The Effect Of Teamwork On Organizational Productivity

Project and Seminar Material for Human Resource Management (HRM)

Abstract

This study reviews the Effect of teamwork on organizational productivity. As such the literature reviewed the concept of teamwork in an organization and indicates that teamwork is an integral part of an organization that involve everyone working together to support the organization in order to attain the organization goals. This implies that team work involves joint action and synergy that facilitate right yield through joint human resources and effort of team members. But in spite of the Effect of teamwork on organizational productivity, teamwork is constraint by issue of conflate arising from misunderstanding among team member, poor or ineffective communication, inability of team work to harmonize their pace of work and lack of cooperation among some team members arising from their nonchalant attitude.

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Teamwork is as old as mankind, and as such many organizations use the term ‘team’ in either one sense or the other i.e such as in the production, marketing processes, etc. Examples are management team, production team or an entire organization can be referred as a team.

Cook (1998) claimed that there is a growing consensus among scholars in the world that organizations may be getting works done through individuals, but his super achievement lies in the attainment of set goals through teams (teamwork). It is a well known fact that teamwork is not only the foundation of all successful managements, but the means of improving overall results in organizational productivity.

Wage (1997) described Teamwork as an idea of working together in a group to achieve the same goals and objectives for the good of the service users and organizations in order to deliver a good quality of service (productivity). Ruth (2007) claimed that employees teamwork is seen as constituting a larger group of people than what job position describes, the essence of teamwork is that workload is reduced and broken into pieces of work for everyone to take part. Alan (2003) defined teamwork as a grouping of professionals whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills. Employees take baby steps toward accomplishing key action items and nothing important is finished. Team work is the ability to work together towards a common vision. It is a fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. Collective action is widely recognized as a positive force for teamwork in any organization or institution to succeed. Teams enable individuals to empower themselves and to increase benefits from cooperative work engaged on as a group. Getting together with others also can allow individuals to better understand the importance of teamwork and how the organizations operate as well as promote the culture of teamwork success.

Davis (2007) claimed that employers always stress the need for employing those (Employees) that can be able to work with a team. And they (Employers) generally talk of teamwork when they want to emphasize the need to various talents possessed by different employees. The organizations however, coordinate the employees into different teams, such as management team, production team, etc. This is purposely to tap from the abilities of respective human resources employed by an organization.

Organization according Caroline (2008) is a social entity that is goal directed, deliberately structured activity systems with a preamble boundary.

Alan (2008) claimed that productivity is the rate at which an employer, company or country produces goods, and the amount, produced, compared with how much time, work and money is needed to produce them.

This therefore, shows that, this study will concentrate specifically on the use of the term ‘teamwork’ which involves reshaping the way work is carried out. This includes organizing employees into teams based on a distinct product, each team performing a particular task. These teams are given a high degree of responsibility and are expected to work with flexibility.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Every organization, either large or small, struggles to acquire productivity so as to achieve success and maintain a valuable image in this present world of organizational competitions. And it is the wish of organizations to see the input they use (resources) and the output (goods and services produced) they have at the end.

The population of workers in an organization may be very large and yet that organization achieving a very low productivity and with no improvement in their products. Could this occur as a result of absence of teamwork in such organizations. And if it is, then, there are other organizations that have teams and yet achieve little or no productivity at all. It may be as a result of the following problems:

Lack of Teamwork in the Organization: That is the failure of an organization to coordinate works into work groups in order to tap from the respective human resources the organization possesses.

Poor Leadership Styles in the Organization: It may be as a result of the leadership style of the organization possibly not favorable to teamwork.

Poor Leadership of the Work Teams: Different work teams may exist, but lacking the persons with the team leading acumen to lead them.

Lack of Motivation of the Workforce: The way in which organizations reward their workforce may also lead to low organizational productivity even when their staff work in teams.

