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The Impact of Teamwork on Employee Performance in Strategic Management and the Performance Improvement Department of Abu Dhabi Police, UAE
The structures in the community are organized around the government, business, and non-profit organizations. The three sectors in any economy must correlate and work together for the welfare of the society. However, the environment today is changing and there is considerable concern about the effectiveness of the non-profitable organizations, which may lack the capacity and technical expertise to keep up with the change and there by contribute to an enriched and healthy quality of life. According to Eby and Dobbins (1995), many non-profit making organizations are fragile and they are responsible for many responsibilities in the society. Many at times, they fail to meet their responsibilities because their financial and other resources are limited. As the environment changes, the demand for the community based services increases, more new needs are identified than there were before as new paradigms for exchange and interactions are identified. The organizations operating a non-profit are challenged by devising new modes of dealing with the specific challenges that come with the changing environment. According to Stevens and Campion (1994), the organizations can overcome these challenges if they formulate new corporate strategies to manage their employees, the strategies should involve all employees in the organizations. This calls for teamwork and capacity building. Critchley, Edwards and Fallon (2007) notes that the activities of organization are becoming complex daily with the advance in technology and there is need for participation of more than one individual. Many big organizations both profitable and non-profit making are increasing their training and teamwork activities in order to boost their performance. Many obstacles to teamwork have to be overcome for success and effective performance. Such obstacles emerge from the environment and the advancing technology. Also include are the conflicts among employees and the strategy formulation in organizations. Teamwork enables organization to
overcome these obstacles through consultation and sharing of ideas. For success, the team participants must possess some skills and abilities that can enable them to perform their duties pertaining to the tasks of the group. Where such skills and abilities are limited, organizations have to train the employees and impart in them the specific needed skills. Teamwork is important to the organization because it helps the organization improve its performance through cooperation and participation. Strategic management is another important aspect of the management that contributes to effective teamwork. Without proper strategies, the team will lack important tasks to execute hence the lag in the performance of the whole organization. Strategic management should treat teamwork as an independent strategy in ADP and therefore strengthen teamwork in all departments for the effective performance of the individual employees and the whole organization. This will involve strategic planning on how to improve teamwork in ADP through training and increased communication and interpersonal skills. This study is important because it undertakes to study the effectiveness of teamwork as a strategy to increase the performance of employees in the Abu Dhabi Police as a nonprofit making organization. The study begins by the introduction, which highlights the aims and objectives of the study as well as the background to the study problem. It proceeds to the review of previous literatures on teamwork and performance, methodology, data analysis and findings and discussions of the study. The study ends by providing recommendation to ADP for effectiveness of teamwork for its employees and the whole organization.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents....................................................................................................... 4 Chapter One............................................................................................................... 6 1.0 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Research objectives.......................................................................................... 8 1.2 Research Questions........................................................................................... 8 1.3 Study hypothesis............................................................................................... 9 1.4 Significance of the study................................................................................... 9 1.5 Study justification............................................................................................ 10 1.6 Strategic Management & performance improvement Department in ADP......10 1.6.1 ADP Mission and Vision............................................................................. 11 1.6.2 The Strategic context................................................................................11 1.6.3 Security Awareness...................................................................................12 1.6.4 Innovation Strategies................................................................................13 1.7 Thesis structure............................................................................................... 13 1.8 Definitions....................................................................................................... 14 Chapter Two............................................................................................................. 15 2.0 Teamwork and employee performance in nonprofit making organizations........15 2.1Chapter overview............................................................................................. 15 2.2 Basics of teamwork......................................................................................... 16 2.2.1 Developing teamwork...............................................................................19 2.2.2 Components of good teamwork for organizational culture........................21 2.3 Strategic management.................................................................................... 22 2.3.1 The five facets of strategic management..................................................23 2.3.2 Strategic planning and Strategic Management.........................................25 2.4 Teamwork as a Strategy for management......................................................26
2.4.1 The role of management...........................................................................28 2.5 Teamwork and autonomy................................................................................28 2.6 Teamwork and job satisfaction........................................................................29 2.7 Teamwork and performance............................................................................30 2.8 Negative consequences of teamwork on performance....................................32 2.9 Chapter summary............................................................................................ 33 Chapter Three........................................................................................................... 34 3.0 Methodology....................................................................................................... 34 3.1 Approach......................................................................................................... 34 3.2 Research methods........................................................................................... 35 3.2.1 Quantitative approach vs. qualitative approach........................................35 3.3 Strategy of research........................................................................................ 36 3.4 Data collection methods.................................................................................. 37 3.4.1 Population and sample Selection..............................................................38 3.4.2 Design of questionnaire............................................................................ 39 3.5 Data Analysis................................................................................................... 39 3.6 Reliability and validity..................................................................................... 40 Chapter Four............................................................................................................. 41 4.0 Data Analysis...................................................................................................... 41 4.1 Questionnaires and interviews........................................................................41 4.2 Hypothesis testing........................................................................................... 44 4.3 Data analysis................................................................................................... 46 4.3.1 Good employee relations..........................................................................46 4.3.2 Teamwork and employee autonomy.........................................................47 4.3.3 Impact of teamwork on the learning environment....................................48 4.3.4 Teamwork and job satisfaction..................................................................49
