Research Korner: Creativity and Problem Solving Skills

Team effectiveness

Part One: Workplace Issue: One of the main issues affecting my workplace is employee diversity. Due to the personal and cultural, tensions among employees had been a frequent occurrence. This in turn had been causing considerable work disruptions; moreover, assigning group tasks among the employees had been difficult due to this issue. In order to gather evidence, incident reports relevant to this issue had been compiled and analyzed. In addition, interviews of the employees involved in these incidents had been documented. The aim of the company to maintain order and coordination among the employees urged the management to do something about this workplace problem. Problem-Solving Model: In order to develop a resolution to the identified issue, the management utilized the creative problem-solving (CPS) model. This model was actually developed by  (1992) and is made up of six stages which include objective finding, fact finding, problem finding, idea finding, solution finding, and acceptance finding. The management then followed these steps in order to develop a possible solution to the problem. Steps and Plan: The follow where the activities done by the management in accordance to the CPS model: <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 200%"> Objectives: to maintain order and coordination among the employees; prevent workplace incidents due to discrimination</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 200%"> Facts: work disruption; inability to work in teams; workplace tension</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 200%"> Problem: discrimination due to workplace diversity</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 200%"> Idea: consult human resource management experts; read relevant literatures; attend conventions/seminars</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 200%"> Solution: conduction of team-building activities; conduction of group seminars/discussion regarding workplace diversity</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 200%"> Acceptance: utilization of performance measures; evaluate team-based output in terms of quality and quantity</li> </ul> The plan developed by the company is summarized in a table (Appendix A). The development of solutions for the company underwent a cost/benefit analysis. This helped the management to develop solutions that can be supported by the company’s available resources and can directly address the issue concerned.   Part Two: a. The following are the steps I will undertake in order to deal with the harassment issue: 1.      Provide counseling to the employee. This procedure aims to stress the need for the employee to provide a formal complaint. This in turn will allow me to conduct a full investigation of the report as well as educate the offending team members. The first step will also help assure the employee of privacy and confidentiality. 2.      Investigate the employee’s complaint. As soon as the complaint has been forwarded, an investigation will be carried out immediately; this will prevent the issue from worsening or being neglected. For this purpose, employees involved in the report will be interviewed; these include the complainant, harassers and potential witnesses. During this process, the interviews will be documented and preserved as evidence. In conducting this procedure, legal advice through the company’s lawyer will be obtained. This will help in determining whether harassment has really taken place and what proper actions should be done. 3.      Take action. Depending on the result of the interview, degree of the complaint and the assessment of the legal adviser, proper actions will be done. Proceedings of the decision will be relayed to the complainant as well as the harassers. Should there be a need to terminate the harassers, the company management will ensure that the complainant will not suffer from any form of retaliation. For this purpose, work environment of the employees will be monitored regularly. 4.      Prevention. It is essential that similar incidents should be prevented from happening again in the future. Hence, if it is required, stressing or modifying the company’s harassment policy will be done. In addition, educational workshops that would promote harmonious working relation will also be carried out. b. The following are the steps I will undertake in order to deal with the meeting disruption issue: 1.      Respond to the team member. If a member is constantly asking for my attention during the meeting, it is likely that we are communicating well. It is important that the question of the member is answered directly in order to prevent waste of time. 2.      Communicate with the employee. In order to prevent the same constant interruption from happening, I need to understand why the member is behaving in that manner. This will also help me determine if there is something unclear or upsetting in the meeting that bothers the employee. Through this, I will be able to become more aware of the members’ different emotions and moods while in a meeting.  (1996) also noted that meeting participants who are fragile, nervous or annoying should be given attention; handling their problems immediately while in a meeting will help prevent further interruptions and waste of time. 3.      Prevention. In order to prevent constant interruptions during a meeting, initially inform the participants that questions would just be entertained after the discussion or that they could just direct their queries through e-mail or at a certain time of the day.   Part Three: 1.      The company made a number of considerations in order to prevent the same problem on job outsourcing from happening again. One of which is the approach it will have to use in order to obtain a favorable response from the employees. By means of communicating openly with the Action Learning Team, the management was able to obtain the employees’ full support for further job outsourcing. The company also considered how the employees will respond to this new hiring plan. Furthermore, the management also considered its current relationship status with the workforce. 2.      The success of the company’s initiatives can be attributed to honest and open communication observed in the workplace. Through this approach, employees willingly approach the company’s plan for further job outsourcing without reducing their productivity level or causing major work disruptions. The absence of problems in the company enabled the management to carry out its plans smoothly. The collaboration of the management and the employees brought about by open communication also made the implementation of the change easier for the company. 3.      The consultative and united approach helps in maintaining the good working relations between the management and the employees. Through this, workers can be made aware of the company’s plans; making the employees part of the decision-making activities can stress the role and value employees have for the company. This in turn fosters good working relationships. Communication also prevents employee-management conflicts; for instance, if the company openly discusses its plans for changes with the employees, resistance will be prevented or minimized.   Appendix A: Plan 1st week Assessment:   identification of the problem   gathering of evidence   development of objectives 2nd week Data Gathering:   consultation of experts   attend seminars/conventions   read relevant literatures   conduction of cost-benefit analysis 3rd week Implementation:   conduction of team-building activities 4th week group seminars 6th week Monitoring:   evaluation of team output   evaluation of individual performance 7th week analysis of monitoring results   identification of problem areas   development of ideas for improvement

Team effectiveness

Part One: Workplace Issue: One of the main issues affecting my workplace is employee diversity. Due to the personal and cultural, tensio...