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Level 4 Dynamic and Collaborative Teams: Your Road To Success

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

861 views

Level 4 Dynamic and Collaborative Teams: Your Road To Success

dynamic and collaborative teams

Uploaded by

Evelyn Nkhalamba

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 71

Yo u r road to success

Your road to success

LEVEL 4
DYNAMIC AND
COLLABORATIVE
TEAMS

BE •
• A
OF

IDE
FICI

L
STUDY
abeuk.com
A
© ABE 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

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This study guide is supplied for study by the original purchaser only and must
not be sold, lent, hired or given to anyone else.

Every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of this study guide;
however, no liability can be accepted for any loss incurred in any way
whatsoever by any person relying solely on the information contained within
it. The study guide has been produced solely for the purpose of professional
qualification study and should not be taken as definitive of the legal position.
Specific advice should always be obtained before undertaking any investment.

ABE cannot be held responsible for the content of any website mentioned in
this book.

978-1-911550-15-0

Copyright © ABE 2017

First published in 2017 by ABE
5th Floor, CI Tower, St. Georges Square, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 4TE, UK
www.abeuk.com

All facts are correct at time of publication.

Author: Carrie Foster

Reviewer: Jacqui Bishop BA (Hons), MA, PGCE, Dip M, Dip MRS, MCIM

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been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents
Act 1998.

Acknowledgements
The publishers gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce the following
copyright material: p6 Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock; p14 Tiko
Aramyan/Shutterstock; p19 Creativa Images/Shutterstock; p26 XiXinXing/
Shutterstock; p31 ESB Basic/Shutterstock; p40 Monkey Business Images/
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Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock; p59 Pressmaster/Shutterstock; p63
nd3000/Shutterstock.

ii © ABE
Contents
Using your study guide iv

Chapter 1 The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations 2

1.1 What are teams and how have they changed? 4

1.2 How teams form and become effective 11

Chapter 2 The Principles and Benefits of Effective Team Working 22

2.1 The commercial and social benefits of effective team working 24

2.2 Fostering collaborative working to overcome difficulties 29

Chapter 3 The Principles of Effective team Management 32

3.1 Different approaches to management 34

3.2 Recommendations for managing teams to work collaboratively and
achieve team objectives 42

Chapter 4 Why Team Working can Become Dysfunctional 46

4.1 Why team working breaks down 48

4.2 Recommendations for re-establishing collaborative work 51

Chapter 5 Your Own Team Working Skills and Traits 56

5.1 Analyse your own skills and team working traits 58

5.2 Evaluate and minimise challenges to collaborative working 62

Glossary 66

© ABE iii
Using your study guide
Welcome to the study guide for Dynamic and Collaborative Teams, designed to
support those completing an ABE level 4 Diploma.

Below is an overview of the elements of learning and related key capabilities (taken from
the published syllabus), designed to support learners to assess their own skillset in terms
of employability and to develop their own personal development plans.

Element of learning Key capabilities

Element 1: The nature of teams • Ability to explain what teams are and how the
within modern organisations nature of teams has changed over time.
• Ability to explain how teams form and
become effective.
• Ability to identify the additional challenges
teams face in modern organisations.
Element 2: The principles and • Ability to explain the commercial and social
benefits of effective team working benefits of effective team working.
• Ability to recommend how collaborative
working can be fostered.
Element 3: The principles of • Ability to identify the advantages and
effective team management limitations of different approaches to the
management of teams.
• Ability to recommend practical ways that
team working should be managed to achieve
team objectives.
Element 4: Why team working can • Ability to identify the main reasons why team
become dysfunctional working breaks down.
• Ability to recommend practical ways that
collaborative work can be re-established.
Element 5: Your own skills and • Ability to analyse your own skills and team
team working traits working traits and roles.
• Ability to evaluate the actions you can take to
minimise challenges of working as part of a
team.

This study guide follows the order of the syllabus, which is the basis for your studies.
Each chapter starts by listing the syllabus learning outcomes covered and the
assessment criteria.

iv © ABE
L4 descriptor
Knowledge descriptor (the holder…) Skills descriptor (the holder can…)
• Has practical, theoretical or technical • Identify, adapt and use appropriate
knowledge and understanding of a cognitive and practical skills to inform
subject or field of work to address actions, and address problems that
problems that are well defined but are complex and non-routine while
complex and non-routine. normally fairly well-defined.
• Can analyse, interpret and evaluate • Review the effectiveness and
relevant information and ideas. appropriateness of methods, actions
and results.
• Is aware of the nature and approximate
scope of the area of study or work.
• Has an informed awareness of
different perspectives or approaches
within the area of study or work

The study guide includes a number of features to enhance your studies:

‘Over to you’: activities for you to complete, using the space provided.
Case studies: realistic business scenarios to reinforce and test your
understanding of what you have read.
REVISION
on the go
‘Revision on the go’: use your phone camera to capture these key pieces of
learning, then save them on your phone to use as revision notes.
Examples: illustrating points made in the text to show how it works in practice.
Tables, graphs and charts: to bring data to life.
Reading list: identifying resources for further study, including Emerald articles
(which will be available in your online student resources).
Source/quotation information to cast further light on the subject from
industry sources.
Highlighted words throughout and glossary terms at the end of the book.

Note
Website addresses current as at June 2017.

Introduction
The business environment is becoming ever more global and, as a consequence, the workplace is
changing. Hierarchical organisations are generally a thing of the past; structures are usually flatter
and the people within them are often required to work cross-functionally and with people at
other locations, rather than as part of one department based in the same office.

Modern organisations present additional challenges to team work, including flexible and
remote working, operating across time-zones and embracing different working and cultural
practices. While diversity generally improves team working it does require team members to
show more open-mindedness on the part of all concerned to find the best solutions.

This chapter introduces you to the nature of teams within modern organisations and the difficulties
associated with team working within different organisational structures.

Learning outcomes
On completing the chapter, you will be able to:
1 Describe the nature of teams within modern organisations and the difficulties associated
with team working within different organisational structures

Assessment criteria
1 Describe the nature of teams within modern organisations and the difficulties associated
with team working within different organisational structures

1.1 Explain what teams are and how the nature of teams has changed as the structure and
nature of organisations have changed in recent years
1.2 Explain using relevant concepts and theories, how teams form and become effective;
the common pitfalls, and how effective working can be established
1.3 Identify the additional challenges and potential difficulties that teams face given the nature
of modern organisations, including virtual environments

Background
Teams are an essential part of organisational life. Team performance can have a positive or negative
impact on the overall performance of the organisation.

The world of work is rapidly changing and fast-moving owing to innovations and changes in
the wider environment caused by political, economic, social and technological factors. This has
increased the requirement for individuals to be able to work effectively within team structures in
order to deliver objectives. Individual performance is affected by and affects those people with
whom an individual has to collaborate with as part of their day-to-day working life.

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together

is progress; working together is success
Henry Ford

However, working in an effective team does not just happen by accident. There are many different
factors that lead to a team being successful. If you can understand the nature of teams, different
structures and challenging factors that impact the effectiveness of teams, it will enable you to
pinpoint areas where you can contribute to team effectiveness.

Over to you
Activity 1: Self-interest versus team interest

Reflect on situations where you have worked with teams in the past. Can you think
of any examples where individuals have put the team’s interest before their own self-
interest? Given your experience, can teams ever be truly effective? Give reasons for
your answer.

1.1 What are teams and how have they changed?

Most work taking place within an organisational environment requires some form of collaboration
between members of the organisation. Teams exist at all levels of the organisation, from the most
senior to the most junior employees. Regardless of the work environment, teams enable work to be
organised – usually by role or task. There are some particular characteristics by which teams can be
identified and understood.

Differences between groups and team

A team is a group of people who are working together to achieve a common purpose. A group
consists of people who depend on each other in order to complete a task or achieve a goal.
Although it is difficult to find a definition that everyone agrees on, which clearly separates a group
from a team, there are some differences. Teams are generally small, usually made up of four to
six members who have been selected for a specific purpose, whereas groups are larger and the
membership is elective. It is important to note that although all teams are groups, groups are not
necessarily teams.

Teams, therefore, differ from groups because of member behaviour and the reason for an individual
to be part of, and remain, a member of the group.

Over to you
Activity 2: Team composition

Thinking about your own experience of working in teams and as part of a group, how
would you explain the differences between teams and groups?

Characteristics of effective teams

The formation of teams is a natural aspect of human organisation, however, developing a team
which is effective does not just happen naturally. Dysfunctional teams are a common situation in
any organisation. However, there are certain factors that contribute to team effectiveness. These
include the characteristics shown in Table 1.

4 © ABE
The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations Chapter 1

Size Teams tend to be smaller than groups in size to ensure effective

communication and co-ordination of work. The smaller size of teams also
supports team cohesion, to reduce the likelihood of factions and infighting.

Complementary Roles which result in members sharing common objectives, developing

roles solutions to the same problems and result in people interacting regularly,
will help increase the cohesiveness between the team members.

Common A common purpose is the glue that holds the team together. It provides the
purpose direction that the team have committed to travel. Each team member knows
why work needs to be done, and this helps them to focus on the end goal.

Interdependency For the purpose to be achieved, every team member will need to deliver
their work to the right standard. Sharing information and working to
achieve success for each other are part of a collaborative culture that
helps make teams effective.

Collective An effective team will be responsible as a whole for delivering team

responsibility objectives. All individuals within the team are responsible for the team
decisions and actions as a whole. This collective accountability increases
personal responsibility to get it right, for the team, and reduces fear of
blame if things do go wrong.

Sense of Team spirit doesn’t happen overnight. However, the sense of belonging
membership and and individuals feeling as if they are contributing to a bigger purpose
contribution helps to develop morale, motivation and a united team front.

Accountability Accountability means each team member is willing to be answerable

for his or her actions and decisions. Individuals recognise that their
choices have the power to support the team’s success or contribute to
the team’s failure.

Table 1: Characteristics of effective teams Revision

on the go

Over to you
Activity 3: Team composition

Evaluate a team you have been part of in terms of its size, composition and
characteristics compared to those of an ‘ideal’ team.

CASE STUDY: Learning to be effective

Sadiq experiences a shift in team dynamics
Situation/Task: Sadiq was part of an area
management team for an engineering company.
The multi-national enterprise had offices across
the Middle East but each region, run by an
area manager, operated as a separate business
unit. Despite the best efforts of the Managing
Director of the Middle East, each region, run by
a country manager, was siloed. Communication
and sharing best practice was limited and this
resulted in duplication of effort, blame and
misunderstanding.

Action: A leadership development programme was used to develop the cohesiveness of the
team as well as to develop the country managers as individuals. As part of this programme,
several support activities were introduced including;
• Purposeful endeavour focus to help the country managers contribute to, and understand,
the shared purpose of the organisation.
• Communities of practice to develop cross-functional exchange of best practice and to
work on problems that all areas had a common interest in resolving.
• Learning buddies to develop an interdependency between area country managers and
keep them accountable for their personal learning and development commitments.
• Day in the life where individuals spent time with other country managers to understand
them and their areas with a view of increasing team spirit and a sense of beloning.

Result: The participants reported an increased level of networking, not just at country manager
level but throughout the regions. ‘One organisation’ thinking in the management team, and
mechanisms being included in personal development plans (PDPs) throughout the Middle East
were also developed. Several hundred thousand dollars of improvements in productivity were
recorded in six months. Some communities of practice resulted in opening up future streams of
revenue generation and this had a strategic impact upon the organisation as a whole.

Nature of teams
Teams are an important feature of organisational life. Team members must work together and
collaborate with other teams in order to meet the objectives of the organisation. The influence
that the manager and team members have on each other affects the effectiveness of team work,
individual behaviour and quality of work performance.

Traditional structures
Traditional organisational structures are designed to enable the senior leadership within the
organisation to command and control the way tasks are managed. A hierarchical organisation
structure helps to ensure that people keep to the rules and required behaviours that individuals are
expected to follow.

6 © ABE
The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations Chapter 1

Characteristics of effective teams

Size

Complementary
Accountability
roles

Characteristics
of an effective
Sense of
membership team Common
purpose
and
contribution

Collective Interdependency
responsibility

Figure 1.1: Characteristics of effective teams Revision

on the go

Traditional hierarchical structures

Senior management

Middle management Middle management

Lower management Lower management Lower management Lower management

Individual workers Individual workers Individual workers Individual workers

Figure 1.2: Traditional hierarchical structures Revision

on the go

Permanent or departmental team work in a traditional structure is managed to achieve a defined

goal. There are clear boundaries as to the responsibilities of each team.