4.3.5 Negative consequences of teamwork........................................................51 4.3.6 Teamwork and organizational environment..............................................52 4.3.7 Teamwork and performance.....................................................................53 4.3.8 Teamwork and strategic management......................................................55 Chapter Five............................................................................................................. 57 5.0 Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 57 5.1 Overview......................................................................................................... 57 5.2 Conclusion of the study based on objectives...................................................57 Chapter Six............................................................................................................... 61 6.0 Recommendations.............................................................................................. 61 7.0 References.......................................................................................................... 64
orientation are essential. Based on this, the Strategic management and Performance improvement (SM&PI) Department in ADP considers that the employees should have the capability as well as confidence to deal with critical issues that characterize their work. Most important, performance is crucial because any sloppiness could have adverse consequences on the community as a whole (Grant, 2004). The kind of work that police officers do requires them to work together in groups for them to be successful. Teamwork is so critical that in some cases it determines survival of the organization. Teamwork in the organization has great significance for more than one reason. Organizations that have embraced this concept have reported increased problem solving, employee autonomy and increased performance in work production stimulating new growth. When managed well, this group project approach has increased input by improving employee morale. Teamwork is said to have benefits, which can make a positive impact in the organization. Changes in todays business world have made teamwork a reality in organizations, as knowledge sharing is crucial for success. Employees, managers, as well as executives have to share information. In addition, because of the complexity of operations as well as proliferation of knowledge in various fields, it is essential for employees at all levels to have the opportunity work as teams and learn from each other for them to generate innovative solutions to organizational, efficiency and operational issues (Margerison & McCann 1995). Performance has to focus on team performance as it allows corporation more than competition. The performance of any organization is dependent on employees and how they work. This is in turn dependents on whether there is an organizational culture that promotes a high work performance culture particularly within the top and line management through teamwork. To understand the role of teamwork on employee performance, a case study will be
conducted in which the researcher will assess the impact of teamwork on employee performance in the SM&PI department of ADP. Semi-structured interviews and unstructured questionnaires will be used to collect data, which will be analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings will be validated using multiple perspectives.
1. What are the components of teamwork that are relevant in non-profit organizations such as ADP and specifically the strategic management department in the organization? How does it encourage teamwork as a strategy for employee performance in the strategic department in ADP? 2. Determine the link between teamwork as a strategic policy of the strategic department in ADP given the fact that it is a non-profit making organization. 3. Establish the effectiveness of teamwork on employee autonomy, job satisfaction and the performance of the employees in the strategic department in ADP.
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teamwork on the performance of employees in non-profit making organizations. As a form of strategic management, teamwork is an important strategy to use and apply in todays modern flexible workforce because it can enable the organization improve the performance of the employees hence the overall performance of the organization. This study makes it clear as to why many profitable organizations encourage teamwork and why it is important for non-profit making organizations to emulate their profit making organization to achieve more.
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There were at that time around 80 police officers. Coast Guards Unit in ADP was established in 1960 and in 1962, the first batch of Patrols was established. The first Police Music Band was set in 1963. These are the main steps in the establishment dates of ADP.
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police. Through this step, they are emphasizing people to cooperate with them and to trust them. Abu Dhabi Police also includes traffic and vehicle licensing. They are responsible for granting driving licenses and checking the state of the vehicles and its safety quality. Moreover, they provide instant help in case of car accidents or car break down, as there are many police patrols all over the city streets. A person can perform lot of services online, like registering new vehicle, apply for a new driving license or a replacement for a lost one, renewing the licenses, inquire about the fines or any other information, and pay the fines. Furthermore, they made special section for recruitment and applying for jobs. ADP has supplied toll free numbers for reporting or providing suggestions, in addition to the Call Back Service. They are well known to the Follow up System used.
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Both theoretical and empirical literature will be reviewed with findings on the study topic being provided. Chapter 3 Research methodology; this chapter outlines the various methodologies that the study employs in collecting data and the analysis of the collected data. The study design, methodology, qualitative and sampling techniques are highlighted in addition to the validity, reliability, and limitations of the study. Chapter 4 this chapter analyzes the data collected on the impact of teamwork as a strategy employed in strategic management on the performance of employees in non-profit making organizations. The responses to the questionnaire and interview questions are analyzed and discussed in this chapter. In addition, the findings regarding the performance of the employees in relation to teamwork are discussed. Chapter 5 Conclusion; this is the last chapter of the study that concludes the research by making conclusions regarding the fulfillment of specific objectives of the study based on the findings of the study. Chapter Six recommendations; the recommendations based on the findings of the research are related to strategies on how to improve the performance of employees basing on the application of teamwork to ADP. Moreover, recommendations on further research are provided and conclusion given basing on the findings of the study.
