The objective of this article is to know in a timely and precise way the administration of an organization, within it the collaborators to meet the objectives are interrelated, making groups and work teams. Where the first of this article is to know everything about it, identify and differentiate what is a group and a team, the objectives that move it and its characteristics, giving the necessary bases to be able to visualize them in any field.
Keywords
Group, Formal, Informal, Team, Administration
Introduction
For a long time, the human being has had the need and haste to satisfy their requirements, be they nutritional aspects, shelter, survival, acceptance, belonging, recognition, among others; reasons why unions of people were formed, some considered groups and other teams. Such integrations will be addressed and detailed for your understanding.
Background
To speak of formal and informal groups and the evolution that could be called teams, it is necessary to be clear about some other concepts, such as: administration, efficiency, effectiveness, among others. With the purpose of clarifying the knowledge and having an adequate idea that allows us to understand these unions of people in their correct dimension.
The collaboration of individuals is not exclusive in humans, since in nature in many species this type of groupings can be seen in practice, which have the purpose of carrying out specific tasks, such as searching, gathering, hunting, protection, this to mention the most remarkable.
The association of human beings can go back to prehistory, where those individuals to satisfy their needs for food, shelter and protection, to name the most important, group together to hunt animals that were larger, more agile, even small, but If the activity were done individually, the result would have been a failure and even with terrible consequences.
Concepts
Administration.- Coordination of work activities so that they are carried out efficiently and effectively with and through other people. (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005)
Efficiency.- Ability to obtain the best results with the minimum investment. It is defined as "doing things well". (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005)
Efficacy.- Complete the activities to achieve the goals of the organization; It is defined as "doing the right things". (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005)
Organization.- Deliberate association of people to fulfill a certain purpose. (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005)
Development
By having some concepts previously seen clear, a better understanding is feasible, since to guarantee the results of an activity, it is best to have an adequate organization and planning; This is vital and in many occasions fundamental in organizations.
Administration is a fundamental activity, which aims to take advantage of resources in an adequate way, to achieve established objectives, that good or bad administration is carried out, will affect the resources, the time that the organization has.
In the early part of the 20th century, the French industrialist Henri Fayol proposed that all managers perform five functions: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.8 In the mid-1950s, they appeared in a textbook for the first time As a theoretical framework, the functions of planning, organizing, gathering personnel, directing and controlling. Today, most textbooks are organized into four very important administrative functions: planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005)
Administration functions (Robbins & Coulter, Administracion, 2005, p. 9)
Below is a brief description of each of the aforementioned functions.
Planning.- Role of the administration in which the goals are defined, the strategies to achieve them are set, and plans are drawn up to integrate and coordinate activities.
Organization.- The administration's role is to determine what tasks need to be done, who does them, how they are grouped together, who is accountable to whom and where decisions are made.
Management.- The function of the administration that consists in motivating subordinates, influencing individuals and teams while they do their work, choosing the best communication channel and dealing in any other way with the behavior of employees.
Control.- The administration's role is to monitor current performance, compare it with a standard, and take the necessary actions.
Manager and roles in the organization
To carry out these functions, it is always convenient to have a leader within the group, and that all participants work together for the benefit of the organization. In it there are different roles that are played by different members, in a correct way (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005) groups the roles that occur in an organization.
- Manager's roles.- Particular categories of administrative behavior. Personal roles.- Roles of the manager that have to do with people and other duties of a protocol and symbolic nature. Informational roles.- Manager roles that consist of receiving, storing and disseminating information. Decision roles.- Manager roles that revolve around decision making.
The following figure illustrates the range of roles managers play in an organization, the description of their roles and examples of them.
Manager roles according to Mintzberg (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005, p. 11)
Manager skills
To be part of an organization it is essential to have attitudes and aptitudes, to carry out activities in an ideal way, being even more crucial for managers to have these competences, which are mentioned by Robbins as administrative skills. (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005)
- Technical skills.- Knowledge and competence in a specialized field. Personal treatment skills.- Ability to work well with other people, both individually and in groups. Conceptual skills.- Ability to think and conceptualize abstract and complicated situations.