Formal teams are identified as part of the organisational design, often depicted by an
organisational chart. A formal team may be part of a division, department, section or a formal
project team, which has been formed to deliver a particular task.

Informal teams are not part of the formal organisational structure, but form due to special interests,
talent specialisms, personal relationships or a shared hobby. These teams tend to be cross-functional
and can have a powerful effect on the organisation due to the influence of the members.

Over to you
Activity 4: Purposeful endeavour

Evaluate a team you have been part of in terms of its purpose and how the team
developed and was organised to achieve its objective(s).

Modern structures
Globalisation, a highly competitive market place, and technological advances have changed the
way business is done. Modern organisational structures have moved away from the traditional
pyramid shape toward a flatter hierarchy. Matrix working has resulted in less formal structures
and the changing nature of work has led to cross-functional and multi-disciplinary working.

Modern structures

Senior management Lower management

Middle management Individual workers

Figure 1.3: Modern organisational structures Revision

on the go

8 © ABE
The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations Chapter 1

Reporting lines
Matrix working means that individuals may work for more than one manager and be part of more
than one team, especially where project work is the norm. This can lead to an individual being
moved to a project team for a short period, while still performing their usual tasks, and therefore
having multiple roles within the same organisational setting.

The chain of management determines reporting lines and means that decision making can track
across horizontal or vertical team structures:

Vertical teams have a tall structure and hierarchy, with senior managers passing authority down
the organisation through a series of management layers; the lower level managers are responsible
for task-orientated work and higher level managers are responsible for strategy and direction.
Vertical teams are more likely to be found in larger organisations which work along functional
lines.

Horizontal teams are flat in structure and have fewer levels of management. This means
that even senior managers will be more involved in the day-to-day tasks needed to deliver
organisational performance. Horizontal teams are likely to work cross-functionally and have more
loosely defined job responsibilities.

There are different types of organisational practices which have contributed to and evolved from
the growing use of modern structures. These include the practices shown in Table 2.

Flexible working Flexible working can take a number of forms, which may be
flexible start and finish times, working different shift patterns and
working in other locations, e.g. from home. Flexible working needs
to suit the needs of the employee and the requirements of the
organisation for it to be effective.

Experience The value placed upon technical skills and experience in a specific
job role and tasks are being replaced with a requirement for
transferable skills. This allows individuals and teams to be flexible and
move easily in response to the needs of the organisation.

Contribution The emphasis in modern organisations on supporting teams is based

upon the belief that the performance outcomes of a fully functional
team are greater than the sum of individual contributions.

Project/temporary Different groups will come together within the organisation either
teams for the delivery of a specific project or an interim period, in order to
achieve a particular need or outcome which must be delivered.

Outsourcing Outsourcing involves the organisation contracting out work for

a particular business function, service or task delivery. Examples
include HR services and marketing.

Offshoring Offshoring involves a relocation of a particular process from one

country to another. Examples include manufacturing plants or call
centres.

Virtual teams Virtual teams have arisen due to the global nature of multi-national
enterprises (MNEs) resulting in team members being located in
different geographic regions. This has been made possible by the
improvements in communication technology.

Diversity The trends toward globalisation and movement of workers have

resulted in organisations embracing diversity by accommodating
differing cultural and work practices; for example, incorporating
prayer rooms in office buildings.

Consensus decision With consensus decision-making, solutions are sought which

making everyone in the team can actively support. This is more dynamic than
the “majority rules” approach that is most often taken in decision-
making.

Facilitative Relationships and people are at the centre of facilitative leadership,

leadership which focuses on creating a results-driven but supportive work
environment.

Mutual Supporting information sharing and co-ordination by all stakeholders

participation in a decision-making process, mutual participation is focused on
fostering co-operation between different groups.

Multi-disciplinary Due to the fast-paced competitive environment in which most

skills organisations operate, the need for an agile workforce is essential.
This has resulted in team members being able to contribute
a range of skills and experience from a number of different
professional fields.

Table 2: Organisational practices resulting from modern structures Revision

on the go

Over to you
Activity 5: Communication systems

Discuss with a study partner, if possible, the use of modern technology and its impact
on communication at work, especially the use of email, social media, mobile phones and
instant messaging. Have these new systems improved communication in the workplace?
Give reasons for your answer.

10 © ABE
The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations Chapter 1

1.2 How teams form and become effective

The formation of teams, and their subsequent performance, is not automatically effective and
not as simple as putting people together and telling them to get on with it. The aim for any
organisation is to develop a group of different individuals into a cohesive and united team, enabling
high levels of performance.

Team development
In 1977 Tuckman and Jensen introduced what is now one of the most popular models of team
development. This model identifies five main phases of group development, as shown in Table 3.

Forming The initial stage of group formation brings together individuals who attempt
to provide the relationship framework of the group, such as structure, roles
and responsibilities. At this point, individuals are on their best behaviour and
seeking to create a good impression.

Storming A period of potential conflict, storming is the result of individual members of

the group asserting themselves and being more forceful and open in sharing
their opinions. Successful negotiation of the challenge and disagreement
about the way the group works together should lead to agreement regarding
group structures and processes.

Norming As the conflict from the storming stage leads to established guidelines, norms
of accepted behaviour become rooted into ways of working. Co-operation
and planning increases as members move forward toward an agreed purpose.

Performing With a firm foundation of purpose, leadership, roles, responsibilities and

agreed group behaviour, the members begin to work effectively together as a
team. This period will lead to purposeful focus and performance.

Adjourning Adjourning is the final stage of team development, as a team is disbanded.

This might be because a project team has completed the project or task,
because members of the team move on to other teams or leave the
organisation.

Table 3: The five main phases of group development (after Tuckman and Jensen) Revision
on the go

Stages of team development (Tuckman and Jensen, 1977)

Adjourning

Performing

Norming

Storming

Forming

Figure 1.4: Stages of team development Revision

on the go

In their book The Wisdom of Teams, Katzenbach and Smith (1993) provide rules for creating
high performance teams. They suggest that for team development to be successful, a group needs
a clear performance challenge.

A team is a small number of people with complementary

skills who are committed to a common purpose,
performance goals and an approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable.
Katzenbach and Smith

Katzenbach and Smith recommend that a specific purpose is developed to give meaning to a
team’s work. Team members should commit to clear, consistent performance criteria for which they
are mutually accountable. Finally they suggest that team members should possess complementary
skills. They offer a J- shaped curve for the development of a group into a real team. The stages
include those shown in Table 4.

12 © ABE
The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations Chapter 1

Working group Team members share information but as yet have no common
purpose or performance goals have not been set. No mutual
accountability.

Pseudo team The group is yet to begin performing as a team, and is therefore at
the bottom of the performance curve. Individuals are risk averse and
avoiding accountability.

Potential team Movement toward a common goal, performance levels begin to rise
but team members need to agree to mutual accountability.

Real team Team members begin to move towards a shared purpose. Their skills
are complementary and they begin to share accountability for team
results.

High-performance Commitment towards relationships and personal development result

team in high performance.

Table 4: Development of a group into a high-performance team (after

Katzenbach and Smith) Revision
on the go

J curve (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993)

High-
performance
Real team
team
Performance impact

Working
group
Potential team

Pseudo
team

Team effectiveness

Figure 1.5: J curve after Katzenback and Smith (1993) Revision

on the go

CASE STUDY: Experiencing a storm

Kim experiences a heated disagreement
Kim joined a new project team in a manufacturing
company. The first few meetings had a positive
lively atmosphere with an agreement that there
was a lot to get done and quite tight timescales.
Although there was lots of discussion at these
meetings, no decisions were made.

Sub-groups appear
At the next meeting individuals began to get more
vocal, expressing opinions about priorities and next
steps and views of sub-groups which seemed to
have formed based on who worked in the same office building: “we think…” Over the course of
the meeting the discussion became heated and there was intense disagreement about particular
actions, including accusations of individual suggestions being “ridiculous” and “not based in
reality”. Kim was taken aback by the hostility displayed by certain members of the team.

No resolution
The meeting eventually finished when three people left early, commenting, “this project won’t
work…” and “this isn’t what I signed up for…”. No decisions were made that day, and there
were accusations of people being “controlling” and “out of control.”
This was the first time Kim had been a member of a project team and she was surprised at how
comfortable other team members felt expressing their dissatisfaction and challenging other
people within the team.

Next meeting
At the next meeting there seemed to have been some conciliatory conversations between
various members of the team. The motivation team members had to achieve the goal of the
team appeared to outweigh the differences of opinion.

Over to you
Activity 6: Where are you on the curve?

Think about a team that you are part of. Map where your team is in regard to team
development using Tuckman and Jensen’s stages of team development and Katzenbach
and Smith’s J curve. Given your analysis, what steps can you take to improve the
performance of the team?

For example: The team appears to be storming. Everyone is arguing about who is to blame
when things go wrong, and whether people are working as a team or for their individual
interests. Need to agree team specific performance goals, especially on sticking to agreed
delivery deadlines.

14 © ABE
The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations Chapter 1

Common pitfalls
The models described provide a tool for which you can analyse the progress of team development.
However, in every organisation there are common pitfalls that beset many teams, at all
organisational levels, and that impacts on the ability to achieve effective performance levels.

Perhaps the most common complaint from managers is that teams and individuals work in silos.
This means that information, knowledge and best practice is not shared across the team or with
other teams, and people are working in isolation. Breaking down silos is difficult to do, often
because people do not have time to share or because performance criteria results in people being
rewarded for their individual contribution.

Group think happens when pressure for the group to remain friendly is so great that individual
members of the group will not voice their own concerns, leading to dysfunctional decision making.
Challenging the lack of questioning takes courage and a willingness to recognise why this might be
happening and discuss these within the group.

The planning of team workload is perhaps the greatest danger to effective team work. Poor
planning of team tasks can result individuals being unaware of what work is in the pipeline, and for
blockages to occur because of lack of co-ordination, or a breakdown in communication. This will
result in a lack of agreed priorities and missed deadlines.

Establishing effective teams

Establishing an effective team begins with concentrating on the compatibility of current team
members. This means reviewing the contribution of each individual and being honest about where
gaps and problems exist. When the opportunity arises to add new team members, or change the
make-up of the existing team, different individuals can be selected to maximise productivity.

Opportunities to bring in new team members can vary. If there is a vacancy on the team then
one option is to find a new full-time member to join the team. In addition to finding someone
who has the right skills and experience needed, another dimension to consider is the needs and
personalities of each team member. To help develop an effective team, choosing individuals who
can complement each other is part of the process; for example a dominant individual will work well
with someone comfortable with a subordinate individual role.

The social structures of a team will also affect productivity. Temporary contractors or specialists
can be used to provide expert advice or skills for particular tasks or projects which will give the
team increased flexibility and agility. Taking time to support the team to progress quickly through
the stages of team development is important if the temporary assignments are going to be
effective in the short-term.

Establishing effective working

There are many factors that contribute to establishing effective team working. These include the
factors shown in Table 5.

Common goals Establishing clear common goals helps team members to co-operate on
the basis of shared values and priorities.

Roles and Defining roles and responsibilities helps to support group-centred

responsibilities behaviour and leads to individual satisfaction.

Clear timelines Clear allocation of work with timelines for completing tasks gives
direction to the team and helps the team to function as a unit focused on
achieving key priorities.

Reporting and Establishing a clear reporting process and accountability allows the team
accountability to operate effectively within the organisation structure.

Support Mechanisms of support can help to increase the cohesiveness of the

team and can include the sharing of information, social interaction, group
identification through symbols, ceremonies and stories.

Purpose and Maintaining purpose and motivation requires sharing information about
motivation team activity and celebrating progress and achievement.

Technology Access to and utilisation of technology to enable effective

communication between the team across locations and time zones.

Offshoring Offshoring can increase access to skills and help teams to increase or
decrease capacity in response to fast-changing demands on the team.
Understanding different cultures, keeping the offshore team involved
and regular reviews contribute to effective offshoring practices.

Outsourcing Outsourcing can offer a team access to expertise in technical areas that
close skills gaps and increase productivity.

