Angro n Pakarab THE CENTER OF ATTENTION WORK TEAMS

Angro n Pakarab

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THE CENTER OF ATTENTION

WORK TEAMS

WHAT IS A WORK TEAM?

“Group whose individuals efforts result in a performance that is greater than the sum of those individuals’ inputs.”

WORK GROUP

“It is a group that interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each other perform within his or her area of responsibility.”

TEAMS vs. GROUPS

The following four factors help us to distinguish between work group and work team:

Goal:

Primary goal of the work group is to share the information whereas the work team strives for collective performance.

Synergy:

Work team generates positive synergy through coordinated efforts whereas work group result in low synergic impact, even in some cases it generates the negative synergy.

Accountability:

In work teams both individuals as well as the whole team stands accountable for its performance whereas in work group only the group is stands liable for the group’s performance.

Skill:

There is no much difference of skill level in the work team and the group but in the work team skills are complimentary whereas work group skills are random and varied.

TYPES OF TEAMS

There are three popular and generic types of teams:

1-Problem Solving Teams:

It is a Group of 5-12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss the ways of improving quality, efficiency and the work environment.

2-Self Managed Work Teams:

It is a group of 10-15 people who take on responsibilities of their former supervisors.

3-Cross Functional Teams:

Employees from the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas who come together to accomplish a task.

Other Variable Types Of Teams Are:

· Study teams

· Committees

· Task forces

· Product development team

KEY ROLES PLAYED BY THE TEAM MEMBERS

CRITICAL FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO THE HIGH PERFORMANCE OF AN EFFECTIVE TEAMS

1-Size of Work Teams:

The best work teams tend to be small. Recommended size for an effective team is 5-12 members so it will be easy to develop cohesiveness and commitment and mutual accountability.

2-Abilities of Members:

Abilities of members highly affect the performance. Key abilities like technical expertise, problem solving skills, decision making skills and interpersonal skills must be hold by all the members of the team.

3-Common Purpose:

Common purpose provides common direction, momentum and commitment for the members. So teams work for the mutual interest of the organizations.

4-Specific Goals:

Clear, specific, measurable, and realistic goals assigned to different members of the teams stimulate the individual’s performance.

5-Leadership and Structure:

Leadership and structure directly affect the performance of the teams. Excellent leadership along with the appropriate structure help individuals to work in flexible environment and as a result increase the performance.

6-Performance Evaluation and Reward System:

Subjective performance evaluations and inadequate reward systems negatively affect the performance where as appropriate rewards for both the individuals and teams encourage the team members and result in high performance.

7-Mutual Trust (key factor to effective team):

Mutual trust not only improves the performance but also enhances the coordination and decreases the conflicts among the team members. Integrity, competence, consistency, loyalty and openness are the five dimensions that underlie the concept of trust. Higher the trust, higher will be the coordination that helps to improve the performance of an effective team.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE TEAM

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN MANAGING TEAMS

Teams & TQM

TQM, a new concept in management exclusively depends upon the team efforts. TQM requires management to give employees the encouragement to share the ideas and act on what they suggest. Teams provide the natural vehicle for employees to share ideas and to implement improvements. Because of the cognitive limits it is very difficult for the individuals to develop all effective ways for solving the structured and unstructured problems. In the teams knowledge and skill is diversified so strategies emerge and processes are managed in effective way. Coordination, commitment and trust are the key elements of effective teams and these are also highly demanded for the TQM.

Reinvigorating Mature Teams

It is fact that team’s performance start decreasing after certain time period. There are two obvious reasons for this:

1. Members become reluctant to express the openness to novel ideas and innovation. They themselves assume the ideas of others and take the decisions.

2. In earlier stages teams are assigned the simple task so the performance is better in the early period. There are four strategies to reinvigorating the mutual trust:

i. Prepare members to deal with the problems of maturity.

ii. Offers refresh training.

iii. Offer advance training

4. Encourage teams to treat their development as a constant learning experience.
ARTICLE # 1

Title: Life Cycles of Executive Teams

Author: Edwin Lee

Source: www.elew.com

Main Idea:

Do you really want a highly cohesive and highly effective management team?

THE P4 GROUP

This article is based on a question, about P Groups, rises at a management workshop conducted by the business School of Santa Clara University in 1984. P Groups were someone's way of describing the characteristics of a management team in terms of the team's effectiveness and cohesiveness. That is, one team might be low in effectiveness and low in cohesiveness at one extreme, and another team high in both characteristics at the other extreme.

Ideal team is one which is both highly effective and highly cohesive, a P4 group. During that workshop the author developed the concept of the Life Cycles of Teams.

A TEAM IS A LIVING ORGANISM

One of the great breakthroughs of the 1950's was that management consultants became aware of management teams as entities. Since then, managers and Organizational Development professionals have devoted enormous efforts to develop healthy, effective teams and to help team members work smoothly together.

