Impact of Team Dynamics on Performance

Team dynamics can be referred to as the environment in the team, which leads to better results. This report is a self-reflective report.  It tends to narrate my experience while working with my team on the PechaKucha project. It also tends to provide insights on team dynamics and how a whole team is improved by team dynamics (Warner, Bowers and Dixon 2012). I have also stated the ways in which a team can improve its performance and get greater outcomes.

Team Experience from PechaKucha Experience

While working on the project I was working along with four other people who belonged to the same class. Each of the team members were not of the same personalities but one thing that was common between them was that they beloved in new ideas. All the team members were attempting to do PechaKucha for the first time and since no one clearly knew how to proceed with the task, all of them wanted to gain new ideas and understand how the proceedings were done (Georgiadis 2014). This common characteristic between the various team members helped to develop the required team dynamics.  The major issues which were observed during the presentation were issues relating to our leader`s background, team member`s habits and the dynamics. The leadership problems caused various problems among the various team members as they were not being handled by anyone and they tended to follow their own rules as they felt that they have no one to answer to. The team conflict in the team was raised due punctuality of some of the team members who felt that their time was not being valued enough. The following sections aim to make a critical analysis of the given issues.

Critical Analysis of the issue related to Leadership

Team Dynamics can be defined as unconscious and psychological forces that tend to have an impact on the way a team behaves and performs.  This is created by the nature of the work in which the team indulges in. It is also greatly influenced by the personalities in a group, their relationships with one another and the environment also. The Team Dynamics tends to play a key role in any business or professional group as it can greatly influence all the workers to work hard. It can also improve the productivity of the group and prevent any distractions.

The particular Leader of our team belonged to a financially weak background. For this reason, he would not be able to afford adequate resources and was unable to avail transportation. He was extremely late to the meetings because of these reasons. Moreover, due to this he lacked confidence and was unable to manage the team dynamics. Team dynamics can have an impact on the productivity of the members, the absent rate, team as well as individual performance and many others. While working in the group during the making of the presentation I observed that the personalities of the members were extremely different from one another (Baggetta, Han and Andrews 2013). This difference in personality had a huge influence on the dynamics of the group. While working, there were some late comers in our group who were always late for the meeting sessions, which greatly de-motivated the rest of the members. There were even some members who did not want to do much work and took the easiest task (Pichler 2012). This led to a sense of anger in the other team members who often wondered why this treatment was being done and why they could not wok equally for the welfare of the whole team. 

Issues Faced by the Team

Due to the mentioned lack of confidence and the leader himself being late to the meetings, he was unable to harness the energy in the given team. Team Dynamics go a long way in preparing the team to face hurdles, but in our situation, due to the lack of leadership and motivation, the team dynamics was in adequate (Schippers, Homan and Knippenberg 2013).

Critical analysis of the issue related to Team Conflict

On the positive side, there were some members who were highly punctual and hardworking. One such member was a girl who used to be well prepared before coming for the meeting and always report on time. The behaviour of hers was liked by all and the team dynamics improved greatly through this (Jonsen, Maznevski and Davison 2012). There were some other members who also believed in starting the meeting on time and finishing it early. However, as the leader was always late due to his other commitments and the other members also were influenced by it ((Buckingham and Goodall 2015). Hence, during the initial phase of the project, this led to a huge argument between the various team members (Haines III and St-Onge 2012).  This is because the meeting always began late and ended late. The other members felt that they were not being able to meet their other commitments due to this limitation and they got upset. This conflict was dragged onto our coordinator, who then individually assessed each one of us and made us value the time of one another. One of the strongest points was that the conflict was solved in an early stage, which then enabled the project to continue without any delay

As observed by me, the team dynamics of our team could be described as a diverse one where each member was different.  I would like to state that, although team dynamics is very important, it is often ignored. The next section throws light on the roles played by me in the project.

The task in hand involved the making of a presentation. My role was to make sure that all the team members would arrive on time and the meetings would be carried out successfully. I had to decide the location of the meeting and prepare the agenda of the given meeting. Apart from this, I also had to make 10 slides. The brainstorming sessions were held, where the various team members had to give their input. After the inputs were given, a rough slide on paper was made in order to make sure that nothing went wrong with the actual slide was as per the discussion (Braun et al. 2013). After four brainstorming sessions, we decided upon the actual slide content. Then I had made 10 slides each lasting for 20 seconds. The content to be spoken at the presentation was also prepared.

