Developing People and Planning Work Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Developing People and Planning Work - Assignment Example The role of a team player is to contribute and participate whole-heartedly. Understanding the responsibilities and expectations of the team and aligning them to the organizational goals, will enable the player to progress on a personal level as well as a team member. By offering support to the other team members and arriving at a plan and executing the task within timelines will enhance the team performance. A good team manager who in addition to performing the roles of a team player, also tries to bring out the best in his team, by leveraging on the strength of the members and playing down their weaknesses. A team has been defined as "a small number of people with complementary skills who are equally committed to a common purpose, goal, and working approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."(Katzenbach, Smith, 1993). A group of people does not constitute a team. A team has clearly defined goals and performance objectives for which members are individually and collectively accountable. A team is characterized by being trained and in communication with its other members. Its members support each other, officially and personally and share expertise to achieve project goals. Teams have a set of rules that are enforced and take time to develop and achieve the highest level of performance. The role of performance measures is measurements of performance that serve to inform the organization about the efficiency of achieving predetermined goals. This continuous monitoring serves the purpose of controlling the progress of the work within a specified framework and should corrective action be required, timely intervention is made possible. Motivation Motivation as a business concept Motivation may be defined as the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals. Traditionally, employees were just a part of the business entity and were not treated as a valuable asset. However with the Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus of managers (Bedeian, 1993). It did not take long for them to realize that motivated employees are more productive and contribute to better overall efficiencies of the organization. Therefore, the onus was on the manager to make sure that the employee was motivated and this was quite a challenge due to the complexity of human nature. Each unique individual had different reasons to be motivated and different methods that were effective and this made it arguably really complex. Source from website http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/index.html Assess motivation of team Teams that are motivated often possess these characteristics Purpose: When teams have a specific purpose, goal or a mission, then the members are united towards a specific path and are motivated to travel along it. Challenge: Motivation is generally high when the task is challenging and has a level of difficulty that excites the team members to perform better. However, if the task is too difficult, members may give up or if it is too easy, members just slack and take it easy. Camaraderie: When team members genuinely like each other, they work harder together and are often