Teamwork is the concept of people working together as a TEAM to achieve the underlying objectives of the organization. The TEAM must have a clear vision of each of these short-term milestone goals as well as their impact on the long-term business goals of the organization. In many organizations today people working by themselves in achieving the overall objectives of the organization cannot accomplish certain goals and usually require people to work together with others due to its complexity, interrelatedness and the voluminous of the tasks undertaken.
In fostering TEAMWORK there is no one individual who owns a work area or process all by themselves, people should be open and receptive to ideas and input from others in the TEAM. The values of teamwork should be shared among the members of the team while compensation and rewards should depend on collaborative practices as much as individual contribution and achievement. It is important to identify “TEAM PLAYERS” and thereby set a benchmark to the rest of the teams. However before embarking on TEAMWORK, conflicts of all kinds should be resolved within the organization.
Apart from the required technical expertise, a variety of social skills are essential for success in a TEAMWORK culture.
The Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing model (Bruce Tuckman, 1965) takes the team through four stages of TEAM development. These phases are essential and inevitable in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, plan the work effectively and deliver the end results.
However there is a need to establish and develop collaboration and trust between team members vis a vis interactive exercises, team assessments which will enable teams to cultivate effective team building strengths amongst each other.
Modern society and culture continues to become more dynamic and the factors contributing towards this include
References: Debra A Nelson, Organizational Behavior Chapter 9, South Western College Publishing. Fred Luthans, Organizational Behavior Chapter 14, McGraw Hill International Edition Organizational Behavior, viva publications, latest edition www.hbsp.harvard.edu www.workteam.unt.edu www.humanresources/articles/amazon.com www.BAT.com Interview Director human Resources, Ceylon Tobacco Company Limited Trade Marketing Representative Ceylon Tobacco Company Limited