CONTENTS	Teambuilding
Supervision: Overview	Rigid department boundaries and fixed teams are giving way to ad hoc squads whose membership changes with every project. Flexible networks of team-based structures are occurring within and between companies, as well as across national borders. Competitive arenas require quick decisions by knowledgeable employees who work close to the source of problems. Teams enable knowledge-based and innovative decision making. This collaboration is a revolution in the workplace. A team is two or more employees who are organizationally empowered to establish their objectives, to make decisions about how to achieve those objectives, to undertake the tasks required to meet them, and to be individually and mutually accountable for their results. Empowerment is the delegation of authority to an individual or team and includes autonomy, trust and encouragement to make the decisions necessary to accomplish the job. Teambuilding is a method designed to help teams operate more effectively by improving internal communication and problem-solving skills.   Empowering Employees Individual achievement is an American ideal. In reality, supervisors must depend on cooperation from their employees, because without group support, the chance of achievement is slim. The best chance for winning group support is to let the forces within the group itself work toward a decision with minimum interference from the supervisor. Effective supervisors empower employees by giving them more decision making power and by seeking ideas from every worker. Standard operating procedure evolved as tool and machinery manufacturers, located mainly on the East Coast, began shipping their products to the Midwest, the Far West, and overseas. In order to help those distant users of the complex industrial equipment learn to assemble the machinery and operate it, an operating manual was provided. However, many of today's problems can't always be answered by the standard operating procedure. Handling problems by merely following the rules in an operating manual results in customer dissatisfaction and closed accounts. Employees deviate from standard operating procedure by being empowered to make on-the-spot decisions, within reason, to solve the problem. Participation is getting group involvement to solve problems by sharing knowledge and information. The supervisor's expertise becomes less important as team members possess knowledge and skill. Power becomes the supervisor's ability to facilitate and communicate to and on behalf of the team. He or she is the liaison with external constituencies such as upper management, other internal teams, customers, and suppliers. The supervisor represents the team's interests, secures resources, clarifies expectations, gathers information, and shares what is learned with the team. Empowering employees requires that supervisors are able to engender credibility and trust since many of the traditional control mechanisms used to monitor employees have been removed. Credible supervisors can be believed. They are honest, competent (expert power), and inspiring (referent power). Research demonstrates that employees who perceive their supervisors as having high credibility are more positive and attached to their work and organizations. Trust is the belief in the integrity, character, and reliability of a supervisor. Employees have to trust supervisors to treat them fairly, and supervisors have to trust workers to fulfill their responsibilities. Team Development It is the supervisor's job to build and maintain an effective team. Successful supervisors realize that all groups go through development phases, but the most productive teams go through the phases quickly to reach the peak performance. Supervisors, as team leaders, share information, trust others, surrender authority, and understand when to intervene. They participate in setting objectives, defining roles, and managing processes, such as time, disagreements, and change. Chris Argyris describes an effective team in his book, Organization and Innovation. Contributions made within the group are additive. The group moves forward as a unit; there is a sense of team spirit, high involvement. Decisions are made by consensus. Commitment to decisions by most members is strong. The group continually evaluates itself. The group is clear about its goals. Conflict is brought out into the open and dealt with. Alternative ways of thinking about solutions are generated. Leadership tends to go to the individual best qualified. Feelings are dealt with openly. Watch the video. A group can achieve synergy (results greater than the sum of its parts) if its members become a team. A team begins as nothing more than a collection of individuals who have been brought together in a work situation. The process of uniting the group to form an effective team involves successfully completing four phases of development identified by B.W. Tuckman (1965, Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384-399): forming, storming, norming, and performing. Phase one is an orientation, the forming of the team. Each person, in the process of getting acquainted with the other members, seeks his or her place in the group. The members must reach a common understanding of their objective, as well as agreement on basic operational ground rules, such as when to meet, attendance requirements, how decisions will be made, and so on. · Do members understand the team's objectives? · Have member's individual objectives been incorporated into the team's objectives? · Do members feel the team's objectives are achievable and reflect their own personal objectives? Phase two is characterized by interpersonal conflict, the storming of the team. Individuals begin to compete for attention and influence. Divergent interests surface as members begin asserting their ideas and viewpoints of the task, and their feelings about other members. The group must settle issues of how power and authority will be divided among members. · What do members see as their responsibilities? · What do members expect from other members? · How is leadership being handled? · Does duplication of effort exist? In phase three, the group is becoming cohesive, the norming of the team. A sense of identity or "team spirit" is beginning to develop. Individuals become more sensitive to each other's needs, and are more willing to share ideas, information, and opinions. Task considerations start to override personal goals and concerns. · What is the action plan for achieving the objectives? · How are decisions made? · How are problems solved? · How are conflicts resolved? Phase four is the interdependence of the group, the performing team. The group emerges as a team. Members now work well together and have a high degree of productive problem solving, since structural and interpersonal issues have been resolved. High creativity and intense loyalty of members to each other characterize a group at this stage. · How do the members treat each other? · Do members trust, support, and feel comfortable with each other? · Do members look for ways to help each other? Goals Discussion Review
Today's Manager
Managerial Functions
Management Levels
Managerial Roles
Management Skills
Management History
Business Environment
Supervision: Planning
Planning Process
Operating Guidelines
Objective Setting
Action Plans
Problem Solving
Supervision: Organizing
Organizing Process
Power and Authority
Delegating
Communicating
Managing Time
Supervision: Directing
Teambuilding
Consensus-Building
Selecting
Training
Leading
Motivating
Supervision: Controlling
Controlling Process
Coaching
Counseling
Disciplining
Evaluating
Terminating