Power And Culture Of Teamwork

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract

Today workplace significance is based on teamwork culture & current employers look for teamwork skills when evaluating a candidate for a prospective position.The study was conducted to assess how teams present different perspectives when they work together within their parent organizations. Teams working together bring a diversified portfolio of accomplishments & they acquire far greater heights that any individual might attain. They make a difference in productivity, survival of an organization & quality and excellence. Students, teachers & administrators within a project & leaders and managers are of crucial importance once they are working together. The analysis method in this research was mainly descriptive & case studies. The research main focus is on how teams can shape the environmental & organizational settings to achieve success for not only the quality of the products & services they supply but the atmosphere of cooperating that leads to the various dimensions of effectiveness.

Keywords: Communication; Organizational success; Team trust; Employee performance;

Recognition

INTRODUCTION

Organizations to work smarter, improve quality and customer service & enhance productivity consistently design teams to support & positively influence the business strategies. Team work applies to small & medium businesses, the corporate world, government, academia & society as a whole. The competitiveness of an organization is based on its organizational stage which determines its productivity. Today’s organizations operate in a lean & proactive environment focusing to the future & the opportunities it will bring. Team work is of no doubt a platform & a tool that improves productivity, high performance & improved quality & service & thus turning into competitiveness. Teamwork is all around us, in everything we see that is the combined effort or effect of individual forces (Linda Eve Diamond & Harriet Diamond, 2007). If you know your behavior will make a difference in the success of a team, you may already have Team Wisdom. If you don’t, develop it! (Christopher M. Avery with Meri Aaron Walker & Erin O'Toole Murphy, 2001). The quality of an individual’s participation affects the quality of the team results. Getting your employees to adopt a quality mindset is the real key to producing high quality products and services. Employees must feel a sense of ownership. That is, they must feel responsible for the outcome of anything connected with the product or service. One always takes better care of something that they own as opposed to something that they do not. With ownership, employees will feel a sense of pride when hearing that their product or service has the highest reputation in the market place. To instill a sense of ownership, employees must feel that they play an important role in the success of the product. This is done through teamwork. (Neal Holladay;). The essence of a team is shared commitment. Without it, groups perform Individual; with it they become a powerful unit of collective performance. The best

teams invest a tremendous amount of time shaping a purpose that they can own. The

best teams also translate their purpose into specific performance goals (John R. Katzenbach

& Douglas K Smith,2004). A case study is used to investigate two teams of final year

multimedia students completing a project-based unit, in which teamwork was an essential

ingredient and immersed in an authentic context. From the results it is evident that

commitment, interdependence, interpersonal skills, open communication & positive feedback,

Appropriate team composition, commitment to team processes, leadership & accountability

played an important role in determining the success of these teams (Pina Tarricone & Joe Luca, 2002). Organizations have embraced teams and teamwork as an effective way of doing business. The last 20 years has seen the replacement of 'supervisors' by 'team leaders'. Companies have embraced these concepts because they work. Employee motivation and morale improves dramatically when people feel valued and when their contributions make a difference. Creating a climate of appreciation where efforts are rewarded & potentially recognized can go a long way towards strengthening the process of engagement & improving the outlook for the company as a whole (The Recognitional Council, 2009.) An organization that succeeds in reaching its targets therefore necessarily has to inculcate the culture of teamwork. As John Maxwell said "One is too small a number to achieve greatness. Nothing of significance was ever achieved by an individual acting alone. Look below the surface and you will find that all seemingly solo acts are really team efforts".

LITERATURE REVIEW

What is a team? According to the Webster’s new collegiate dictionary a team is – A number of persons associated together in work or activity. What is teamwork? Teamwork is work performed by a team. The quality of teamwork may be measured by analyzing the effectiveness of the collaboration in the following ways: 1) Communication 2) Coordination 3) Balance of contributions 4) Mutual support 5) The ability to work through conflict 6) The willingness to take responsibility for team actions. Teamwork is defined by ( Scarnati, 2001) "as a cooperative process that allows ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results". Harris & Harris (1996) also explain that a team has a common goal or purpose where team members can develop effective, mutual relationships to achieve team goals. (Harris, P. R., & Harris, K. G, 1996). According to John C Maxwell, New York’s best selling author of The 21 Indisputable Laws of Leadership said: (John C Maxwell, 2001) "Teams involve more people , thus affording more resources, ideas & energy than would an individual; Teams maximize a leaders potential & minimize her weaknesses. Strengths & weaknesses are more exposed in individuals; Team provides multiple perspectives on how to meet a need or reach a goal thus devising several alternatives for each situation. Individual insight is seldom as broad & deep as a group when it takes on a problem; Individuals play the game but teams win championships.