1.8 Definitions
Teamwork: according to Jenner, Foote and Zhao (2010), several people have defined teamwork differently. However, though the views slightly differ, the organization of work using teamwork can be defined as a wide range of possibilities such as quality work, cross-functional teams, self-managing teams, or virtual teams. Many employers usually provide autonomy
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together with teamwork. A distinctive feature of teamwork is the successive work actions to assemble different parts of the product. In places where the aim is to improve the process of production, teamwork is more of complexity, increase in communication and integrative work. However, for the purposes of this study, a team will be used to mean Group(s) of employees who have at least some collective tasks and where the team members are authorized to regulate mutually the execution of these collective tasks (Critchley, Edwards & Fallon, 2007). Non-profit organizations: Strategic management: according to Stevens and Campion (1994), strategic management refers to the process by which the decision making organ of an organization envision the future of the organization and they develop the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that anticipated future.
Chapter Two 2.0 Teamwork and employee performance in nonprofit making organizations
2.1Chapter overview
Both profit and non-profit making organizations are finding teamwork very important in their operations and especially in employee performance and the overall performance of the
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organizations. Many organizations that have established the culture of teamwork do operate with high quality, speed and are more economical in their operations. According to Aichouni (2005), man is unable to live on his efforts alone and he therefore requires the help of a fellow man. Consequently, teamwork in many organizations is as important as the mutual interactions of man. A secure and friendly work environment is not a condition within itself for forming progressive teamwork. Politeness and respect are the first conditions for successful advancement of the team. However, they do not characterize teamwork (Romig, 1996). The important values of teamwork are communication, conflict resolution, and cooperation among employees.
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can be collected in the team through brainstorming sessions where participants state their ideas as they are noted down. Teamwork and conflict resolution: teamwork is an effective means of solving conflicts in an organization. The conflict or problem at hand can be subjected to the views of the participants whose solutions to the problem differ. Conflicts are many and may arise from the steps towards achieving of the given a group goal or the members in the team can disagree on the goal itself. According to Russell (2005), there is no necessity of the team to solve the problems to be performed by a group of individuals. However, the synchronization of individuals, mutual adaptation and co-operation are necessary for solving problems. In addition, the main goal of teamwork is to solve problems. The diversity of the group members means that there are many different opinions concerning the solutions to the problems as the individuals. In order to arrive at the best solution, the team settles of the optimal solution to the problem at hand (Mohrman et al., 1995). According to Leedy and Ormrod (2005), conflicts regarding the given solution to the problem are important because it enable the team to come up with a better solution. A neverending circle in the diagram means that whenever the group is trying to solve the problem, other problems come up.
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Source: Rupar, B & Rupar, M (n.d), Importance of teamwork for non-profit organizations
For an optimal solution to be reached, the group should let go the conflicts and arrive at optimal solution to the problem. Solving problems: this involves ideas that can solve a problem. The solution on the problem is obtained from the ideas obtained from the participants. For the success of teamwork, mutual-
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cooperation and communication among team members is very important. For participants to adjust, they need to communicate and cooperate. Dey (1993), argues that without communication and mutual cooperation, teamwork is unsuccessful. The communication used in teamwork can be either verbal or non-verbal. Through teamwork, the management of an organization can establish the goals of the organization regarding specific aspects with the help of teamwork. Stevens and Campion (1994) adds that effective teamwork can be achieved through motivation of the participants. Successful teamwork leads to quality work and better organizational operations with increased success at all levels of the organization (Linden, 2002).
Source: Rupar & Rupar, (n.d) Importance of teamwork for non-profit organizations
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The first phase involves the formation of a group through the introduction f new members. The new members get to know each other about the problem at hand that united them. According to Boaden and Leaviss (2000), many ideas are put forth in this phase, in which based on adapting in the following phase must be adjusted. Consensus and the voice of the majority must be adhered to in the third phase. The participants must realize the common goal and therefore the idea for their membership. The third phase is the most demanding and the most important. As the realization phase approaches, the participants realize that they need to arrive at an optimal solution to the problem. King (2004) notes that the participants must be careful while negotiating the optimal solution so that they do not lose the support of other members because they will be of importance in the last phase of assuming responsibilities. According to Flick, et al. (2004), the working team should be maintained as a team for success and attainment of the necessary goals. Therefore, successful development of a team means a continuous process. According to Creswell (2007), teamwork is essential to the success of any organization. Productive teamwork can energize the entire strategic department in ADP while the negative effects of teamwork can cripple the department hence entire organization. An organization can succeed if it knows how to select the right team that can work effectively well through cooperation and teamwork. Michalisin, Karau, and Tangpong (2004) adds that knowing how to select the right members of a team is important because no matter how hard a group might work together, without the right people on the job, the team will fail. Teamwork is important for every member of the team including the team leaders and individual members.
