Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Assignment - Team Work in Business Essay Example for Free

Assignment Team Work in Business Essay Some management teams are bound to succeed while other are not due to a number of factors. A team, according to Adair (1986), is more than just a group with a common aim. It is a group in which the contributions of individuals are seen as complementary. Collaboration, working together, is the keynote of a team activity. Adair suggests that the test of an effective team is: â€Å"whether its members can work as a team while they are apart, contributing to a sequence of activities rather than to a common task, which requires their presence in one place and at one time. † Below is a discussion of some of the major factors that create a difference between winning and losing management teams . 1. Supportive Sponsor Management teams are usually formed by a sponsor who recognizes that reaching an organizational goal will require a group of individuals working together to provide the leadership necessary to move a company, division or unit towards the organizations goals. It is the sponsor’s responsibility to create a ‘charter’ that establishes the management team and its primary focus. In addition, the sponsor establishes specific goals the team is to accomplish. The sponsor will also select the team leader and gain his or her commitment to lead the leadership team in defining and carrying out the needed actions. Lack of will or proper direction by the sponsor ( e. g board of directors in a company) can lead to team failure. 2. Environmental factors These include physical factors such as working proximity, plant or office layout. In general, close proximity aids group identity and loyalty, and distance reduces them. Other environmental issues include the traditions of the organisation under which the management team operates, and leadership styles. Formal organisations tend to adopt formal group practices. Autocratic leadership styles prefer group activities to be directed. 3. Team size Small groups tend to be more cohesive than larger groups; small groups tend to encourage full participation; large groups contain greater diversity of talent. 4. Focus on Stakeholder Outcomes A shared understanding of the management team’s stakeholders, their expectations of the team, and the values the team embraces is essential to create the focus needed as the management team members plan and execute the actions necessary to achieve the team’s goals. 5. Smart Goals Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound goals should be established by the team’s sponsor and then broken into sub-goals by the management team. Without SMART goals, the team will lack the milestones necessary to drive action. 6. Team Leadership Team leadership is the most critical success factor for the performance management team. A leader with strong performance management skills and the ability to develop others virtually guarantees a successful performance initiative. Every management team needs a leader who focuses the members of the team on the mission, purpose, and goals of the team. This individual must be committed to the team’s results and must be willing to be held accountable by the team’s sponsor and other stakeholders, for leading the team through processes that insure the team’s goals are reached. The team leader must engage each team member in the processes of the team and build a platform of mutual trust that leads to open debate, collaboration, individual commitment, and personal accountability. 7. Mutual Trust The most important element of successful team work is the establishment of a platform of mutual trust that enables the management team to engage in open debate and decision making that leads to commitments to action by individual members of the team. Building this trust requires an openness that allows team members to know and understand the beliefs and behaviors of all members of the team so that team actions can be structured to take advantage of each members uniqueness and talents. Behavioral and values assessments are powerful tools in developing an understanding how each member of the management team views themselves and responds to others in the team. 8. Engaged Management Team Members An effective management team will have team members who are actively engaged in the work and focus of the team. This will require that each team member emotionally commits to actively and openly participate in the team’s processes in the pursuit of the team’s goals. The team member must willingly commit to carry out action plans to complete individual actions necessary for the team to reach their team goals. The team member must be dependable and carry the full weight of personal responsibility to complete their individual commitments by the date committed to. Engaged team members enthusiastically support each other and add value to other team members. They prepare for team processes and choose to engage others in a positive manner to find solutions to issues and challenges they individually or as a team face. They constantly seek to improve themselves for the benefit of the team and never, never, never quit. 9. Composition of the Team The Apollo Syndrome is a phenomenon that having too many people with a high mental abilities grouped together to solve a problem is, in many instances, detrimental to the teamwork process. Team members spend much of their time trying to persuade the team to adopt their own views as well as figuring out ways to point out weaknesses in the rest of the team’s ideas. They have difficulty reaching consensus in decisions and are focused on their own work, paying little attention to what their fellow team members agree doing. Occasionally the team will pick up on the fact they are having problems, but will then overcompensate to avoid confrontation. This leads to even more problems in making sound decisions. A knowledgeable team, skilled at group working, and with a wider range of talents is much more likely to succeed than an inexperienced group with a narrow range of talents. 10. Individual Commitments The work of a management team is carried out by individual members of the team. When a team has developed a plan of actions that are necessary to achieve their goals or overcome barriers, individual members must commit to carrying out specific actions which in many cases will include actions by the individual teams they in turn lead. The management teams collaborative processes must include steps to: * Define individual actions, * Gain the commitments by individual team members to complete the actions, * Document due dates, and * Establish status reporting processes. 11. Discipline and Accountability Team goals will usually not be realized until individual commitments are completed. Management team members must embrace a discipline to complete their commitments as scheduled. They must agree to hold each other personally accountable for completing, as scheduled, the commitments each person has made to the team. Each management team member must continuously report the status of their open commitments to the team so that barriers to completion can be identified early in order to permit the management team leader and other team members the opportunity to deal with the issues before overall deadlines are impacted. 12. Identification and Removal of Barriers Barriers to team and individual progress will occur in every management team effort and must be dealt with quickly to continue progress towards the teams goals. The team leader must continuously monitor the status of each individuals commitments and initiate barrier removal processes where appropriate. Team-based processes for developing action plans to overcome barriers impacting individual commitments should be instilled as a part of the teams culture. 13. Shared vision / approach. The ability for a management team to clearly state its goals and objectives and gain buy-in among the people they lead ( e. g. employees )along with a synergistic team that can carry out their responsibilities is vital to performance success. The vision and/or mission of the team must be accepted by all the team members and critical goals viewed as the collective responsibility of the team. If a return to profitability is a critical goal of an executive team, priorities and time commitments must be pulled from elsewhere. Focusing on results that in any way does not support the critical goal(s) of the team will lead to team failure. 14. Technology support While a skilled management team can improve performance with very little tools and only an effective approach, with proper technology to support the teams needs, and the proper data to drive decision making, there is almost no limit to the improvements an organization will yield. 15. Ability to Innovate Innovating is a key aspect of teamwork and involves challenging the way things are currently being done. Technology is changing so quickly that the way you are currently performing tasks may no longer be the best way. If you are not up-to-date in your practices, your cost structure may be too high or you may no longer be delivering competitive service. Innovating is essential for all work teams. There are always better ways of doing things if you only take time to discover them. 16. Promoting To obtain the resources people, money, and equipment to carry out your work, you have to sell what you are doing to other people. Resources to implement new ideas will only be given if your team can persuade and influence people higher in the organization. Promoting to customers or clients both inside or outside the organization is also important if you are to continually deliver what people want. 17. Developing Many ideas dont see the light of day because they are impractical. The Developing activity ensures that your ideas are molded and shaped to meet the needs of your customers, clients, or users. It involves listening to their needs and incorporating these in your plans. Developing will ensure that what you are trying to do is possible, given the resource constraints of your organization. 18. Inspecting Maintenance Regular checks on work activities are essential to ensure that mistakes are not made. Quality audits of your products or services will ensure that your customers or clients will remain satisfied. Inspecting also covers the financial aspect of work in your team, as well as the security aspects, the safety aspects and the legal aspects. All management teams need to uphold standards and maintain effective work processes. Your car will fail if it does not have its regular service. Teams can fail too, if the team processes are not regularly checked and maintained. Maintaining ensures that quality standards are upheld and that regular reviews of team effectiveness take place. 19. Linking Linking is the activity that ensures all team members pull together, and makes the difference between a group of individuals and a highly effective and efficient team. It covers the linking of people, linking of tasks and leadership linking.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Evaluation of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Essay -- Deforestat

