Theory at Work

Running head: THEORY AT WORK PAPER

Theory At Work Paper

Theory At Work Paper

Groups and Teams can become a high-performance team by utilizing certain techniques to help communicate well with the team. I will be taking a look at how cultural diversity can impact group behavior. I will also be discussing how gender, age, and ethic backgrounds as well as how cultural diversity impacts a group. Having good and open communication with everyone will allow the team to have better productivity because they are able to work issues and problems without causing too many conflicts. My boss always says that"two heads are better than one" and he is right! There are many factors that can contribute to a high-performance and efficient team, but we have to remind ourselves of our short and long term goals so that we keep ourselves in line and not be distracted. There are many responsibilities to having a good and productive team and we have to remember to acknowledge our employees. Sometimes all it takes is a little motivation and that will satisfy everyone! In our reading there are many theories that my workplace could fall under, but the one that probably describes us best are the Tuckman's Stages. I will be discussing how this theory applies to my workplace, how to designate team member roles and responsibilities, and how the theory affects my perspective on group interaction in my workplace.

A group can become a high-performance team by working together to develop good ideas and strategies to increase productivity and lessen conflicts. At my workplace it is important to be organized and have a good summary of what our company stands for and the services we provide to our community in order to be able to fulfill our duties. I believe the gender of a person helps establish a group. In order to have a successful team you must be able to have both female and males within the group. Both have been known to work together to come up with a good outcome. It is important to have both sexes because this will give the group the character and by all means encourages everyone to participate within the group or team to better evaluate the situation.

Cultural diversity can be very important because no one person thinks the same. You might be on the same line, but everyone can share their stories to help better understand each other and there way of being. I believe cultural diversity could be good and bad, but overall viewed as a good for a team. There have been many concerns about diversity and how it can affect a team, but if listening and communicating well with each other then this will help to have a good team or group.

Age is an important factor when it comes to a high-performance team. I think that by having different ages, people within the group have different aspects of how to perform better. I think it is important to have older and younger people within the group because an older person has wisdom while younger people look at things with a new perspective. Younger people will be better informed on new technology and it is good to stay on top of things especially when everything is changing so rapidly. A lot of times younger people have a fire and this will help bring in new ideas to the group.

Ethical backgrounds will definitely help a team be better. A strong team will need different ethical backgrounds because this gives a team many different aspects of how things should be accomplished. I like having different ways of doing things because then you can come up with a better and stronger way to perform your duties. It is important to have different backgrounds because this will enable the team to openly discuss their concerns and there way of being and this will make the team become stronger because everyone has shared their way of thinking, which in turn helps the team.

I believe that a key skill to have in all groups and teams is good communication. I think that my company or group communicates well with each other and this in turn keeps our company going. I think that by communicating with each other you understand how each and every person thinks and you can use everyone's strengths and also strengthen the weaknesses to help in having a good team. I think that by being open with everyone you have a better chance to develop a good relationship while also familiarizing each other with all the group members. This helps our accounting staff to become a good team. Without communication everyone would be lost and no one would be able to listen to each other and this would cause chaos in a group. If you communicate well with each other you will have a better productive team.

I believe that having a strong leader in my group has enabled my workplace to remain as a well functioning team. Having a leader will allow a group to set short and long term goals so that the team or group does not get distracted easily as has my workplace. I think that a strong leader provides guidance to make sure that all responsibilities get done in a timely manner. Also having a leader helps my workplace in keeping us motivated for the work we have to do and the work we have already accomplished.

"Tuckman's claims that groups go through four basic and predictable stages of development, each of which contain both task and maintenance functions." (Engleberg and Wynn, 2003) It is through these types of stages that my workplace has to abide by in order to fulfill our responsibilities. Our accounting departments consists of a Fiscal Officer, Bookkeeper, Human Resource Coordinator, Accounts Payable, and Executive Assistant, and it is through our teamwork that our work gets done for our company. This theory reminds us exactly of what and how to do things in order to communicate well amongst each other. We have meetings on a weekly basis if not sooner when needed to go over our task and responsibilities that we have to meet in order to have our jobs be smoother and without too many mistakes.