Organizational Psychology Within The Team Simulation
Question
Task:
Reflective Essay:
The purpose of this assessment is to assess your ability to employ concepts and theory from the field of organizational psychology in the analysis of your own experience in the team simulation.
The key question you must address in your essay is: What did you learn about teamwork and about your individual strengths and weaknesses from participating in the team simulation?
Your essay should include
a) an evaluation of your individual and team performance in the simulation, and
b) a discussion of the implications of this experience for future teamwork (i.e. how do you plan to modify your behaviour or what techniques do you plan to employ in order to maximise team success in the future).
Answer
Introduction
Organizational psychology is considered an applied discipline within psychology and it is also termed as the application of different psychological theories within the workplace to maintain a disciplined approach at the functional area. However, in this study, I am going to focus on the theoretical concepts of organizational psychology within the team simulation. At the same time, to define the team simulation, I am going to assess my strengths and weaknesses and also going to illustrate my own experience regarding the team simulation. Apart from my individual experience, I am also going to emphasize the certain implications for future teamwork that can help me in terms of maximizing the overall team success.
Main Body
Being an environmentalist, my operational area is to clean up the mountain by taking major support from my team, and as per my understanding, effective teamwork might help me in terms of increasing the performance efficiencies. Additionally, I feel that having detailed knowledge on the team simulation might help me in terms of understanding the other colleagues, and can help me to explore the different factors that can hamper teamwork. Being a part of a cleaning program in the mountain, understanding the team, and creating better coordination with other team members might help me in terms of increasing the performance efficiencies as an environmentalist. At the same time, I believe that team simulation can help me in terms of increasing mutual understanding and empowering the other members better than self-guidance (Suwandana, 2019, p.54). Better coordination and mutual understanding within the team members could help me in terms of cleaning up different camps and can ensure overall team success within the cleaning program. Similarly, a better understanding of the team simulation could support me in terms of strengthening my networking as well as negotiation skills within the cleaning camp to highlight camaraderie within the group and this specific perspective might help me in terms of establishing effective cleanup activities and I can be part of the cleaning program of the polluted river in Italy. At the same time, it can also help me in terms of promoting environmental protection on a larger scale.
As per my prior experience, I have witnessed that effective teamwork within the mountain cleaning up program makes the entire activity a highly successful affair and better coordination amongst the team members also helps in terms of creating a better division of work within the cleaning program. Furthermore, as a mountaineer, I have witnessed that effective teamwork within the cleaning campaign could help in terms of associating with other governmental and non-governmental bodies who can majorly assist the environmentalists in terms of providing better support and fulfilling every individual milestone such as maintaining the logistics, collecting wastages and a better waste management strategy. Similarly, as per the perspective of environmentalists, I believe that effective teamwork might also help me in terms of segregating the wasted materials within the different categories such as iron, glass, plastic, textile, and aluminium. In addition to that, effective teamwork and better team coordination can help the entire cleaning program be highly effective and it might also help the environmentalists in terms of establishing better claiming goals within the waste management strategy.
Along with it, to provide the appropriate environmental solutions, I believe better teamwork and team coordination might be a crucial factor that helps in terms of establishing better environmental standards with correct strategic movements. As per my understanding, I feel Tuckman’s theory is one of the effective tools that can assist me in terms of increasing the performance efficiencies within the mountain cleaning program. As a mountaineer and environmentalist, I feel that through the application of Tuckman team development theory I could be able to tackle the activities from the primary stage to the completion of the cleaning program. Being an environmentalist, I have a detailed idea regarding the mountain cleaning program and I know the entire cleaning program consists of different stages such as segregating the waste materials, making a detailed program, recruiting the volunteers for the cleaning campaign, and many other aspects. In this perspective, I believe the Tuckman theory might help me in terms of focusing on team development rather than the individual achievement level. The task-focused team within the mountain cleaning program would also help me in terms of segregation of the entire activities based on the performance capability and expertise of the team members.