The nature of the workplace has changed over the last several decades as organizations have shifted to team-based work structures (Cannon-Bowers, Oser, & Flanagan, 1992; Ilgen, 1994, Kozlowski & Bell, 2003). Researchers estimate that over 80% of organizations employing more than a hundred workers utilize teams (Cohen & Bailey; 1997). Many of these workers are asked to integrate into team environments, knowing full well that the team will disband in the near future. Members of these fast acting, temporary project teams usually have a specific task to accomplish and are expected to be self-managing, capable of handling novel situations, and willing to invest in a continuous learning process ( Allred, Snow & Miles, 1996).

Organizations which emphasize more on teams have results in increased employee performance, greater productivity and better problem solving at work (S.G & Bailey,1999). Bacon and Blyton (2006) highlighted the two important factors i.e. self-management team and interpersonal team skills. These factors enhance the communication as well as interpersonal relationship between team members and also boost the employee performances. One research study concluded that the good manager is the one who assigns the responsibilities to his/her employee in a form of group or team in order to take maximum output from employees (Ingram, 2000). Another study concluded that it should be possible to design a system of team building within every organization for employees in order to promote and distribute best practice and maximize output. The main emphasis for designing and implementing such a system is ultimately to improve employee learning (Washer; 2006). Conti & Kleiner (2003) reported that teams offer greater participation, challenges and feelings of accomplishment. Organizations with teams will attract and retain the best people. This in turn will create a high performance organization that is flexible, efficient and most importantly, profitable. Profitability is the key factor that will allow organizations to continue to compete successfully in a tough, competitive and global business arena (Conti, B & Kleiner, B, 2003).

Therefore the following hypothesis of the research study is as follows.

Hypothesis 1

Team work makes a difference in productivity, survival of an organization and Quality

and excellence.

When people work in teams they are more productive then when they work individually. In a task of getting business the following skills are expected in an individual: Good communication, Convincing power, Behavioral knowledge, Technical knowledge, Sound Commercial knowledge & Customer Relationship Handling. If a single individual has to achieve this task he is expected to be master in all the listed skills which rarely found and is challenging. However if the single roles & functions involved here are assigned to each individuals who is artistic & proficient in any one particular  skills the team thus found shall be a highly credible & proficient team.

As they work towards a common goal they shall work with full cooperation and during challenging situations at work every member is present to provide strength, help to his co-workmate, such benefit   is not present when a person works alone. Thus coordination with different mindsets increases the productivity of work. In one of the case studies titled "Love, Not Fear": Transforming People and Teams after a Massive Downsizing" one team leader had an explanation: "How does anyone explain this outbreak of team spirit? One team leader had an explanation: "The principles we are applying, when understood and taken together, give us a picture of a new way we can live and work. It’s an inside-out approach to change. If managers ask: ‘How do you get our work done more efficiently with a better end product?’, I’d tell them that, along with improving the work process, go out and build trust, communicate honestly, support each team member, and find ways to drive out the fear and relearn the idea that it’s important for everyone to seek balance and wholeness in and through our work. When this catches fire, an epidemic of sanity—even love— can spread."(Inner work; Change from the inside out, 2012)

