This essay takes up the analysis of the functioning of a team in an actual workplace scenario known to the author, with the application of extant management and HR theories of team work. HR and management experts have for long recognised and extolled the benefits that can arise from the working of cohesive and focused teams, very often even in the face of adversity (Hackman, 2002, p 16). The positive attributes of teamwork have been recognised time and again, especially so in areas of military affairs, sports, project management and in the coordination of major events like the Olympic Games (Hackman, 2002, p 16). The formation of the European Union can be considered to be a striking example of countries putting away histories of discord, hostility, and competition in order to come together and form a strong and effective team dedicated to changing the economic, political, and social environment of Europe (Hackman, 2002, p 16).
Business organisations have constantly deliberated upon and tried to apply team management principles in the operational functioning of their organisations (Hackman, 2002, p 16). Whilst specific organisational projects have by and large necessitated the formation of specific teams for achievement of project objectives, modern day HR managers are constantly looking at ways to apply team management principles in regular organisational work in order to enhance organisational performance and improve competitive advantage (Hackman, 2002, p 16).
The unique features of teams, as well as their potential to accomplish far more than many individuals working on their own has inspired psychologists, behavioural experts, and HR academics to engage in detailed study and research on the subject, which in turn has led to a broad body of HR literature and theory on different aspects of team work (Hayes, 2002, p 72). It is also important to strike a note of caution here. Many firms, very intriguingly, find that their efforts to operate effectively with the help of teams not only have little positive effect on productivity, but that their use sometimes results in reduction of productivity (Hayes, 2002, p 74). It is also often witnessed that teams comprising of highly qualified and well regarded persons with strong performance record often fail, whilst teams with undistinguished members produce significant results (Hayes, 2002, p 73). Such paradoxes in team performance are becoming common across the world, as startup businesses run by committed teams with strong networking capabilities humble huge corporations with enormous resources (Hayes, 2002, p 74).
With the understanding of the mechanisms of team work being integral to contemporary learning in organisational behaviour, this study takes up the analysis of a team formed in a restaurant in West London to examine, analyse, and solve problems with customer perceptions of restaurant service.
Description of Workplace Scenario and Teamwork
Authentic Peking is a medium scale restaurant situated in West London. Serving a range of Chinese and South East Asian Cuisine, the restaurant prices its offerings to suit the purse of the medium budget restaurant goer. Operating for more than 5 years, the restaurant has built up significant customer goodwill and has become well known, not just in the immediate locality, but also outside, and some clients even drive down considerable distance to dine in the premises. Whilst the restaurant has historically done good business during weekdays and was known to be packed with customers on weekends and holidays, the management has of late being witnessing a disturbing trend.
Many of the regulars have reduced the frequency of their visits and occupancy has fallen both during weekdays and weekends. Whilst the owner and the restaurant originally ascribed this fall in business and reduction of customers to the impact of the economic recession, the continuance and even worsening in customer occupancy, along with reducing revenues and profits has become a matter of considerable concern. With informal surveys of customers by the manager not providing significant insights into the reasons for these problems, the owner of the restaurant decided to form a specific team to investigate the reasons for reduction in customer visits and suggest ideas for improvement of business. The owner asked the restaurant manager to head the team and detailed him with the purposes and objectives of the team. He furthermore gave the manager the liberty to choose his team and asked for a comprehensive report to be produced within 3 weeks.
The manager, a 30 year old executive with academic qualifications in catering management, decided to apply his academic knowledge as well his experience in the selection of his team and in the conduct of activity. He formed a team of 7 people, including him, 2 members from the kitchen, 2 from the serving staff, 1 from the greeting staff, 1 from the purchasing department and 1 from the accounting department. He took care to choose people who were known to be good in their jobs, both in terms of quality output and commitment to work, and detailed them at length on the problems facing the restaurant and the objectives of their team. He clearly explained the objectives to the chosen team members, which included analysing the extent of reduction in business, the reasons for such reduction and the finding of solutions to overcome these challenges and bring customers back to the restaurant.