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2.2.2.2 Recognition
This is an important part of the success of a team. The team members usually search for recognition. Delarue and De Prins (2004) argue that the department of strategic management should positively recognize the members of the various teams in the department. Positive recognition entails recognizing outstanding performance, continued performance, and improved performance.
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know whether to change its strategies, mission, and objectives or not (Thompson, & Thompson, 2009). According to Levi (2007), strategic planning is a prelude of strategic management and it follows that for strategic planning to be effective, it must be followed by deployment and implementation of the plan and the evaluation of the action plan. Strategic management is a systems approach to identifying and making the necessary changes while measuring the performance of an organization towards the attainment of the desired goal. Strategic management goes beyond the development of the strategic plan. It involves the deployment and the implementation of the strategic plan of an organization (Jenner, Foote & Zhao, 2010). Deployment means the completion of the strategic plan and making it known to every member of the organization. The implementation of the strategic plan involves the resourcing the plan and putting it to action as well as managing the actions. The monitoring and evaluation of the plan involves tracking down the implementation of the plan and assessing how well the department is changing due to the implemented plan and using the information obtained to update the plan while avoiding deviations from the normal (Russell & Ryan, 2009).
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Goal setting: this element of strategic management enables the department to articulate its vision. Through its execution, the department can identify what needs to be accomplished, define the objectives of the department in the short term and in the long term, and relate the objectives to what is to be done in the strategic department. It this section the department also provides its mission statement summarizing its purpose and goals. Analysis: this guides the department to collect and consider information it fully understands. The analysis part can enable the ADP to assess its external environment and internal environment and identify its weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats that the department faces as it tries to meet its goals. Through such an analysis, the department can opt to capitalize on its strengths and available opportunities in the environment to meet its goals and objectives. Strategy formation: according to Ruiz and Bianey (2004), the department can determine and develop a strategy by reflecting and prioritizing options. After its development, the department needs to make the right decisions and review the analysis as it reviews also the issues
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to be addressed while prioritizing them in terms of urgency and magnitude. The results obtained should help the department to design an alternative strategy while addressing key strategy issues. Strategy implementation: for the implementation of the strategy, there is need of the department to assemble the required resources and apply them in the implementation process. The plan that is carefully chosen should be put into practice. Moreover, the necessary commitment should also be used as the strategic department taps into excess capacity or build new capacity and seek to achieve better and higher results as per the goals (Valle & Witt, 2001). Strategy monitoring: this allows the strategic department to check the progress made towards attaining the goals set while assessing whether any changes in the environment necessitate alterations to the strategy. Plans and actions should be modified to adjust the strategy to the impacts of the changes in the environment. When monitoring is effective, the strategic department is able to react and anticipate. According to Pfaff and Huddeleston (2003), monitoring provides feedback to management for the analysis, strategy design, and implementation they conducted.
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Strategic approach is future oriented. It considers environmental change. The use of this approach enables managers to focus on a specific period in future, thus have going concern. The strategic focus has also an external emphasis. According to Cruz et al. (2009), there are several components found in the external environment that strategic approach takes into account such a politics, technology, economics and social aspects. Strategic thinking by management considers that these components are important while making business decisions. Politics for example determines the policies to be implemented, economics the organizations level; of resources to be employed in projects while social factors can determine the benefactors of the products of the organization. Managers consider these external factors while making strategies to meet long term and short-term goals of the strategic department (Leedy & Ormrod, 2005). Strategic approach also concentrates on assuring good fit between the environment and the strategic department while attempting to anticipate the required and assure continued fit. Lastly, the strategic approach is a continuous process that recognizes the need to be open to the changing goals of the department based on the changing factors in the business environment. The process requires monitoring and frequent reviews for feedback on progress.
