Performance Reviews For The Remaining Team example essay topic

Reflection Paper #3 - Analysing Work Groups Application: I will be discussing a past experience I had upon assuming a leadership position in an established business area that was new to me. I will use the Model for Analysing a Work Group as a way to convey my experience and relate it to the learning experience from week 3. The challenge I had was to lead an established program team to improved performance and to motivate them to create new business opportunities. The system that the team supports has never gone through any improvements and the last 15 years has been only sustainment efforts. The physical environment was such that the team was located 2 miles away from the main facility. The team is constrained to a closed area due to a secret security classification.

There have been no updates to the physical location since the program began and the condition of the facility was in poor shape. The social environment consisted of systems engineers, software engineers and hardware engineers. The informal organization was tight knit and social norms had been developed years ago. The formal organization is resident in the main facility, which is 2 miles away. The department director has been replaced about every 2 years since the program began.

The majority of the components within the system are complex, and because of this, the customer has always considered these components as sole-source and they are not competed in the marketplace. This has allowed the area to operate with little fear of outside competition from other vendors. This has unfortunately resulted in a false sense of security and performance has been declining. Analysis: The contextual factors have been a key determinate in defining the culture of the program team.

The base design for the current system configuration came from another business area, which is located 2 miles away from my program team. This makes communication and idea sharing very difficult. The division of physical locations has resulted in competition for key resources, both physical and manpower. The fact that the entire team is confined to a secured area creates a division of the team from the rest of the company. Peer pressure and informal peer review are confined to the closed area. There has been minimal movement within the business area and the major part of the initial design team is still in place on the program.

Growth has been stagnant due to the lack of any major upgrades to the system. The informal organizational culture has resulted in a strong set of norms that have been difficult to understand and manage. Two leaders have emerged as a result of years of redundant work tasks and the two leaders are exact opposites. Equal sides of the team have adopted the styles of the informal leaders. This has resulted in an organization that is very technically oriented and one that takes forever to make a decision.

The work norms that have emerged do not lend well to a productive work group. The majority of the team arrives late and leaves early. The structure of expected performance is almost non-existent due to the complex matrix management structure used within the corporation. The technical team members report administratively to managers that work in another building. There is no effort expended to gather performance data for evaluations. The administrative managers are conflict adverse, so the performance norms of the area are validated by acceptable performance reviews.

The redundant nature of the work does not provide a reason to change or modify the norms that have emerged over the years. Change is viewed by the team as disruptive and resistance is often exhibited. All individual inputs role up to and will affect the total system performance. Each individual does the minimum to meet the minimum goals. Assessment: The work group as a whole could do much better if they were provided with a reason to improve performance and obtainable yet challenging goals were set. The isolation of the team from the donor design team has resulted in poor communications that have lead to minimal lessons learned.

Isolation from the balance of the resident corporation has resulted in minimal growth, both work based and socially related. Being removed from the main design and management team has resulted in a culture that only rewards for minimal performance. Synergy is realized within the team, however, a much greater level could be achieved if individuals improved their level of individual performance. The continual movement of department directors has resulted in a lack of loyalty for the person responsible for improving performance. By the time the team begins to trust the director, they are transferred to another assignment. With the movement of directors every 2 years being a management norm, the team does not often rally to challenges set by the director.

This makes motivation almost impossible. The past directors attempted to change / modify the cultural norms of the team with no measurable results. They seem to eventually accept the norms of the area and have modified their work norms to align with the norms of the existing business area. This, in turn, has affected their overall effectiveness. When I took over the lead position, the exiting director told me that I would often have time during each day that would be idle. This statement alone is evidence that the management figure became absorbed in the work norms of the area and they had gravitated to the level of least resistance.

Action: Action was needed to improve performance and grow the business area. As the leader of the team I decided that the best way to affect positive change was to become an example for the team to follow and emulate. I made sure I arrived before any team member and I am the last to leave. I removed the non-performers from the system through the formal channels of effective performance reviews. This was not easy because of the relationships that had been built within the team over the years. I make sure all administrative managers include me in on all performance reviews for the remaining team.

I rewarded top performers by utilizing the corporation's many reward systems. I was able to reward all employees last year with a substantial one-time financial compensation reward. This event was the first time any member of management had made an attempt to do something positive for the team. This gave me a great deal of indirect currency with the team. The lack of a goal to improve the system was a major contributor to the status quo environment. I worked within the customer community with the goal of convincing them that a system upgrade was needed.

The end result of my endeavours was the beginnings of a $300 M upgrade effort. This created a challenging goal that would secure the future of the team for at least another 6 years. All of the changes I made were to the task requirements and I provided a formal organization that cared about the future growth of each team member. The group culture changed as time went on and the team saw a benefit to changing the culture. The introduction of some top technical experts brought a new sense of purpose to the team and the team is rising up to the occasion. The work variety has changed with the introduction of new technology into the system.

Training is being afforded to all team members to introduce them to the latest technological advances. The end result has been a marked level of improved performance when measured against program milestones and objectives. There has also been marked improvement in on-time arrivals and a solid 8 hours of productive work is being achieved. Lessons Learned: Fact: Work groups form norms that dictate their level of contribution to the organization. Lesson: Understanding this fact and managing the norms to your advantage can lead to success. Fact: The physical layout of an area can affect or enhance a team's performance.

Lesson: Review the physical layout of a work group and look for constraints. Work to resolve the constraints and structure the area for optimal communications. Fact: The group itself best changes the roles and social ranking of a work group. Lesson: Provide the group with a reason to change and allow them to change on their own. Buy-in to and acceptance of change is best achieved by allowing the ones being affected to change on their own. Fact: Productivity, satisfaction and growth are realized when a challenging goal is created and communicated.

Lesson: Having a goal to work towards provides a reason to perform. Good performance provides job satisfaction and growth is realized when a new concept or technology is used to achieve good performance. Fact: Being a role model for the work group will build trust and loyalty. Providing support to all group members is the foundation to a successful team and is needed to be a role model. Lesson: Act with integrity and always provide work and social support. Talk to each team member and get to know him or her as an individual.