Simultaneously, the Tuckman theory might help me in terms of understanding the interpersonal dynamics within the team members along with helping me to define the clear goals amongst the team members. As a result, the theoretical perspective might ensure a better performance within the team members and can help the team members in terms of gaining high-performance levels within the cleaning program. According to my understanding regarding teamwork, within the mountain cleaning program, effective teamwork could help me in terms of maintaining accountability and offering the much-needed motivation amongst the team members that ensures better results and solutions.
Assessing individual strength and weakness
In the above section, the importance of teamwork and team coordination within the cleaning program is explained with supportive statements. As per the assessment of individual strength, being a mountaineer I have been the part to the summit of Mt. Everest twice in the early stage of my career. This specific incident helps me to gather some major knowledge regarding the mountain cleaning program and also helps me in terms of understanding a vast perspective regarding environmental protection activities. Being the most accomplished mountaineer also helps me to gain practical knowledge regarding the types of garbage that are being thrown out in the mountain. Concomitantly, the vast experience as a mountaineer also helps me in terms of understanding the strategies that are associated with waste management. Apart from that, as an experienced mountaineer, I also have a vast perspective regarding an effective mountain clean up program, and through the implementation of the effective cleaning program, I can easily coordinate with other team members and can take the correct strategic action for my team in order to promote team effectiveness. As I have started my career as a mountaineer at a young age, it also helps to strengthen my overall perception of the cleaning camps and it also helps me in terms of understanding the efforts that are being required to promote effective environmental protection activities.
On the other hand, one major weakness that might hamper my overall aim of effective cleanup activities in mountains are my struggle with acute mountain sickness (AMS). Furthermore, my cleaning of a polluted river in Italy program can be impacted due to my health insecurities. I have experienced this disease on my last journey in the Himalayas. However, I am hesitant to share my illness with other climbers as other individuals might not allow me to join the campaign. As per this medical condition, I may face some major issues in my health while climbing, and the authorities might cancel my visit to such a place permanently. Due to this disease, I also have a high level of uncertainty and my overall confidence level might get hampered as I face some major consequences during the most uncertain visit. Along with it, the major consequences such as shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea, and headaches can mostly hamper my overall visit and can also hamper my performance level. I feel that an environmentalist’s job requires a lot of physical and mental strength, and having acute mountain sickness could hamper me in terms of fulfilling my performance objectives and also reduce my overall credibility as an environmentalist. Similarly, due to the heights, I also may experience a high level of breathing issues and this specific issue might hamper me in terms of fulfilling my performance objectives and can also reduce my overall ability as a team leader. I might not be able to manage the team and it can negatively impact my leadership qualities despite having vast experience as a mountaineer from childhood. Moreover, the mentioned disease can also impact my decision-making abilities and might hamper me from operating as a team within the mountain cleaning program.
Individual and team performance within the team simulation
Being an environmentalist, I always believe that team performance and better coordination between different team members are extremely crucial for successful cleaning activities. I also believe that better understandability amongst different team members also ensures the fact that the goal and objectives of the claiming program are thoroughly maintained and the program also becomes a successful affair (Lin and Huang, 2020, p. 90). However, within the team simulation, the team performance can easily be increased with the constructive behaviours of the team members and it can also offer a platform in terms of achieving their long-term goals and objectives. Within the mountain cleaning program, I believe that effective teamwork can strengthen the skills and also help the other members in the cleaning campaign to sharpen their skills so that they can take the relevant solutions to their problems and can make wise decisions based on the situations (Mitchell et al., 2019, p.412). On the contrary, within the mountain cleaning program, it’s very important to establish challenge simulation series where the entire operating team could specifically focus on improving the skills and knowledge levels that can help them to manage the complex areas within the cleaning activities and can also increase the overall power of ethical decision making and strategic decision making.
Aligned to my understanding, I believe that effective team performance might also help me in terms of finishing the performance objectives within the performance area (Choi et al., 2017, p.380). Nevertheless, better coordination with other team members might help me in terms of setting the performance objectives and goals for my team and can also provide a major chance to analyze my performance within the mountain cleaning program. Besides, being an environmentalist, I realized that better coordination with the team members ensures the fact that the entire cleaning activity follows the ethical approach and also helps me to assess the individual strength and weaknesses of each member within the campaign. Also, effective team performance ensures the fact that every team member works towards one particular goal and gives their full potential into the mainstream operational activities.