Nowadays deforestation is the one of the most destructive and controversial environmental issues. Deforestation is defined as cutting down, clearing away or burning trees or forests. Particularly tropical rainforests are the most destructed type of forests because of its location in developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, central African countries and Brazil. Deforestation rate in those places is high enough to worry about, because of good economic potential of forests. As the result of causes such as agriculture land expansion, logging for timber, fire blazing and settling infrastructure there might be serious impacts in future, for instance, extinction of endemic species of animals and plants which will be feral, increase of greenhouse gas emissions which may lead to global warming and consecutive catastrophes, destruction of home for indigenous dwellers which is considered as violation of human rights. Some people can argue with this drawbacks telling that deforestation have more valuable benefits such as growth of economics, production of food and providing better opportunities for life for poor families. However, government of that countries and world organisations tries to stop deforestation proposing several solutions. Deforestation problem is especially acute in Brazilian Amazon, where its rate is much high comparing with other regions. This paper will rigorously describe causes and effects of deforestation, and evaluate possible solutions of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Tropical rainforests which is located between tropic of Capricorn and tropic of Cancer covered 12% of land surface few thousand years ago. However, today is it covers only 5% of planet. In spite of this small area, it is... ...ious environmental problem with some significant ecological consequences such as global warming and loss of rich biodiversity and with some economic benefits which are just temporary. These actions against nature must be stopped, and I am recommending that all of us, starting from simple people and ending with government must solve this problem together. Simple human can donate some money which is not sufficient at the moment, businessmen again can help with money, global organisations can provide volunteers and donated money and government can make huge investments, enforce more strict laws, cleared from corruption and try to strictly secure whole Amazon with strict punishments for criminals. In addition, there are recommendations of further research in improving agriculture and finding more sustainable nutrients which would allow using lands for longer period.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Disparities Essay