Prevailing Conditions that hinder growth in an Organization: The conditions permanently occurring in an organization (lack of picking-up of innovative ideas) like the absence of designing motivational programs, educational growth, bonuses, job rotation and the use of old technologies, etc, may be the cause of low organizational productivity.

1.3 Objective of the Study

The main objective of the study is to examine the Effect of teamwork on organizational productivity. The specific objectives are;

To identify the relationship between teamwork and productivity.
To identify the sources militating against teamwork in workplace
To proffer recommendation to the identified problem as reviewed in the literature.

1.4 Research Hypotheses

The study formulated and developed for testing the following hypotheses:

H0: There is no significant relationship between teamwork and productivity.
H1: There is asignificant relationship between teamwork and productivity.
H02: There is a negative relationship that exists between the provision of necessary resources and effective teamwork.
H12: There is a positive relationship that exists between the provision of necessary resources and effective teamwork.

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study would be beneficial to corporate organization as it would enhance policy formulation as regard teamwork in workplace. The study would also be beneficial to the general public, as it will educate them on the Effect of teamwork on organizational productivity. The Study will also contribute to the existing knowledge on organizational teamwork. The study will be a useful material to incoming students who may wish to use this study as a reference material to undertake their own extended Study.

1.6 Scope / Limitation of the Study

The study will cover an extended Study on the Effect of teamwork on organizational productivity. The Study reviews opinions of authority on the concept of teamwork in workplace as well as the key factors influencing team effectiveness and factors militating against teamwork in workplace.

1.7 Delimitation of the Study

The study is constraint with limitation arising from inadequate material on the subject matter as well as inadequate time due to the inability of the writer to combined lectures with this extended Study, adequate finance is also a great limitation to this extended Study.

1.8 Organization of the Study

The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one deals with the study’s introduction and gives a background to the study. Chapter two reviews related and relevant literature. The chapter three gives the research methodology while the chapter four gives the study’s analysis and interpretation of data. The study concludes with chapter five which deals on the summary, conclusion and recommendation.

Chapter Five

Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Summary

The extended Study reviews the Effect of teamwork on organizational productivity. As such the literature review the concept of teamwork in organization and indicates that teamwork is an integral part of an organization that involve everyone working together to support the organization in order to attain the organization goals. This implies that team work involves joint action and synergy that facilitate right yield through joint human resources and effort of team members. But inspire of the Effect of teamwork on organizational productivity, teamwork is constraint by issue of conflate arising from misunderstanding among team member, poor or ineffective communication, inability of team work to harmonize their pace of work and lack of cooperation among some team members arising from their nonchalant attitude.

5.2 Conclusion

In spite of some challenges militating against the effectiveness of teamwork in an organization. The Study indicate that teamwork increase productivity in an organization through joint action that enables an organization to put together human resources as well as human effort (labour) through synergy which increase yield in production (output) as such it is observed that by numerous authorities cited in the literature that teamwork facilitates productivity in organization.

5.3 Recommendation

The following recommendations at offer and it adhered to, will help in alleviating the problems militating against effective teamwork in organization;

To improve a team effectiveness, it is first necessary to understand these factors you can determine when and where team development is needed. In other for team o function effectively they must manage how they work together and how they interact with rest of the organization. As a result teams that effectively manage these are as function more effectively.
Organization should design remuneration policy that reward teamwork against individual contribution this will go a long way in enhancing team effectiveness.
Members of team should spend time discussing and defining roles and responsibilities. As the team develops, it is topical for individuals to build expectation and assumptions of others which are seldom anywhere.
Managers need to take active roles soothing relationship during times of conflict. This will foster unity foster team effectiveness in no small way.
Team can improve resources utilization by leveraging time to their advantage, performing work asynchronously helps organizations effectively bridge delay gap.
Manager should promote trust among team, members. This can be achieve through having smaller groupings and making tenure together a longer period of time this permits the team members to know each other better in comparison to a system in which the team are constantly shifting.
Manager must also pay strong attention to facilitate the proper balance the level of structures and trust developed among team members.

Project Material Download