Administration action range
How widespread is the need for management in organizations? We can say with absolute certainty that administration is necessary in organizations of all types and sizes, at all levels and areas of work and in all of them, whatever the country they are in. (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005)
Universal need for Administration (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005, p. 18)
Work groups
Work teams are one of the realities and challenges of managing in today's global and dynamic environment. Thousands of organizations have made changes to restructure work around teams rather than individuals.
Managers would also like their employees to be successful in their tasks. How can they do it? Managers need to understand the behavior of individuals in organizations. But since most organizational work is done by individuals who belong to a workgroup, it is important for managers to understand group behavior. And the behavior of a group is not simply the sum total of the behaviors of all the individuals in the group. Why? Because individuals act differently in groups than when they are alone. Therefore, if we want to understand organizational behavior in detail, we need to study groups. (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005)
Correctly (Robbins & Coulter, Administracion, 2005) defines that a group is defined as two or more interdependent individuals that interact with each other and unite to achieve specific objectives. Groups may be formal or informal.
- Formal groups are working groups defined by the organization's structure that have designated job functions and specific tasks. In formal groups, appropriate behaviors are established and directed toward organizational objectives. Informal groups are social. These groups occur naturally in the workplace in response to the need for social contact. For example, three employees from different departments who eat together regularly make up an informal group. Informal groups are formed around friendships and common interests.
Similarly (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, 2009) states that A group is defined as two or more interacting individuals, who are interdependent and come together to achieve particular goals.
Examples of formal teams cited by (Robbins & Coulter, Administracion, 2005)
- Command groups. Groups determined by the organization chart and made up of individuals who report directly to a certain manager. Task groups. Groups made up of individuals who come together to complete a specific task; their existence is often temporary because the group disintegrates once the task is completed. Cross-functional teams. Groups that bring together the knowledge and skills of individuals from various areas or work groups, whose members have been trained to do the work of others. Self-directed teams. Groups that are basically independent and that, in addition to their own tasks, acquire managerial responsibilities such as hiring, planning, programming and performance evaluations.
Examples of informal teams
- Musical groups. The members get together with the aim of giving free rein to their musical tastes. Social groups. They come together to socialize, attend events, meetings, all related to an active social life.
Stages of group development
Group development is a dynamic process. Most groups are in a continuous state of change. Although groups may never achieve complete stability, there is a general pattern that describes how most of them evolve. (Robbins & Coulter, Administration, 2005)
- Training.- The first stage of group development in which the staff joins and then defines the purpose, structure and leadership of the group. Storm.- The second stage of group development characterized by conflict within the group. Standard setting.- The third stage of group development characterized by close relationships and cohesion. Performance.- The fourth stage of group development when they are fully functional. Suspension.- The final stage of group development for temporary groups during which group members are more concerned with the closure of activities than with the performance of tasks.
Stages of group development
Group properties: roles, norms, status, size and cohesion
Workgroups are not disorganized mobs, they have properties that shape the behavior of their members and make it possible to explain and predict much of individual behavior within the group, as well as its performance. What are some of those properties? Among them, the roles, the norms, the status, the size of the group and the degree of cohesion of the group. (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, 2009)
Below is a description of concepts related to the properties of groups that are exposed in the work (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, 2009)
First property of groups: roles
Role.- Set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone who occupies a given position in the social unit.
First property of groups: roles
Role identity.- Certain attitudes and behaviors consistent with a role.
Perception of the role.- An individual's point of view regarding the support they receive to act in a given situation.
Role Expectations.- What others think about how a person should act in a given situation.
Psychological contract.- Unwritten agreement that establishes what the employee's administration expects, and vice versa.
Role conflict.- Situation in which an individual is confronted by divergent expectations in his role.
Zigzag equilibrium model.- Transitions through which the temporal groups pass between inertia and activity.
Second and third group properties: norms and status
Norms.- Acceptable standards of behavior within a group and that are shared by its members.
Status.- Socially defined position or rank that others give to groups or their members.
Reference groups.- Important groups to which individuals belong or expect to belong and with whose standards they are likely to agree
Compliance.- Adjustment of own behavior to follow the rules of the group.
Theory of the characteristics of the status.- It affirms that the differences in the characteristics of the status create hierarchies according to it within the groups.
Fourth group property: size
Does the size of a group affect its general behavior? The answer is yes, in short, but the effect depends on the variables considered.