Reducing Disparities Discuss the different ways in which disparities can be reduced with an emphasis on the following: Trade and market access Debt Relief Aid Remittances A Joint report by students. This report has been compiled by all 1B Geography students and aims to form a case study of how the global disparities as highlighted in the Millennium Development Goals are being reduced. Each student has contributed to their own section of the document and work should be checked by others for accuracy and reliability. It is after all a case study that will be used in the final examinations. What are the global disparities? Disparities exist within development patterns on a global scale. There is an increasing gap between the world’s richest and poorest countries due to factors such as globalization and increased consumerism. Disparities exist and can be measured using indices of infant mortality, education, nutrition, income and the Human Development Index. Disparities exist within countries resulting from ethnicity, residence, parental education, income, employment and land ownership. These disparities have long been recognized and the world has started to act (some might say too late) to try to reduce them. The biggest scheme to date has been the implementation and global promotion of the Millennium Development Goals. These eight key goals were set in the year 2000 and aim to tackle the main problems associated with poverty, education and health worldwide. These Goals are actively being worked towards with a final deadline of 201 5 for stage one targets. Many millions of people have been made aware of these goals directly and indirectly using campaigns such as Make Poverty History, Live8, The Red Appeal and The Girl Effect to name but a few. This piece of work will discuss the different ways in which these isparities can be reduced and evaluate the strategies that have already been implemented. Mr Podbury. 2013. Chapter 1 (Students; Angus and Kathrin) Introduction to, Trade and Market Access – Case Study Fairtrade in Africa. Introduction to Fairtrade -Trade between companies in developed countries and producers in developing countries in which fair prices are paid to the producers. Google) What it hopes to achieve -To work with businesses, community groups and individuals to improve the trading position of producer organisations in the south to deliver sustainable livelihoods to farmers, workers and their communities. How does it work? -They do this by being a passionate and ambitious development organization committed to tack ling poverty and injustice through trade. -Proving an independent certification of the trade chain

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Merchant of Venice - Plot Structure - 1714 Words

centerbShow how the plot of ‘The Merchant of Venice is apparently fanciful but in reality exactingly structured./b/center br brThe Merchant of Venice is a fairy tale. There is no more reality in Shylocks bond and the Lord of Belmonts will than in Jack and the Beanstalk. brH. Granville-Barker, in Prefaces to Shakespeare. br brThis is one way of looking at the play, reading it or enjoying the performance. But it can be a contradiction to our actual feelings about this complex play. ‘The Merchant of Venice might appear to be a romantic tale without much logic but that would be a superficial interpretation. Portias father may have raised our concerns in taking away her freedom to choose her beloved; Shylocks bond and†¦show more content†¦But this scene can also be seen as a Christian parable that attempts to reconcile two conflicting principles: justice and mercy. And the climax is about the difference between a judgement that would be made in terms of the letter of the law and one that would be made in terms of the spirit of the law. br brThe Casket theme is also about judgement. But is it by appearance or by reasoning? It is suggested that the spontaneous feeling of love that will lead the way. br brChance also plays an important part in the play. Shylock had no way of knowing that Antonio would suffer a complete loss and default his bond and even Antonio would never have thought that he would not get even one of his ships back and not be able to pay the money. Also the way that Portia disguises herself as the doctor is also very improbable but one accepts it. The Ring story is also fanciful and today we might find it an unnecessary addition but it was needed to tie up the loose ends of the play and for the story to have a happy ending in Belmont. br brIrving Wardel in The Times wrote, it is the case with this play that while its form is that of a fairy tale its characters are open to realistic analysis. Shylock is one of the main characters of the play but this also depends on the way that his character is played. He has mostly been portrayed as a comic character but when he is the tragic protagonist he ‘usurps the center of the stage. Shylock represents the killjoy against whomShow MoreRelatedThe Three Plots of The Merchant of Venice779 Words   |  4 PagesThe Merchant of Venice is a simple story line with three distinct plot lines incorporated into each other intricately. These three plot lines are the bond plot, the casket plot, and the ring plot, each equally vital to the meaning and conclusion of the play. 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The relationship between Portia, Bassanio and Antonio in The Merchant of Venice and the friendship between Abigail Williams and all the girls in The Crucible are both based on selfish motives. Bassanio asksRead MoreSelf Interest, The Enemy Of True Affection1228 Words   |  5 Pagesjust to extract some benefit from it. In both the plays, William Shakespeare with his famous piece, the Merchant of Venice and Arthur Miller with his famous play, The Crucible have depicted the role of self-interest in human relationships. They emphasize this theme through examples of love, friendship, power The triangular relationship between Antonio, Bassanio and Portia in The Merchant of Venice and the friendship between Abigail Williams and all the girls in The Crucible are both based on selfishRead MoreSelf Interest, The Enemy Of True Affection1199 Words   |  5 Pagesrelationship just to extract some benefit from it. 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