Essay: Teamwork

Teamwork is one of the most important things in every business organisation as it

combines the efforts of all the team members to achieve the main objectives of the

organisation. Every business entity today requires this particular skill within their

operating environment. And our report through various examples of real life

experiences taken down via various newspapers, academic journals, books, magazines,

and also various articles published on different web pages shows how teamwork and

leader ship skills added success to their stories and gradually helped them to achieve

their goals/objectives in the long run.

The report precisely consists the meaning of teamwork, and the organisations that

require teamwork. It also throws light upon how leadership skills and effective

teamwork go hand-in-hand and make a difference in a business organisation. The report

also states the reason of who individually managed business prove to be a big flop in

the long-run. It also discusses about how the work should be extracted from the

employees and also the basis upon which the work should be assigned to respective

employees.

This report states that how teamwork has made a drastic change and led several

companies towards success with the help of an example of a company which faced

several challenges in achieving the company’s main objectives but gradually became

successful with effective teamwork.

In this report we will discuss about how Toyota Kirloskar motors came across the

difficulties which it was facing since three long years soon started climbing the doors of

success after the new MD changed his approach towards the Indian workers as the

workers were all giving out excuses and were not feeing the sense of being

the part of the company, and how it all got changed through motivation, and

teamwork.

Several examples from Forbes have also been taken which show the methods that the

successful leaders adapted in their working environment and also the impact that the

methods caused.

“Nothing succeeds like teamwork” has been said by Dr Kushagra Katariya is the

CEO of Artemis Health Sciences.

The essence of business lies in making money through trade and commerce. These

activities involve the participation of a lot of individuals. In order to reach out to a large

group’s sensibilities, a business, no matter what size it might be, requires everyone to

work in synchronisation with each other. This synchronisation is described very aptly

by the French as ‘esprit de corps’. In a lay man’s words, this means that unity is

required for flourishing and this unity is synonymous with ‘team work’.

For team work to lead to a team that actually works, and that too well, there is a dire

need for there to be equality within the participation. The hierarchal distribution of

teams always tends to cause conflict because certain people feel prejudiced or

subjugated. When this unequal distribution is removed, people tend to perform to their

best potentialities and the results of team work in a business are extremely positive.

Team work also initiates a sense of camaraderie where team members become our

families and responsibilities. We feel the need to meet their expectations before ours

and that pushes us to outperform ourselves. Moreover, when a person approaches this

set of people who treat each other like family, he feels a sense of comfort amongst

people who are contended and happy amongst each other. This fosters a good buyer-

seller relationship.

Thus, team work is what makes a business flourish, the agreeability of the team mates

and the collective vision they call their point of view helps them stick together. This

very same vision helps them have a focused goal that they can contribute to with their

own inputs, in order to make maximum monetary profit which is their aim at the end of

the day. As published on the website ‘happy-manager’.

Today, teamwork is an essence of every successful Business. In this dynamic business

environment any organisation cannot survive on individual efforts in the long-run.” It is

very vital to involve all the staff members and bring out the best out them in this

changing environment” as published in the article at Succesories.

Teamwork can be defined as a process of working together collaboratively with a group

of people in order to achieve a common goal .It is a very crucial part of any successful

business, as it helps to bind the efforts of all the employees.

Sometimes, people try to achieve goals by themselves because of their over confidence

on themselves and self esteem issues .But one is really a small in number to achieve a

goal, which makes the work more complex and therefore difficult to achieve.

And, therefore to achieve any task through teamwork each employee should be

assigned the work which he is capable of doing in other words; a place where he/she

can add their most .It is very important to know the talents and potential of your team

members and accordingly should be assigned the work. Evaluation of each employee’s

skills, discipline, strengths, experience, and potential should be done before assigning

any task. In today’s dynamic environment the type of challenge determines the type of

team required. A new challenge requires a creative team, and an Everest — sized

challenge requires an experienced team respectively.

Also the experienced officials should keep an eye on the employees and should always

provide direction, support, or any further guidance which employees require. In a team

one should only be appointed as leader when he/she potentially proves to have all the

skills required for example; How to extract the work out of their employees? How to

manage the changes of dynamic environment?