Social laziness.- A trend in which individuals make less effort when working collectively than individually.
Fifth group property: cohesion
Cohesion.- Degree to which the members of a group are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the group.
. (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, 2009, p. 301)
Group decision making
Organizations use group decision-making a lot, but does that imply that this is preferable to being made by a single individual? The answer to this question depends on a number of factors.
Strengths of group decision-making.- Groups generate more complex information and knowledge. By adding the resources of various individuals, groups make more contributions to the decision process. In addition to increasing contributions, groups introduce heterogeneity to the decision-making process. They offer more diversity and views. This provides an opportunity for more approaches and alternatives to be considered. Finally, groups produce more acceptance of the solution. (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, 2009)
Weaknesses of group decision-making.- Despite the advantages mentioned, group decision-making has its drawbacks. They consume more time because it is common for groups to take longer to reach a solution than if only one individual did. There are pressures for conformity in the groups. Members' desire to be accepted and considered a group asset causes them to repress any disagreement. Group discussions can be dominated by one or some members. If this dominant coalition is made up of members of medium and low ability, the joint effectiveness of the group is impaired. Finally, group decisions suffer ambiguous responsibility. In an individual decision it is clear who is responsible for the final result, while in a group the responsibility of any individual is diluted. (Robbins & Judge,Organizational Behavior, 2009)
Efficacy and efficiency.- Whether groups are more effective than individuals depends on the criteria used to define efficacy. In terms of accuracy, group decisions are generally better than the average individual in the group, but less than the criteria of the most successful member. If the effectiveness of a decision is defined in terms of speed, the individuals are superior. If creativity is important, groups tend to be more effective than individuals. And if effectiveness means the degree of acceptance that the final solution achieves, the credit, once again, goes to the group. (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, 2009)
The work teams
In contemporary business enterprises, teams increasingly become the primary means of organizing work. In reality, this trend is so widespread that companies like Optimus hire complete teams. (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, 2009)
Differences between groups and work teams
Working group.- The one that interacts above all to share information and make decisions that help each of its members to perform in their area of responsibility.
Work team.- Group in which the individual efforts result in a performance greater than the sum of the contributions per individual.
Teams to solve problems.- Groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department that meet for a few hours per week and analyze ways to improve the quality, efficiency and work environment.
Classification of work teams
- Self- directed work teams.- Groups of 10 to 15 people who take on the responsibilities of their original supervisors. Transfunctional teams Employees of the same hierarchical level from different work areas and who meet to carry out a task. Virtual teams.- Those who use computer technology to gather physically dispersed members, in order to achieve a common goal.
Team effectiveness model (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, 2009)
Factors that determine that teams are successful
The four contextual factors that appear to have a more significant relationship to team performance are: the availability of adequate resources, effective leadership, a climate of trust, and an evaluation and reward system that reflects team contributions. (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, 2009)
Adequate Resources.- The teams are part of a larger organizational system. A shortage of resources directly decreases the team's ability to do its job effectively. If they are to be successful in achieving their goals, teams must receive the necessary support from management and the organization that encompasses them.
Leadership and structure.- Team members must agree on who is going to do what and ensure that everyone shares the workload equally. Coming to terms with the specifics of the job and how they fit in with the individual's entire skills requires leadership and team structure.
Climate of trust.- Members of effective teams trust each other and their leaders as well. Trust in leaders is important in that it allows the team to be willing to accept and commit to the leader's goals and decisions.
Performance evaluation and reward systems.- The traditional system of evaluation and reward oriented to the individual should be modified to reflect the performance of the team.
Conclusions
Undoubtedly, the topic of groups and work teams is not something new or recent, although it could be concluded that at present it has had a greater boom, a greater impact, due to its importance, the benefits that are reflected when a group of people struggles to achieve the objectives set, sharing responsibility and obtaining a benefit that is on par with all the members.
In order to guarantee performance today, a good positioning of an organization is essential that in its structure, it be made up of work teams, which will be committed to achieving the goals established by senior management.
Thesis topic: The importance of the implementation of work teams throughout the organization's structure.
Objective: Identify and quantify the impact of work teams on the organization, performance of activities and objectives achieved
Bibliography
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