Organizational Behavior Assignment: Team-Building Assessment

Question

Task:
Your task is to produce a report on organizational behavior assignment addressing how to turn your group of student interns into a highly functional team. This assignment requires you to do research. Your task is to draw on organizational behavior theory and use it to critically analyses your team and make recommendations to improve its performance with respect to the internship project.

Answer

Introduction
The concept of organizational behavior explored in the present context of organizational behavior assignment emphasizes the ideal human behavior required in an organization. It describes the successful interaction of human behavior and the organization itself. Management of organizational behavior is the necessary and mandatory factor to enhance the overall competitive advantage in the new age organizations. Every organization possesses specific characteristics concerning skills, competencies, various sources of motivation, end goals, etc, which stands them apart from all the organizations (Wagner and Hollenbeck, 2014). This is a team-building assignment to elucidate the factors concerning effective teamwork. The purpose of this organizational behavior assignment is to turn a group of candidates into a highly functioning and effective team. The description of the assignment strives to create a team that can be relied on to provide efficiency and high-quality work in an organization. The outlined factors are responsible to enhance leadership and decision making skills of the candidates of an organizational team. Relevant theoretical standpoints are applied to answer the problem issue at hand. The team composition includes the specific attributions of the candidates, such as relevant personality traits, team abilities, team size, etc. have been discussed. The major impact of these compositions on organizational performance is also elucidated. Concerning these attributions, potential strengths and weaknesses are outlined which positively and negatively affect the overall performance of the team. Relevant and feasible recommendations have been delineated to address each of the issues mentioned through various theoretical standpoints. The primary aim of the organizational behavior assignment is to critically analyze the personality of the team and suggesting relevant recommendations to improve consequential performance.

Team Composition
Team composition plays a vital role in outlining effective teamwork. An ideal team consists of various competencies, knowledge, and skill (Vazquez, 2019). Various attitudes, thinking styles, and behaviors of team members are responsible for making a successful and all these factors are equally responsible for an advantageous outcome that is the high quality of performance of the team. These characteristics which are intended for the successful performance of a team member are also called KSAOs. Individual variables such as personal attributions of the team members collectively influence the group variables such as the performance outcome of the team, which consequently impacts organizational performance. The team was given a task of strategic building of an advertisement plan for a company. All the team characteristics visible while the task was ongoing are mentioned down below.

Team Size
The size of a team is considered a major factor contributing to the success of an organization. The small size of a team usually positively impacts the performance of a company (Karriker et al., 2017). The current team consists of four team members. All four members are of almost equal age group. This number refers to a relatively smaller of a company. It can be assumed that higher productivity can be expected from this team in the terms of the size of the team. It has been known long enough that smaller teams are easy to handle, monitor, and control. This factor noted in the organizational behavior assignment is equally responsible for the effective performance of the organization.

Team Diversity
The diversity of the team members also plays a major role in organizational culture. This is one of the salient factors of an organizational setup; however, it is not the deciding factor in the success or failure of a company. The adequate diversity of a team cannot be considered as a guarantee of success. However, still, it is one of the important factors for an efficient level of performance. The team studied has four candidates. Every candidate belongs to different functional backgrounds. In the terms of the financial aspect, two of the candidates come from a financial background. On the other hand, the remaining two candidates are from average middle-class families. In the terms of religious beliefs, two candidates hail from the Christian background and the other two candidates come from Hindu backgrounds. The team consists of three males as well as one female member. These factors make the team effective in the terms of its diversity. When doing a task, the influences of these characteristics were easily visible.

Team Personalities
Team Personalities play a major role in enhancing the performance of a team. The personality traits of the team members can positively or negatively affect the overall effectiveness of the team performance. The inclusion of personality traits only is not sufficient to predict the behavior of the team. However, personality traits with factors like diversity and team size can determine the effect of the candidates on the performance outcome. From the personality theoretical standpoint, candidates having an internal locus of control are proven to be more efficient in the terms of an organizational setup (Mali, 2013). Locus of control can be characterized by the tendency to attribute the circumstances in personal lives to external forces of internal forces (Lefcourt, 2014). People having an internal locus of control are intrinsically motivated and usually have a high level of self-esteem. They tend to attribute their successes and failures to their own skills and knowledge. Two candidates fall into an external locus of control; however, the remaining two candidates do not score high position in the same.

