Thesis on "Team Building and How it Affects Competitive Advantage"

Thesis 10 pages (4096 words) Sources: 12 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Teambuilding and Competitive Advantage

Team Building and Competitive Advantage

Team Building and Competitive Advantage: Health Care Organization Reliability"

Research in areas of employee communication and team building suggests that successful communication strategies must include a decisive effort to connect management's vision with employees at every level. The successful development of teams and successful communication of vision and mission improves an organization's competitive advantage. Differences in centralized vs. decentralized communication strategies can often result in mixed messaging to key constituents which can have a sustained impact on reputation and therefore, weak teams. Delivery methods and issues of inconsistency can also be measured in terms of overall employee satisfaction an element that seriously affects competitive advantage and organization reliability. Organizations are increasingly becoming dynamic and unstable. This evolution has given rise to greater reliance on teams and increased complexity in terms of team composition, skills required, and degree of risk involved. High-reliability organizations (HROs) are those that exist in such hazardous environments where the consequences of errors are high, but the occurrence of error is extremely low. In this article, we argue that teamwork is an essential component of achieving high reliability particularly in health care organizations. We describe the fundamental characteristics of teams, review strategies in team training, demonstrate the criticality of teamwork in HROs and finally, identify specific challenges the health care community must address to improve teamwork and enhance reliability.

Team Building and Competitive Advantage: Health Care Organization Reliability"

Introduction:

Research in areas of employee communication suggests that successful communication strategies must include a decisive effort to connect management's vision with employees at every level. If the vision of management and the overall vision of the organization are not communicated with employees there may be a breakdown in the development of goals and satisfaction of employees, as they will then feel as if they have no connection to the ideals and standards of management and therefore the work they contribute to the organization. Kleinbeck, et. all in fact conclude that the better the communication between leaders and employees the better the organizational structure and function. (Kleinbeck, Quast, Thierry, & H. cker, 1990, p. 136) Without this connection empowerment is not likely to be present and employee satisfaction will likely suffer. (Dew, 1997, p. 6) Differences in centralized vs. decentralized communication strategies can often result in mixed messaging to key constituents which can have a sustained impact on the reputation of supervisors and/or collaborators of the organization.

Mintzberg (1979) notes that managers individually carry in their heads a rich dynamic map of their policy domains that they are continually updating. However, these maps are informal and largely undocumented and not communicated well to subordinates or colleagues who might be able to use the information to the organization's advantage. (Ozen & Ulengin, 2004, p.6)

Delivery methods and issues of inconsistency can also be measured in terms of overall employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction and goal meeting is often dependant on consistency of communication, as perceptions of inconsistency can create unintended results in employee confusion and/or dissatisfaction.

If the receiver's integration process results in a perception of consistency, then, happily, the outcome is actualization of the intended communication goal and possible positive affect. if, however, the perception of the receiver is that there is inconsistency, the outcome is goal failure, confusion, and possible undesired negative affect. Positive and negative evaluations often feed back to the firm and may influence subsequent...efforts. (Schumann, Dyer & Petkus, 1996, p. 54)

The value of creating communications that are perceived as congruent with both the vision of the organization and the agent view of the processes of achieving it is essential to communication structure and effectiveness and therefore cohesive reliability and increased competitive advantage.

Team Building Vision Communication:

Each level of an organization requires support from above and below to function. A critical aspect of this support is communication. Communication in general determines the standard by which individuals see the vision of the organization and the vision of each functional team within it. In other words if communication breakdown occurs teams will likely be weak as they are all defining and developing activity passed project development in terms that differ from those of the whole and each other. Communication must occur at every level, to ensure that all agent views are seen as essential to the whole of the process vision and to ensure that the organization can be defined and developed as a High-reliability organization (HRO). The communication of changing vision is particularly important as organizations are increasingly involved in transitional cultures that can and often do change the traditional models of vision that employees have been working toward for some time. Dynamic organizations are often in a period of functional and idealistic change which requires reiteration of changed vision from and to every level.

The advice of corporate communication professionals who enjoy high credibility in their firms is increasingly sought at the highest levels of a firm in decision making about how changes in strategic direction affect stakeholders; what changes in culture are required when a new strategic direction is taken; and what high-level communication plans are needed to implement new strategy, vision, and mission.

(Forman, 2005, p. 209)

Vision shifts in fact can be a strategic part of planning for change, in a fluctuating and competitive business environment, yet if that vision is received as incongruent with past visions or diametrically separate from employee standards and ideals there will likely be a breakdown of the process and a loss of employee motivation and standard. (van der Heijden & Verbaan, 2005, p. 35) in fact Bielski defines a good manager as one whom in part is able to effectively communicate and demonstrate the vision of the organization in which they work as well as exhibit motivational behavior. "Right up there with respecting employees, having emotional intelligence or communicating often complex information effectively, good leaders demonstrate the vision, build coalitions, and influence the rank and file in the art of execution."

(Bielski, 2005, p. 21) if such vision communication is lacking or if the individual has in the past been seen as ineffective and therefore without credibility the vision may be lost in the rhetoric of communications and be disconnected from the employee base, no matter how effective the vision, at its source actually is. Jameson discusses the writer-reader relationship in business communications in terms of unintended results.

Writers achieve an appropriate writer-reader relationship in business prose not by merely switching from their own to the reader's viewpoint but by artfully interweaving multiple rhetorical and linguistic elements. The writer-reader relationship is expressed through the many possible combinations of vision and voice, which originate in the textual identities of the implied writer, the implied reader, and, sometimes, other characters. By combining multiple visions and voices,...Texts written by Sherron Watkins, former vice president of Enron, illustrate how a writer's decisions about textual identities, vision, and voice may affect the course of corporate events in dramatic, unexpected ways. (Jameson, 2004, p. 227)

Legitimate communication of vision is so essential to the process of assimilating employees to a common goal that is missing will likely fail or be interpreted and therefore acted upon in unexpected, unintended ways. For example, in health care delivery if there is a consistent emphasis on cost management and no equal and opposite emphasis on high quality care individuals in the system may reduce care quality by denial of needed and effect services for the sake of cost cutting. If this occurs the whole of the institution or brand may be deemed an unreliable organization that does not meet the standards of competitive advantage, and where alternatives are available the health care consumer may intentionally seek care elsewhere.

Team Building Delivery Methods:

Delivery method of communication of vision and subsidiary information is an essential decision making strategy for mangers, as the need to recognize the most effective model for the business structure as well as the message being conveyed is paramount to how the communication is received. Delivery methods have become increasingly dependant upon it structures, which can and often does develop into what might be called a virtual team. (Awadzi Calloway & Awadzi, 2005, p. 28) over the last twenty years as other forms of communication tend to incur considerable cost, in mass and take time that an organization does not wish to expend, especially in dynamic organizations. Though many firms still utilize paper office memo style communications such methods when produced in hard copy may not hold the weight of the convenience of inner-organization memo emails. One example of this is a health care delivery charting system that checks and supports desired strategies for care. (Pelletier, May 2005, pp. 1087-1088) Yet, it is essential that in such an environment of ease of communication that is offered by technology a new set of ethics must be addressed as well as the demonstrative ability to create understanding, without the personal characteristics of face-to-face meetings. Though email communications will never completely replace face-to-face communications they have reduced, significantly… READ MORE

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