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According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2007), the effectiveness of the strategies of the strategic department depends on the employees of the organization. The success of the strategies formulated of the organization will depend on the teamwork exhibited by the employees while executing the various tasks related to the objectives of the strategic management department in ADP. Boaden and Leaviss (2000) notes that the employees working as a team would lead to the success of the organization. Teamwork will give employees morale and motivation to work and achieves the given strategies. Moreover, Bowers, Baker and Salas (1994) Adds that through teamwork, the employees conflicts accompanying the workplace and the issues standing in the way of objective achievement can be effectively solved without difficulties. As Stevens and Campion (1994) argue, the labor force today is divers and flexible. The diversity and flexibility of the employees is exploited by big organizations. The employees are involved in decision-making discussions with the management. This is usually made possible through brainstorming sessions where the employees discuss the issues facing them and the organization, hence coming out with perfect solutions to problems and issues. This is only possible with teamwork. Bacon and Blyton (2006) argue that the success of teamwork in an organization also depends on the organizational culture created by the management. The organizational culture of interpersonal communication and training encourages sharing amongst employees. Such a culture encourages teamwork as compared to conservative cultures where employees are not encouraged to share their experiences and skills. Jenner, Foote and Zhao (2010), warn that for the department to succeed, it must also take teamwork important strategies that can enable it achieve its formulated strategies. When teamwork is taken as a strategy in itself, the strategic
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department is able to set up mechanisms of cultivating teamwork. It can also set aside resources for training on important teamwork skills.
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perform complex tasks. Team workers are more likely to learn new things in their work than those not working in teams are.
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The success of a team will also depend o the abilities that the individual members have in relation to working in a team. The important skills and abilities for successful group work are ability to a team player and posses the skills and knowledge necessary to complete the assigns tasks. The completion of a task earlier should enable individual members of a team help other teams finish. This calls for a team spirit in the entire workforce of an organization. Where these attributes lack, teamwork flounders and the management must now engage training for the employees to gain the necessary skills and abilities. Despite these few issues, teamwork works perfectly for all types of organizations. Despite the importance of teamwork in relation to performance, Crosby (1991) admits that it is not easy to teach individuals on how to work in a team. This is because teaching individuals to work in a team goes beyond the limits of any traditionally based training as it involves the training of only the skills that can facilitate teamwork and the internal working of individuals. Teaching teamwork to individuals therefore involves innovative didactic techniques similar to techniques of experimental learning. For delivery of the required results in relation to performance of a team, there is need to specific skills necessary for working in a team (Axelrod, 1997). Where such skills are deficient, the employees should be trained on how they can perform better as a team and therefore enable the department meet its set strategic objectives. In particular, Bacon and Blyton (2006) propose the teaching of the self-management team and the interpersonal team skills. These important skills enhance communication and interpersonal relationship in teams while enhancing teamwork and performance. The self-management team skills enable a team to manage its own activities and resources while working within the limits of the organizations duties (Letts, Ryan & Grossman, 1999).
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The high intensity of work can cause problems to the strategic department if the enlarged job is not accompanied by a great possibility for control over ones work. According to Ketchum and Trist (1992), there is a conflict between the practices in organizations that lead to high performance of employees and work life balance policies. Working as a team in groups plays a larger role in high work demands. People who work in teams think about their work in their free time often than those not working in groups. Therefore, teamwork is not very good for employees social life. Basing on these findings, it is important that the strategic department analyses the effects of teamwork both to the strategic department and to the individual employees before adopting teamwork as a strategy for achieving organizational goals.
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Observation
Confirmation
Fig 3.1 To realize the use deductive approach, quantitative tools of collective and analyzing data like questionnaires and interviews were used. Quantitative tools were preferred as compared to qualitative tools because they enable the researcher to come up with facts like a hypothesis that teamwork can improve the performance of employees in the strategic department of ADP and thereafter testing and confirming the hypothesis. This is unlike qualitative tools that first come up with an abstract idea that is followed by creation of theories and concepts about the idea.
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Lastly, data in quantitative research is hard and reliable as compared with qualitative research where data that is just rich and deep (Quinn, 2002). In addition to the above, this study takes a positivism kind of philosophy towards the impact of teamwork o employee performance in strategic management department in ADP. A positivism approach will make us understand more the impact of teamwork on not only employees but also overall organization.
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no formal measurements involved. Qualitative approach makes the researcher understand the phenomenon under study and be in a position to describe the whole situation as it is. The approach consists of descriptions, quotes, observations, and excerpts from books and other documents (Quinn, p. 2002, p. 308). This study would like the researcher and the reader to gain a better understanding the adoption of teamwork as a management strategy in the strategic department of ADP. The study will provide a detailed explanation of teamwork, its use, and application in the strategic department of ADP. In order to measure the impacts and importance of teamwork on employee performance and the performance of non-profit making organizations, a quantitative approach to research will applied by the study. This will involve gathering information about teamwork and the performance of individual employees in the strategic management department, the performance of the department and the performance of the whole ADP organization. This approach allows the researcher to use statistical data to analyze the impact of Teamwork on employee performance in the strategic department in ADP.