Whilst all the members of the team were happy to participate in the team and most of them felt gratified to have been chosen over others in their department, the first meeting of the team started with the emergence of significant conflict and attrition over the causes of worsening restaurant performance. There was significant recrimination and finger pointing among the members of the team. The two chefs felt that they were overworked even as the serving staff complained that their customers were dissatisfied because of inordinate delays between placement of orders and serving of food. The greeters informed the gathering that many of the long time customers had reduced their visits because of inordinate delays in providing them with tables and lack of a comfortable waiting area. The chefs complained that they needed more workforce strength and equipment in the kitchen to improve their functioning and stressed said that the quality of their produce was often affected because of inadequate supply of material and malfunctioning of equipment. The team member from the purchasing department stated that many suppliers were delivering their materials later than ordered, and in inadequate quantity and quality, because of delayed payments from accounts department. The accountant took offense at this observation and stated that he was constrained by irregular and lesser cash flows. Whilst the team was formed with goodwill and good intentions, the first meeting rapidly descended into chaos because of finger pointing and hostility among the team members.
The manager, despite being disturbed by these developments in the beginning, was able to understand the seriousness of the problems facing the organisation and the need to take immediate action. Calling for another meeting after a couple of days, he firmly assumed the role of team leader and informed the team members that the restaurant could succeed only if the team was able to do its set tasks and accomplish its objectives appropriately. Bringing up the observations of each of the members for joint team analysis, he went on to state that whilst there appeared to be some truth in each of the observations, it was necessary to find out the actual reasons for customer dissatisfaction. He thereafter provided each of the team members with specific tasks, calling upon them to carefully analyse the various issues that appeared to be of importance for customer satisfaction in their domain of knowledge. He also asked them to work seriously on their assignments, some of which required interaction with customers and suppliers and asked them to complete their analysis of existing problems formulate solutions within a week from the date of the meeting. He repeatedly asked them to work at their assigned tasks with great commitment and report to him on their progress in the middle of the week.
Whilst most of the members realised the gravity of the situation and sincerely attacked their responsibilities, the manager found during a mid week review that the purchasing executive and one of the chefs had not worked until then on fulfilling their responsibilities. Whilst the chef's responsibilities were appropriately handled by the other chef in the team, the manager had to delay the next meeting in order to allow the purchasing executive to complete his assigned task and postponed its date by 3 days. Whilst the meeting was delayed because of the failure of one of the members to meet his obligations in time, the team members otherwise found, much to their delight and satisfaction that the team members had worked hard and not only located many plausible reasons for the present unsatisfactory state of affairs but had also formulated suggestions to overcome the existing challenges and difficulties.
The manager thereafter asked the team members to participate in three extensive sessions for brainstorming and discussion. Such brainstorming was carried out in the morning before the start of regular work when all members were fresh, cheerful, and willing to participate in discussion. The three brainstorming sessions, whilst marked by conflicting opinions and a certain amount of discord, were moderated effectively by the manager who succeeded in convincing the team members of the importance of organisational objectives vis-à-vis their internal differences. The final brainstorming session saw the development of constructive suggestions in areas of parking of customers vehicles, improvement of facilities in the waiting area, swifter service, better and swifter preparation of food, and improvements in dealing with suppliers. The accountant and the purchasing executive were given the responsibility of drafting the report, which was then carefully checked by the manager and submitted to the owner on the committed date.
Analysis of Teamwork at Authentic Peking Restaurant
The analysis of the workplace episode at the Authentic Peking Restaurant reveals the various complexities that are associated with the phenomenon, even in small organisational settings with few people.
Modern literature on organisational and human behaviour specify particular features of teams that distinguish them from general groups of individuals working separately on specific tasks. These features include (a) participatory sharing of team objectives, (b) mutual trust and dependency, (c) overt expression of feelings, emotion and disagreement, (d) collaboration, coordination and cohesion, (e) consensual and participative decision making, (f) management of conflict and discord between team members and (g) the construction of collective and synergistic results (Hackman, 2002, p 19). Hackman, (2002, p 30) furthermore states that teams have clearly demarcated boundaries, stable memberships, and clearly defined authority for management of activities and processes.
