AIPE Assignment – team work

AIPE Assignment

Team Effectiveness

Task 1

There are many factors in this case that could have led to the problems in the bearing assembly team. The problems could also be caused by multiple factors which means that there was not only one reason for these problems to occur. It is very common for big problems to be caused by a build-up of smaller changes and problems.

The first factor that I believe caused the problems to start in the bearing assembly team would be the change of teamwork strategies. When a team loses an experienced member, it may also lose its teamwork and rhythm. This is because when a team is familiar with each other and understand how each person performs tasks, they can learn to adapt and become familiar. The team will then be more effective and efficient when they work together. When an experienced person in an experienced team leaves, it can cause a lot of confusion and problems. People will still expect the new person to act the same, however the new person will do tasks must differently, causing confusions. The team must understand and work together to adapt to Elizabeth Jennings’ style of work.

This can cause more conflicts in the team. The experienced team would rather have Elizabeth Jennings change her working style rather than the whole team change their strategies to adapt to hers. This puts a lot of pressure on Elizabeth Jennings.

The next factor that created the problem was the lack of performance in output being an all-time low. The staff will be wondering what could have caused this problem, and what the team has done differently. They would then immediately accuse Elizabeth Jennings for the all-time low performance because she was the only change to the team. However, she should not be accused of the problem unless there is proof that she made mistakes and caused the problem. There is a chance that other members have made mistakes and did not perform as effectively. This is why the three women supported Elizabeth Jennings; however the men then discriminated against the women for sticking with each other and not blaming Elizabeth because they were all women. This intensified the problem which then caused a large conflict between the two gender groups. It was lucky that Ted Richardson stopped the conflict before it got any worse.

Another factor that could have caused the problems in the Bearing assembly team is the high expectations that the team set for Elizabeth Jennings. This would have made it almost impossible for Elizabeth Jennings to satisfy the team member’s expectations. She is not as experienced and do not know all the roles and tasks that she must perform. Replacing an experienced member can be very difficult, and being a different gender to the experienced member, the team will be even more judgemental of her. Ted Richardson should have thought about this a lot, as he is the one responsible for managing the team and making sure that the team is performing effectively.

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t about this a lot, as he is the one responsible for managing the team and making sure that the team is performing effectively.

The 5 stages of a team can be used to express some of the factors that caused the problems to occur.

Forming: this stage has already been completed, as the team was formed 26 months ago. Elizabeth has been disadvantaged by not being part of the team since 26 months ago.

Storming: The storming phase has also been completed, as everyone in the team is familiar with the roles and tasks that they must perform. Elizabeth has missed out on this stage as well, which makes her even more disadvantaged as she is not fully aware of how the team operates.

Norming: This is when the team matures, and begins to agree on certain operations and strategies. Elizabeth was not present in this stage of the team and therefore cannot know how the team matured. This means that Elizabeth’s old style of working may have been unsuccessful in the past and that is why she must adapt her working style to suit the new norm of the team.

Performing: The performing stage is the stage that the team works most together and becomes familiar with each other. This is when the rhythm and routine of work becomes most important. Elizabeth not being in this stage of the team, will make the team less familiar with the work style of Elizabeth. The team has been performing with Jim Johnson for over 26 months and therefore has gotten used to performing well with him. Performing with Elizabeth for a long period of time will make the team more familiar and used to the style of work of Elizabeth.

Adjourning: this is the stage that every team wants to achieve. This is the complete stage, when the team has become experienced and can now achieve their set goals together. Elizabeth has not been in the team long enough to complete goals and therefore the team is still not confident with her work. Once the team begins completing goals, the team will become more accepting of her.

Team dynamics can increase or decrease the effectiveness of a team depending on how good the team dynamics are. One of the most important team dynamics is experience with each other. This means how well each member knows each other and can assist them when needed. Being an experienced team, each member will know what is expected of them, and if something goes wrong, they will work together to fix it. With this team losing Jim Johnson, they has lost a lot of the team dynamics, causing the team to be less effective and efficient, however with patience and practice, the team can increase the team dynamics over time.

Task 2

When Jim Johnson was still in the team, the team had achieved the adjourning stage, meaning that they had successful achieved goals that they had set. This is the last stage of the team and means that the team is successful and can work together to achieve certain goals effectively.

Now that Jim has left the team and…

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