A team is a combination of different types of people. The interaction of these people and their relation to each other is a variable to determine the success of the team. Some people are helpful and supportive; take work as a high privileged task while others may not be found interested in the task assigned to their group. Working in an environment of competition, a team may have to face a lot of problems regarding the behaviours of its members. These situations can prove to be a hindrance in the way of team’s success. So, in my view, the success of the team is solely and completely dependent on the level of cohesiveness and cooperation among the team members. In order to make the team work much more effectively and productively, the problem behaviours should be clearly understood, then addressed and eradicated. These problem behaviours can be a result of different obstacles in the way of effective functioning of teams (Johnson & Johnson, 2009 p.55). These obstacles are lack of team maturity, team’s history, mixed motives of team members and obstructive individual behaviours. The different types of problem behaviours which can occur within a team can be a conflict, active or passive non-participation, monopoly among the team members, scape-goating and independence.
As described by Lencioni, P. 2005, there are five dysfunctions of a team that are absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results. These dysfunctions can be overcome by the help of strong relationship and trust among the members of the team and by the help of rewards offered to these members.
In my own experience, the problem behaviours that occur in the teams might be the aggressive behaviour of the leader or any other member of the team, selfishness of the team members or the leader, negative attitude towards others, always complaining about others, gossiping and chatting rather than work, criticizing others, the superiority or inferiority complexes, making frequent interruptions without any solid reason, lack of participation in the teamwork. All of these problem behaviours have proved to be destructive in the way of effective working of the teams.
It is a common practice that when a certain team or teams work on a specific project, they may have to face conflicts and destructions which may arise from misunderstandings, as differing personalities, different views about a particular issue and many other. These types of problem behaviours sometimes hinder the way of progress of a team or teams. Such problem behaviours are handled by the use of different strategies as may be by assigning every member of the team with a particular task, rewarding the team members on the basis of their performance, making communication better (Johnson & Johnson 2009, pp551-552). In this way, team members would be motivated to work better. The leader of the team should practice trust among the team and himself which can be helpful to overcome the issue of problem behaviours in teams. The leader of the team can work with the team members to gather information about all the issues causing problems and then look up for the solution and management of these problem behaviours. Another strategy to overcome problem behaviours can be the practice of clear communication among all the members. Meetings should be organised and the problems and issues of the members should be listened to by the leaders.
Focus Question: 4.1. Were the workers at the Mid-City