Question

List and describe four common structural inhibitors of teamwork in organizations?

Answer 1

Common Structural inhibitors of teamwork in an organization are as follows:

1. Dysfunctioning or Hindering roles in the team
2. Mismatch of Supervisor-Employee Trust.
3. When there is no Partnership and/or Collaboration across the team.
4. When an opportunity to promote Innovation and Creativity in the team is not enabled.

Let us see them in detail.

Dysfunction or Hindering roles played by somebody in a team indicate actions of individuals that hold back the group's process, progress & success. Some of the types of Hindering roles that act as inhibitors of teamwork are as follows:

• Dominating
• Withdrawing
• Degrading
• Uncooperative
• Side conversations

These inhibitors are likely to occur when there are no result-oriented criteria in the team where there is no actionable result, there are no social criteria where everyone works together as a team and a thought process to improve and sustain the group’s capability to work collaboratively. The Learning – The experience of teamwork should focus on the learning opportunity for the individuals in the team and not towards the individual focus or their agenda.

Other inhibitors of teamwork that were observed in the traditional work environment are as follows:

• Managers decide and allocate the work.
• Work is very scarcely defined.
• Training staff in different processes like cross training is considered inefficient.
• Most of the information/data is considered to be owned by the managers.
• Staff’s are given only technical training while managers and leaders are given soft skill training.
• Taking risks is a punishable offense.
• People are advised to work all by themselves without consultation with others as it may reduce their efficiency.
• Rewards are given only based on the individual’s performance.
• Managers decide what is good for the team and the process.

Conversely, features of good Team Environment are as follows:

• Managers and team members work on a plan together.
• Work requires knowledge, skill and right attitude to work.
• One of the fundamental norms is cross-training and learning from end to end perspective.
• Most of the data/information is freely shared across all the levels.
• Consistent learning and development require administrative and interpersonal skills for everyone including staff and managers.
• Calculated Risk taking is acceptable, encouraged and supported.
• People work together as a team.
• Rewards and Recognitions are based on both individual and team performance.
• Everybody work towards continuous improvement in the process.