Table 5: Factors that contribute to effective team working Revision

on the go

Over to you
Activity 7: Theory versus reality

Learning about building an effective team in a textbook can ‘gloss over’ the reality of
working in teams in real-life organisations or situations. What is your experience of the
reality of team working, and what factors do you believe contributed to an effective
team performance?

16 © ABE
The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations Chapter 1

Factors contributing to effective team working

Common
goals
Roles and
Outsourcing responsibilities

Clear
Offshoring timelines

Effective
team working

Reporting and
Technology accountability

Purpose and
Support
motivation

Figure 1.6: Factors contributing to effective team working Revision

on the go

1.3 Difficulties that teams face

The increased level of globalisation, fast-moving competitive environments and technological
advances present specific challenges to team working. Although modern organisational structures,
as described in Chapter 1.1, have delivered more opportunities for flexible and agile working, they
also introduce new challenges for team working.

Flexible working
Flexible working can offer opportunities for employers to tap into talent while giving employees
work-life balance. Types of practice can vary, but include part-time or term-time working, job-
sharing, flexitime, compressed or annualised hours or remote working. However, from a team
perspective flexible working practices can present a significant challenge to team work. Something
that might suit one individual can have a significant impact on how the team operates in practice.

For some job tasks, it might be necessary to be in a particular location at certain times and flexible
working may result in other team members having to take on extra responsibilities and work to
compensate. This can lead to resentment as some team members try to manage the priorities of
the team. Flexible working arrangements can be managed but there needs to be clarity about
roles and responsibilities and clear communication between the team members in order to manage
tensions and pressures.

Over to you
Activity 8: Theory versus reality

Consider how flexible working could work in your own job role, or one with which you
are familiar. What would some of the positive effects be of such an arrangement? How
would you address the challenges that such an arrangement would cause your team?

Remote working
Remote working can take a number of forms, including home-based working, mobile working or
remote working. This allows team members the flexibility of working in a different location from an
organisation’s office or even from home. Where work has to be carried out in a specific location,
remote working may not be possible but, where it is possible, one of the greatest challenges is the
lack of time to build effective relationships, which provides the lifeblood for information sharing and
communication processes for the team.

Although remote working benefits individuals by reducing their time commuting to a centralised
office location, and offers the benefits of reducing interruptions, it also presents challenges. So the
individual team member may miss the friendship that comes from frequent contact with the team,
resulting in feelings of isolation. For the team, lack of personal contact can lead to reduced levels of
trust, compromising knowledge sharing and the loss of body language and non-verbal cues which
are an essential element to effective communication.

18 © ABE
The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations Chapter 1

CASE STUDY: Out of sight, out of mind

Vedika discovers the downside of remote working

Vedika worked as part of an IT project team whose

members worked remotely in a number of remote
locations across Kashmir. The 30-member strong
team were responsible for introducing a key roll
out of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
system.
At the beginning of the project there was very little
communication from Vedika’s line manager. After
the initial email welcoming Vedika to the team,
she had not had any communication from her line
manager for nearly two months and the communications she had had from the team members
were transactional in asking for specific tasks to be completed.
Vedika began to feel increasingly isolated and the team miscommunication led to significant
dysfunction with regard to alignment of team goals and priorities.

The team interacts

After several months the line manager began a practice of asking the whole team to take
part in an online meeting once a week for 30 minutes. The team also began using video chats
as a regular team communication tool to increase team interaction, information sharing and
investing in team development. This increased Vedika’s sense of belonging and helped align
team members to key priorities and goals.

The virtual organisation

Virtual organisations exist in an environment enabled by a network of information technology.
Virtual teams can collaborate via the cloud, file sharing, asynchronous communication or
synchronous online meetings. These virtual systems enable group communication and decision-
making. The benefits of such an organisation mean that time and geography are removed as
barriers; however, virtual organisations, and the management of remote teams, can lead to huge
challenges. Most notably, the security of information exchange and timeliness of communication
can cause barriers to team effectiveness. Further challenges are those found with remote working
with regard to trust and interpersonal communication, which negatively impacts team cohesiveness
and increases separation from team goals.

Over to you
Activity 9: Examining virtual teams

Think about the information technology that you use for communicating with people
you may work with in a team. This may be a team from work, study group, sports team
or group with whom you share a hobby. What are some of the pitfalls of electronic
communication you have encountered?

Offshoring
As we have discovered, developing an effective team is challenging at the best of times.
Offshoring magnifies the challenges of developing effectiveness. Team members who are part of
an offshore group may experience difficulties caused by differences in culture, time and language.
Whether essential information gets lost in translation or time lags delay time-critical action,
problems can become crises and misunderstandings can sidetrack projects.

Outsourcing
Outsourcing can add additional layers of complication to team work. The biggest issue relating
to outsourcing is the communication between permanent team members and those who are
outsourced workers. Outsourcing reduces the personal and day-to-day interaction that sustains a
team’s cohesiveness. The reliance on external experts to fill knowledge and skills gaps may result
in essential capability never being transferred into the permanent team, reducing the possibility for
growing internal organisational expertise.

20 © ABE
The Nature of Teams within Modern Organisations Chapter 1

Reading list
• Castka, P., Bamber, C.J., Sharp, J.M. and Belohoubek, P. (2001) “Factors affecting successful
implementation of high performance teams”, Team Performance Management: An
International Journal, Vol. 7 Iss: 7/8, pp.123–134.
• Henttonen, Kaisa, Johanson, Jan-Erik and Janhonen, Minna (2014) “Work-team bonding and
bridging social networks, team identity and performance effectiveness”, Personnel Review,
Vol. 43 Iss: 3, pp.330–349.
• Piña, María Isabel Delgado, Martínez, Ana María Romero and Martínez, Luis Gómez, (2008)
“Teams in organizations: a review on team effectiveness”, Team Performance Management:
An International Journal, Vol. 14 Iss: 1/2, pp.7–21.

Summary
A team is a group of people who work together to achieve a common purpose whereas a group
consists of people who depend on each other in order to complete a task or achieve a goal.

Teams are an essential component of the organisational environment and exist at all levels, from the
most senior to the most junior employees. Regardless of the work environment, teams enable work
to be organised.

Modern organisational structures introduce dimensions to team working such as flexible and
remote working, virtual teams and embracing different working and cultural practices. These
practices help deliver opportunities for teams to be more flexible and agile. However, increased
levels of globalisation, a fast-moving competitive environment and technological advances present
specific challenges to team working.

Introduction
There are many benefits to team working, both commercially and personally, but working in
teams does not in itself equate to success; as a minimum, effective team work requires a balanced
selection of members, careful planning, ongoing participation and collaboration, tenacity and the
mutual support of each other, in order for the team to achieve its desired goals and to contribute to
those of the organisation.

Modern organisations present additional challenges to team work including flexible and remote
working, operating across time-zones and embracing different working and cultural practices. While
diversity is generally enriching, it can introduce dimensions to team working that require open-
mindedness on the part of all concerned to find the best solutions.

This chapter will address how to build effective working relationships within different types of teams
and business structures, including virtual environments.

Learning outcomes
On completing the chapter, you will be able to:
2 Describe the principles and benefits of effective team working and how collaborative
working can be fostered

Assessment criteria
2 Describe the principles and benefits of effective team working and how collaborative
working can be fostered

2.1 Explain the commercial and social benefits of effective team working

2.2 Recommend how collaborative working could be fostered to overcome the potential
difficulties that teams face working in modern organisational structures, including virtual
environments

Background
For an organisation to achieve its goals and objectives, it is essential that individual
employees are bought together in order to develop a coherent, aligned response to the
competitive environment. The sum of the individual parts mean that a team is able to provide
a more comprehensive, efficient and effective response to organisation challenges and
opportunities than can be achieved when individuals operate alone. It is the combination of
team member skills, knowledge and experience that is beneficial.

Human co-operation and group effort is valuable to individuals, teams, organisations and
society at large. Individuals benefit from being a member of an effective team, contributing
to feelings of satisfaction and achievement. The team as a whole benefits from positive
interaction, sharing work and workload, and the positivity gained from the development of
team spirit. Finally, organisations benefit from increased levels of creativity, innovation and a
supportive environment.

I have no question that when you have a team,

the possibility exists that it will generate magic,
producing something extraordinary, a collective creation
of previously unimagined quality and beauty.
But don’t count on it.

Richard Hackman

However, the modern organisational structure can reduce team performance by developing
barriers to the effective deployment of group dynamics and team behaviour. Being aware of
the common mistakes made when building a team and taking steps to confront issues will
ensure that effective team working can be nurtured within the organisational setting.

Over to you
Activity 1: Part of an orchestra or a soloist

Consider the role of the soloist in the orchestra. How important is the orchestra to the
soloist’s performance? Based on your answer, what parallels can you draw between
individual and team performance?

2.1 The commercial and social benefits of

effective team working
Both formal and informal groups contribute to the social interaction required to support the
commercial success of an organisation. From an organisational perspective, teams provide the
backbone of co-operative working to complete tasks and reach organisation goals.

Commercial benefits
The commercial benefits of teams are many and varied. Wickens (1995)1 stated that the strength
of an organisation is in its people, declaring that if an organisation values its people, people will
bring the organisation value. When team working is part of the organisational culture, individuals
have shared values, and a strong sense of purpose, which is clearly communicated and grasped
by employees. Likert (1967)2 noted the importance of participation in decision-making, which
is evident when the strength of teams is used fully. This in turn contributes to organisation
productivity and profitability.

By effectively organising their people, organisations can ensure in turn an effective use of
organisation resources – resulting in higher levels of efficiency. Increased responsiveness and
flexibility is achieved by focusing teams on problem solving leading to a cycle of continuous
improvement, harnessing the energy of the enterprise.

1 Wickens, P.D., (1995). The Ascendant Organisation: Combining Commitment and Control for Long term, Sustainable
Business Success, Macmillan, Basingstoke.
2 Likert, R., (1967). The Human Organization: its management and values, McGraw Hill.

24 © ABE
The Principles and Benefits of Effective Team Working Chapter 2

Increased levels of group loyalty result in more responsiveness and flexibility, allowing the
organisation to respond positively to competitive pressures and changes in the market place.
Katzenbach and Smith (1993)3 noted that shared commitment from groups results in a powerful unit
of collective performance, helping teams to achieve specific performance goals.

The significance of personal relationships as recognised by Maslow (1970)4 is captured in the idea of
self-actualisation which is the ideal of human fulfilment. This results in reduced absenteeism and
staff turnover and has the double benefit of reducing the costs of the organisation and increasing
engagement. The greater levels of innovation that result contribute to increased revenue for the
organisation.

Katzenbach and Smith (1993) noted that the difference between teams and other groups is
performance. Collaborative decision-making is a consequence of performance challenges and
takes place when individuals are provided with opportunities by the team to make a distinctive
contribution. Therefore it could be argued that team working contributes to higher levels of
individual performance, collaborative working and consequently organisational performance,
leading to commercial success for the organisation.

Over to you
Activity 2: Team work and work performance

It is contended that effective teams are essential for delivering organisational

performance. Reflect upon your own experience. Are you able to present a counter
argument to this assertion? Make your notes below.

3 Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K., (1993). The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard
Business Press.
4 Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row

CASE STUDY: Harnessing the power of teams

Guoliang collaborates to deliver business improvement
In order to support its growth ambitions, the
supermarket chain that Guoliang worked for
as a customer assistant required its employees
to be motivated, flexible and well trained. The
management team recognised that a motivated
workforce would work harder, be more productive
and reduce labour costs. They also wanted to instil
a culture of collaborative working, self-monitoring
teams and customer service.

The supermarket chain had discovered that it was

important to create an environment of trust and respect and that in order to motivate their
employees, individuals will need to work together with others to achieve individual and team
performance goals. The manager emphasised the need to focus on customers, treat people
fairly and be open to receiving feedback from others.

The supermarket worked to create a good work environment by:

• Valuing staff through an improved reward programme.
• Developing team as well as individual performance goals.
• Investing in employees through training and development, especially in developing the
individual’s understanding of their impact on others.
• Investing in team-building activities to improve communication and cooperation.
• Improve communication through the company intranet, newsletters and formal
communication structures such as appraisals and team briefings.
• Delegating decision making to a team level.