Author’s association with team dynamics has been intensely practical. He has been involved with several social movements, several project teams, and many business organizations. In the process He has participated in the birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death of many teams. Birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death serve vital purposes in an individual life and for the entire human species. The birth, growth, decay, and death of an executive team serve critically important functions for the business as a whole and for team members.

In this article author describe the values and drawbacks of each phase of the life cycle both to corporate vigor and to individual growth. He showed how an attempt to maintain a highly effective, highly cohesive management team undermines both the health of the company in which it operates and the personal growth of the individuals who are part of that team! It would be better for all concerned to hasten the death process rather than fight it!

AN OVERVIEW OF A TEAM'S LIFE AND DEATH

Figures 1 and 2 briefly describe an overview of the Life and Death of a typical management team.

Fig. 1: The life cycle of executive teams. The period from Birth to Maturity is typically two to three years. Maturity to Decay may take two to five years. Decay to Death takes less than a year and is triggered (usually) by a catastrophe the team produces.

An executive team is formed to achieve specific strategic business objectives within a few years. In the first few months of the team's life, its cohesiveness is low and its effectiveness is low (Fig. 2A). There is much uncertainty about how the team will work together. This is the team's childhood, a time of maximum learning by team members, and maximum sensitivity to the world outside the team.

As team members learn from one another and take successful actions together, the team's effectiveness and cohesiveness increase. This increases the members' enthusiasm and commitment to the team. This is the team's adolescence…teenage (Fig. 2B).

Eventually the team accomplishes its first major success, the strategic objective for which it was formed. That strategic success marks the point at which the team is considered to be highly cohesive and highly effective. But cohesiveness has a dark side: lack of openness to the world outside the team or to new team members (Fig. 2C).

Fig. 2: Relationships among team members and between team members and the world outside the team. Shown for different times in the life cycle.

Once the team becomes highly effective and highly cohesive, the communication of new information between the outside world and the team and among team members deteriorates (Fig. 2D). Team members no longer listen to one another because they already know what to expect. They become bored with their predictable roles.

After decay becomes well established, some CEOs seek outside help to restore their teams' to peak performance. Consequently, the restoration efforts tend to focus on communication and cohesiveness. Sometimes these efforts temporarily slow the decay process.

Loss of effectiveness eventually overcomes the exaggerated management energy committed to cohesiveness, and the team disintegrates (Fig. 2E). Disintegration (death), frees team members to participate in new teams where they can renew their enthusiasms, develop new personal relationships, and revitalize their atrophied learning processes

PROJECT TEAMS AND EXECUTIVE TEAMS

A project team and an executive team start life in much the same way. The significant difference is that a Project Team is disbanded when it achieves its initial strategic success. Project team members are rewarded, but one of the rewards is not continued employment. Executive Team members expect continued employment in return for past success.

COMMENTS

When a team is formed it focuses on the future. Once it succeeds it focuses on the past. Team members are usually selected based on how they will contribute to the teams strategic objectives. Once the team attains its first strategic success, however, a member of an executive team gets to stay on the team as a reward for the team's success.

I- Success breeds failure. In business it is difficult for a team to repeat its success. A study of management teams found that most successes are followed by major failures.

II- Failure can breed success.

III- Term limits of no more than 8 years for executives and executive teams would improve business effectiveness more than any other management change.

CONCLUSION
A highly effective, highly cohesive team is a transitory state in a dynamic process. Business management will improve significantly when executives respect the values of that process and work with its dynamics.

ARTICLE # 2

Title: 7 Keys to Building Great Work teams

Author: Suzanne Willis Zoglio, Ph.D.

Source: www.teambuildinginc.com

Main Idea:

In this article author has emphasis that how leaders can foster the performance and productivity of the work teams. She has identified seven key elements which high-performance teams have in common.

1. COMMITMENT

Commitment to the purpose and a clear sense of direction. Team members understand how their work fits into corporate objectives and they agree that their team's goals are achievable and aligned with corporate mission and values. Commitment of members towards team’s goal can be enhance by allowing them to develop team mission, vision, and values statements by themselves.

2. CONTRIBUTION

The power of an effective team is in direct proportion to the skills members possess and the initiative members expend. Work teams need people who have strong technical and interpersonal skills and are willing to learn. Three factors affect the level of individual contribution: inclusion, confidence, and empowerment.

Inclusion: The more individuals feel like part of a team, the more they contribute; and, the more members contribute, the more they feel like part of the team.

Confidence: Confidence in self and team affects the amount of energy a team member invests in an endeavor. The more members are confidant the more the more they like to contribute. The confidence of team members can be bolstered by providing feedback, coaching, assessment and professional development opportunities.

Employee Empowerment: Another way to balance contribution on a work team is to enhance employee empowerment by involving them in decisions and giving them right training.

3. COMMUNICATION

For a work group to reach its full potential, members must be able to say what they think, ask for help, share new or unpopular ideas, and risk making mistakes. This can only happen in an atmosphere where team members show concern, trust one another, and focus on solutions, not problems. Communication --when it is friendly, open, and positive --plays a vital role in creating such cohesiveness.