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but relevant interpretations to the topic of study. This study only analyzes one mom-profit making strategic department (ADP) as a case for study although there can be many cases. According to Yin (2003, p. 78), a case is a study that is empirical in nature and seeks to investigate the unclear phenomenon. This study will employ an embedded single case study that gives an attention to a single case study for analysis. There could be more chances of comparing several cases but due to time constraints, the researcher will study the impact of teamwork on employee performance in strategic management strategy in ADP (Jankowicz, 2005, p. 234). A survey is another design that the research uses. A survey is good for this study because it can be administered from any location and large sample are feasible with many questions being asked about the impact of teamwork on employee performance in Strategic department in ADP. In addition to that, the use of surveys makes the researcher employ standard questions that result in uniform definitions and responses from the respondents.
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secondary methods to collect data for the study. The primary sources of data will come from the questionnaires and interviews conducted by the researcher. The secondary sources will include review of both published and unpublished literature that is related to the suitability of teamwork for employee performance in non-profit making organizations. Primary sources will include the review of the findings from the interviews and responses from respondents who are from the department of strategic management department in ADP (Jain, 2006, p. 376).
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line analysis allows the researcher to highlight matching patterns in the text from the different responses allowing quantification of data (Salkind, 2008).
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above validity and reliability, the study is valid ad reliable for use by any person or strategic department (Clarke, 1998)
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2001). Therefore, only 14 interviews were conducted with the rest of the 136 respondents filling the questionnaires and returning them to the respondent. Out of the 136 questionnaires that were distributed to the respondents, only 118 were returned to the researcher. When added to the 14 interviews conducted by the researcher, it sums up to 132 responses, which represent 88%. The questionnaires that were used had both openended questions and likert scale questions. All questions were analyzed except those questions that were poorly or wrongly answered. All responses from all types of questions will be analyzed beginning with responses from likert scale questions. The eight likert-scale questions were rated using a likert scale of 1-5. The analysis that was done was based on the objectives of the study. # Question SA 5 Q1 Q2 How would you rate the level of your organizations teamwork? Do you cooperate with or do your colleagues cooperate with you Q3 while on duty? To what extent? In order to encourage teamwork and cooperation, there is need for communication. How do you rate the level of communication within ADP? Are you able to directly communicate to your boss in case of difficulty or any other issue in the organization? 27 37 36 19 17 136 43 52 A 4 28 18 Ave 3 23 22 D 2 27 20 SD Total 1 15 136 25 136
Teamwork and Employee Performance in Strategic Management Q4 How would you rate the degree of resource commitment in relation to the development and encouragement of teamwork in Q5 ADP? What was the role of formulating teamwork strategy and methods of Strategic management to in 45 37 23 15 16 136 24 18 19 33 42 136
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relation Q6
Q7
dissatisfied How would you rate your level of overall satisfaction with teamwork and cooperation within ADP?
Teamwork and Employee Performance in Strategic Management Q8 How likely are you to recommend teamwork strategy as a strategic management strategy to a friendly non-profit making organization in another industry? Do you think the chances are? 41 48 20 15 12 136
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Q1
How would you rate the level of 34% your organizations teamwork?
20% 16%
2.9
Q2
Do you cooperate with or do your 38% colleagues cooperate with you while on duty? To what extent?
13% 16%
15%
18%
2.8
Teamwork and Employee Performance in Strategic Management # Question SA 5 A 4 Ave 3 D 2 12% SD 1 27% average
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Q3
In order to encourage teamwork 19% and cooperation, there is need for communication. How do you rate the level of communication within ADP? Are you able to directly communicate to your boss in case of difficulty or any other issue in
28% 14%
3.0
Q4
the organization? How would you rate the degree of resource commitment in relation to the development and encouragement of teamwork in
18%
13% 14%
24%
31%
2.9
Q5
ADP? What was the role of formulating 33% teamwork strategy and methods of Strategic management in relation
27% 17%
11%
12%
3.1
Q6
to employee performance? Please rate the importance of 30% teamwork performance. on employee
35% 15%
12%
8%
3.0
Teamwork and Employee Performance in Strategic Management # Question SA 5 A 4 Ave 3 D 2 19% SD 1 15% average
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Q7
17% 34%
2.8
dissatisfied How would you rate your level of overall satisfaction with teamwork and cooperation Q8 within ADP? How likely are you to recommend 30% teamwork strategy as a strategic management strategy to a friendly non-profit making organization in another industry? Do you think the chances are? The discussion of the findings of this study will be conducted in the next section. 35% 15% 11% 9%1.0
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the learning environment in the department. The end result if teamwork. The few respondents who argued that the employee relations were not goods was because the sectors they worked did not involve much consultations and therefore less teamwork. Moreover, they noted that teamwork increases the pace of work leading to higher workload with less autonomy on how the work is to be performed. Thus, the discussion on how work is to be performed is limited reducing the employee relations.
