leong_fu_xiang organisational_behaviour_individual_assignment.pdf

Leong Fu Xiang s43115358 MTGS1601 Organisational Behaviour Essay

1 MGTS1601 Organisational Behaviour Individual Assignment

LEONG FU XIANG S43115358

2013-5-13



As a problem-solving team , an effective team is a team that achieves high levels of

task performance, member satisfaction, and team viability and it indicates the

performance of the team regards to the team decision-making, problem-solving and

presentation skills . There are few evidences that can evaluate my team effective such as

the audience evaluation , team satisfaction survey , and the final result of the assessment .

Few weeks before the due date of the work shop, my team has fairly distributed and

assigned tasks to each of the team member s to complete the objective of the upcoming

assessment . Thus , a fair and reasonable allocation and plan scheduling effectively

facilitates team performance . Moreover, my team has faced some difficulties such as

social loafing and bad time management which affected the performance of the team .

Therefore , I have learnt that to be a effective team , a team must be well structured and

controlled .Furthermore , the purpose of this reflective scholarly essay on the

effectiveness of my group is to analyse the factors that most affected my group’s

effectiveness by using the Robin’s team effectiveness model , and what I have learnt

about and how I work in teams from my group experience . In addition , It is reasonable

to state the my team is effective since the performance of the team is good because my

team has scored 10 out of 15 in the assessment(Appendix 2) . Most of our team

members are satisfied for the final result according to the team satisfaction

survey(Appendix 1) .



We can determine the factors that facilitate and hinder team effectiveness by using

team effectiveness analysis according to the feedbacks from the tutors and audience . In

this essay , I will use Robbin’s team effectiveness model to analyse factors that affect

the team effectiveness . The key components from Robbin’s model such as content ,

composition , work design and process are sufficient to analyse and evaluate the

productivity , performance and the member satisfaction of my team .

Furthermore , according to the contextual factors of Robbin’s Team Effectiveness

Model , my group has adequate resources , in example : our tutor Ms Elise Bausseron is

always helpful and provide adequate and reliable information to our group members .

Our tutor gave us guidance about how to score in the upcoming workshop . Thus ,

sharing adequate resources will improve the performance and productivity of the team ,

my team shared ideas and resources on our Facebook group page to ensure that the team

is on track of completing the assessment . The climate of trust the my team is good since

everyone hand in their task in time and each of the team members share their own ideas

in every group meeting . Lastly the leadership and structure is acceptable since there’s a

member in our group is responsible to fairly distribute task to each of the group members

and keep the group on the right track .

In the composition factors in the Robbin’s model , personalities of team members will

influence the team’s effectiveness . Individuals will tend to play a role within the team,

dependent upon aspects of their personality. The abilities of our team members is fair

according to the result of my groups members Belbin’s Team Role Scoring information



form , all of our group members has different types of team roles and

personalities .(Appendix 4)

An understanding of the team roles members assume can lead to a greater

understanding of team effectiveness and team development. The result proves that the

abilities of our team members are effective since the group has covered most of the team

role . Belbin’s team-roles can be clustered according to their orientation such as Member

A has People-oriented role since his/her team roles is more likely to be resource

investigator and team worker . We can allocate member A to communicate with the

audience during the workshop and interact with our tutor or lecture when the group has

queries about the assessment . However, member B is more action oriented , we can

allocate his roles by distribute action oriented task such as collecting journals article and

update the team about the current progress . Lastly , we can allocate task for each of the

members according to their team role . The flexibility of the team is acceptable , each of

the group member work together in each of the group meetings and during the

presentation of the workshop .

According to Robbins’ model , work design is one an key element that will affect the

productivity and performance of the team .In the 1st group meeting , we have discussed

and distributed suitable work to each of the group members . However , each of the

group members are distributed specific task for them to contribute . The task identity

and task significance of the group are appropriate , each of the members are clear about

their responsible of their task and they know how it should have be done in the correct

way .



Nevertheless , my group has faced some difficulties during the presentation which is

bad time management . During our presentation , we have exceed the given time for the

presentation and one of the group member only presented for less than 1 minute due to

bad time management . According the to the Audience Interaction(Appendix 3) survey

done by other student , the other problem that our group faced during the workshop is

lack of audience interaction , most of our group members are looking and reading on the

presentation slides while presenting . The reason that this problems occurs is because of

lack of practice in the process of presentation. Thus this is one of the factor that affects

the performance of the team causing the team unable to score 15/15 for the assessment .

Moreover , social loafing is one of our team’s major issue , one of the member in my

team has missed some of the tutorial classes and the group meeting . Our team members

complained about him ‘social loafing‘ , which means that the member gets the same

result while the others of the team members put in more effort in the assessment than

him .Thus , social loafing is one of the factor that affect our team performance .

Furthermore , there are many ways to make our team more effective , it is important to

have a good leadership and efficient internal structure in team . To have a good team

structure , members of the team must be satisfied about their given task base on their

team role and skills and preferences . This will lead to improvement in performance of

member when they are more satisfied about what they are doing. However , according to

the textbook , to increase team cohesiveness and performance , team leader need to



“understand the individual strength each person can contribute to a team and allocate

work tasks that fit with member’s preferred style , to accomplish the goal”(Textbook).