Hypothesis 2

Team work imposes team trust & cooperation

Trust is very important for team work. If there is no professional trust in among group members , team will never perform at par. One research study concluded that trust among the team members develop the unique skills and coordination of individuals (Erdem, Ferda, Ozen & Janset,2003). Experience in many organizations shows that successful teams focus specifically on building relationships to increase trust, and that unsuccessful teams do not. According to Manz & Neck, 2002 high performance teams within the organization exist when there is cooperation and unity exists between members (Manz, C & Neck, S, 2002). Reducing mistakes, quality out puts, increased in productivity and customer satisfaction are the variety of criteria through which the performance of the team is evaluated (Mickan & Rodger; 2000). According to David Trickey, 2006, there is plenty of research evidence to show that high levels of trust can be linked to the successful management of some of today’s key business challenges. Indeed, most business leaders see high levels of trust as a competitive advantage in the struggle to retain talent, to motivate teams and bind people together across borders. (David Trickey 2006)

Hypothesis 3

Team trust has a significant impact on employees Performance & organizational success.

One of the key outcomes of a good leadership skill is to motivate the employee performance to achieve organizational goals that leads to success. Teams who work together who have build trust & who feels that they are 200% with each other produce great results? Geller (1997) takes this further and connects the positive reinforcement of employee recognition with employee success. Success, Geller claims, is a motivator and a much better teacher than failure. (E. S,1997). According to Rabey (2003) recognition and rewards are the primary focus of the individuals who are working in teams. Perceptive managers know and constantly capture the benefits of the team. Teams show the collective strength of the individuals and boost the motivation and morale of individual as well. Managers critically observe the team members hidden working potential otherwise managers may lose them (Rabey G, 2003). One automobile manufacturer’s version links employee compensation with performance and creates a sense of ownership among all team members. This sense of common ownership —driven through the risk and reward system — encourages higher levels of communication, team work, idea sharing, proactive problem resolution and knowledge exchange (Sundstrom, E., De Meuse, K.P & Futrell, D,1990) Organizations who communicates with clarity the fair rewards & recognition to the rest of the teams within their companies creates role models, a high standard of performance, tools of motivations for extensive trust & success among teams & teammates.

The Attraction of Team work

The attraction of teamwork stems from the reasons teams are implemented. A number

of authors state that teams are being implemented in ever-increasing numbers as a

reaction to increased global competition (Heap, N. 1996., Roufaiel, N.S. & Meissner, M, 1995). Teams can maximize organizational innovation because employees have increased independence, increased participation, and ownership regarding decisions. The employees are given goals, or they develop goals with their team leader, and are then have freedom to decide how best to acquire the goals. Managers can no longer know everything about every aspect of the organization’s operations. It has become essential that the knowledge and skills of the workforce be promoted. Research carried out by Acas in conjunction with the Tavistock Institute suggests that teamwork is used by organizations for improvements in four key areas: Productivity, Quality, The use of new technology, Motivation ( Acas & Tavistock Institute).

Improving Productivity

Team work is noted as the essence of workplace productivity. In any discipline working in teams is assured because the productivity ratio of diversified people is always greater than one person. Teamwork in a company or organization has much greater importance for a number of reasons. Companies, who have accepted & maintained this concept, have reported increased performance in work production. This collaborative approach has improved employee morale and increased input when managed correctly. The benefits of teamwork can make a positive effect on the company that associates this type of teamwork approach. The following are the focused effective & efficient use of people to increase organizations productivity; Maximizing the different strengths and skills of team members so that a greater variety of tasks may be launched; Delegating the order and allocation of tasks to the group, thus avoiding day-to-day problems such as bottlenecks; Developing some managerial control to the work group or the team leader and so reduce the number of levels of hierarchy; Encouraging employees to undertake a wider range of tasks; A mutual association or a bond of friendship is attained to make the work easier goals attainable; Team collaborations leads to faster pace of accomplishments as the work is assigned & distributed properly & is completed on time; The exposure of a team of a variety of members, their knowledge & skills helps improve the learning; The team work reduces the risks of errors & the accountability level is also shared as a team not on a solo basis; The performance of the team work produces far better results than a single professional; Suggestions, advices and mutual brainstorming can help employees in generating novel ideas and bringing out the creativity in their projects ; Team work is favorable to employee motivation & enthusiasm because this approach makes the work enjoyable for the employees as well as it improve their performance; Team work leads to organizational interests rather than individual interests. This ensures that the team will commit to the maximum effort to attain the common goal with highest quality in a timely manner; Due to the mutual trust among the team the public relations as well as the reputation of an organization increases & thus brings better business from the market.