The success of every business organization lies on how hardworking, and determined

the team members are and one should always motivate its team members to achieve its

objectives, it is the very essence of a successful organization, as published in the book”

The human history has shown us that it takes a special person with excellent leadership

skills and competencies to build the most successful companies. Let us consider an

example based in Forbes, Jack Welch (CEO and Chairman of General Electronics,

1981-2001) was a person who strongly believed in Change since the Business

Environment is Dynamic in nature, and also in knowing one’s work and the potential of

rest of the team properly. And also his business strategies were based on the three things

that he believed in. Another example is of Steve Kenfer who was the CEO and Founder

of “Trip Advisor” which has gradually become one of the World’s biggest Travel

Website these days. Steve Kenfer strongly believed that his leadership qualities and

motivational skills helped his company to touch the sky. He believes that every leader

should have skills to understand their employees and their hidden skill so that they can

use the skill in a rightful way for the growth of the company as published in a article

in” Forbes Magazine”.

The further example signifies the importance of teamwork and how it helps to achieve

the goals of a Business organization.

The importance of teamwork can be seen in any successful organisation, Toyota

Kirloskar Motor India which was facing failure in India since 18 months is one of the

best examples to showcase the significance of teamwork in any organisation. Naomi

Ishii, when became the Managing Director of TKM he tried to figure out the strengths

and weakness within the company and very soon realised that the Indian workers had

lost their confidence in the company and basically had no idea of company’s future

goals. And very soon the workers went on strike; the essence of teamwork was

somewhere diminished.

Soon after when the lockout was lifted from within the company Ishii started involving

all the Indian Leaders in order to get different perspectives regarding the Indian market.

Effective communication among the company officials, involving HR mangers and

leaders of every department inside the company made the intra relations better.

And very soon they got an opportunity to present their mid-term and long-term

strategies in front of Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan,, in July 2014. And the efforts of

the leaders could be very easily seen which served as a proof of increased sense of

belonging and ownership.

The company was operating quite well in India. The communication gap was therefore

bridged which gradually made the discussions and plans on supply and demand better.

Teamwork therefore proved to be the most important factor for the company’s success

and made concern and empathy for the team workers and the future challenges, as

posted by Murali Gopalan in an article published by THE BUSINESS LINE.

Business expects far more from employees than technical and generic skills. Teamwork

is a multi-dimensional concept which has gained recent popularity and some success in

business. Team working helps in increasing productivity and effectiveness of the

employees and the organisation. The team culture plays an important role in today’s

business because it helps in developing individual skills to teamwork. It also helps in

destroying all the traditional problems which occur in a business like the

communication and coordination.

Teamwork tools is now applied in few universities to enhance the practical task of

empowerment and leadership. Good leader should have some unique qualities like

Extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and predisposition.

Teamwork has become an essential element for the success and survival of a business.

Tips for team building

1) Form teams to tackle the real issues in the business

2) Hold departmental meetings to review the project

3) Build up fun and share experience in the business

4) Celebrate the success in group.

The major element helps in following teamwork is ‘Trust’ and the members are not

individually responsible for the successes or failures of their team in the organisation.

Teams often arises when all the employees are willing to work together to accomplish a

specific goal. Teamwork at work place does not only benefits your workers but also

significantly affects in your business

Importance of teamwork

Teamwork enables you to complete the task faster and more efficiently than tackling

project individually. It also reduces the pressure on workers which allows him to be

through in his roles and specialisation.

Teamwork is also very important in an organisation because it gives employees with a

opportunity to socialise with each other which helps in improving the relation among

each other.

Teamwork increases the accountability of every member of the team, especially when

working under people who command a lot of respect within the business.

Journals

Academy of Management Journal Administrative Science Quarterly

American Psychologist Harvard Business Review

Human Systems Development Industrial Management Review

Journal of Applied Psychology OD Practition

CONCLUSION

This projects tell us the importance of teamwork in a business. We come to know that

no company can be a success in the market if they lack team spirit. Companies should

make their employees believe that teamwork is the heart of the business. Success is only

possible when employees start working from ‘I’ to ‘WE’.

Working in a team benefits the employees as well as the company. Employees are

benefitted as they will have a healthy competition amongst themselves if they work in a

group. Teamwork also improves the relationship of employees with each other as they

always work together and know more about each other. If the efficiency of the

employees increase it will automatically benefit the business. Toyota Kirloskar Motor

India is an example of how company can be a success if they follow teamwork.

Without a good manager teamwork cannot be achieved. It is the managers role to guide

his employees and encourage them to do their task better and together. Only with a

good leader the team can be a success. The manager should motivate the team so that

group goals are preference rather than individual goals. Working in a team they can

achieve the group goals as well as their individual goals.

If a company does not work in a team then there is failure of the business. Like the

SWISSAIR which declined in 2002 due to mismanagement and lack of teamwork in the

organisation. These kind of stories tell us the importance of team work and proper

management in the company.

We can say that the company is an effective team only if the company has a definite

goal, competitive staff, good leadership, and good working conditions.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is

success-Henry Ford”