The result

The focus on creating an environment where the team could work together on their
performance goals resulted in Guoliang and his team members, making a genuine effort to
build trust and support each other to meet the team goals. There was a real interest in how
the team was progressing and the emphasis on rewarding good performance meant that
every individual in the team was committed to delivering his or her best. The team was able
to highlight work practices which could be done more efficiently and also recommended areas
where the organisation could save money, which resulted in reductions in costly inventory levels
and resolving longstanding issues with a particular supplier.

Social benefits
The social benefits of effective team work can be linked to the commercial benefits enjoyed
by organisations in that they result in greater levels of motivation among team members to
achieve goals.

Likert’s System 4 Management Model (1967) highlights the importance of group participation on
satisfying the psychological and social needs of employees. The participative system
contributes to team decision-making and problem solving; however, it is the non-economic
motives that Likert (1967) highlighted as contributing to team support and motivation. These
include the individual’s sense of responsibility, personal worth and importance as their contribution
26 © ABE
The Principles and Benefits of Effective Team Working Chapter 2

is recognised. A sense of belonging results from combining the needs and desires of both the
individual and the team. This leads to increased levels of trust, sharing influence and effective and
efficient communication.

Over to you
Activity 3: Team work meets human needs

Conduct your own research into motivation and social identity theories. What evidence
can you provide that supports the assertion by Likert that group participation satisfies
the psychological and social needs of employees?

For example: Guirdham (2002)5 argues that we categorise ourselves as a member of specific
groups based on our own concept of self. Acceptance by the groups develops our own
concept of self, influencing our behaviour at work.

Maslow (1970) developed the hierarchical pyramid of human needs to demonstrate the necessity
of physical needs being met and the significance of personal relationships. His theory of self-
actualisation demonstrated how important human relationships are in helping individuals to
develop confidence and release their full potential. He emphasised how personal relationships
resulted in creativity in things that are done, said or acted. Acceptance within a team contributes
to the individual having their psychological needs of safety being met, resulting in the individual
feeling confident and realising they have unlimited room for growth. Maslow (1970) used the term
self-actualising to describe the point where an individual is able to make full use of their talents and
capacities to become all that they are capable of doing and being.

Therefore the social benefits of team work have links to motivation and the creation of an
environment where individuals can experience fulfilment of their potential.

5 Guirdham, M. (2002). Interactive Behaviour at Work. Pearson Education.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Self-
actualisation:
achieving full
use of
talent and capacities

Psychological needs:
self esteem and feelings
of belonging

Physiological needs:
basic needs of food, water and shelter

Figure 2.1: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Revision

on the go

Over to you
Activity 4: Working together

Think about a team you have been part of. How effectively did the team work together
and did it manage to achieve its objectives?

28 © ABE
The Principles and Benefits of Effective Team Working Chapter 2

2.2 Fostering collaborative working to overcome

difficulties
Taking advantage of the power of effective teams in the workplace does not happen without effort.
Fostering collaborative work requires individuals to combine their talent towards the achievement
of a common team goal. Collaborative working can deliver both commercial and social benefits
but it requires a change of focus from individual accomplishment to team accomplishment to
encourage co-operative behaviours.

Getting to know each other

Bringing together different individuals and personalities and calling them a team does not
automatically create cohesion or the climate for collaboration. During the forming stage of a team’s
development, team members can benefit greatly from putting effort into and taking time to get to
know each other. Discussing where individual strengths and weaknesses are may not be the easiest
of tasks but will help people understand the skills that everyone has to offer, moving the team
quickly through the storming stage into norming. Communication and personal insight into each
individual is an integral part of the collaborative process, helping teams to leverage team member
strengths for the benefit of the team and therefore transitioning into the performing stage.

Over to you
Activity 5: A great question to get to know someone

If you search online you can find lots of web pages offering lists of questions to ‘get
to know your team better’. The truth is that no single question will work for everyone.
Finding a good question to really get to know someone means avoiding general, broad
or philosophical questions. Instead you need to do your homework and ask a question,
which is simple and specific to that person. The purpose of this activity is to craft a
question that will help illuminate a person’s real self.
• Think about your team members and decide which member you know least well; they
will be the subject of your inquiry.
• Write down what you already know about that individual and also perhaps areas
where you are curious to know more.
• Based on what you understand now, what question would help you get to know this
person better?

Clearly defined goals

Getting a team to work together means that you need to set clearly defined and measurable goals on
a regular basis. It is necessary to keep team members aligned so that team efforts lead to the desired
outcomes; you therefore have to ensure that individuals are clear about their role responsibilities and
are held accountable for contributing to team objectives. This includes getting agreement from team
members on task priorities and developing transparent timelines for delivery. It is important to make
it clear that each team member has accountability for delivering what is required; this responsibility
for good outcomes will keep performance goals at the front of everyone’s minds.

Communication
Regular communications and meetings are essential for collaboration to become a reality. In
addition to communicating about team roles and goals, it is necessary to communicate about
organisation and team expectations. Communication can take place virtually, using any number
of information technologies, or the team can meet face to face periodically or in daily team
huddles. Where members are part of remote or virtual teams, meetings may have to take place at
rotating times to respect different time zones. The essential element of communication is that team
members are clear on what needs to be accomplished, have information regarding current work
flows and that they are given a forum to collaborate with each other.

Using technology
Technology can help teams to overcome the difficulties of differing locations and time zones.
As well as aiding the sharing of information, such as the use of shared drives to enable access
to documentation, technology can remove barriers of time and geography. The advent of
teleconferencing and video-conferencing has opened the doors to real-time meetings which
can take place regardless of where in the world the participants are located. Technology enables
team members to improve communication and freely exchange ideas, which can contribute to
knowledge development, innovation and creativity within the team.

Fostering collaborative working

Clearly defined
goals: Communication:
Ensuring team efforts Creating the forum
result in desired for collaboration
outcomes

Getting to know Using technology:

each other: Exchanging
Leveraging team information and
member strengths Fostering ideas
collaborative
working

Figure 2.2: Fostering collaborative working Revision

on the go

30 © ABE
The Principles and Benefits of Effective Team Working Chapter 2

CASE STUDY: Developing collaborative working relationships

Jamie drives the business forward
Jamie was working on a large-scale project for a
construction company which required cross-functional
teams to work collaboratively in order to drive the business
forward and overcome challenges in the supply chain.
There was a requirement for the project teams to build
trust, foster reliability and create understanding between
team members. The project was seeking to deliver
commercial benefits, such as improved customer satisfaction, lean processes, innovative solutions
and time efficiencies.
Members of the project team were chosen, based on those who were identified as highly motivated
and had the best skills suited to the job that needed doing. Skilled individuals were pulled from
across the organisation and worked together to identify and align the team performance goals.
The team agreed to regular meetings to help increase engagement and ensure decision making
took account of all the parties involved across different functions.
The result
Jamie’s team created several innovative solutions to procurement problems, designed new
processes and designed and delivered a shared procurement strategy.

Reading list
• Daspit, Josh, Tillman, C. Justice, Boyd, Nancy G. and Mckee, Victoria (2013) “Cross‐
functional team effectiveness: An examination of internal team environment, shared
leadership, and cohesion influences”, Team Performance Management: An International
Journal, Vol. 19 Iss: 1/2, pp.34–56.
• Gohil, Udityasinh, Carrillo, Patricia, Ruikar, Kirti and Anumba, Chimay (2011) “Value‐
enhanced collaborative working: case study of a small management advisory firm”,
Construction Innovation, Vol. 11 Iss: 1, pp.43–60.
• Palethorpe, Rob (2014) “Collaborating for Results: Silo Working and Relationships that
Work”, Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, Vol. 28 Iss: 3,
pp.39–40.

Summary
Effective team work can deliver both commercial and social benefits, but working in teams does
not in itself equate with success. As a minimum, effective team work requires a balanced selection
of members, planning, ongoing participation and collaboration, tenacity and the mutual support
of each other, in order for the team to achieve its desired goals and to contribute to those of the
organisation.

Co-operative ways of working can be used to complete tasks and reach organisation goals.
Leveraging the power of effective teams in the workplace does not happen without effort.
Fostering collaborative work requires individuals to combine their talent towards the achievement
of a clearly defined team goal by getting to know each other, regular communication and the use of
technology to remove barriers of time and geography.

Introduction
Managers play an important role in ensuring that teams deliver high performance outcomes.
Effective team management requires the manager to bring together the strengths of each team
member and ensure that they are able to contribute to delivering the team’s goals. Whether a team
manager is building a new team or managing an existing team, they need to help team members
develop challenging team goals, define team roles and ensure that obstacles to performance are
removed so that the team members can operate effectively.

This chapter will explore how teams need to be led, motivated, managed and monitored in order to
be maximally effective.

Learning outcomes
On completing the chapter, you will be able to:
3 Explain the principles of effective team management and why it is important for the work of
teams to be led, organised and monitored

Assessment criteria
3 Explain the principles of effective team management and why it is important for the work of
teams to be led, organised and monitored

3.1 Identify the advantages and limitations of different approaches to the management of
teams

3.2 Recommend practical ways that teams working in modern organisations should be
managed so that they work collaboratively to achieve team objectives

Background
The principles of effective team management rely on more than hard work and the determination of
team members. Effectiveness can be linked to the approach that a manager takes to a given team
and the management style employed in managing the team.

Watson (1986)1 said that management has been characterised as Art, Science, Magic and Politics.
Management has been described as art – suggesting that some individuals are able to manage
teams effectively and can develop their management talent over time.

Managing is the art of getting things done through

and with people in formally organized groups.
It is the art of creating an environment in which people
can perform as individuals and yet cooperate towards
the attainment of group goals. It is the art of
removing blocks to such performance.

Koontz (1964)

Management has also been described as magic, suggesting that it is less about skill and ability and
more about a potent power, which enables some managers to successfully manage a team by some
unknown force. Furthermore, management is presented as science, which can be learnt, by building
upon a body of knowledge and specific techniques and skills which when correctly applied result in
effective teams.

Management is an activity concerned with the

orchestration of people, work and systems in
pursuit of organisation goals
Follett (1949)

Finally, it has been suggested that management requires political cunning: a game to be played
whereby the winners are effective and the losers fail to perform.

1 Watson, T. (1986). Management, Organisation and Employment Strategy: New directions in theory and practice.
Routledge.

Over to you
Activity 1: Describing approaches to management

Management has been described as an art, a science and the politics of magic. Which of
these perspectives do you consider to be true and why?

3.1 Different approaches to management

The basis of any successful organisation is the interaction of people focused on achieving
objectives. This requires direction and control to provide some form of structure and process to
channel and co-ordinate the work of individuals and teams. How effective an organisation is will
depend on the management of its people, clarity of goals and the resources available.

Management theories and approaches

The primary function of management is to get individuals and teams to work together to achieve
the organisation’s goals and objectives. There are many different management theories and
approaches, which are impacted by the context and the activities of the organisation.

Scientific management
The industrialisation of the economy at the beginning of the twentieth century led to new
innovations in production techniques such as Henry Ford’s automotive assembly line. Frederick
Taylor’s (1917)2 principles of scientific management offered an approach to management, which
breaks down work tasks into different parts of the production process. Every job was analysed,
tasks were standardised and workers were selected and trained to fit specific requirements in order
to co-ordinate the production process. The process was designed to ensure that barriers to efficient
working were removed and workers themselves were rewarded for productivity.

2 Taylor, F.W. (1917). The Principles of Scientific Management. Harper.

34 © ABE
The Principles of Effective team Management Chapter 3

The bureaucratic approach

Based on a consideration that the organisation was a segment of society as a whole, Weber (1947)3
developed a concept of formal organisation based on a number of principles including:
• Structure – the arrangement of management positions within a hierarchy of responsibility and
authority.
• Specialisation – separation of tasks and chain of command based on specialisation.
• Predictability and stability – the establishment of formal rules to regulate organisation
operations
• Rationality – impartial recruitment and selection of individuals.
• Democracy – role being the determinant of responsibility and authority as opposed to the
person.

Over to you
Activity 2: The bureaucratic approach

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the bureaucratic approach? Consider
how management would be practised using this approach.

Principles of management
Fayol4 proposed an administrative theory of management (published in English in 1949), which
offered a more flexible approach to the principles of organisation. Offering 14 principles of
management, Fayol (1841 to 1925) suggested that managers could use their intuition and
discretion to adapt the way the principles were used to support managerial planning. The 14
principles are described in Table 1.