Create a Culture of Team work & Monitor its Impact

Promoting team work is creating a work culture that values cooperation. People perceive & grasp the belief that "none of us is as good as all of us ( Best Practices LLC). It’s hard to find organizations that exhibit true team work & participation but with commitment & appreciation for value the overall sense of team work culture can be initiated & maintained. The 10 Building Blocks of a Strong Culture are as follows:

Commitment 6. Trust

Responsibility 7. Leadership

Accountability 8. Courage/Compassion

Integrity 9. Service

Respect 10. Humility

Case Studies at a Glance:

Teamwork at Shell : Shell is a major global energy organization which has operated in Australia since 1901 and employs approximately 3,000 people in Australia. Shell finds, develops and supplies about one-third of Australia’s petroleum requirements to over 50,000 customers. To enable members of multi-cultural oil refinery team to achieve stronger engagement and affiliation and improved performance. The challenge involved addressing factors influencing the effectiveness of the team, including misunderstandings arising from differences of communication styles, decision making preferences and cultural background. The team required an engaging learning framework, which would enable them to develop an agreed set of goals to improve team interactions and performance. The team participated in a process involving individualized assessment and feedback of their MBTI® profiles, an experiential workshop designed to address team interactions and agreed approaches for communicating, managing conflict and utilizing diversity within the team to achieve business objectives. The team gained insight into their strengths and addressed the challenges they identified through the process. Trust increased between team members, enabling them to make constructive use of personality type differences within the team and improve the performance and efficiency of the team, resulting in tangible dollar savings (Kenneth V. Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles, Morrow/Avon, 2012).

Team Work at McDonald’s: While not all employees can be superstars, McDonald’s owes is success to its team functionality rather than the efforts of one individual. McDonald’s does not have very highly integrated teamwork, but they would be unable to deliver their products and service without sufficient team unity and cooperation (Eric Goldman, Tiago Santos and Sara Tully, 2009). The team on the floor of a McDonald’s restaurant is best described as a functional team (Daft,2008 a). McDonald’s restaurant team is sequentially interdependent (Daft, 2008 b). Without everyone working together and having sufficient motivation to provide good and quick quality service, all members of the team fail. As a result of one person losing motivation or failing to adequately perform his duties, customers may complain and business can be lost. Even though most employees are trained to perform multiple tasks at various stations, they are not usually able to perform all of these tasks simultaneously. The typical team was not self-reliant and required constant, direct input from the manager. We observed that often times when morale began to wane, the manager was able to reinvigorate the team and increase efficiency. However, we also noticed that if the manager grew tired and lost motivation the rest of the team quickly followed suit. Managers were also instrumental in helping out struggling team members by motivating them. This attitude kept the production line moving adequately. The team effectiveness is directly related to the manager’s leadership efforts (Eric Goldman ,Tiago Santos & Sara Tully 2009; Daft, 2008). In order to ensure both efficiency and quality in the team’s work, the managers had to make some efforts to satisfying employees’ needs. This manifested as direct help, words of encouragement, not punishing undesired behavior every time, or awarding a break and taking over a worker’s responsibilities temporarily. Nevertheless, employee seemed well trained and autonomous as long as morale was at a sufficient level. The team operated mostly without speaking.  Sometimes team members would yell an order to another member, but generally everyone knew what they had to do without much discussion.  Because the team did not need constant retraining or correction, it is a sign that the employees are well trained and have been given the tools to adequately perform their roles.

Cultivating Team work Excellence

Comparison between excellent and average teamwork is between efforts that is gained on enthusiastic participation and playfulness versus activities driven by obligation and protocol. This experience and similar ones helps to integrate ways to cultivate teamwork excellence.

Launch Awareness of Needs

Submitting a need is not enough to fulfill it rather launching awareness is the significant

step. This requires team member’s involvement & discussion to create a framework of

the required need. Give an opportunity to everyone if they would prefer to be a part of the team or not. Follow up with clarity in communication by sharing similar experiences & relate required needs to situations that team members may have encountered.

