The Effects of Team Dynamics on Corporate Communication

Good communication skills are one of the required skills from the human being to maintain and achieve the expected outcomes of the organization or team. An effective communicator tends to work well in a team. Working as a team in any environment is more productive and the expected outcomes tend to be more of a profitable than working alone. In this report there will be the discussion on the effects of team dynamics on corporate communication. The topic will be divided into sub sections: developing positive team dynamics, effect of team dynamics on individual’s behaviour, personality types and team dynamics and also the author personality type will be discussed. The communication theories and the categories identified by Belbin will also be discussed. It is clear that people got deferent personalities and different ways of adapting the group dynamics, the personality type and team dynamics will be discussed. The types of personalities as described by MBTI will be discussed individually. What is Team Dynamics? â€Å"Team or group dynamics concern the fluid and on-going interaction between and among team members, their actions and reactions. Team dynamics relate to the interpersonal and interdependent process of work—how things get done by and through people, and how team members relate to their task and to each other†(Team Dynamics. n. d. ). It is clear that if team members have the shared vision, goals and objectives about the performance of the team, the team can reach it objectives and it can build healthy team dynamics. Developing a Positive Team Dynamics People are unique and got different beliefs, it is therefore very correct that you study your team mates very well and emphasis more on what is important for the group. Having well defined standards and reporting standard to a group leader that will lead to a healthy group dynamics. These standards can only be effective if the team members are committed to the positive interests of the team. After deciding on team rules or standards the team can easily develop the personal relations and develop trust to each other. This trust and personal relations became visible by the time we managed to delegate someone to represent the group on dance practise, we trusted the person the he won’t let us down. We also managed to learn the dance from him. And that has made us to bond more. Effect of Team Dynamics on individual’s behaviour Most people are more effect when working as a group than working alone, other people will find this as a problem. Working in a group of people of different cultures could lead to more tensed environment within the team, it is therefore very correct to learn or try to understand the do’s and the don’ts of other members culture and that will lead to profitable results as it stated that â€Å"Teams working together increase problem-solving skills and innovation, quality, and decrease turnover and absenteeism† (Teresa Armstrong, n. ). After developing positive team dynamics, the group will had the common goal of achieving the expected outcomes. This was shown on the camp when we were doing speed introduction, we managed to know each other better and had a chance to know the dos and don’ts of other peoples culture. This made us to perform well on the activities that were given and submit them on time. What is Personality? Hjelle and Ziegler (1987, p. ) explains that â€Å"personality refers to the overall impression that an individual makes to others†, at the same time Robbins (1979, p. 90) explains that â€Å"personality is the sum of ways in which an individual reacts and interact with others† Personality affects the performance of the entire group, and these authors agree on the definition of personality. The team need to study each member’s personality, hence that will create a healthy working environment. Personality Type and Team Dynamics The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is used to understand the personality of individual, and that can be effective in developing team dynamics. MBTI shows the following characters of personalities: Extroverted/ Introverted, Sensing/Intuitive, Thinking/ Feeling, Judging / Perceiving. Extrovert/Introverted These kinds of people are either described as people who are out spoken, work well in a group (extrovert) or people who focuses on the inner world and this kind of person likes to work individually. Introverts can sometimes frustrate the Extroverts, because of the strength of the Introverts shines when they alone and they are not more in group discussions as it stated that â€Å"Extraverted types who work best by thinking out loud and considering matters in dialogue can be frustrated by Introverted types whose best work on thinking and considering is done internally and detached from active interaction† (Personality Pathways, 2009). Even though these personalities are differing in terms of preferences, they can contribute to the team positively. Hence the introverts in a group will be treated as the knowledge source or the strategist of the group while Sensing/Intuitive Since in the team people have different personalities, here there will be a discussion on how the groups or teams benefits to people with sensing and intuitive personalities. Effective communicators they first identify the problem and then propose solution(s) to the problem, so people with this kind of personality in the sense that they are more realistic, practical and got self confidence. Psychological Types ( 2008a) explains that â€Å"Intuition is an ability to deal with the information on the basis of its hidden potential and its possible existence†, it is therefore clear that this kind of personality can effectively contribute towards the group or team. Hence they are able to foresee the possible outcomes of the task and this will help the group to effectively communicate with vision of the possible solution. This kind of personality is clearly found on someone who is the go-getter and someone who is creative. Thinking/Feeling Psychological Types ( 2008b) explains that â€Å"Thinking is