3 Gerth, H.H. ed. (1947). From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Translated, edited and with an introduction by H.H. Gerth
and C. Wright Mills. Kegan Paul.
4 Fayol, H., (1949). Industrial and General Management. Pitman, London.

Division of work Efficiency and productivity is achieved by allocating tasks to employees

based upon specialisation of skills in order to increase accuracy and
speed.

Authority and Managers need authority to give order to employees, but that authority
responsibility must come with responsibility.

Discipline Discipline, in this model, is a result of obedience to ensure that

employees conduct themselves well and with respect.

Unity of Employees will be given orders and will be answerable to one manager
command to avoid confusion and conflict.

Unity of Plans of action must be owned by one manager and must be delivered
direction by one team who are responsible for delivering the associated activities.

Subordination Regardless of where an individual resides in the organisation,

of individual organisational objectives always have primacy over that of personal
interest interests.

Remuneration Satisfactory levels of remuneration must be offered to employees to

maintain the link between motivation and productivity.

The degree of There should be a balance between concentrating decision-making

centralisation authority with senior managers and decentralising decision-making
processes lower down the organisation.

Scalar chain Management structures should provide a clear line of authority from the
top of the organisation to lower levels so that hierarchy remains in place
even in emergency situations.

Order Based on the idea that safe, clean and tidy work environments represent
social order, organisations must ensure that adequate resources are
available to ensure an ordered functioning of the organisation.

Equity A core value of any organisation should be to treat employees fairly,

equally and with kindness.

Stability of Management should seek to reduce employee turnover to ensure

tenure of personnel with the right skills are available to deliver the product and/or
personnel services of the organisation.

Initiative Employees should be encouraged to convey new ideas and be

interested and involved in the creative value of the organisation.

Esprit de corps Developing the idea of employee involvement and unity among
employees to increase morale.

Table 1: Fayol’s 14 principles of management Revision

on the go

36 © ABE
The Principles of Effective team Management Chapter 3

Principles of management (Fayol, 1949)

Division
of work
Esprit de Authority and
corps responsibility

Initiative Discipline

Stability of Unity of
tenure command

Principles of
management
Unity of
Equity
direction

Subordination
Order of individual
interest

Scalar chain Remuneration

The degree
of
centralisation

Figure 3.1: Principles of management Revision

on the go

The 14 principles of management are still likely to be recognisable in management practices today.
They are in many ways a common sense approach to the management of people within organisations.
However, although many of these principles appear to be common sense in traditional organisation
structures, it could be argued that they perhaps are out of touch with the needs of modern
organisation structures.

Over to you
Activity 3: Principles of management for today

What principles of management would you develop for a modern organisation structure
(see Chapter 1, section 1.1)? What does this tell you about how context impacts
approaches to management?

Functional approach
Adair (1997)5 argues that a healthy team requires a shared purpose and clear goals and that
management has a functional approach, which is related to the efficient use of resources, great
communication and developing an open environment. He also argues that the monitoring of
performance and learning from experience are important characteristics of a team manager. With
regard to effective team management, Adair identified several functions that a team manager must
execute while also being aware of team needs, including the understanding of what function must
be applied when, and being skilful in exercising each function when required; these functions are
shown in Table 2.

Objectives The manager is responsible for identifying team objectives. Adair

acknowledged that this can be achieved through group consensus.
Planning Developing a plan from current reality to desired future goals requires
the manager to set key milestones and track team progress.
Communication Communicating why team actions, goals and objectives are important
and how they should be achieved.
Organisation Organising the team through task assignment, supervision, coaching
support and the management of resources to ensure efficient
deployment of team members.
Evaluation Developing metrics and reporting these to assess the progress of the
team towards the achievement of team goals.
Standards Setting expectations in relation to team behaviour and enforcing these
standards where required.

Table 2: Adair’s functional approach to management Revision

on the go

Functional approach to team management (Adair, 1997)

Identifying
team
objectives

Setting Planning
standards

Functional
approach to
team
management

Evaluation Communication

Organisation

Figure 3.2: Functional approach to team management (after Adair, 1997) Revision
on the go

5 Adair, J. (1997). Effective Leadership Masterclass. Pan.

38 © ABE
The Principles of Effective team Management Chapter 3

Different team management approaches

Team management approaches are often presented as a form of continuum between extremes.
In reality, most managers will naturally fall into patterns of behaviour that are consistent with one
approach. It is however, recommended that managers flex their management approach based upon
circumstances. For example, if a fire breaks out, taking a democratic approach and discussing
what the team should do next is inappropriate. Some approaches that can be found in business
management literature include those shown in Table 3.

Autocratic The team manager makes a decision without any consultation with the
team. Often perceived as the team manager having control.
Democratic Team members participate in discussions and contribute to the final decision
when a consensus is reached. The manager is seen as supportive of the
team’s decisions.
Directional The team manager directs the team with regard to the right things to do,
plans next steps and concentrates on how to take action. The team’s actions
are monitored against set targets and measures.
Facilitation Team members are given support in exploring possible solutions and
answers. The team manager helps to engage the team members in
deciding what they are going to do next.

Table 3: Different team management approaches Revision

on the go

Over to you
Activity 4: An appropriate team management approach

It is argued that for a team to be effective, a team manager will need to be able to flex
their approach based upon the situation. In the table below consider and note down in
what situations different team management approaches might be thought appropriate.

Approach Appropriate when:

For example: When the manager identifies a situation to be dangerous, for example
Autocratic a fire.

Autocratic

Democratic

Directional

Facilitation

The effectiveness of team management approaches

Debates in business management literature rage about what impact different team management
approaches have on the effectiveness of a team. The links between managerial approaches,
motivation and job satisfaction are worth further exploration in your own studies. For example,
Mayo (1949)6 argues that workplace problems are best solved through human rather than technical
means. If team members are given freedom over decision making and problem solving then job
satisfaction, co-operation and group cohesion result. Modern management theory is therefore
shaped by what Follett (1920) described as coactive power. This is where team managers need
to share genuine power with team members as opposed to coercive power where the line
manager has power over team members. This approach pushes power for decision making away
from team managers to increase empowerment.

Quinn (1980)8 adopts a coactive approach to the strategy development process. He argues that
although managers need to adopt a rational strategy process they also need to recognise that they
must act as a guide to gain consensus for action. Since decision making and external factors evolve
in a messy emergence of strategy, managers need to co-ordinate feedback in a process of logical
incrementalism.

The Hawthorne studies (conducted in the 1920s in the USA) led Mayo to conclude in 1949 that
formality and the strict rules advocated by scientific management approaches failed to take into
account the importance of human behaviour and interpersonal skills in managing effective teams.
Developing informal approaches to drive human relations, alongside technical efficiencies, will
increase job satisfaction, standards of output and communication, with resulting performance
outcomes.

CASE STUDY: Team ownership of strategy

Andrea wants a strategy that doesn’t gather dust
Andrea was the managing director of the national
division of a global manufacturing company.
When she began in her role she had worked on
developing a strategy for the national business.
Her approach to developing the strategy was
directional. Although she involved the team, asking
them to write sections of the strategy, she provided
the template, the plan for action and the targets
that needed to be hit. Twelve months later the
strategy was not a living document. It sat on the
desks of the senior team but was rarely referred to
and Andrea felt there was no ownership of the strategy.

A new approach
Andrea invited an organisation development consultant to work with the team to facilitate
their journey toward a shared strategy. This required Andrea to take a democratic approach
to strategy development, and being part of the team rather than having the final say on any
decisions being agreed.
Over a period of couple of months the team worked together on ‘their’ strategy, developing a
shared mission statement, strategic pillars and a strategic plan.

6 Mayo, E. (1949) ‘Hawthorne and the western electric company’. Public Administration: Concepts and Cases,
pp.149–158.
7 Follett, M.P. (1920) The New State: Group organization the solution of popular government. Penn State Press.
8 Quinn, J.B., (1980). Strategies for Change: Logical incrementalism. Irwin Professional Publishing.
40 © ABE
The Principles of Effective team Management Chapter 3

The result
To begin with the senior team carried copies of the mission statement and pillars with them.
Andrea reported that time and again the strategic plan was referred to when decisions need
to be made, meaning that a number of decisions that would have once been agreed to were
rejected because the action would have taken the team away from the strategic plan. The team
self-reported higher levels of satisfaction and were highly motivated to achieve the plan to
which they had agreed.

Over to you

Activity 5: Advantages and limitations of different management styles

Use your own research to investigate different management styles, then analyse the
advantages and limitations of different management styles in relation to team working.
You can use the chart below to record your findings.

Management style Advantages Limitations

For example – Directional Gives clarity over Power is retained by

expectations and outcomes. manager, lacks consensus
Ensures that the team is from the team which means
focused on organisational the team members may not
priorities. be motivated to achieve
the goal. Also you get what
you measure, so metrics
may drive the wrong type of
behaviour

3.2 Recommendations for managing teams

to work collaboratively and achieve team
objectives
In a fast-moving global economy, organisations rely heavily on teams to work collaboratively
and achieve performance goals. Teams are required to work together, often remotely and over
long distances in order to successfully tackle complex tasks and ensure that the right knowledge
and skills are deployed at the right time to achieve organisational aims. But effective teams do
not just happen by accident and even successful teams can sometimes end in failure. Of the 33
teams studied in his book Groups that Work (and Those That Don’t) Hackman (1990) identified
that probably only four teams were actually effective teams. There are, however, a number of
recommendations that team managers can implement in order to improve the likelihood of teams
working collaboratively and achieving team objectives.

Goals and plans

It is apparent from the literature that the establishment of clear team goals, which are mutually
owned by the team members, is a critical component of team effectiveness. It makes sense that
having stated objectives means that the team has clarity on what it is trying to achieve. However,
it goes beyond just setting a vision for where the team wants to be in the future. A clear plan of
how the goal will be achieved, allocating responsibilities with agreed timelines and milestones, will
help the team manager to measure progress.

Hackman (1990) argued that specifying challenging team objectives can lead to successful
collaborative working, but this can falter if key organisational support systems are not in place. For
example, if teams do not have the training and development that they need or lack access to the
expertise and knowledge required to complete tasks, then team performance suffers. Furthermore,
the reward system needs to support collaboration and team work not just focus on rewarding
individual contribution.

Finally, the manager must maintain a balance between support in engaging the team in the
direction of travel and empowerment. If the manager sets no direction the team effectiveness
may suffer from uncertainty about what is expected. At the same time, if the manager exerts too
much authority in how a task is completed the team can feel suffocated and lose motivation to
progress.

Openness
Once a group begins operating as a team, a team manager can sometimes assume that the team
building work has been done. However, team effectiveness is not linear and at times the team as
a whole, or individuals within the team, may experience performance issues. Team managers and
team members must remain open to discussing difficulties that may be occurring either in regard
to the way the team is working, or the performance of individual team members. At different times
within the lifecycle of the team, individuals may benefit from more experienced members providing
support or mentorship, especially where individuals are new to the team or less experienced
in the task that needs to be achieved. Collaborating on improving team capability through team
coaching interventions can result in greater performance effectiveness.

Regular reviews
Regular reviews provide the context to provide support and reinforce effective collaborative
working. Regular review meetings enable the team to manage accountability for different tasks
and priorities to be delivered in line with key milestones within the plan. This requires the team
manager to plan and prepare effectively for team meetings. Turning up to a team meeting and
expecting people to give an update will be seen as a waste of time. A clear agenda which focuses
on ongoing actions, tasks and key milestones allows the team to spend the time pooling their
resources and sharing key information to keep the team plan moving forward. It is also important
for the manager to update the plan based upon the new information so that every team member
has a clear line of sight as to where the team is performing against the agreed team goal. Where
teams operate remotely and rely on virtual meetings as their main form of contact, it is important
to include some face-to-face meetings to ensure that team relationships are maintained and
remain strong.

Celebrating success
A business environment moves so quickly on to the next problem or task to be achieved, that
managers often miss taking the time to celebrate achievements, which is essential in keeping
motivation levels high and to recognise the progress that the team is making. Noting the personal
progress of individuals as well as celebrating the achievement of key milestones must be seen
as essential ingredients in celebrating success. There are different ways that success can be
celebrated, including those shown in Table 4.

Food and At the end of a long project or having achieved an important outcome,
drink invite the team together for a meal. If getting people together after work
is difficult, consider a team lunch.