Seize the ones who have the desire to contribute

The key is to build a motivated team who would like to utilize their capabilities & earn recognition. Therefore anyone who desires to collaborate should be embraced. Be open to people who truly desire to lead an effort & carry the right skills to delegate, plan & execute successfully.

Ensure Support

Providing guidance in defining measures of success, assisting in performing tasks, appreciation of team members & boosting their confidence through out projects implementation & completion.

Remit on your Promises

Being clear about expectations, accountability and support -- and delivering what you promised -- is essential to teamwork; in fact, those behaviors define leadership for teamwork excellence. If you don’t as promised the entire credibility is slaughtered.

Celebrate Success

Great team members will celebrate along the way, reveling in exercising innate skills, engaging with interesting people, and being part of an effort that accomplishes more as a team than possible alone. Celebrate successful project completion and special achievements, especially those above actual expectations. Show appreciation of team members with the understanding that recognition doesn’t have to be flashy or expensive but should be obvious and heartfelt.

Case Studies at a Glance:

ABC Company is the UK's longest-running customer loyalty program. Over eight million participants currently do business with ABC buying with credit cards and/or shopping online. The ABC Call Center is the critical function that fulfills customer requests for processing orders. In addition, the ABC Call Center generates additional revenues by cross-selling other items when taking an order. ABC had a core group of sales associates who consistently outperformed the others in the Call Center. Previous attempts to understand what differentiated the high performers from their colleagues had consistently failed to identify exactly what accounted for the differences between top performers and the others. The result of this ambiguity was a system of hiring, training, and managing that was based on a series of unsubstantiated assumptions.

The consulting team worked with ABC to identify top, mid-level, and lower performers according to well-defined key performance indicators. Using the Language and Behavior Profile (LAB) the consultants interviewed associates separately and in-depth. Through the LAB Profile based interviews, the team quickly identified the below-conscious drivers that were the major factor in causing top producing associates to consistently outperform their colleagues. An in-depth process of comparative analysis enabled the consulting team to identify both where and the exact extent to which top-performing associates were different than their peers. Using the Inventory for Work Attitude and Motivation® (iWAM) online assessment tool, the consultants created a Model of Excellence to benchmark successful behavior in Call Center personnel. In addition to knowing the below-conscious drivers that ABC could use to identify future applicants for Call Center positions, the consultant team analyzed the key differences between high performers and their lower performing associates and used the differences to creating a training program that helped lower performers behave in the same way as top performers. The training program included components on sales effectiveness (for Call Center personnel) and team management (for supervisors of the Call Center staff). The training modules were based on principles and content of the The combination of the iWAM Survey and LAB Profile provided the basis for the intervention in ABC. The net result of this intervention was a 33% increase in revenue from those who underwent training within the first six months following the intervention. Not only were associates more effective in selling, but also managers and supervisors said that the knowledge of differences among team members allowed them to manage individuals more effectively. The combination of outcomes provided an extremely high ROI for the effort (Sarah Ainsworth Brigitte Jaquillard, 2007)

Trust: A Successful Team's Foundation

Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, states, "Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people. But it takes time and patience..." The question is how to build trust as an infrastructure of team ownership? A simple response to this question is to form a structure that promotes trust among the teams. The structure can be established with the following attributes.

Accessible communication

An effective team leader is required to ensure the continuing openness & effectiveness of channels of communication among the team members. Successful collaboration between the teams cannot take place without open expression. Open communication that addresses problems & conflicts also builds trust. The more this channel is accessible the more everyone grows used to speaking freely & to being heard. Each member is to get an opportunity to express her thoughts regarding the team performance, culture, procedures & efficiency.

Information Asset

Trust level accelerates when team members are not distressed by knowing that ‘ I got less information than her’. Information that is accessible to all is the key ingredient of trust recipe. The effectiveness of this recipe is in its course of process. A team leader can simply send an informal team updates session or email with updates each day is a few tips to gain the trust of your potential team.

Performance authenticity

Sitting each morning & thinking about how fortunate a team is which contains the most reliable people is a very common thought of many leaders & team players. We count on people who work on the right things at the right time & the most importantly. When anticipations of each team member are open than each team member attempts to perform with full potential for the good of the team.

