Teams are an integral part of modern management. In a long period of management development, the emphasis has been on establishing a sustainable environment, traditional roles, and routine operations. Intense market penetration in all sectors of the economy, globalization, and the development of media communicate the business challenge of change related to growing consumer demands, shorter product life cycles, technological innovations, political and economic instability.
In the business world, the emphasis is increasingly on the need to work in a team on a consulting basis.
The concept of the team itself does not have a precise definition, but can be defined as a small group of people with additional skills that are directly related to achieving specific common goals, unique results, and organizational excellence through an approach for which they are mutually responsible.
In modern management, teams are the main tool for organizational efficiency, not the ultimate goal. Companies do not create teams just because it is modern. Labels for company excellence - focus on balanced results for the benefit of consumers, employees, and shareholders - generate challenges that lead to team building. They, in turn, provide the excellence that develops and maintains the company culture. This reinforcing cycle characterizes modern organizations.
This requires global changes in the behavior of the workforce.
Teams motivate for better results, empathy, energize staff, and build additional skills. Such transformations are managed by teams formed at the highest levels in the organization. If the management is not able to define common team goals, tasks, and work products, then the working group option must be applied. In any case, they are more effective than pseudo-teams.
The main role of senior management is related to efficiency and the teams that create and maintain it. The real teams react adequately to the changes, realize the agreed results, energize the hierarchy and the structure. The team activity in the management of each company is a foundation at a high organizational level.
The role of senior management in the management of the company
The main role of senior management is directly related to organizational efficiency, not to team building. There are situations in which teams are not able to take advantage of the challenges for better results without the intervention of management. It maintains the necessary organizational balance between teams, company strategy, individual appointments, hierarchy, and structure. Reference: "The role of a good manager in the organization", https://projectmanagement.jdevcloud.com/role-good-manager-organization/
Management groups form innovative visions, which in practice are implemented by organizational teams. They are at the core of business reengineering and total quality efforts. This is neither episodic nor accidental. Senior management has no alternative but teams. It should promote the formation of a self-governing workforce by delegating power and decision-making rights.
The key to the development of senior management is to focus the attention, policy, and resources of the company on the teams. Company policy is the basis for forming teams. If management does not have adequate attitudes, it is not able to positively identify team opportunities. If team appointments are not part of the career development program, they will not generate enthusiasm and desired results.
The resources and the way they are used in a company are some of the factors for business success. The role of senior management here is mainly manifested in three directions. He must first identify which teams are key to strengthening and upgrading the company.
Second, you need to make constructive decisions about resource security and how teams will act to achieve company goals. And third, senior management must overcome contentious issues specific to different teams. This requires them to be aware of the common challenges to identify those that are most significant. Then the contribution is exceptional. On the other hand, senior management must assist teams that apply the basic rules in a disciplined manner.
The identification of the total benefits and the specific controversial issues for the different teams requires their differentiation into three groups depending on the organizational levels at which they function - managerial, tactical with a specific purpose, and executive teams.
Companies must always seek and take advantage of domestic valuable assets, such as access to natural resources, control over major distribution channels, well-known brands, patents, and more. Trade is in an era where competitive advantage in the market is directly related to the development of internal skills and competencies. Reference: "Strategies for the formation and use of knowledge in the organization", https://pgov.org/strategies-knowledge-organization/
Today, business success depends on movement, not position. Naturally, innovation, customer-oriented services, total quality, and continuous implementation of breakthroughs through improvements are examples of capabilities that commercial companies must develop in the process of achieving the high efficiency of their activities. Internal skills invariably depend on team skills. Work process reengineering based on user needs, for example, requires teams to integrate beyond functional boundaries. The new levels of team excellence are directly dependent on the real-time harmonization of semi-functional skills, experience, and judgment.
Excessive emphasis on teams does not displace the value of other traditional aspects of organizational design. Senior management will continue to pay attention to where and how to achieve a competitive advantage, change individual roles and appointments, and modify the management policy and processes of the company. It is believed that the top management of a highly efficient company functions as a team for three fundamental reasons.
Тeams increase the ability to improve individuals and management processes
First, teams increase the ability to improve individuals, hierarchies, and management processes. Team excellence requires a collective contribution. Everyone needs to develop empathy and skills to achieve the team goal. Moreover, this requires real work, mutual and personal responsibility. The conclusion to be drawn is that collective and individual improvement are inextricably linked.
Тeams are practical
Second, teams are practical. At the heart of modern organizational concepts are teams as a means to achieve new levels of efficiency. The teams generate conceptually new ideas and specific application approaches.
They develop through the challenges of better results by responding adequately to changes in the business environment.
Тeams achieve results
Third, teams achieve results. They further develop the characteristics of highly efficient organizations, focusing on the result. Real teams have a coherent vision of how they will achieve the desired change, ie. the result, through active communication openness, constructive conflicts, and cooperation. They always strive for perfection by finding the right balance between personal and collective efforts in terms of results.
Teams are stronger than the individuals themselves and more flexible than other organizational units. They are constantly experimenting with training, change, and skills development. Teams are a source of motivation and personal growth that are in no way equivalent to organizational compensation systems and career planning schemes.
The top management imposes a team approach in management
The top management of a company must actively impose a team approach in management. Of course, the focus is on efficiency, not on the number of teams. It is considered that every organization faces certain challenges specific to the field of business, for which the teams are the most practical and powerful tool available to management. The critical role of management is to identify the specific areas of application of the teams and to provide development opportunities. Reference: "Management of the organization", https://www.islandjournal.net/management-of-the-organization/
Organizations need teams
The need for teams in the management of organizations is an indisputable fact. The main arguments in this direction are four. First, the challenges of excellence motivate teams, regardless of their place in the company. Perfection is the most important goal when a team is a tool, not an end goal. Second, organizational leaders develop team excellence by creating a strong ethic, not by establishing a supportive environment.
Third, the discipline in the team creates conditions for the high efficiency of the company. Groups become teams through disciplined actions. They formulate a common goal, coordinate tasks for excellence, define a common work approach, develop high levels of additional skills and maintain a constant focus on results.
Finally, high efficiency in the application of teams in the management of commercial companies is based on the joint efforts of all members and not on the individual approach.