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production process and entitled to take certain decisions autonomously (Benders and Van Hootegem, 1999). The respondents pointed out that they decided the roles and responsibilities to suit the task and individual needs. The respondents noted that they are able to choose their tasks depending on the team they are placed. The different teams perform different functions and it is the reason as to the ability to choose tasks depending in the team. Therefore, the use of teamwork increases autonomy in the employee decisions concerning the work. Though the impact of teamwork on autonomy is positive, Flin and Maran (2004) argues that the autonomy of the team or work group may conflict with the autonomy of the individual worker. The control of quality, planning, and the delegation of responsibilities does not automatically increase the autonomy of employees. The organization of a team can lead to increased workload while intensifying the work without the control of employees over their work (DiMaggio & Anheier, 1990).
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Basing on the above figure, the employees who work in a team are more likely to learn new things than those working as individuals on their own. This was confirmed at the level of both the managers of ADP and the employees in the Strategic management department in ADP. The above figure also shows that the management is 13% points more likely to learn new things at work than those not working in teams. Similarly, in the employees, the difference between team workers learning new things and non-team workers learning new things reaches 15 percentage points (Teamwork, 2007.)
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involved. The hypothesis tested is that working in a team increases job satisfaction. The question asked to test this hypothesis is that On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 represents extremely satisfied and 4 represents extremely dissatisfied How would you rate your level of overall satisfaction with teamwork and cooperation within ADP? According to Kapucu, Maria-Elena and Krause (2007), for employees to be satisfied with the job they perform, there must be two factors that are fully fulfilled. They are the satisfactory and the dissatisfactory. All these are described in the literature review. The job satisfaction min this study is with regard to dissatisfactory. The figure below shows the satisfaction of work and the working conditions.
34% of the respondents pointed out that they were satisfied with their jobs with the dissatisfied group forming 49% of the study outcome. The satisfied respondents pointed out that it is through teamwork that they were able to get motivated on performing of their duties. In addition, they indicated that teamwork helps them learn new skills pertaining their jobs as well as being able to consult when facing difficulties in performing their tasks. This has made work not
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only easier but also enjoyable. Contrary, those who indicated that they were not satisfied by their work were mainly employees of the department who worked as individuals and not in any team. The usually worked on their own with no or little consultation (Moldaschl & Weber, 1998). This makes their work harder because it is not easy to consult or even talk to their managers for help due to bureaucracy. The satisfaction measured in this study was in terms of the work itself, the relations between employees and their managers, the salaries and promotions options. Many employees pointed out that the channels to promotions are high if the work of employees is satisfactory. The salary is in accordance with the job group of the employee while there are bonuses and appreciations for exemplary work done by an employee.
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problems (Jensen, 1997). Despite the challenges pointed out by the respondents, mainly employees, the management maintained that the distribution of work tasks between members of a team does not contribute to the subjective feeling that there is insufficient time to do the work, nor does it help to improve this situation (Rupar & Rupar, n.d). This is responsible for the 11% of the respondents in the figure below.
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their sectors were not working as a team. This is a small margin as compared to the 73% of respondents who indicated that they were satisfied with the level of communication and teamwork in the department.
The department has a wornderful culture that encourrges teamwork. The managers pointed out that teamwork is encourages through appreciations, promotions, training programs and jpob rotation.
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Respondents noted that the teamwork is effective on their performance. Their managers who noted that teamwork encourages employees to work together as a team acknowledged their responses. The discouraged employees are encouraged by their colleagues while consultation and learning in teams enables those who do not know how to perform group tasks perfect on their skills. In addition, conflicts are resolved without many problems. The result is improved employees performance in terms of service delivery to the public and to the whole ADP organization. The managers of the strategic management department in the strategic department pointed out that the improvement in the performance of employees in the department significantly affected the delivery of services of the organization to the public (Anheier, 2000). Since the department realized that teamwork improves the employee performance, they influenced other departments in ADP to adopt teamwork in order to improve service delivery. This has significantly improved the services delivery of ADP as noted by the managers. The figure above indicates that only 20% of the respondents indicated that their performance had not improved due to teamwork. It should however be known that the
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respondents were working in sub-sectors if the department in which employees work individually and they therefore did not realize the importance of teamwork.
The respondents were quick to acknowledge the importance of teamwork to the service delivery of the strategic management department and the ADP. Only 20% o the respondents did not acknowledge the importance of teamwork as a strategy to be adopted in the department and organization in order to improve employee performance. They attributed their refusal to the
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challenges that come with teamwork like increased work, work related stress and reduced autonomy. Moreover, most of the most of those respondents who refused were form sectors in the departments where teamwork was not practiced. The rest of the respondents indicated the importance of teamwork to their performance in terms of service delivery, the department, and the organization.