M.R. COVEY points out in his book "The Speed of Trust", nothing can be achieved long term without trust. Without trust, short-term gains may indeed be acquired but at huge cost and after huge delays and in today’s fast evolving business environment, speed is key to business success. Trust is therefore the fundamental driver of performance in the new global economy and indeed is "the key leadership competency" required to drive effectiveness. Especially in fast evolving, matrix, lean organizations, it’s not possible to monitor every employee and "compliance" can’t be the only management objective. Only a culture of trust delivers the behaviors businesses needed to get the results required at the cost and speed expected by customers (Stephen R. Covey's, 2006)

Brandon Smith is a leading expert in workplace health and dysfunction. He is the founder of www.theworkplacetherapist.com. In one of his significant writings the article titled Prescription for Leaders – building trust with your employees / team specifies that building trust is actually a pretty simple formula of Trust = Credibility & Vulnerability. His prescription on how you can build greater trust with your team starting today is.

Show them your cards – State your intentions, motivations and expectations from your

team today.  This will help the team not only understand you, but also what you expect from

them regarding their actions and performance. A great starting place for building trust. 

Tell them what you heard – When you get out of a meeting with the "higher-ups", you need to be thinking about what from the meeting was relevant for the team and share that information with the team promptly.  Your team will appreciate your consistent and open approach to communication.  Stop the rumors quickly and get the lines of communication going.  Trust will follow. 

Keep your word – always – An obvious practice but a critical one.  Keep your word.  That commitment and predictability will foster trust every time

Address underperformers with lightning speed – We all end up with an underperformer or two on our teams.  That’s not unusual and it’s not your fault.  If you want to enhance your team’s trust in you, you will need to address those issues promptly and properly.  Address underperformers swiftly with fairness and your team will thank you with higher performance and trust. 

Protect the team from your boss and your customers – Bet you didn’t see this one coming.  Teams want to know that their leaders have their back.  It’s been used to not only describe the principle criteria necessary for a leader to establish trust with a team, but also for the primary reason why teams aren’t trusting leaders today.  To live this out, you’ll need to be able to say "No" to your boss, other leaders in your organization and even customers, particularly when their demands will require stretching the team unrealistically or threatening the team in some way.  Stand up and fight.  Your team will reward you for it. (Brandon Smith, 2011)

The Virtue of Positive Employees Recognition

Based on the literature review the following framework for employee’s performance is as follows

Team work + Team trust + Recognition = Employee performance

Effective employee recognition ensures positive, productive & stimulating organizational structure & thus encourages more of the actions & envisions that leads to organizational success. Therefore employee recognition & reward is not just a nice gesture only rather it is more of a communication tool that augments & rewards the most important key performance indicators that an organization anticipates to achieve. The structure of employee recognition is advised to be simple, immediate & powerful. The reward and recognition programs serve as the most contingent factor in keeping employees’ self esteem high and passionate. Oosthuizen, 2001, stated that it is among the function of managers to motivate the employees successfully and influence their behavior to achieve greater organizational efficiency (Oosthuizen, T. F .J, 2001). La Motta, 1995, is of the view that performance at job is the result of ability and motivation ( La Motta, T, 1995). Deeprose, 1994, argued that the motivation of employees and their productivity can be enhanced through providing them effective recognition which ultimately results in improved performance of organizations

( Deeprose, D, 1994).Barton argued that the factor in Fortune best companies which discriminates companies from the others is recognition that is the most important factor of their reward system (Barton, G. M,2002). Wilson stated that the conditional recognition is that type of recognition which one has to earn by his own efforts and which is gained by some sense of achievement of an action or result. Employees are definitely closer to their organization as their job can become the major satisfaction in their life after having a proper rewards and recognition at their job. Rewards enhance the level of productivity and performance at job whether it’s a first time performance or repeated activity at the job in a progressive way (Wilson, T. B, 1994).