Wall of pride Document the work of the team and publicly share the story of success
either on a physical board or on the organisation’s intranet.

A minute of Start a team meeting by congratulating the team for the work they
appreciation have done and the extra effort put in. Recognising where people have
gone beyond what is expected will help them know their efforts are
appreciated.

Perks Provide rewards that are tailored to the team. Gift cards, vouchers or
being able to leave work early are all perks which can be offered.

Thank you Some individuals get embarrassed if a big fuss is made but, whatever
the success, remembering to say thank you for a job well done is
essential.

Table 4: Different ways to celebrate success Revision

on the go

CASE STUDY: Well done and no buts about it

Conor learns to celebrate success
Conor was taking part in a leadership development
programme. The programme utilised a 360
degree feedback tool, which include a question
about celebrating success. Conor’s feedback was
generally quite positive, but one of his areas of
development was about celebrating success, which
scored lowest of all his feedback scores.
In discussing his feedback with his team he
discovered that although he would acknowledge
work that had be done well, he always followed his
positive comments with “but…” and move onto
the problems or issues that required attention.
From that point on he promised to celebrate success and when highlighting something that
had been done well by the team would follow up by saying “…and no buts about it” leaving
discussion of next steps and issue resolution for a different section of the team meeting.

Over to you
Activity 6: Managing for collaboration

Reflect back on the team that you thought about in Activity 4: Working together on
page 28. Recommend how the team could have been selected, developed and managed
differently to improve collaboration and productivity.

Reading list
• Flory, Marja (2005) “Management fads: the case of the self-managed team”, Benchmarking:
An International Journal, Vol. 12 Iss: 3, pp.275–282.
• Follett, M.P., 1949. “The essentials of leadership”. Urwick L., Freedom and Coordination,
Lectures in Business Administration by Mary Parker Follett, Management Publications Trust,
Londres, pp.47–60.
• Harung, Harald S. (1996) “Total management: integrating manager, managing and
managed”, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 11 Iss: 2, pp.4–21.
• Piccoli, Gabriele, Powell, Anne, Ives, Blake (2004) “Virtual teams: team control structure,
work processes, and team effectiveness”, Information Technology & People, Vol. 17 Iss: 4,
pp.359–379.

Summary
The basis of any successful organisation is that of effective teams working collaboratively to achieve
objectives. Regardless of whether a team manager is building a new team or managing an existing
team they need to help team members develop challenging team performance goals, define roles,
responsibilities and accountability and ensure that obstacles to performance are removed so that
the team members can operate effectively.

Although there are many different management theories and a continuum of management
approaches, the primary focus of management is to support individuals and teams in reaching their
objectives. Modern management theory argues that workplace problems are best solved through
human rather than technical means. If team members are given freedom over decision making and
problem solving then job satisfaction, co-operation and group cohesion should result.

Introduction
As a minimum, effective team work requires a balanced selection of members, planning, ongoing
participation and collaboration, tenacity and the mutual support of each other, in order for the team
to achieve its desired goals and to contribute to those of the organisation. However, team working
is not always easy or successful.
This chapter explores the difficulties that might be faced in different settings, and how to recognise
and diffuse the conflict that may arise.

Learning outcomes
On completing the chapter, you will be able to:
4 Outline the main reasons why team working can become dysfunctional and what can be
done to re-establish collaborative working

Assessment criteria
4 Outline the main reasons why team working can become dysfunctional and what can be
done to re-establish collaborative working

4.1 Identify the main reasons why team working breaks down and the early signs that can
indicate this is happening

4.2 Recommend practical ways that collaborative work can be re-established given the
additional challenges of modern organisations

Background
Enhancing team performance and team building is big business. You can search for team-building
activities, social bonding or team training, but there is a wealth of organisations and consultants
offering solutions to help your team develop their interpersonal relations, improve efficiency and
increase operational success. There are thousands of books, websites and courses offering advice,
tools and techniques to create a happy and productive team.

Research evidence about team performance shows

that teams usually do less well – not better – than the
sum of their members’ individual contributions.
Richard Hackman

It could be argued that knowing what helps to make teams effective and work collaboratively is just
one piece of the puzzle. The other piece is having an understanding about what makes teams break
down and become ineffective. Why is it that a team can go from achieving performance goals one
year and descend into farce the next? What causes team members to go from working together
synergistically to falling into opposing camps who refuse to work with each other? Perhaps most
mystifying of all are those groups made up of seemingly highly qualified, capable individuals who
fail to come together, are unable to collaborate and end up performing significantly worse than the
individuals performing on their own.

Over to you
Activity 1: Signs that all may not be well

Think about experiences you have had working in teams. What signs can you identify
that indicated that the team was not effective or was becoming dysfunctional?

For example – certain team members not being given access to information that they
needed to do their job.

4.1 Why team working breaks down

Teams have the potential to perform significantly better than the sum of individuals working on their
own. But, despite most organisations operating on the basis that team work is preferable to individuals
working solo, the research evidence and experience of many employees is that teams regularly
encounter obstacles to teams working well. Ineffective, dysfunctional and broken teams can be found
in most organisations. Teams get stuck, lack purpose and seem incapable of working together.

Lack of clarity
Not knowing what is expected of you is detrimental to individual performance. In a team environment,
a lack of clearly defined allocation of tasks and responsibility amplifies confusion and lack of action.
The poem “Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody” perhaps sums up the confusion of lack
of clarity in this respect: “It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody, when Nobody did what
Anybody could have done”. It may be that an individual is not clear on what tasks they are supposed
to have responsibility for; perhaps one individual assumes that another team member is getting on
with a task, while the other team member is assuming the first individual is responsible.

Disunity can arise if team members do not understand what others contribute to the overall task.
This may lead some team members to think that particular individuals are not contributing enough,
due to a misunderstanding about the work an individual is doing. Also, because some activities may
be behind the scenes or take a while to show tangible outcomes, team members may assume that
nothing is happening.

Perhaps the biggest complaint from team members is if there is a belief that someone in the team
is not working as hard as the other team members. If there is a lack of planning, expectations in
terms of key milestones and failure to enforce delivery standards, then projects can begin to slip
and individuals may fail to meet the needs of other team members who may be more disciplined or
be focused on different priorities. For example, if an individual is delivering work of a poor standard
or is missing a deadline the whole team may suffer as a result. This can lead to friction, frustration
and conflict if team members begin to feel that their reputation is being damaged because of the
actions of one person.

When individuals are drawn into a group and told that they are a team, it does not mean that they
instantly get on well and everyone becomes good friends. Sometimes personality clashes can
happen and interpersonal relationships can become fraught. If the team manager does not deal
with interpersonal friction, and provide clarity on expected norms of behaviour, the result can be
disastrous for the team health in the long run. Conflict can occur, with individuals fighting to get
other team members to be on their side of the argument. Battle lines are drawn and squabbles can
escalate quickly, especially if they become serious or personal.

Therefore, a lack of clarity in different areas can result in loss of efficiency for team members as
meetings and team processes can drag on and become more time consuming than if individuals
were allowed to work independently.

Group think
Janis (1972)1 suggested that team decision making can be negatively impacted by group think
which is where a group fails to test the reality upon which they are basing group decisions. This
can result in teams failing to weigh decisions based upon what is acceptable morally or ethically

1 Janis, I.L. (1972, rev. 1982). Victims of groupthink: a psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes.
Houghton Mifflin

because of group pressure, which can lead to individuals relying on others to make important
decisions without discussion or question. Teams who succumb to group think are prone to down-
playing negative feedback, rewarding conformity and suppressing unpopular ideas or information
that contradicts the group’s perceived truth.

CASE STUDY: Group think in business

Petrov feels honoured
The chief executive of a mining company wanted
to implement a new pattern of work shifts for
the organisation and formed a work committee
to investigate the idea. Membership on the
committee was by invitation only, and receiving an
invitation directly from the chief executive was seen
as prestigious. Therefore when Petrov received his
invitation he felt valued and honoured to be part of
the select group.

A pre-determined outcome?
When the committee met for the first time, the chief executive set out his plan for the new shift
patterns. The job of the committee was to investigate possible options but the chief executive
made it very clear that he had a preference for a particular shift pattern.
Several members of the committee were sceptical about changing shift patterns, and were
uneasy about the effect that the preference highlighted by the chief executive would have on
productivity in the mine.
Different options were explored, with the committee analysing advantages and disadvantages
of different shift patterns, but despite different viewpoints and opinions being expressed, the
committee remained aware that the chief executive’s desire meant that independent thinking
was discouraged. Petrov found that although the committee was supposed to be empowered
to make a decision, the focus tended to be on the group’s recommendation aligning to the
chief executive’s preferred pattern.
The supposed unanimous decision of the committee was in fact a symptom of group think since
many members of the committee apologetically expressed reservations privately about the new
shift patterns but willingly self-censored themselves in public.

Rogue team members

Not all members of a team are equal and, where particularly strong characters are involved, a team
can become a group of followers and mutuality in decision-making can be lost due to domination
by one or more individuals. Katzenbach and Smith (1993, see page 28, footnote 3) argue that a
group succeeds or fails as a team, not individuals, but an individual can affect the effectiveness of
the whole team if they are unable to work cohesively with other members. Sometimes, it could be
as simple as team members not having learned how to work together. On other occasions, it can be
that a single team member is deliberately behaving badly, in order to exert control or act out his or
her own insecurities or issues. Where a team has become dysfunctional, team managers may need
to contemplate changing the composition of the team if individual members are not working. This
is particularly true of senior leadership teams where it is recognised that senior leaders will often
assume dominant positions and attempt to carry this over into the team environment. In short,
they cannot, and team members need to understand that hierarchy becomes disrupted in a team
environment. The main focus needs to be on skill not title.

Over to you
Activity 2: Ground rules

What ‘ground rules’ would you recommend to be put in place for your own team to
prevent an individual team member ‘going rogue’?

For example – team members should ensure that their communication is clear, accurate,
open and honest.

Interdependence versus independence

According to Uhl-Bien and Graen (1995)2 there is a difference in self-management between
individuals and teams. When individuals are self-managing they seek to accept a high degree of
responsibility relating to their own work tasks and plan, and will make decisions on their own. In
team self-management, individuals must act interdependently and collaboratively. Within the team
context, problem-solving and decision-making is no longer an exercise in independence; rather
the team must work together to agree what approach to take. Therefore, the interdependence
between team members conflicts with individual self-managing activity, which may be inappropriate
within a team context or have a negative impact on team work.

Taking responsibility therefore is not simply about an individual taking ownership for their own
behaviour and actions, but rather a distributed responsibility for the team behaviour and delivery of
tasks. Breakdown can therefore occur when team responsibility conflicts with individual responsibility
and where an individual’s preference for self-management is incompatible with team self-management.

Over to you
Activity 3: Overcoming barriers to success

Consider any type of team of which you have been a part. What were the main challenges
and barriers to success? Were they overcome successfully? How was that achieved?

2 Graen, G.B. and Uhl-Bien, M. (1995). ‘Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of leader-member
exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective’. The Leadership
Quarterly, 6(2), pp.219–247.

4.2 Recommendations for re-establishing

collaborative work
Team members are likely to have different and mixed reactions to the breakdown of team working.
Some individuals will attempt to avoid conflict and hope that things will work out eventually. Others will
seek to place blame for the breakdown on a particular individual, situation or external agency, creating
a ‘them’ and ‘us’ dynamic in an attempt to protect themselves. Neither approach will successfully
get back what has been lost. Re-establishing collaborative team working requires the team to take
proactive steps to rediscover team cohesion and move forward to manage for effective performance.

Re-establish roles
Giving clarity and transparency in the team dynamic requires the team manager to meet with
individuals concerned and the team as a group to re-establish roles, responsibilities, deadlines and
effective working. This involves:
• stating the final performance goals of the team;
• setting deadlines for tasks to be completed, and expected standards;
• defining each individual’s role and agreeing the tasks they are responsible for.

Over a period of time, a team may not notice that there has been slippage because the original
psychological contract of the team has remained static while the situation and circumstances that
the team is operating in has moved on. Ideally the conversation about roles and responsibilities
remains a dynamic and live conversation within the team. However, speed of change and time
pressure may lead to these discussions being put on hold.

