Question A
Over the years, organizations and individuals are ever involved in the competition – healthy or unhealthy – aiming to achieve their goals. People in teams become more competitive for various reasons; first, they compete to achieve their personal and career goals due to increased productivity (He, Baruch, & Lin, 2014) . Second ly, people in the team compete to innovate. The competition enables individuals to become creative in their quest to improve; this helps develop new and efficient ideas of doing things, which helps improve their productivity. In my team, most individuals engage in positive competition, which has helped improve their performance and productivity.
In any team, unhealthy competition is often damaging. As a leader, there are several techniques that I can use to mitigate unhealthy competition within my team. First, I would show interest and concern in the group by encouraging them to value each other. Second, I would reward the most performing team more than that individual (Edmondson, 2015). By rewarding teams, no employee would succeed on other's failures.
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Although unhealthy competition has adverse effects on teams, sometimes, it has some benefits. Competition in my team motivates individuals to put more effort for maximum benefit (Edmondson, 2015). The competition also promotes growth as every individual is competing for positive development.
Question B
Team cooperation is always significant; it improves team performance since every team member strives to improve. Also, team cooperation reduces unhealthy competition and promotes knowledge sharing. As a team, members are entitled to work to benefit the organization but not race against each other; as they work together, they also share knowledge. I would foster cooperation by advising team members to socialize, resolve conflicts quickly, and clarify each member's roles. This is to create a team that is focused on one goal.
Although cooperation is essential, it has several drawbacks. Some drawbacks include having free riders (Paul, 2020), who adversely affect productivity. It also reduces innovation, particularly when team members lack ideas.
Question C
As a leader, I can assess my team's communication climate through clarity to measure whether the communication is useful in the group. Also, asking questions and evaluations can enable me to know whether each member understands all communication types in the workplace.
In the evaluation vs. Description set, my team exemplifies the description approach. The description usually minimizes the unease and considers the opinions of members. In control vs. problem Orientation approach, my team members exemplify problem orientation, which involves focusing on ideas that would provide a solution. In strategy vs. spontaneity set, my team focuses on spontaneity, where they embrace self-discipline, which promotes the creation of trust among themselves.
In a set of neutrality vs. empathy, my team exemplifies an empathy approach that involves a supportive environment of words and actions. In superiority vs. equality, the group illustrates the equality approach since every member is treated equally in participation. Lastly, in these of certainty vs. provisional, my team exemplifies a tentative plan, which usually provides a supportive climate during discussion since temporary language is embraced.
I can rate my team as a focused and goal-oriented team. The reason is that members exemplify the essential communication approaches, which bring equality, freedom of expression, unity, innovativeness, decision making, and problem-solving.
The team's current communication styles have various implications. First, the units become creative in innovating to complete their tasks. Secondly, teams become self-driven with a common goal of meeting goals (Xiao et al., 2014). Thirdly, through communication, there is the production of high profits, and lastly, smooth relations in work is enhanced when the communication styles are applied.
To foster a more positive communication climate, I would enhance the excellent relationship between employees and me for them to approach me easily in case of any issue. Also, I would solve any conflict appropriately to improve the conducive work environment. Lastly, I would motivate employees to discuss and air any concerns concerning the workplace.
According to the survey results, the observed conflict style is task conflicts. All members hurt exercising their routine tasks—some members are mostly concerned with non-routine functions, which do not benefit the team performances. For example, members agree with or support other people's ideas instead of giving their purposes.
All group members predominate relationship conflict style. Group member one criticizes other people's ideas, thus bringing adverse effects in group performance. Group member two always support others or give other people ideas which bring negative returns in a team. Group member three records harmful impacts on team performances through criticizing other members. And lastly, Group member six directly criticizes other members' ideas instead of using supportive language to correct them.
The implications of the results on the team members' analysis is that team performance may decrease drastically, producing harmful group performances due to relationship conflicts. However, conflicts can be solved to yield pleasing team performances. There is the potential of unhealthy conflict such as personal grudges in my team members if no action is taken to solve the predominant strife among them. Also, there is the potential of too much avoidance since members avoid their responsibilities in team performances. Too much restraint can affect team performance since there are not participations. There is potential for too much competition. Members are competing to outdo others through criticism. If every member would have a competing style, harmful effects can result in individuals and team performance. Grudges and poor running meetings may be experienced in the team. I would promote a climate that fosters healthy conflict resolution by advocating for face-to-face meetings rather than electronic meetings, focusing on every member's opinions for equality and ensuring courtesy and respect of every member.
Question E
According to Rodgers (2017), characteristics of being trustworthy, loyal as a group member, honest in your word and actions, supportive. As a group member, supportive means having each other back.
The bible talks of trustworthiness by emphasizing that every Christian should trust in God; they should be honest and support other individuals. According to Rodgers (2017), the Christian principles align with principles of trustworthiness. Christian are team members and are connected to God through faith. By being honest and telling the truth, Christians are viewed as successful team members.
References
Edmondson, A. C. (2015, June 26). Get Rid of Unhealthy Competition on Your Team. Harvard Business Review . Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/06/get-rid-of-unhealthy-competition-on-your-team
Goodman, P. (2020, May 1). 12 Disadvantages of Teamwork in the Workplace. Tough Nickel . Retrieved from https://toughnickel.com/business/Disadvantages-of-Teamwork-in-the-Workplace
He, H., Baruch, Y., & Lin, C. P. (2014). Modeling team knowledge sharing and team flexibility: The role of within-team competition. Human Relations, 67 (8), 947-978. doi:10.1177/0018726713508797
Rogers, M. (2017). You Are the Team: 6 Simple Ways Teammates Can Go from Good to Great (Kindle Edition ed.). Amazon.com Services LLC.
Xiao, L., Martin, J., Buhel, O., & Huang, D. (2014). The Role of Team’s Communication Practices in Between-Team Decision Making Activities. iConference 2014 Proceedings , (pp. 770-777). doi:10.9776/14363