A recent study by Harvard Business School found that every 1 percent increase in staff loyalty resulted in a ½ percent increase in customer loyalty. The key to business success is engaged employees. Engaged employees are employees that produce results because they are truly valued at work & their efforts directly contribute towards the mission & success of the company. Research implies that today’s management strategic priority is to promote & communicate that they highly acknowledge, value & recognize an employee achievements. This appropriate recognition at the appropriate moment will create a positive attitude that, in turn, will lead to improved performance. Communicating this to the rest of the organization creates role models and sets the standards of desired performance.

Case Study at a Glance: Starbucks

Maintaining a strong company brand and unique culture in a global company is no easy feat. For global employee engagement, it is not about reinventing the wheel—it’s about following best practices. In Howard Schultz’s book "Pour Your Heart into It," he discusses how Starbucks "grew big but stayed small" by remaining committed to their unique culture and sustaining it at any cost. "Whether you are the CEO or a lower level employee, the single most important thing you do at work each day is communicate your values to others," Schultz proclaims. Starbucks took a people first, profits last mentality as they expanded globally to ensure that their expansion did not come at the loss of their culture, their vision and, most importantly, their people. Schultz recognized that as the company grew, so did the chance that an employee was not being treated fairly, negatively affecting engagement scores. "If we can’t attend to that problem," Schultz said, "We are facing a failure worse than any shortcomings Wall Street can detect." Human Resources quickly became the most important department at Starbucks, which is attributed to their ability to maintain the small coffee comfort shop across the globe. Schultz said that Starbucks learned to "communicate the mission Better" to create a work environment employees wanted to be a part of. The Starbucks employee rewards and recognition platform encompasses goals and values, and rewards employees with award nominations to celebrate milestones and moments that are significant to the company (Achievers, 2011)

METHOD

Participants included faculty members of one of the departments from one of the leading private university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All participants were informed about the participation. The study was conducted to investigate the perception & effect of teamwork on individuals & professionals performance. There were 10 faculty members completing the surveys & questionnaires & their views were recorded. Within this setting 2 teams were selected who collaborated in a highly successful manner.

Questionnaire & Survey

The instruments used to gather the data was questionnaire & one page survey. The faculty team’s survey and questionnaire items were designed & disseminated containing questions which were similar to assess the success rate of a successful team and its attributes. It contained items as borrowed from Team Effectiveness Questionnaire (TEQ) 2.0.In all the questionnaires reliability and validity of the questionnaire items were re-examined and found to be good. Each Questionnaire contained 2 parts with section "A" & section "B". Section "A" consisted of item seeking demographic data such as age, gender and management level with no score attached to it. Section "B" consists of the items, which collect information about the teamwork, team trust and recognition and rewards and its effects on employee performance. Section "B" of the questionnaire measured on five point Likert scale ranging from (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree).

DISCUSSION

The results point to some interesting trends how teams stay alive and well within an entity and play a valuable role in organizational success. It is evident that teams are being used as much to drive change and for direct business results. The team’s collaboration within their departments and other departments is a significant factor for leading the organization to meet their mission and vision. Team leaders are expected to be strong communicators and multitalented to contribute effectively to the team mandate. Collaboration is a key determinant of success and the challenge for this factor is the resistance to work share. The survey also captured the current and future needs of the teams which is required to focus on team coaching, training and development, appreciation and rewards and recognition programs. In this study we examined the affects of the planning and task coordination, collaborative problem solving and communication avenues.

Table 1

Organization’s Reward and Recognition System

Percentage

Giving formal recognition for employee efforts to make a difference

40%

Co workers are recognizing employees who are making a difference

30%

Demonstrating your work is valued & respected

60%

An extra day off as a reward of a well done project

10%

An article of your work published in company’s magazine

20%

Verbal praise of appreciation from the manager in front of the colleagues

20%

Flexible office hours

60%

Recognizing & appreciating outstanding office punctuality

50%

Recognizing years of service for the organization

40%

The total 10 questionnaires and surveys were distributed & ten were completed giving a response rate of 100%. Respondents ranged in age from their early 40 to 45.