Over time, teams will move backwards and forwards along the stages of team development (see
Chapter 1, section 1.2) as a result of changes happening within and to the team. Taking notice and
taking action will be essential to getting the team working collaboratively again sooner rather than
later. Team members themselves may be operating outside their originally agreed roles due to changes
in the scope of the task or speed of change, meaning that new tasks have been badly defined.
Highlighting communication breakdowns and taking some time to talk, even in the maelstrom of an
unrelenting business environment, will quickly enable the team to discuss what people are working on
and highlight areas where tasks are unassigned or duplication is taking place. Even if an individual or
team performance issue cannot be addressed immediately, it is still possible to get project milestones
and deadlines back on track by revisiting plans and revising them in line with the new reality. The
important thing is to have a commitment from all team members to achieve team performance goals.

CASE STUDY: Moving to a new way of working

Mohammed joins a new team
Mohammed had recently joined a multi-professional health
care team in a large hospital. The team had been established
for almost twelve months when Mohammed had joined
and had made many positive changes in working practices.
However, despite the new team establishing new roles and
responsibilities, team members had begun to revert to
their more traditional team roles. As a result, the team was
experiencing a clash between the old ways of working with
the new ways that the team was expected to deliver the
service. This led to an increasing level of conflict within the team.

Team members were reporting a frustration at “running to stay still” and having to work extra
hours because there was “too much work to do”. This resulted in individual team members
feeling that the new ways of working were less effective.

Re-establishing roles
Given the growing conflict in the team, the team manager organised a team event to explore
roles and responsibilities and re-establish what was expected of each team member. The team
revisited their job descriptions and agreed what tasks fell within their area of responsibility
and what they did not do within their role. A review of the day-to-day work of individual team
members revealed a number of surprises relating to the assumptions that other team members
were making about who was doing what. The team also examined what tasks and service areas
each individual member was best suited to deliver for particular aspects of the service.
Mohammed found that the team event was the first time he felt the team had worked
collaboratively since he had joined. He left the event with an explicit understanding of what role
other members had and where the boundaries of different responsibilities began and ended.
The team had also worked through different areas where they felt the team needed to work
more efficiently.

Over to you
Activity 4: What is your role?

Think about the role you play within your team. Write down two or three significant
aspects of your own role. Consider whether your team members have an accurate
understanding of your role. Who needs to know more about your role?

Team working versus outcome

The Action Centred Leadership model (Adair, 1997, see page 42 footnote 10) identified that there
are three interrelated functions of a leader:
• Task – setting and achieving the team’s performance goal.
• Team – building and developing an effective team.
• Individual – supporting individuals to achieve their full potential.

Adair (1997, see above) argued that team managers have to balance the need to maintain team
working (people) with the process to achieve the outcome (task); this can be achieved by paying
attention to all three interdependent variables with an emphasis on managing the needs of each
area.

Action Centred Leadership (Adair, 1997)

Task

Individual Team

Figure 4.1: Action centred leadership Revision

on the go

Acknowledgement of team member contribution

When teams are struggling to work collaboratively it is important that the team manager reminds
the team as a whole the contribution that each team member makes to the team and the
importance of that contribution to the successful achievement of the team performance goal. There
is a reason why each team member is part of the team: that their skills, knowledge and experience
combine to create a dynamic which makes success more likely. Therefore it is essential that the
team manager makes time to support and acknowledge all contributions. This is of particular
importance for team members who are new to the team or who may be inexperienced. Regardless
of rank, it is the sum of the parts that together deliver the extraordinary, and this can be lost if
particular team members are struggling to hit their deadlines or manage their task when other
members of the team are succeeding.

Furthermore, the team manager must also acknowledge that individual team members may require
additional support, either in terms of other team members coming alongside them to provide
assistance in hitting a tight deadline or completing a task or ensuring that the individual team
members have the skills and training they require to competently accomplish the tasks they have
been set. This support requires the team manager to work with each team member on a one-to-one
basis to identify any development needs and work on a personal development plan to close any gaps.

Early intervention
Since conflict arises from difference, it is hardly surprising that, from time to time, a group of
different individuals working together will experience conflict. Differences, which contribute to
conflict, include:
• Differences in views and beliefs with regard to how individual members understand how the
world works.

• Personal preferences regarding how information is shared and processed.

• Team members having different priorities.
• Different opinions about how tasks should be done.

These differences can make collaboration complicated. It is essential that team managers address
difficulties and signs of conflict at an early stage. Destructive conflict may occur because of an
individual member making a power play to exert their priorities above those of their colleagues;
this can then lead to a destructive cycle of competition and negativity. It is essential that when
difficulties arise they are dealt with quickly and constructively. Recognising that there is a difficulty,
and working through and reviewing the differences that are at play, will enable the team to manage
criticism, evenly distribute power and harness diversity to make the team stronger and deliver
greater levels of performance.

Therefore, it is necessary to monitor team relationships and proactively resolve any conflicts when
they arise.

Mediation
Sometimes conflict cannot be resolved within the team, despite attempts to counter any negative
behaviours. On occasion, where dysfunction threatens to be destructive, it is advisable to engage
specialists temporarily. Involving specialists may include individual coaches for specific team
members or a full team intervention, in the form of team building to increase team co-operation
and air any grievances that are unresolved.

If the conflict is between two members or factions of the team, mediation may be necessary to find
a solution to move the team forward. This is perhaps the most difficult type of conflict to manage,
because it requires the team manager to remain impartial and avoid siding with a particular party.

Celebrate progress
In corporate life, celebrating success is often considered to be an activity that would be good
if the team had time for it. Furthermore, success is usually left to a celebration at the end of a
journey, a future prize to be won but which has little relationship to the day-to-day work of the
team. However, an end-of-year bonus will not be a source of motivation when the team is facing
difficulties ten months before the end of the project, whereas paying a percentage of the bonus
on delivery of key milestones will support ongoing motivation. Hackman (1990, see Reading list)
suggests that team managers should plan ways to celebrate progress and maintain motivation.
This is especially true in the difficult places, where progress is a hard-fought battle and it is easy to
lose sight of what the team are working towards.

Creating meaningful rewards at key milestones, and being consistent in recognising the
contribution of individual team members with appropriate praise and reward, will ensure that
celebrating progress in in line with the team’s actions. This might include a celebratory team meal
at the end of a key phase of a project or ensuring that all achievements are celebrated and shared
in some way by the team as an appreciation of the work they are doing.

Reading list
• Braun, Frank C., Avital, Michel, Martz, Ben (2012) “Action‐centered team leadership
influences more than performance”, Team Performance Management: An International
Journal, Vol. 18 Iss: 3/4, pp.176–195.
• Eaton, Jack (2001) “Management communication: the threat of groupthink”, Corporate
Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 6 Iss: 4, pp.183–192.
• Hackman, Richard (1990) Groups That Work (and those that don’t) Wiley.
• Perry Jr, Emmett E., Karney, Dennis F. and Spencer, Daniel G., (2013) “Team establishment
of self‐managed work teams: a model from the field”, Team Performance Management: An
International Journal, Vol. 19 Iss: 1/2, pp.87–108.

Summary
There is a belief that teams have the potential to perform significantly better than the sum of
individuals working on their own. However, research evidence and the personal experience of
many employees is that teams regularly encounter obstacles to working well. Therefore, team
effectiveness not only requires an ability to build teams who can work together collaboratively but
also the management of ineffective and broken teams, which can be found in most organisations.
Responding appropriately to teams who get stuck, lack purpose and seem incapable of working
together is essential if team dysfunction is to be corrected.

The reaction that different team members will have to the dysfunction will be mixed, from
attempting to avoid conflict to placing blame. Neither approach will be successful in returning the
team to effective team working. Instead, taking steps to re-establish collaborative team working
requires a rediscovery of team cohesion and managing for effective performance.

Introduction
As well as needing to be qualified, soft skills have become increasingly important as people
may be required to work as part of different teams on a variety of projects. Having business
awareness, being responsive and having a ‘can do’ attitude is essential, as is a willingness to work
collaboratively with different people.

This concluding chapter will provide tools and techniques for you to evaluate your own skillset in
relation to team working in order to optimise your input to the teams in which you work. This will
ultimately maximise those teams’ contributions to meeting business objectives.

Learning outcomes
On completing the chapter, you will be able to:
5 Analyse your own skills and team working traits in order to understand how you can
contribute effectively to team working

Assessment criteria
5 Analyse your own skills and team working traits in order to understand how you can
contribute effectively to team working

5.1 Analyse your own skills and team working traits in order to understand the roles you are
likely to be most effective at performing in a team context

5.2 Evaluate the challenges you might face, and present to others, when working as part of a
team, and what action you can take to minimise the negative impact of these factors on
collaborative working

Background
Team work has the potential to contribute strength through a collective effort to be productive and
open, providing the environment for which organisational problems and issues can be tackled.

Researchers have discovered that there are a number of complementary skills and team working
traits which can contribute to effective team working, Understanding your own team working
traits and those of your team members can enable you to utilise the qualities of individuals for
the advantage of the team. It is important to remember when exploring human traits that it is not
about a specific trait being better or worse than another, rather it is helpful to identify and explore
how each trait can be used to deliver the best outcomes for the team. It is worth noting that
classifications of different personality traits are not without their critics, who argue that it is not
possible to quantify something as unique as an individual personality.

By planning work, allocating tasks and reviewing performance it is possible for the team manager to
structure the team in a way that will release the full potential of each team member to enhance the
performance of the team as a whole. Therefore, delegating responsibilities can be a targeted effort aimed
at building and maintaining the team based on who they are, and what they can achieve for the team.

Over to you
Activity 1: Explore personality traits

You can find a number of personality tests online which will provide you with some
information about your personal traits. Search for a personality trait test online.
• What do the results confirm about what you already know about yourself?
• What surprised you about the results?
• B
ased on the results, what one action can you take that will help you to utilise your
traits and contribute more to your team?

For example – http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

5.1 Analyse your own skills and team

working traits
There are different models that identify team traits and each model will define traits in different
ways. However, regardless of the definitions used, what makes a team successful remains the same.
First, consider how the team members relate to each other and work with each other in order to
complete a task. Secondly, how the team has a sense of belonging to a team, and find meaning in
the team performance goals they have set. Finally, those individual team members develop their
own capabilities and support each other in improving their skills and knowledge. It is, therefore,
important when exploring traits that you go beyond simply being able to describe your traits but
also consider how these can be used to develop your contribution to team performance.

Team roles
In 1993, Dr Meredith Belbin, a British researcher and management theorist, identified nine possible
team roles that individuals play within a team, based upon different types of behaviour and
performance. Understanding and developing the behaviours and team roles within the team can
improve a team’s performance. Belbin proposed that if a team is constructed of individuals who
exhibit all nine types of behaviours then the team will be highly successful. The nine roles identified
by Belbin are shown in Table 1.

Resource Seeks out and finds new ideas, opportunities and resources for the team.
investigator Enthusiastic but can lose interest and be over-optimistic.

Team worker The versatile diplomat of the team, who encourages the team to co-
operate and gets work done on behalf of the team. Avoids conflict and
can be indecisive.

Co-ordinator Keeps the team aligned to its goals and delegates tasks to meet
objectives. However, might over-delegate and not take their full share of
the workload.

Plant Creative and will find novel solutions to problems. Generates ideas but
can be forgetful and fail to communicate effectively.

Monitor The impartial judge who is strategic, logical and weighs all options.
evaluator Dispassionate but can be uninspiring and at times critical of others.

Specialist The specialist who has expertise in a key area, however their focus is
narrow and can produce information overload.

Shaper Provides the drive to keep team momentum moving forward. Overcomes
obstacles but can sometimes offend in pushing to get things done.

Implementer Practical and strategic, turning ideas into action and organising work.
Reliable but can hold tightly to the plan demonstrating inflexibility in the
face of change.

Completer Effective at finishing work off and checking for errors. Conscientious
finisher quality controller but can let perfect get in the way of good.

Table 1: Belbin’s nine team roles Revision

on the go

Over to you
Activity 2: Belbin team roles

What team role(s) do you play? Search online for a free Belbin team role assessment.
Completing the test will increase your self-awareness and provide a useful start point
for discussing your personal development.

For example: http://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/3113

CASE STUDY: An imbalance causes conflict

Franco and Aldo learn to collaborate
Franco and Aldo worked for different teams within
an innovative technology company. The company
was working on an important new product launch,
which was essential to the future growth of the
company. Team members had been seconded onto
the project from several different teams across
the business. The problem was that the product
development project had fallen behind schedule
because of a conflict between project team
members.

