Issues affecting Team performance

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Organizational behavior, which is the connection between human behavior and the organization, greatly determines the performance of an organization (DuBrin and A. J.,2013). In an organization and teams, people tend to have different thoughts, ideas .characters and, behaviors that may be useful in achieving the team’s goals or making it harder to achieve them. many issues may hinder or affect team performance for example; team size, lack of direction, communication and, cohesiveness. Lack of direction is one of those problems that may affect a team’s performance. Lack of direction is the inability to know what you are required to do. If a team is given a task and there is a lack of direction among them their productivity levels may be very low or even nil. This is because teams tend to be detached, unfocused and they lack clarity on what needs to be done. Cognitive framework in organizational behavior enables an organization to know the expectancy, demand and, intention of a person and whether it is aligned with the organization’s structure and culture (Huczynski et al.,2010). For example if the interns are in the company to learn and achieve career goals they will do their best to perform the tasks given. However if their plans are not aligned with the companies goals there will be a lack of direction. Also a lack of direction may tend to arise of there is a communication barrier. If the members are unable to communicate with each other due to the language barrier or lack of consideration of everyone’s opinion hence the team loses its focus and direction.

Edwin Locke and Gary Latham (1990) provided the goal-setting theory that can help solve the lack of direction problem. The goal-setting theory states that goals have a positive influence on the behavior and performance of an employee. By setting goals an employer can use them to measure performance and it also creates a sense of commitment and acceptance to an employee (Locke ET AL.,2012). As a leader by setting goals for your team you challenge them to be able to work to achieve it. Each day as a team is performing its tasks it will be guided by the goals that have been set .for this theory to be able to help provide direction the goals must be challenging but achievable. This means that for a goal to give a sense of direction it should be hard to perform and new so that the team members may be motivated to get it and also be able to gain knowledge from the challenge. The goals should also be specific and deadlines must be set .for example if the team’s goal should state that by the end of one week they should have gained ten customers. One week is the deadline while ten customers are the specific number of customers they need to have acquired.by stating it this way they can measure their performance at the end of the week and determine whether they actualized their goals and objectives for the project. Also, the theory requires that feedback to be given after a task is performed this enables a team to have a direction or the next steps to take afterward hence a sense of direction.

This theory provides a great way of solving the problem of lack of direction however it also has its challenges. For it to work each individual must have set personal goals before the team goal is set. This enables each person to be motivated to achieve a goal hence developing a good group spirit. Without personal goals the team goal may never be achieved. Also, for goal-setting theory to curbing lack of direction, each individual should be well-equipped with the knowledge and skills to achieve if some members of the group are not skilled enough it means some group members will be overburdened by work hence lack of teamwork and losing direction

As an organization’s leader when setting up teams one should ensure it matches people of the same goals and skills to perform a task. This will enable them to communicate and share ideas freely and hence improving a team’s performance and the organization as a whole.

References

DuBrin, A. J. (2013). Fundamentals of organizational behavior: An applied perspective. Elsevier.

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2012). Goal setting theory. In Motivation: Theory and research (pp. 23-40). Routledge.

Huczynski, A., & Buchanan, D. A. (2010). Organizational behaviour. Harlow, UK: Financial Times Prentice Hall.