The analysis of team functioning at Authentic Peking clearly reveals a striking similarity between these characteristics and the working of the team at the restaurant. The formation of the team started with the clear definition of authority and leadership in the form of the restaurant manager. Significant contradiction and discord between the team members was visible in the first meeting itself and had to be managed appropriately by the team leader for team activities to progress further. The team also shared its aims and objectives, exhibited trust and dependency, had clear membership and finally created joint and synergistic impact upon the operations of the restaurant a\by achieving desired outcomes.
Hayes, (2002, p 81) states that teams consist of members with different features, characteristics, attributes and abilities who work jointly towards the achievement of specific objectives under the overall guidance and control of a specific leader. The presence of a competent leader is felt to be essential for team success (Hackman, 2002, p 225). Leaders are responsible for the determination of objectives, assignment of responsibilities, building of atmospheres of collaboration and trust, motivation and encouragement of team members, monitoring of progress and finally achievement of objectives (Hackman, 2002, p 225). Whilst individual leaders may have unique leadership styles, which may vary in small and large degree with others, their competence in fulfilling their leadership responsibilities has a significant impact upon team performance (Hackman, 2002, p 225). It is evident from the construction of the team at Authentic Peking that the restaurant manager followed theoretical principles closely. He built a team of members from different departments, who in turn had different types of skills and domain knowledge, and provided them with effective leadership.
Organisational experts feel that the effective functioning of teams depends upon different factors like (a) composition of team, (b) availability of required skills, abilities and expertise, (c) individual responsibilities of members, (d) clear team objectives, (e) clear responsibility allocation, (f) clarity and transparency in communication, (g) equity and sincerity in dealing with members and (h) an environment of cooperation, communication and collaboration (Jones & Schilling, 2000, p 34). The analysis of the functioning of the team at the restaurant again reveals that a successful team satisfies all these features. The leader of the team was able to coordinate and satisfy all these requirements and was able to achieve team objectives (Jones & Schilling, 2000, p 34).
The Input Process Output (IPO) model outlines an approach for understanding team work and performance (Ilgen, et al, 2005, p 518). Inputs, in this model concern issues relating to team composition like size, leadership, diversity, and term, as well as resources like training, autonomy and other facilities provided to teams (Ilgen, et al, 2005, p 518). Internal processes consist of issues like motivation, leadership skills, cooperation and communication, conflict resolution, problem solving and decision making abilities (Ilgen, et al, 2005, p 518). Outputs represent team objectives and larger interrelated outcomes concerning performance, behaviour and attitudes that can occur at various levels (Ilgen, et al, 2005, p 518). Application of the IPO model to the team process at Authentic Peking also reveals that the team was able to achieve high quality outputs because it had both strong inputs and good processes.
Conclusions
This essay dealt with the analysis of a team process in a true life scenario with the application of theoretical concepts of teamwork. The study was useful in the sense that it firstly revealed that team processes are essentially complex, irrespective of the size and scale of operations and that secondly even small teams are affected by various team dynamics that require to be managed for achievement of team objectives.
Application of team management theory to the situation at Authentic Peking revealed the ways in which the characteristic theoretical features of teams fitted in very well with the actual attributes of the studied team and the ways in which incorporation of ideal team processes and methods helped in the achievement of high quality outcomes.
The application of the IPO model for studying and analysing team processes provided another theoretical perspective for analysing team dynamics that corroborated traditional team management theories. The analysis also clearly revealed the critical and pivotal position of the leader in a team and his role in obtaining the best out of team members for achievement of team objectives by creating clearly defined and transparent objectives, building an environment of clarity and transparency, and encouraging collaboration, communication and cooperation between team members.
