzzword” (McCann 1). Technology has even eliminated the time and space barriers formerly a costly conside
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that there are seven essential steps in creating and nurturing teams in order for them to be optimally effective: Legitimization; Contextualization; Chartering; Accountability; Maintenance; Enthusiasm; Walking the Talking. Legitimizing the group is important so it understands how and where it fits into and relates to the corporation. Corporate communications the explicitly states the role of teams within the organization is one way of providing them legitimacy, but that happens to an even greater degree when specific statements of their purpose are issued which deal directly with daily operations, “Specifying cross-functional team projects puts teams squarely in the mainstream of what’s happening. Example: ‘Form a team to achieve cycle-time reduction of 50% on four critical processes’” (Frohman, et. al 2).
The contextualization of a group or team occurs when expectations of the role of the team are clearly established thereby giving members an understanding of corporate objectives but also how their unique contribution can own a “piece” of those objectives. Teams are best motivated when they understand how their efforts are contributory to the overall objectives of the corporation. A team charter helps make up for the fac
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1806
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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