TEAMWORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Teamwork is as old as mankind, and as such many organizations use the term ‘team’ in either one sense or the other i.e such as in the production, marketing processes, etc. Examples are management team, production team or an entire organization can be referred as a team.

Cook (1998) claimed that there is a growing consensus among scholars in the world that organizations may be getting works done through individuals, but his super achievement lies in the attainment of set goals through teams (teamwork). It is a well known fact that teamwork is not only the foundation of all successful managements, but the means of improving overall results in organizational productivity.

Wage (1997) described Teamwork as an idea of working together in a group to achieve the same goals and objectives for the good of the service users and organizations in order to deliver a good quality of service (productivity). Ruth (2007) claimed that employees teamwork is seen as constituting a larger group of people than what job position describes, the essence of teamwork is that workload is reduced and broken into pieces of work for everyone to take part. Alan (2003) defined teamwork as a grouping of professionals whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills. Employees take baby steps toward accomplishing key action items and nothing important is finished. Team work is the ability to work together towards a common vision. It is a fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. Collective action is widely recognized as a positive force for teamwork in any organization or institution to succeed. Teams enable individuals to empower themselves and to increase benefits from cooperative work engaged on as a group. Getting together with others also can allow individuals to better understand the importance of teamwork and how the organizations operate as well as promote the culture of teamwork success.

Davis (2007) claimed that employers always stress the need for employing those (Employees) that can be able to work with a team. And they (Employers) generally talk of teamwork when they want to emphasize the need to various talents possessed by different employees. The organizations however, coordinate the employees into different teams, such as management team, production team, etc. This is purposely to tap from the abilities of respective human resources employed by an organization.

Organization according Caroline (2008) is a social entity that is goal directed, deliberately structured activity systems with a preamble boundary.

Alan (2008) claimed that productivity is the rate at which an employer, company or country produces goods, and the amount, produced, compared with how much time, work and money is needed to produce them.

This therefore, shows that, this study will concentrate specifically on the use of the term ‘teamwork’ which involves reshaping the way work is carried out. This includes organizing employees into teams based on a distinct product, each team performing a particular task. These teams are given a high degree of responsibility and are expected to work with flexibility.

The researcher is interested on this topic in order to understand or know how much organizing employees into teams (Teamwork) has contributed to the improved productivity of Power Holding Company (PHCN Plc,  Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, Zonal Office), New Nigeria National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) Kaduna, Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Kaduna and the Nigerian Breweries Plc,Kaduna, and how it will positively contribute to the organizations.

Statement of the Problem

Every organization, either large or small, struggles to acquire productivity so as to achieve success and maintain a valuable image in this present world of organizational competitions. And it is the wish of organizations to see the input they use (resources) and the output (goods and services produced) they have at the end.

The population of workers in an organization may be very large and yet that organization achieving a very low productivity and with no improvement in their products. Could this occur as a result of absence of teamwork in such organizations. And if it is, then, there are other organizations that have teams and yet achieve little or no productivity at all. It may be as a result of the following problems:

1.                 Lack of Teamwork in the Organization: That is the failure of an organization to coordinate works into work groups in order to tap from the respective human resources the organization possesses.

2.                 Poor Leadership Styles in the Organization: It may be as a result of the leadership style of the organization possibly not favorable to teamwork.

3.                 Poor Leadership of the Work Teams: Different work teams may exist, but lacking the persons with the team leading acumen to lead them.

4.                 Lack of Motivation of the Workforce: The way in which organizations reward their workforce may also lead to low organizational productivity even when their staff work in teams.

5.                 Prevailing Conditions that hinder growth in an Organization: The conditions permanently occurring in an organization (lack of picking-up of innovative ideas) like the absence of designing motivational programs, educational growth, bonuses, job rotation and the use of old technologies, etc,  may be the cause of low organizational productivity.

Objectives of the Study

The general objective of this study is to investigate the contributions of teamwork on organizational productivity. The specific objectives of this study are as listed below:

1)                To find out the effect of teamwork on  organizational productivity.

2)                To investigate the ways leadership styles used by the organizations affect organizational productivity.

3)                To find out the effect of poor leadership on work teams leadership.

4)                To investigate the benefits of motivation to the workforce.

5)                To find out the prevailing conditions that hinder growth to organizational productivity.

Research Questions

For the purpose of this research, the following research questions were formulated to guide this study:

1)                   In what ways does teamwork affect on organizational productivity?

2)                   In what ways does leadership style of an organization affect teamwork?

3)                   In what ways does team’s poor leadership style affect their output?

4)                   What are the benefits of motivation on organizational productivity?

5)                   What are the prevailing conditions that hinder the growth of organizational productivity?

Significance of the Study

It is very much important to maintain the healthy advantages of productivity as a result of its importance to organizations. And teamwork is the best tool which can be used in helping us to achieve it (organizational productivity). Looking at the important role that teamwork can play, to enable organizations achieve this, this study will be very significant to organizations, employers and employees, students, managers and future researchers.

1)                Organizations: Organizations can take the provided information in this study to use it for saving them from their competitive advantage and improving their productivity and the important role teamwork can play in helping organizations to achieve productivity.

2)                Employers and Employees: They can use it to develop and establish firm ideas that will bring about further development in the way and manner employers and employees can achieve the needed goals and objectives.

3)                Managers: Practicing managers can make adjustments in their roles and leadership towards the attainment of the organizational productivity by introducing teamwork in organizations.

4)                Students: This will serve as a guide and reference material to students who intend to carry out a research, read or write more on this topic.

5)                Future Researchers: Those who will make or carry out a research in future will find it useful in meeting their goals.

Delimitation of the Study

This study will be limited to Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc (PHCN Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, Zonal Office), National Board for Technical Education Kaduna, Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Kaduna and the Nigerian Breweries Plc Kaduna. Through the above mentioned organizations, the study will look at lack of teamwork in an organization, leadership style in an organization, poor leadership of the teams, lack of motivation of the workforce, and prevailing conditions in organizations.

Limitations

Definition of Terms

Team: A number of people organized to work cooperatively as a group.

Teamwork: A cooperative effort by a group or team.

Productivity: The ability to be productive by either organizations or individuals.

Leadership: The ability to guide, direct or influence people.

Motivation: The cognitive or social or social forces that activate and direct behavior.