Team Abilities
Team ability is an important standpoint to determine the overall capability of the team collectively. Team ability refers to the collective abilities of the individual candidates present in an organizational team. The leader can predict the effectiveness of a team by assessing the various abilities possessed by the team members. In this aspect of organizational behavior assignment, three collective abilities have been considered in order to create a team that is highly able to achieve the desired goals of an organization. The three abilities are technical abilities, decision-making abilities, and problem-solving abilities. While the candidates of the team stand high in terms of problem-solving skills and technical abilities. The candidates are not well equipped with decision-making abilities in the current scenarios.

The Individual and Their Interrelationships
The individuals have been discussed in the above segments. In the context of the interrelationships, by the amalgamation of all the attributions the candidates make an optimum level of team. Some individuals belong to sound financial backgrounds and some from middle-class backgrounds that make up for the diversity. In the context of gender, the ngteam consists of 3 males and one female. Team personality can be characterized by two individuals having internal locus of control and 2 individuals having external locus of control. While two of the candidates are intrinsically motivated two of the candidates are not. This entails for mixed performance results. All four candidates rank high in problem-solving abilities, technical abilities and rank low in decision-making abilities. Their interrelationship entails with faulty decision making team who is not to take wise and well informed decisions.

Potential Team Issues
Potential team issues are outlined in terms of the overall team composition. The major strengths and weakness would be defined that impacts the overall performance of the team in an organizational setup. The following are the potential team issues concerning the composition of the team:

Social Loafing (weakness)
There seems to be an increase in social loafing in the organizational environment of the team. Social loafing is the phenomenon wherein an individual do not impart their whole dedication when they are a member of a group in comparison to their individual effort. The amount of social loafing can determine the overall achievement capacity of an organization (Schippers, 2014). The social loafing theory illustrated in the organizational behavior assignment is also known as the ‘Ringelmann effect’ plays a huge role in determining organizational behavior (Schippers, 2014). Social loafing occurs when a goal is to be achieved through group efforts but each individual contributes less resulting in a lack of collective effort. Consequently, this limits the performance outcome and the team stands unable to achieve the desired goal. Social loafing in on organizational can lead to limited results and it negatively affects the performance of the team. In current scenarios, it was found out that when a task of ‘collecting the database of transportation startups for last five years’ was prescribed to the team. The teammates depicted the tendency to slack off, as they believe the other team member will take care of prescribed work. Nobody genuinely worked while the task. As a result, it lowered the overall performance of the whole team. It was witnessed that, the collective effort the team was degraded, and the candidates were unable to work in a team in comparison to their individual capabilities. That deteriorated the teamwork aspect of the team.

Groupthink (weakness)
Another issue witnessed concerning the behavior of the team was Groupthink. Groupthink is characterized by a tendency to agree with the notions of other candidates to maintain conformity. This leads to a dysfunctional decision-making process. This tendency limits the creative and innovative competencies of the team members and the team delivers monotonous and static organizational performances. Groupthink leads to faulty anticipatory decision making which results in limited performance outcome (Keebler, 2015). One reason behind the development of the current scenarios may be a result of a lack of decision-making abilities in the candidates of the team. As mentioned earlier within this organizational behavior assignment, the candidates did not achieve a higher position in terms of decision-making abilities, which in turn to faulty decision-making practices in the situation wherein the candidate had to perform in a decision-making activity. It was found out, while a team meeting, a candidate made a statement and other team members followed the made statement. This kind of behavior was seen frequently in a limited period. It was assessed that the team members were unable to make informed decisions and followed the group mentality as a whole, resulting in groupthink. There was found a tendency of closed-mindedness. Despite having commendable abilities, groupthink curbed the team to reach its full potential.

Positive-Group Dynamics
Despite experiencing the above-mentioned issues, the team ranks high in terms of positive group dynamics. If a positive group dynamics that mean the candidates of the team possess mutual trust and are compatible with each other. It was found out in a meeting while discussing a problem statement; the trust factor developed within the group was noticed. The team members have a cooperative tendency and willingly work towards goal fulfillment. The team in the current scenario possesses superlative group dynamics which results in successful goal achievement. The process of working with positive group dynamics results in optimal problem-solving abilities. Positive dynamics positively impact the attitudes of the team members which consequentially results in high levels of efficiency (Drescher et al., 2014) The positive aspect of the overall team composition has led the team to have positive group dynamics.

Good Problem-Solving Skills
The team is relatively skilled in problem-solving abilities. The team was given the task of making a strategic plan for advertisement in a company. The idea was to apply the problem-solving skills in order to complete the task. It was found out that the team managed to apply skills successfully and achieve the target. This is one of the major strengths of the team. Good problem-solving results in an increased performance outcome (Part et al., 2014).

