Individual Teamwork Reflection
How I Influenced Team Cohesion and Motivation
Levi (2014), defines team cohesion as the interpersonal bonds that link group members. Enhancing cohesion relies heavily on the pride of the team and its social identity. I enhanced cohesion in my team through various approaches. Firstly, I encouraged group cohesion by creating a sense of identification. I ensured that the team was highly reputable, and members felt proud of the organization. I isolated my team from others. The isolation helped produce a sense of being unique and different. I also ensured that the group was small. The small team was more cohesive because members were closer to each other quickly developed interpersonal relations. Additionally, I developed strict requirements for joining the team. Members were closely related to personalities and qualifications because of the strict requirements.
Various issues challenge the motivation of a team. The most significant challenge includes social loafing. According to Levi (2014), encouraging motivation is mainly through analyzing the impact of social loafing. The team’s motivation depends on various factors like the task performed by the team, how the performance is assessed and rewarded, the group’s beliefs regarding success, and the sense of commitment or belonging by the members. In my team, I enhanced motivation by addressing the factors that affect it. For instance, I made the task intriguing, involving, and challenging. I ensured that the task compelled team members to interdepend on one another in completing the task. It brought the members together, motivating them by easing their responsibilities. I also ensure that team members felt responsible for the functions. It drove them to carry out their duties while concerning themselves with giving out the best outcome possible. The members shared powers through interdependence regarding team responsibilities. I conducted evaluations of the performance of the team and rewarded the best performers. Through rewarding the best performers, the team members were motivated to work harder to receive the rewards.
How Is Dealt with Team Conflicts
Solving conflicts includes various aspects like accommodating other people, compromising, and collaboration. Accommodating people includes meeting their demands while compromising means agreeing to forgo personal wishes for the team’s benefit. Collaborating includes finding a creative solution that meets the team members (West, 2012). I solved team conflicts through various aspects like separating the team members from the problem, focusing on the interests of the team and not positions, and inventing options for mutual gain. I insisted on the objective criteria that ensured that the negotiations reached a fair conclusion instead of deciding the results of the force of will.
Separating people from the problem included not attributing the issue to the people. I analyzed the problem based on the situation that it had occurred instead of attributing it to the personalities of the team members. I ensured that my conflict resolution team and I were tough on the problem and soft on the people. I focused on the issue that had caused the conflict and not the attitudes or personalities of the people involved in the conflict (West, 2012). I focused on the interests of the conflicting parties and not their stance regarding the problem. I analyzed what they wanted to achieve in the conflict and not their perceptions about the issue. By satisfying their interests, I ensured that every party got what they wanted and overcame how they wanted it.
I invented options for mutual gain through various actions. I determined the parties’ underlying needs to the conflict because the conflict arose when members attempted to reach a goal and were blocked by other members (West, 2012). I then worked with the conflicting parties to identify creative solutions that met or exceeded the needs of the parties. I avoided compromise because compromising would leave some needs unmet, which would be the bases of future conflicts. The finals step of the conflict resolution was that I ensured the negotiations reached a fair conclusion. I ensured that all parameters in contention were factored to make conclusions that met all the needs of the parties.
Limitations of Working with A Team and How I Can Improve Them in Future
Limitations of working in a group included blame game in times of crisis, social loafing, clash of ideas, competition, and leadership crisis. The members easily engaged in blame games in crisis cases becoming a major impediment in developing solutions for the problems. Social loafing involved some members joy-riding in the carrying out of the responsibilities of the team (Nazeer, 2017). The clash of ideas was a major challenge because members wanted their opinions prioritized over the opinions of other team members. Competition was a serious challenge because members sought to outshine their colleagues. The limitations can be solved through various approaches. Such approaches include the provision of an appropriate leadership style that encourages cohesion. Another approach would include enhancing understanding of group dynamics through enlightening members on the issues that characterize groups.
References
West, M.A. (2012). Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research (3rd ed.) (pp. 189-198). BPS Blackwell.
Levi, D. (2014). Group dynamics for TEAMS (4th ed.) (pp. 61-79). SAGE Publications
Nazeer, I. (2017). Interpersonal communication, teamwork effectiveness and organizational commitment among nurses (Doctoral dissertation, University of Management and Technology Lahore).