There has been a gradual shift in the mode of management from traditional hierarchical structures towards a team-based approach in a majority of business entities across the globe. A team-based organization’s main objective is streamlining its employee force, minimizing costs, and maximizing productivity. When an organization embraces a team-based approach in addressing its business needs, it capitalizes on the strengths of its employees or workforce to bring out the best qualities of each individual ( Analoui, 2017 ). The organizational structure of a team-based company clusters employees into project teams. The project teams have designated functions specific to their area of specialization. Since businesses operate in a competitive environment, embracing the team-based approach may help an enterprise capitalize on available opportunities and minimize competitor threats.
Proper planning and close working relationships between the numerous project teams ensure that all functional activities such as product development and differentiation, customer care, and process improvement initiatives are well taken care of. Mayo Clinic is a good example of an organization using the team-based approach to run its activities. The clinic is one of the leading healthcare providers with well-established medical facilities in numerous states in the US. Mayos’s success story does not only lie in its long history in medical research projects and latest technology but in its team-based organizational structure. One main success strategy is the clinic's primary care teams that comprise of core teams and extended care teams (Bodenheimer, 2019). Notably, numerous strategies are put together to ensure the teams work closely to offer patients timely and effective health care services.
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Training Issues
Despite the numerous advantages of a team-based approach in organizational management, embracing the strategy comes with several challenges in training the different teams. In a team-based organization, the organization's leadership and executives work with the employees in performing similar work functions. Team members offer support to each other while making independent decisions to effect changes in current organizational processes, stipulated policies, and some of the procedures ( Rajalingam, Rotgans, Zary, Ferenczi, Gagnon & Low-Beer, 2018 ). Members of a certain team strongly rely on their expertise and work experience to execute and make important decisions that affect their organization and clients on a daily basis. However, in real life daily processes, a team-based organization presents a myriad of challenges in case the teams do not have enough experience. While the team-based organization enhances faster response to client needs without necessarily involving the approval of the organization's management, the teams may easily deviate and falter.
Training numerous individuals who specialize in unique fields of practice may present a number of challenges to the trainers and organizations executives. Given that the different teams have unique roles, the trainer should establish the core functions of each team before indulging in appropriate training. For instance, in the Mayo Clinic, the core teams focus on building positive relationships with patients and availing themselves for routine visits. The core teams have the mandate to ensure patients receive proper healthcare. On the other hand, the extended care teams offer care services to specific patients and should be available for referrals where necessary support to the core teams (Bodenheimer, 2019). The human resources department should use available tools to offer the training necessary for core teams and extended care teams for purposes of attaining a flawless working relationship.
Addressing Training Challenges
Despite the numerous training challenges in team-based organizations, the human resource department may employ several approaches to curb existing challenges in team training. Therefore, it is imperative that organizations heed to the necessary precautions and carry out proper consideration while establishing or setting up teams. Another notable and important recommendation is that organizations should match each team with their roles during the process of team design. Matching each team to their designated role gives the human resource department enough time to establish existing gaps and offer the relevant training. Organizations should also provide a friendly environment and offer relevant support to available teams. Notably, they should invest in the necessary resources to successfully steer the organization's primary objectives.
During the process of setting up teams, the human resources department should highly consider which individuals to bring on board. Once the team is successfully set up, the human resource should focus on training the members of a given team towards common team skills. The human resource department should effectively communicate the organizations stipulated mission and vision to the numerous teams to encourage inter-team harmony ( Analoui, 2017 ). Individuals in each team should be aware of the relevance of their contribution to the organization and its core objectives. When team members receive positive remarks and become aware that their contribution is important to the organization, they are likely to work harder and harmoniously with one another. A positive attitude contributes to employee satisfaction, which leads to better services that contribute to better customer care. Lastly, the organization’s human resource department should readily avail information about the company’s processes and provide resources to facilitate the working of each team.
References
Analoui, F. (2017). The changing patterns of human resource management . Routledge.
Bodenheimer, T. (2019). Building Powerful Primary Care Teams. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 94(7), 1135–1137
Rajalingam, P., Rotgans, J. I., Zary, N., Ferenczi, M. A., Gagnon, P., & Low-Beer, N. (2018). Implementation of team-based learning on a large scale: Three factors to keep in mind. Medical teacher , 40 (6), 582-588.