Recommendations and Suggestions
The following are the recommendations and suggestions:

Setting Realistic Goals, Improving Commitment, Feedbacks and Assigning the Tasks to Team Members can reduce Social Loafing
Social loafing can be avoided or lessened by assigning tasks to individual candidates of the team. Social loafing can be characterized by week emotional commitment of the team towards the organization (Vveinhardt and Banikonyt?, 2017). In order to reduce social loafing, managers are advised to keep optimum involvement in the task at hand. The involvement of the employer keeps the teammates alert and the tendency to loaf can decrease (Vveinhardt and Banikonyt?, 2017). ‘Goal Setting Theory’ should be applied in order create a realistic and practical goal. The desired goals should be set achievable and realistic. It has been seen that people are more likely to work with enthusiasm when the set goals are realistic. Proper feedbacks for the individual efforts should be provided by the managers, it enhances the interest and the will to work effectively. Feedbacks from managers can drive the teammates towards social comparison and that may lead to the reduction of social loafing. Accompanying the feedbacks, specific rewards should also be provided upon different task completions.

How monitoring and recognizing individual efforts discussed in the present context of organizational behavior assignment can reduce groupthink?
First and foremost, groupthink can be reduced by recognizing individual efforts. A manager should acknowledge different viewpoints of teammates. It is advisable to encourage debate among teammates to keep the innovative notions flowing. This will keep the employees comfortable enough to voice their opinions and make original points on the issues at hand. Diversity can reduce groupthink. Diversity in opinions, cultures, and working and thinking styles can also reduce groupthink. Hence, managers should encourage diversity in each relevant aspect (Coles et al., 2015). The managers should provide the role of ‘critical evaluators’ to the employees to avoid monotony in the ways the organization work. Brainstorming should be encouraged to solve a problem and newer ways discovered by the candidates should be encouraged. This will improve the sense of independence in the team. Managers are advised to not enforce their own viewpoints on their subordinates. Moreover, they should encourage employees to come up with various solutions in order to solve an organizational problem.

Improving Group Dynamics
It is stated herein organizational behavior assignment that Group Dynamics is a major standpoint in the terms of determining the success of an organization. It is a collection of various behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a group. These processes are extremely important while dealing in an organizational environment. The manager plays a major in keeping the group dynamics intact of a company. From a managerial perspective, one should know how to manage various personality types. As a manager, one should be aware of the technical as well as emotional competencies of the teammates. It is advised to assign clear roles and responsibilities in an organizational setup (Forsyth, 2018). The clarity of personal responsibilities lessens the chances of witnessing personal conflicts and also increases the efficiency of the candidates. From the managerial point of view, the inclusion of clear communication is extremely necessary to take the organization towards positive group dynamics.

Improving Problem-Solving Skills
Problem-solving skills are one of the major tools to increase productivity in organizational behavior (Saxena, 2014). A manager should provide an optimum level of autonomy to the employees in order to increase their problem-solving skills. The desired goals should be set realistically. That does not necessarily mean that the difficulty level should be easy. Moreover, the goals set by the manager should be set with a neutral to the high difficulty level. The employees should be aware that the managers have high expectations from them and they are expected to solve a specific problem. That, in turn, would encourage the employees to think in a innovative manner and enhance problem-solving skills. The Y theory by McGregor describes that the employees have an intrinsic will to work and can be trusted to take ownership of an organizational task (Hattangadi, 2015). This viewpoint should be considered to effectively improve problem-solving skills in the employees.

Conclusion
This organizational behavior assignment was a team-building assignment to outline the factors which are responsible to create an effective team in an organizational setup. In order to create a team of highly skilled candidates, this organizational behavior assignment includes relevant team composition. The attributions such as team diversity, team size, team abilities and the personality of the team have been discussed under team composition. In regards to team composition, potential organizational issues have also been explained. The potential issues in the terms of weaknesses were the development of social loafing and groupthink in the team members. It has been explained how these factors negatively affect the performance of the members of the team. Social loafing and groupthink hinder the performance outcome of the candidates and disable them to work at their utmost potential. The potential issues in the terms of strengths are positive group dynamics and problem-solving skills. These two factors positively influence the performance of the teammates. Relevant theories and concepts have also been discussed above regarding the topics. The recommendations are made addressing each of the potential issues mentioned and it had been taken care of, the recommendations are realistic and pragmatic in their approach.

Bibliography
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