Table 2

Teams Experience ( Years)

Percentage

0 - 3

20%

4 - 6

50%

7 - 12

30%

Table 3

Organizational Level

Percentage

Junior level

20%

Middle level

40%

Senior Management level

40%

The research study examines the relationship of team work, organizational success, employee performance, team trust & recognition & rewards. For obtaining data questionnaires were targeted to faculty members of a specific academic department. Hypothesis one states that team work makes a difference in productivity, survival of an Organization & quality and excellence & was found significant in this study by reviewing Figure 4.

Table 4

Teams perceptions on team work

Percentage

Team collaborating with other teams is essential for success.

80%

Members enjoy being part of the team.

70%

We learn from our mistakes.

50%

Membership stays the same for more than one year.

40%

The team exceeds organizational expectations.

80%

Teams have shared goals

60%

Receiving formal recognition for your efforts in making a difference

80%

Being recognized by peers and co-workers for your efforts

70%

Receiving recognition for team accomplishments

80%

Independence & freedom to influence work content & methods

70%

Financial incentives & bonuses

80%

Possibility to achieved promotion

70%

Support & guidance of supervisors & other officials

80%

It is evident that organizations that are focused more on teams claim substantial improvements in morale, job satisfaction productivity & quality. The establishments of quality & customer satisfaction at the top of the agenda for most of the companies have been the compelling force behind the several team work initiatives. Hypothesis two states that team work imposes team trust & cooperation. The research supports the literature that trust is the most important element of a harmonious, synergistic and efficient work environment. Organizations that have trust among employees are usually successful; those that don’t frequently are not and figure 2 specifies the results for this fact. Hypothesis three states that team trust has a significant impact on employees Performance & organizational success also found to be positive as analyzed in the Starbucks case study. Research findings demonstrate that identified team support significantly dominates teamwork behavior and trust. In other words, the level of support that members perceive could influence their future attitudes and behaviors within the team, including their team commitment. In a team, an individual cannot accomplish the appointed tasks only through his or her own efforts, thus, that individual’s perception of support would lead to alliances with colleagues and this further builds trust. In the process, an individual would not only establish fruitful interactions and good relationships with colleagues, but would also be valued by others. Team members who have their value recognized are more willing to invest greater efforts for the team through greater commitment to work and better attitudes and behaviors (such as staying in the team). It is upon the employees’ perception of organizational support that they would establish a trust in the organization and this would result in behaviors that benefit the organization.

Table 5

Teams Perception on criteria as qualification for an award

Percentage

Outstanding performance

80%

Focus on innovation

70%

Consistently doing a good job

80%

Exceeding performance objectives

80%

Achieving cost savings

40%

Demonstrated team work

80%

Outstanding customer service

40%

CONCLUSION

In the pursuit to analyze the perspective of teams in business or academic environment, we analyzed literature from Book titles on team work & its impact on organizational success, Harvard business review & variety of manuscripts on organizational behavior. We explored precisely for content on team work, team trust, team learning & organizational success. The 10 Building Blocks of a Strong Culture were identified which cultivates the strong organization culture. The question is that are organizations doing enough to cultivate a culture of team work & its attributes beyond including the word in mission and values statements? Those that actively deal & promote the team work values at all levels will be developing the key intangible for increased corporate value.

The growing global competition is inventing new morals about the workforce & organizational success

Team work increases competitiveness by

Improving productivity

Improving quality of work & energizing novelty

Taking leverage of the opportunities provided by technological advances

Improving employee motivation, & commitment

Employee’s engagement has never been more important

Recognized employees become engaged employees

Employees who feel they are respected & valuable stay with companies & are thus

notably more productive

Engaged teams foster customer satisfaction & company loyalty which leads to

organizational success & profitability

Engaged team can aspire business performance & the economy as a whole.

Recognition & Reward programs help the essence of efficiency

Recognition & rewards program are ROI

Companies with recognition & rewards programs attract & retain the right talent which is

the key to stability in any business environment

FUTURE AREA FOR RESEARCH

The area for further research is, an in-depth analysis of the building blocks of commitment, responsibility, leadership, integrity, respect & accountability that contribute towards the employee performance, team work culture & how best to implement these strategies in a methodological fashion to ensure teams & organizations acknowledge and understand the importance of how to implement each which incorporate teamwork activities.