Techniques to maximize the efficiencies in future teamwork
As per the research of Wang et al., (2017, p. 700) developing an effective team obligates a superior leader with skills and techniques. Hence, being a mountaineer and environmentalist at the same time my team working and leading abilities can help me in my prospective project of cleaning a river in Italy. Within the team simulation of cleaning the mountain, I have experienced diverse strengths and weaknesses of mine (Greer et al., 2018, p. 591). In the above section, the importance of team effectiveness and team coordination within the cleaning program is broadly explained with supportive documents. However, as per my experience, I believe that within the cleaning program it is very important for all the participants to increase their overall level of communication and to create a supportive environment. Building a supportive environment might help me to create an impact regarding the environmental solutions amongst the team members and this specific perspective might ensure better performance and also help me as a leader to upgrade the team effectiveness (Amor et al., 2020, p. 170). Being a leader of a mountaineering team as well as an environmentalist I can work on my health. Since the role of an environmentalist is to focus on the ecology along with the utilization of experiences thus my conditions of health can work as a weakness. Hence, regular checkups and carrying medicines are required for me as well.
Nonetheless, within the team simulation, I believe that selecting a collective objective for the team members might help me in terms of maintaining a sustainable position within the team and it can also support the members in terms of increasing the understanding amongst the team members. Based on the given circumstance, I believe that Tuckman’s theory is one of the tools that can be applied to promote team effectiveness and to create a supportive environment within the team members (Rico et al., 2019, p. 78). Through the application of Tuckman's theory, I believe I can lead my team within their cleaning activities and can segregate the entire cleaning activity into different stages based on the team member’s areas of expertise and preferences. Thus, my further project of cleaning up a river in Italy can get assisted with my skills of transformational leadership practice. According to the views of Zhang (et al., 2020, p.545) in the global environmental change, the role of people is significant in hampering. As a result, being an environmentalist I have to focus on developing the globe with my skills of teamwork and leadership. Additionally, the Tuckman teamwork theory might also help me in terms of building task-based groups, and the task-based group might help me to create performance objectives and also ensure the fact that the entire campaign fulfils its major objectives. Further, Tuckman’s teamwork theory also helps the team members within the cleaning campaign to increase their overall understanding levels of each other.
I also believe that Tuckman’s theory can also help me in terms of offering the training to the other team members who need some major support and as a result, this specific perspective might help the performing team to increase their overall performance objectives (Enwereuzor et al, 2018, p.539). The four major stages of Tuckman’s theory such as forming, storming, norming, and performing are four major components that might help me as an environmentalist to establish a common goal for the team members and the uniformity in terms of setting the performance objectives might ensure that the entire cleaning program is a success. Concurrently, through the adaptability of Tuckman teamwork theory, I can increase my understanding levels regarding the other team members and a better understanding of other team members ensure a high level of team effectiveness. Within the cleaning program, I believe that transformational leadership theory within the cleaning program can help me in terms of building trust and can increase the reliability amongst the team members. However, I believe that as an environmentalist, I need to increase the communication level with the other team members to reduce the grievances and conflicts with the workers.
Conclusion-
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that teamwork and team effectiveness are two major components that can help in terms of increasing the performance objectives within the environmental campaign. However, a supportive environment is highly needed for the environmentalists to fulfil the performance objectives. Additionally, the high level of communication with the team members is one such major factor that can help the team leader in terms of reducing the performance grievances within the performance area.
References
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Enwereuzor, I.K., Ugwu, L.I. and Eze, O.A., 2018. How transformational leadership influences work engagement among nurses: does person–job fit matter?. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 40(3), pp.346-366.
Greer, L.L., de Jong, B.A., Schouten, M.E. and Dannals, J.E., 2018. Why and when hierarchy impacts team effectiveness: A meta-analytic integration. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(6), p.591.
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Suwandana, I.G.M., 2019. Role of transformational leadership mediation: Effect of emotional and communication intelligence towards teamwork effectiveness. International research journal of management, IT and social sciences, 6(2), pp.52-62.
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