Effectiveness of Teams in Modern Organizations

All organizations are not the same in terms of its nature of operations, size, task complexity, external environment in terms of competition, technological change, and economic, social and political environment. Some organizations operate in a stable predictable environments and some operate in a more dynamic, uncertain and discontinuous environments.

If an organizational environment is stable and predictable then traditional organization of work on the basis of division of labor and hieratical structure and bureaucratic practices and process are sufficient to meet the goals of an organization. This because the problems to solve are mostly predictable and the processes and policies if staff is supervised effectively then the organization can meet the goals. In addition, the organization will not face unexpected issues or problems to solve and the speed of change is slow and not dynamic and discontinuous and there fore the operations organized in this sense need not to be flexible and can be rigid and the change process can be orderly in a slow phase. As well, if staff is having a culture in a hierarchical organization they mostly like to have clear instructions from above and they normally don’t like to face unexpected problems and don’t like challenging work. Therefore in such conditions teams are not relevant and they will be ineffective.

In other words, teams will not be effective if the work is organized in a hierarchal structure and based on bureaucratic control, strict division of labor and the tasks are not complex and can be divided in to manageable parts and the external environment is stable. Teams will not be effective in all conditions and the quality of teams and how it is managed. As well, in all organizations hierarchical structure is applicable to some extent as division of labor is inevitable to enhance productivity and group similar activity so that specialization can occur.

However, due to human factor and co-ordination problem and communication channel gets bigger the organization becomes very inflexible and rigid to respond to changes in the outside environment. This is one of the disadvantages of hierarchical organization.

Teams become effective, if teams are managed properly and staffed with appropriate skills and the objective of the team is linked with organizational goals and the problem needs innovative solutions and open communication necessary for quality improvements on a continuous basis then teams become more effective in these conditions. As well, if the nature of operations are complex and brain storming is necessary and staff are motivated by challenging jobs and like to take part in decision making rather than motivated by money alone then, if teams are built properly and have adequate resources and top management support teams become more productive as well as effective teams.

As discussed above, teams will not be effective in all conditions and the team effectiveness depends on the conditions and the quality of the team in terms of skill, motivation, clear goals and top management support as well the nature of task itself is complex and needs team work to resolve issues as nobody knows every thing of the issues affecting their work. This is one of the reasons some teams fail and some teams are successful in meeting organizational goals.

The main purpose of teams is to solve problems quickly ad to adept to external conditions as soon as possible and meet quality standards and produce innovative solutions to the work problems and issues of improving efficiency of operations and safety as well as quality to meet organizational goals in dynamic and competitive external environment.

If this purpose is not emphasized then the team can meet its goals but not attain organizational goals and becomes dysfunctional at best.