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However, the results of this study identify decisive findings in this regard. Data analysis did reveal a clear-cut positive correlation between the presence of teamwork and increased autonomy. The responses from the respondents of the study indicated that the employees in the strategic management who were working in teams were able to choose their own working methods to accomplish the tasks assigned. It is clear that the level of teamwork in the department directly influences the degree of employee autonomy. It could be presumed that team workers will be more autonomous workers due to their higher concentration on their professions like accountants, senior officials and managers (Hvenegaard, Jessen & Hasle, 2003). The analysis of data shows that employees in most subsectors in the strategic department display greater autonomy though there are some employees still in the department that do not show any autonomy since there is no teamwork. An examination of the data reveals that, in the case of the opportunity for choosing work methods and pace of work, team workers in the strategic department of ADP have a significantly higher autonomy than employees choose in the same department not working as a team. The possibility of learning new things in ones job also improves the quality of working life and therefore the quality of output. In this case, it can be stated categorically that teamwork contributes to employees personal and professional growth. In the Strategic department in ADP under study, team workers have a greater chance of learning new things and taking part in training paid for by the employer than employees not working in teams have. Teamwork is thus clearly positive in this respect and contributes to the learning environment in an organization. The learning received by employees in turn contributes the quality of work done and the employee performance.
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Satisfaction with working conditions is another indicator of the quality of working life. Team workers display greater satisfaction than employees not working in teams do in the strategic department in ADP. Employees not working in teams are not satisfied. Besides positive impacts on the individuals working life, such as a more developed learning environment, teamwork also has positive aspects. The need to boost productivity and performance, which is usually the primary objective of any organization when introducing new forms of work organization, often demands increased pace of work and greater work intensity. Working in a team generally means a higher pace of work and working to tight deadlines in the Strategic department. Most respondents argued that increased work intensity and work pressure have a negative impact on employees health and private social life. In conclusion, the findings from the study point out that teamwork can take the form of improved employee performance and organizational performance since quality products are manufactured. The increased pace of work, work increased autonomy teamwork affects the quality of output for individual employees positively. The employees will deliver services effectively to the public and the ADP organization. Increased employee quality also improves the performance of the strategic department and the ADP organization. The strategic department acts as a good practice for teamwork with greater autonomy for employees, better access to training and learning new things pertaining the work (Sewell, 2005). In addition, employees in the strategic department in ADP were more satisfied with their work as they worked as a team as well as working conditions. These factors also contribute to improved employee efficiency in non-profit making organization like the ADP and specifically to the strategic department in the organization. Despite the positive impacts of teamwork on employees, many respondents indicated that teamwork affected their social and private life negatively as well as their health.
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This is because of increased pace of work and workload that comes with stress to meet deadlines in the delivery of services. However, the management emphasizes that teamwork is effective in improving the performance of employees and should be adopted in other departments of ADP, despite the negative effects on employees as pointed above.
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environment. However, it has some negative effects that respondents complained of including increased workload and work related stress resulting from increased pace of work, work, and pressure to meet deadlines. To reduce the pressure on meeting deadlines, the management should include training sessions to increase learning and modes of performing the various tasks. With experience, the employees will get used to working in a team yet performing well. Few respondents indicated that teamwork was not improving their performance. Many of the respondents were not working as a team since there was little consultation. This study recommends that the management of the strategic department ensure that teamwork is employed in all sectors of the department for effective outcome. To improve the outcome of teamwork and eliminate the negative comments, the management in the strategic department should initiate the reward system to the exemplary teams. Recognition of efforts will not only motivate the team participants, but it will also create a sense of competitiveness in the department making every member active. The overall effect is the improved performance of the employees and the department. Though the organization is a nonprofit making organization, there should be some funds set aside specifically to motivate the employees in various teams in the strategic department in ADP (Jessen & Hvenegaard, 2000). Communications is very important in the success of teamwork. The organization culture in the ADP and specifically the strategic management department should encourage communication among managers and employees. Communication will enhance the learning environment while strengthening the relations between employees and the management. Effective communication encourages consultations as a crisis and problem solving. In addition, employees will actively participate in brainstorming debates that will yield to better strategic decisions in the department and in the ADPO organization.
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In addition to brainstorming debates, effective communication in the organization will ensure that the management obtains the feedback on every issue in the department and in the organization on service delivery. The availability of feedback will enable the management to know the level of satisfaction with service delivery and therefore develop the necessary strategies to improve where they have failed (Irwin, 1995).
The outstanding members of teams in the department should be provided with new opportunities in the department or in the organization. This is done in order to keep the most effective team members. This can be through undertaking long terms planning of the employees future career plans. Each individual employee should be shown how their career goals could help the department and the organization (ADP) in the achievement of its long-term goals. Moreover, the management should create an organizational environment that is rich in creativity, openness, and energy. These recommendations will no doubt steer the increased and improved performance of the strategic department in ADP and the overall performance of the organization in service delivery.
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