an ability to deal with information on the basis of its structure and its function. Feeling is an ability to deal with information on the basis of its initial energetic condition and its interactions†, people with this kind of personality (thinking) are more in the decision making side. Someone with thinking personality has the greater ability of doing things in logical manner and he ends to pay more attention on the bigger picture of the given task. People with the feeling personality type are more concerned about feelings of other individuals and they are more ethical, which makes them to be good in developing team dynamics. Team with good ethical rules they tend to be more effective and produce quality results. In any working environment there will be some times conflicts and sometimes conflicts can lead a group to informed or uninformed decisions. So people with the feeling personality don’t like conflicts and that could be their weak link, because when working as team there are high probabilities of conflicts and sometimes conflicts are healthy for the survival of the team. Judging/Perceiving Judging Personality type is essential to the success of the group, because people with this kind of personality are creative in making plans, organizing tasks to be done. By having an individual with that kind of personality and the communication channels of the group or team are clearly defined, the team is advantage of achieving its objectives in expected time. The individuals with judging personality is more like the backbone of the group or team because someone with this kind of personality doesn’t give up on the given tasks and that individual can be sometimes be called the information centre of the group, because some of the possible solutions for the group might come from that individual. The other type of personality is called Perceiving. This type of personality is referred to someone who can adapt in any situation that the group find its self in. Individuals with perceiving personality is referred to as more open minded as it stated that â€Å"Perceiving is the preference outwardly displayed. Perceiving people are flexible, and they like to keep their options open and think randomly† (My Personality. Info. n. d). If an individual is described to have the perceived type of personality, the individual need the attention of the group, because the performance of this individual depends on his/her mood. And can be costly to the team performance and the team level of communication, because if the individual is not in mood then the entire team will be affected too. Having well defined ethical behaviour in the group and well established accountability standards that will lead to mutual respect mong group member, effective communication and profitable results in the given activities. The Author’s Personality Type After conducting the online personality type test, the author of this paper was described as ESTJ where E stands for Extrovert, S – Sensing, T – Thinking and J – Judging. The results of the test were exactly the author’s personalities. Even though the test results exactly explain the personality of the author, and the author is strongly agree with the fact that these results are true and also feels that these results are not fully explaining the author of this paper. The reason the author believes that is an extrovert is because of the fact the author can easily adapt to the new group and can easily get along with people of different culture and different backgrounds. This was shown on the camp when I had to be in the cabin with people that I saw for the first time. I managed to get along with my cabin mates and I made many friends from that camp. The effective communicator is not someone who speaks loud but it’s someone who can effectively convey the message to other people without any difficulties and the massage received is clear and unambiguous. The author is also having the sensing type personality, because of the self-confidence that the author has and how realistic the author is. The online personality test also sees the author of this paper as Thinking type of personality, and the author fully agrees with the test results because of the fact that when it comes to decision making for the benefit of the team or group the author excels. Every individual got its own talent and specialization area, and the author of this paper believes that clear communication channels and clear definition of roles in the team, that will healthy working environment. The online personality test has further seen the author of this paper as someone who is having Judging type of personality, and the author strongly agrees with that outcome because of the contributions that the author contribute towards the given tasks of the group and the self discipline the author has. The ESTJ type of personality is more essential towards the success of the group, because in a group there will be different personalities such as INFP. This kind of personality reacts to group dynamics differently as ompared to ESTJ type of personality. So if the group dynamics are well developed to the benefit of the team, and all different personalities are given platform to express its opinions that will lead to effect working environment. Since team dynamics are more concerned about how the group interact, how tasks are scheduled from the start to the end and also how the decision making is made, the personality type of the author of this paper allows the author to fit in any kind of working environment. Knowing what is expected of you in a group, that’s what makes team members to work effectively and deliver what is expected of them. When the team roles are divided is done according to the expertise of an individual member of the group, hence that will enhance productivity within the group. The author of this paper has the very power full mind of looking at things in a way in which will benefit the group. References http://www.personalitypathways.com/MBTI_intro.html http://www.socionics.com/main/types.htm http://www.mypersonality.info/personality-types/judging-perceiving/