Team development
A decision was made to address the issues that the project team was having; part of the
development involved the use of the Belbin tool to understand the different team roles. It was
discovered that the project team lacked some specific roles in the team but had too many of
other team roles. Franco was one of three specialists on the team. A decision was made to
restructure the team, swapping some team members to close gaps in team role types in order
to make the team more productive and ensure that the working styles of team members were
balanced across the team. Aldo, a shaper, was bought into the team at this point.

A balanced team
The introduction of new team members to balance the team roles in the project team was
combined with further team development to improve communication. The team began to work
productively together which meant the project got back on schedule and led to a successful
product launch.

Belbin team roles

Resource
investigator
Completer Team worker
finisher

Co-ordinator
Implementer
Belbin Team
Roles

Plant
Shaper

Monitor
Specialist
evaluator

Figure 5.1: Belbin team roles Revision

on the go

The team context

Hackman (2002)1 developed the five factor model to describe the team context which could
increase the effectiveness of the team. The five factors include those shown in Table 2.

Being a This requires the team members to have a shared task, clearly stated
real team boundaries and stable group membership.
Compelling The team requires clear, challenging goals. Team members need to
direction understand their own contribution to the overall mission of the team.
Enabling Although many of the structural aspects of the team will be determined by the
structure organisation, the team can exercise control over the aspects of task variety, so
who will carry out the task and the way in which the task is accomplished.
Supportive The framework of support is the result of reward structures, training and
context development and access to information. These elements require co-operation
between team members and guidance from the team manager in order to be
a positive influence.
Expert The day-to-day management of the team will help to identify the support
coaching required by individual members with regard to skills, knowledge and
capability development. The team manager may also identify what stage of
team development in which the team is operating, as discussed in Chapter 1,
section 1.2.

Table 2: Five factors of the team context Revision

on the go

1 Hackman, J.R. (2002). Leading Teams: Setting the stage for great performances. Harvard Business Press.

As an individual team member, the five factor model helps you to ensure that you are contributing
your skills and capabilities appropriately to the success of the team. This can be achieved by
reviewing the five factors against the current situation of the team, ensuring that an appropriate
team structure is in place and that you are contributing to a supportive environment in which your
colleagues are able to develop their own skills.

Over to you
Activity 3: Five factor model analysis
Consider a team that you are currently part of and think about the following questions.
Then add your answers to the third column.
Being a real Who is involved in the team?
team
Do they have complementary skills and
experiences?
Compelling What is the purpose of the team?
direction
How well do they achieve team goals and aims?
Enabling What team processes and activities work well?
structure
What does not work so well?
Supportive What are the positive features of the
context organisational context?
What are the negative features of the
organisational context?
Expert What training and development do the team
coaching members engage in?

Conditions of effective teams (Hackman, 2002)

Supportive
organisational context

Compelling Enabling
direction structure

Real team

Expert coaching

Figure 5.2: Conditions of effective teams Revision

5.2 Evaluate and minimise challenges to

collaborative working
As we have explored previously, the effectiveness of collaborative working in teams as a way of
delivering organisation performance is rarely simple. It is important that you research and review
the literature for yourself to evaluate and minimise challenges to collaborative working and decide
what works for your own team dynamic.

Managing the flip-side

We know that team work can bring out the best in people and help them to achieve more than they
would be able to when working on their own. The flip-side of course is that individual personality
traits can bring out the worst in people when they try to work with others in a team environment.
Managing personality traits and balancing the competing personalities within a team requires
a recognition of differences in order to elicit high performance. But that requires considerable
understanding and a commitment to learning about other people’s personality traits.

Different personality traits highlight that a group of people will all see the world differently. These
unique perspectives result in individual paradigms being brought into the team environment. This
can be both a positive and negative thing: positive because the diversity of perspectives opens
up new possibilities and innovative thinking and negative because it increases the opportunity for
dysfunction if individual perspectives are suppressed.

Minimising the impact of the flip-side of personality traits means that the team manager and team
members must work together to offset bad personality traits and utilise good personality traits in
order to achieve synergy. Including personality trait analysis as part of the recruitment process can
help to increase your understanding of whether a new hire is a good fit for the team. Additionally,
personality traits can be used to help team members support each other, by taking into account
personalities that are supportive of each other.

Over to you
Activity 4: Your role in improving team effectiveness

Consider the team that you evaluated in Activity 6: Managing for collaboration on
page 44. Reflect on your own role in this team in order to identify how you could help
improve team effectiveness if the same project was to be repeated.

Awareness of others
Focusing on issues can become habitual in a team environment, especially if the team is under
pressure. It can also be easier to focus on the things that annoy you about someone rather than
paying attention to the things that they do well. After all, problems demand our immediate
attention a lot more than anything that goes well. But if team members are to minimise challenges
to collaborative working it is essential that individuals commit to being aware of what people
contribute to the team. This includes placing a spotlight on the strengths and talents that each
individual brings to the team and placing a high value on enabling individuals to play to those
strengths. High levels of performance are much more likely to occur if individuals are able to be
their best, rather than being maligned for the potential issues they might present to others.

CASE STUDY: Building trust to improve team effectiveness

Dana was part of a leadership team in a
pharmaceutical business. The business had been
going through a change programme and had
recently relocated to a new office building.
Communication breakdowns had been wasting a
significant amount of management time, which in
turn was impacting team performance. The
managing director recognised that there was an
urgent requirement to improve team effectiveness
to prevent the costly loss of management time, and
the corresponding productivity issues further down
the organisation.

Team profiling
The leadership team development programme included the use of team profiling and
exploration of team behaviours to increase team members’ self-awareness and the awareness
of the strengths of others in the team. Dana found the programme challenging as it pushed
her and the other members of the leadership team outside their comfort zone. But, however
uncomfortable the process, Dana found that getting to know the strengths of other members of
the team helped to improve her relationship with them.

Creating opportunities for team work

One of the many outcomes of the programme was a realisation of how the different personality
traits of the team members could be used to create opportunities to flex the leadership team’s
response to different situations. The team began to experiment with utilising the strengths of
the team in response to particular environments and situations. The results of the programme
were immediate. The team welcomed the enhanced level of self and team awareness,
including feedback about performance, key strengths and development areas. The more open
environment led to healthier team relationships and led to agile working. The outcome was an
effective leadership team, saving time and delivering performance goals.

Maximising team effectiveness

Being able to work within a team environment is essential to your employability. It is a skill
and requires you to work to maximise team effectiveness through a commitment to the team’s
objectives. Whether you are joining a new team, or have been a member of a team for some time,
you need to be aware of what your roles and responsibilities are and where you fit in the team, and

the wider organisation. Evaluating your contribution, both in terms of individual performance and
in working collaboratively with others in the team, is an essential component of maximising team
effectiveness.

You are responsible for identifying gaps in your knowledge, skills and capabilities that affect your
ability to contribute to team performance goals. You will need to acknowledge areas where you
need support or training and take responsibility for learning and skills development. Openness to
giving and receiving feedback is part of this process.

You also need to be accountable for delivering the tasks you have been given, holding other
team members accountable for their contributions and working together with the team to deliver
performance goals.

Finally, working collaboratively with others requires that you celebrate success: your success,
individual team members’ success and the success of the team as a whole. Recognising others,
giving verbal feedback for a job well done or acknowledging progress are as important as the
celebrations that occur when your team finally achieves its goal.

Over to you
Activity 5: Personal development plan

• C
onstruct a self-development plan for the next 6 to 12 months to improve your
contribution to team working.

My goal:

Development goal – How? What action What resource or When are you going
What are you going will you take? support do you to do it by?
to do? need?

Reading list
• Manning, Tony, Parker, Richard and Pogson, Graham (2006) “A revised model of team roles
and some research findings”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 38 Iss: 6, pp.287 –96
• Prichard, Jane S., Stanton, Neville A. (1999) “Testing Belbin’s team role theory of effective
groups”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 18 Iss: 8, pp.652 – 665.
• Rao, M.S. (2016) “Collaborate to build effective teams to achieve organizational excellence
and effectiveness”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 48 Iss: 1, pp.24–28.

Summary
Working collaboratively requires that you evaluate your own skillset in relation to team working
in order to optimise your input to the teams of which you are a part, and maximise the team’s
contribution to meeting business objectives. Developing an awareness of your personality traits,
strengths and weaknesses, and understanding the contribution made by your team members, are
an essential part of team effectiveness.

There are several different models that identify team traits and each model defines traits in different
ways. However, regardless of the definitions used, what makes a team successful remains the
same: how the team members relate to complete a task; a sense of belonging; finding meaning
in the team performance goals they have set; and individual team members developing their own
capabilities.

The effectiveness of collaborative working in teams as a way of delivering organisation performance

is rarely simple but it is possible to evaluate and minimise challenges to collaborative working and
decide what works best for your own team dynamic.

Glossary
Accountability Being responsible and Formal team A team identified as part
accountable for your own actions and decisions. of the organisation design, depicted by an
organisational chart.
Agility The ability of a team to move quickly
and respond to changes. Functional lines Organisation structure
divided into functional areas such as IT, Finance,
Autocratic The team manager who makes
HR or Marketing.
a decision without any consultation with the
team. Often perceived as the team manager Group Individuals who depend on each other
having control. to complete a task, but do not work as a team.
Although they may have a common interest
Co-active power Where genuine power is
they do not share a common purpose.
shared with team members.
Coercive power Where the team manager Group think Decision-making in a group
where thinking is unchallenged and of poor
has power over the team members.
quality.
Collaborate Join forces with others to work
jointly.
Hierarchical A succession or order of rank.

Communication Two-way process to create Horizontal teams A team with a flat

structure and few levels of management.
understanding.
Cross-functionally Working across a number Informal teams A team not part of the
formal organisational structure, but formed due
of different functions to achieve a goal.
to special interests, talent specialisms, personal
Culture Ideas, customers and behaviour of relationships or a shared hobby.
people in your organisation.
Logical incrementalism An incremental
Democratic Team members participate in process of strategy development and
discussions and contribute to the final decision implementation.
when a consensus is reached. The manager is
seen as supportive of the team’s decisions.
Matrix working Practice of individuals
working across the organisation with more than
Directional The team manager directs the one management reporting line.
team in regards to the right things to do, plans
next steps and concentrates on how to take
Mentorships Guidance provided by a
trusted adviser.
action. The team actions are monitored against
set targets and measures. Motivation Desire to do something.
Diversity A range of individual differences. Multi-national enterprises (MNEs)
Organisation which produces goods and
Dysfunctional A situation where a team is
services in more than one country.
not able to operate effectively.
Empowerment A situation where power Objectives Specific results that the team
seeks to achieve within an agreed time frame.
or authority is given to a team to take some
action. Offshoring Where an organisation moves
some of its processes overseas.
Facilitation Team members are given
support in exploring possible solutions and Outsourcing Provision of goods or services
answers. The team manager helps to engage from an outside supplier.
the team members in deciding what they are
Paradigms Pattern or model of thinking or
going to do next.
belief.
Flexible working A work situation where Participative system A system where
individuals have flexibility on how long, where
individuals are encouraged to contribute to
and when they work.
decision making and problem-solving.

Personality traits In-built tendencies of Synergy Co-operation between individuals

an individual towards a particular action or or teams to produce an effect greater than the
inaction. individual parts.
Productivity Efficiency of an employee Talent Natural skill or ability.
population.
Team A group of people who are motivated
Psychological Mental and emotional needs to work together in order to achieve a shared
of an individual. purpose.
Remote working Working away from the Team huddles Team gathering to strategise,
office using technology. communicate and celebrate.
Reward system A system of recognition for Team work A group acting together to
work done. achieve a result.
Self-actualisation An individual achieving Vertical teams A team with a tall structure
the fulfilment of their talent potential. with authority being delegated down the
organisation.
Self-management Application of behaviour
in a particular situation. Video-conferencing Communication via
video technology.
Silos A situation where different teams do
not share information within the organisational Virtual teams A team which is dispersed
setting. across different geographic locations and uses
information technology to communicate.
Social needs Human needs, which are met
when relating to others. For example, sense of Work-life balance Balance between family
belonging, companionship and acceptance. and work activities.
Soft skills Interpersonal attributes that help
you to interact effectively with other people.

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