Ways to Improve Team Performance

At this point of time, one of the team members fell sick and thus missed quite a few numbers of meetings. He should have contacted the leader and understood his contribution to the project but instead he did a redundant part. The same part had already been done by another member of the given group (Apesteguia, Azmat and Iriberri 2012).

. When the sick member was back, this also lead to confusion and conflict between the team member`s whose part he had done earlier.  This was solved when the leader had to intervene and give a new area of the project to the former member.

Learning Outcomes

Through the roles given to me, I learnt a great number of things. I learnt how to manage a team and decide upon the contents of the meeting along with the agenda. My management skills improved and my communication skills also improved with this. Through this task, I also learnt about the new concept of the PechaKucha slides and gained extensive knowledge on the topic. As stated above, team dynamics affects people greatly and tends to affect the performance. The dynamics of my team helped me to realize the importance of time and hard work. I realized that without punctuality one could not be successful in any business and that in order to achieve the goals, one needs to devote time to meetings (Pieterse, Van Knippenberg and Van Dierendonck 2013). I could experience that those members who missed meetings would gain less knowledge than the other members and this leads to an imbalance.

The role of a leader is extremely crucial in a team. He is the sailor of the ship and it is his duty to make sure that the team performs well and they have adequate knowledge of the roles. If he is unable to do any of the leader tasks then he is not fit to become a leader. I also learnt that team conflicts are a crucial part of the team however early identification of these problems and solving them is extremely important (Bradley et al. 2013).

Conclusion 

Therefore, it can be stated that team dynamics plays an extremely crucial role in determining the performance of the given team. My team as stated previously, belonged to different backgrounds and was of different talents. Although I project went about extremely well and the work was divided more or less in a fair manner but there were still certain areas where the performance of the team could be improved. Leadership plays a key role in managing the conflicts if the team and helping the team to become successful and hence, the leader should be capable enough to manage his role. 

References

Apesteguia, J., Azmat, G. and Iriberri, N., 2012. The impact of gender composition on team performance and decision-making: Evidence from the field. Management Science, 58(1), pp.78-93.

Baggetta, M., Han, H. and Andrews, K.T., 2013. Leading associations: How individual characteristics and team dynamics generate committed leaders. American Sociological Review, 78(4), pp.544-573.

Bradley, B.H., Klotz, A.C., Postlethwaite, B.E. and Brown, K.G., 2013. Ready to rumble: how team personality composition and task conflict interact to improve performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(2), p.385.

Braun, S., Peus, C., Weisweiler, S. and Frey, D., 2013. Transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and team performance: A multilevel mediation model of trust. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), pp.270-283.

Buckingham, M. and Goodall, A., 2015. Reinventing performance management. Harvard Business Review, 93(4), pp.40-50.

Georgiadis, G., 2014. Projects and team dynamics. The Review of Economic Studies, 82(1), pp.187-218.

Haines III, V.Y. and St-Onge, S., 2012. Performance management effectiveness: practices or context?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(6), pp.1158-1175.

Jonsen, K., Maznevski, M.L. and Davison, S.C., 2012. Global virtual team dynamics and effectiveness. Handbook of research in international HR management, pp.363-392.

Pichler, S., 2012. The social context of performance appraisal and appraisal reactions: A meta?analysis. Human Resource Management, 51(5), pp.709-732.

Pieterse, A.N., Van Knippenberg, D. and Van Dierendonck, D., 2013. Cultural diversity and team performance: The role of team member goal orientation. Academy of Management Journal, 56(3), pp.782-804.

Schippers, M.C., Homan, A.C. and Knippenberg, D., 2013. To reflect or not to reflect: Prior team performance as a boundary condition of the effects of reflexivity on learning and final team performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(1), pp.6-23.

Warner, S., Bowers, M.T. and Dixon, M.A., 2012. Team dynamics: A social network perspective. Journal of Sport Management, 26(1), pp.53-66.