Importance of Team Building in Current Day Work Context

What is Team Building?

Well, Team building can be described as the construction of a group of people to work together effectively and efficiently in order to achieve a certain goal. Team building is considered as a management technique that is extremely important in today’s world due to it’s major advantages that helps to boost a company’s business or an organisation’s achievement. It takes a lot of skills to set up and build a solid team where strong analysis, observation and most precisely, time is needed to complete such task.

Team building is a mixture of both the strengths and weaknesses of the people in the group, where a manager is expected to find a good balance so that the people can focus on strong interpersonal relations and trust among the team members. In this article we will discuss the importance of team building in current day work context. (C, 2020)

Evolution of team building

Well, the emergence of team building begins in the late 1920 to early 1930 with now the classic Hawthorne studies, where after much analysis, researchers agreed that team building was one important factor, giving the group a sense of identity, a feeling of social support and cohesion that was formed through workers interaction. It was McDougall (1920) that was presented as the first team builder through a series of ideas and test that he presented and were later successful as production continued to rise.

This was the first step towards team building, created in the late 1920 but has now gradually evolved where the concept of a psychologist Bruce Tuckman (1965) came up with the theory that to achieve a successful team, there are 5 main stages of development to follow, mainly,

Forming stage

During this stage, members are presented with their group members, what will be their goal and the rules to follow.

Storming stage

In the storming stage, people became aware of the realities that they have to face, especially the characteristics of each members and there may be often personality clash.

Norming stage

From now on, the members start to appreciate the strength of others and everyone starts to contribute and work as a cohesive unit.

Performing stage

At this stage, this is where success is finally achieved as a team since everyone is performing together as they are motivated and familiar with the project and everyone in the group.

Adjourning stage

It was only in 1977 that Tuckman added a fifth and final stage that is the adjourning stage where the team is ripped apart, disband, also known as the mourning stage where members feel a loss, since the experience is over.

Importance of Team Building

Having seen the different steps to create a team, we shall now look at WHY is it important in a company or an industry such as the textile industry and how it can impact the rate of productivity.

Below are some examples on how team building is important and how it contributes to an industry’s success

Socialising at workplace

Socialising and making new friends at workplace is one of the best way to increase productivity. Not only does it boost the morale at work but also the workers are participating in team activities during their lunch time, maximising productivity to the very best, for example the textile industry, a group of workers might dedicate their lunch time discussing over the future workplan on how to tackle the new types of design requested by the manager.

Teamwork and boosting team performance

Team building activities also helps in work project that involves teamwork as it helps the team to understand each other better through the strength and weaknesses of each members. This understanding helps members to work better in the future which will benefit the company on and on. Moreover, members complete each other and by that, we can say that each members can cover up the weakness of each other towards greater success and less failure, again we can take up one of the major problem inside the textile factory is slack work but through this process of team building, a positive work culture is formed and everybody is able to give their maximum and encourage everyone to achieve their individual potential.

Competition and achievement

Another aspect of team building, despite creating bonds towards members, team building does promote the natural aspect of competition where members are always looking out to become the leader of the group which helps to achieve greater success overall for both the organisations and individual as they are performing better in order to achieve their final objectives and to be rewarded or promoted just like in every industry, the aspect of being rewarded and promoted is a motivational boost.[image: ]

Communication

It is no surprise that is the major key to succeed and this is why many people choose team building in order to create a friendly and enthusiastic workplace environment where everybody is free to speak and communicate, through team building, this process is facilitated as members adapt faster to the group with the team building activities, for instance, workers in a textile factory will find it easier to communicate with through meetings where everyone can speak up and voice out their opinions or desire for change and feel the support by other workers.

Culture

Another hidden aspect of team building is the ability to the members learn about other cultures present in a society, Mauritius, as a major example, a multicultural island, where workers from different families are grouped through work and subsequently team building where different cultures are present. Through work, members became aware of the different cultures where further knowledge is achieved and more respect is given to culture automatically show someone how much respect you have for them and that they are in a safe workplace where they don’t have to fear prejudice or discrimination.

Fun

This aspect might be overlooked by many people but having fun is one motivational force that helps people to get up and think how much fun they will have coming to work where they will meet all their friends and participate in the various activities available such as games during lunch time or just the usual talk among workers and all this is reinforced by team building through the various activities being promoted.

Solution to conflict

Team building is not just for people to know each other well or just for daily activities, another major purpose of team building is the mixture of ideas from all members that will help to resolve conflicts in an organisation where everybody is able to share his or her knowledge and how to tackle any sort of conflict in order to preserve fairness at work, for example, workers in the textile factory will rebel against unfair treatment and make the upper manager aware that they are not being treated right, in such situation team building contributes to a positive force for change inside an industry.

References

1. C, P., 2020. What Is Team Building? Definition, Process, Advantages, Disadvantages - The Investors Book. [online] The Investors Book. Available at: [Accessed 11 March 2020].
2. TeamBonding. 2020. Top 6 Reasons For Team Building. [online] Available at: [Accessed 11 March 2020].
3. Richardson, D., 2020. 12 Benefits Of Team Building Activities. [online] Corporate Challenge Events Australia. Available at: [Accessed 11 March 2020].
4. ARMSTRONG, M., 2020. ARMSTRONG's HANDBOOK OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE. [S.l.]: KOGAN PAGE.
5. Steers, R., Porter, L. and Bigley, G., 1996. Motivation And Leadership At Work. New York: McGraw-Hill.