In addition , goal setting is a good way of motivating the group members .According to

Dr Edwin Locke’s research , in his 1968 article “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation

and Incentives,” he stated that employees were motivated by clear goals and appropriate

feedback. Locke went on to say that working toward a goal provided a major source of

motivation to actually reach the goal-which , in turn, imporoved performance. (Dr Edwin

Locke’s) . The useful and effective way of making goals more efficient is to use the

SMART mnemonic . SMART usually stands for specific , measureable , attainable ,

relevant and trackable . It is necessary for the team to set a SMART goal to improve the

effectiveness of the team . Thus , team members should consider setting specific goals

such as scoring more than 15 out of 15 in the assessment so that the team members will

be more motivated and put in more effort in the workshop .

Nevertheless , it is important to know what motivates the team members , and what

tasks fit them well , According to David McClelland’s Human Motivation Theory , there

are 3 dominant motivation for everyone which is achievement , affiliation and power .

People will have different characteristics depending on their dominant motivator . Thus,

it is essential for team members to understand the motivation of the other group

members . To undermine social loafing tendency , team members should understand what

motivates the team members . Therefore, we can allocate task to each of the group

members based on their motivation to improve the effectiveness of the team .



Last but not least , this workshop turned out to be a great and fun learning experience

for me . From my group experience and self-assessments , I’ve learned it is important to

communication with my group members . Each of the team members are responsible to

contribute their effort and collectively interacting with other members . However , to be

in a effective team , it is important to listen and respect the opinions from the group

members . Sharing information and perceptions facilitate everyone to make decision,

solve mutual problem . However , when in doubt , we can always enlist the help of our

tutor and professor . It is common to have conflicts and misunderstanding working in

teams , it is important to listen the ideas from other group members .Thus , my group

members developed a sense of understanding among the members , by working in a

group , I have learnt that it is important to trust in the people around me in order to

improve the performance and the effectiveness of the team .



Reference

1. Cohen, S.G., Ledford,Gerald E.,,Jr & Spreitzer, G.M. 1996, "A predictive model of

self-managing work team effectiveness",Human Relations, vol. 49, no. 5, pp. 643-

643.

2. Emich, K. J. (2012). How expectancy motivation influences information exchange

in small groups. Small Group Research,43(3), 275-294.

doi:10.1177/1046496412438269

3. Fu F, Richards K, Jones E. THE MOTIVATION HUB: EFFECTS OF GOAL SETTING

AND SELF-EFFICACY ON EFFORT AND NEW PRODUCT SALES. Journal Of

Personal Selling & Sales Management [serial online]. Summer2009

2009;29(3):277-292. Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA.

Accessed May 12, 2013.

4. Hill, K. S. (2010). Building leadership teams. The Journal of Nursing

Administration, 40(3), 103-105.

5. JACOBS, DC 2009, 'Dialogue on Locke's Business Ethics', Academy Of Management

Learning & Education, 8, 2, pp. 259-262, Business Source Alumni Edition,

EBSCOhost, viewed 12 May 2013.

6. Kovac, J.C. 2005, "SMART Goal Setting", Workspan, vol. 48, no. 11, pp. 63-63 ,

viewed3May2013<http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/docview/194716034>

7. Perron, B. E. (2011). Reducing social loafing in group-based projects. College Teaching, 59(4), 163-164. doi:10.1080/87567555.2011.568021

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/docview/194716034

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/docview/194716034



8. Robbins, S. P. (2011). Organisational behaviour. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W: Pearson

Australia

9. Shaw, J. D., Zhu, J., Duffy, M. K., Scott, K. L., Shih, H.-A., & Susanto, E. (2011). A

contingency model of conflict and team effectiveness. Journal of Applied

Psychology, 96(2), 391-400. doi:10.1037/a0021340 , viewed 9 May 2013



Appendix

Appendix 1: Team Satisfaction Survey

Team Satisfaction Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Total

Member A Sometimes satisfied

Satisfied High level of satisfaction

Satisfied

Member B Satisfied Satisfied High level of satisfaction

Satisfied

Member C Satisfied High level of satisfaction

High level of satisfaction


Member D Very high level of satisfaction


Satisfied High level of Satisfaction

Member E Satisfied High level of satisfaction


High level of Satisfaction

Total Satisfied High level of satisfaction





Appendix 2: Workshop Assessment Criteria



Appendix 3: Audiences Evaluations

No. Audience

Marks Comments

1 3 No comment

2 4 No Interaction, group members looked bored often on their phones

3 3 No comment

4 3 No comment

5 3 Just reading from the presentation slides, but did allocated to ask questions to the audience

6 4 Little if any interaction with the audience, crowded together and mono tone

7 3 No activities and no interaction

8 3 No comment

9 3 No comment

10 3 Content and research wise I thought u guys worked really well, but the presentation didnt flow as well, could have been more cohesion, did not seem effective. Therefore I average the 2 to get the 3.

Average 3.2

3 - Effective 4 - Somewhat Effective



Appendix 4: Belbin’s Team Roles Scoring Information

Group Member Team Roles

A Resource Investigator and Team Worker

B Finisher and Shaper

D Monitor Evaluator and Plant

C Company Worker

E Company Worker

leong_fu_xiang organisational_behaviour_individual_assignment.pdf

Documents

team performance

effective team

team members

problemsolving team

team decisionmaking

team viability

team effectiveness analysis

hinder team effectiveness