4. COOPERATION

Success of the work teams depend upon the degree of interdependence recognized within the team. The following F.A.C.T.S. model of effective team member behaviors (follow-through, accuracy, timeliness, creativity, and spirit) may serve as a guide for helping teams identify behaviors that support synergy within the work team.

Follow-through: Team members are keenly aware that as part of a team, everything that they do --or don't do---impacts someone else.

Accuracy: We do each job right the first time.

Creativity: Innovation accompaniments on a team when individuals feel supported by colleagues.

Timeliness: When work team members are truly cooperating they respect the time of others by turning team priorities into personal priorities.

Spirit: Value the individual; develop team trust; communicate openly; manage differences; share successes; welcome new members.

5. CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

The problem is not that differences exist, but in how they are managed. People wrongly believe that conflict never occurs in "good" groups, conflicts do exist but these are the sources of new ideas.

Three techniques that help members shift obstructing paradigms are reframing, shifting shoes, and affirmations.

Reframing: is looking at the glass half-full, instead of half-empty.

Shifting Shoes: is a technique used to practice empathy by mentally "walking in the shoes" of another person.

Affirmations: are positive statements about something you want to be true.
6. CHANGE MANAGEMENT

It is no longer a luxury to have work teams that can perform effectively within a turbulent environment. It is a necessity. Teams must not only respond to change, but actually initiate it.

7. CONNECTIONS

A cohesive work team can only add value if it pays attention to the ongoing development of three important connections.

I- When a work team is connected to the organization, members discuss team performance in relationship to corporate priorities, customer feedback, and quality measures.

II- When a work team has developed strong connections among its own members, peer support manifests itself in many ways. Colleagues volunteer to help without being asked, cover for each other in a pinch. A few ideas for developing and maintaining such connections are: allow time before and after meetings for brief socialization, schedule team lunches, create occasional team projects outside of work, circulate member profiles, take training together, and provide feedback to one another on development.

III- Teams that connect well with other work groups typically think of those groups as "internal customers". They treat requests from these colleagues with the same respect shown to external customers.

INTRODUCTION TO

ENGRO CHEMICAL PAKISTAN LIMITED

In 1957 when the search for oil by Pak Stanvac, an Esso/Mobil joint venture led to the discovery of Mari gas field situated in the vicinity of Daharki - at the time a small town in upper Sindh province. After a few years of studies, Esso developed a proposal to build a urea plant. The government, eager to promote the use of fertilizers in Pakistan, approved the proposal and Esso Pakistan Fertilizer Company Limited was incorporated in 1965, with Esso owning 75% of the shares and the Pakistani public the remaining 25%. Shortly thereafter, commenced the construction of a urea plant of 173,000 tons annual capacity. The plant was commissioned on December 4, 1968, at a cost of US dollars 43 million. Esso's investment at the time represented the largest foreign investment in the private sector of Pakistan.

Esso launched the Company's own branded urea called

"Engro" - an acronym of "Energy for Growth".

In 1978, as part of an international name change program, Esso became Exxon and the company was renamed Exxon Chemical Pakistan limited. The Company continued to prosper as it relentlessly pursued productivity gains and strived to attain professional excellence. The plant capacity was debottlenecked in low cost steps to 268,000 tons, high standards of operational safety attained and Engro Urea enjoyed a premium in the market.

The healthy growth in demand for fertilizers in Pakistan presented opportunities to expand the business of the Company. However, a major investment by Exxon was unlikely because in a global sense it did not view fertilizers as a core strategic business which fitted with its long term plans.

Early in 1991, Exxon announced their intention to sell their 75% share of Company's equity. An employee led buy out, enabled 28% of the equity to be acquired by the employees and their Trust. Several financial institutions acquired the balance 47% of the company's shares that were previously held by Exxon Corporation. It enabled the ownership to be restructured and the Company was renamed Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited.

The employee-led buyout of Exxon's equity was the first of its kind in the corporate history of Pakistan. As part of the buyout, agreements were signed with Exxon for technical and project management support and for the continued use of the Engro brand name. The change in ownership's allowed the Company to proceed with an expansion project to more than double its capacity to 600,000 tons in 1993. During 1995 the plant capacity was further increased to 750,000 tons per annum. In 1998, the Company successfully implemented an expansion cum modernization that enhanced the urea capacity to 850,000 tons per annum and appreciably improved the environmental performance of the plant site. The company is currently reviewing up its next debottlenecking step to take the capacity to 950,000 tons per annum.

Engro's strong presence in the fertilizer industry and its endeavor to cautiously diversify and pursue opportunities in petrochemicals has attracted the attention of several international venture partners. The future prospects look promising as the organization is effectively managed by a highly professional team totally committed to preserving its core values and adhering to highest standards of safety, business ethics, integrity, etc.

Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited is the second largest producer of urea fertilizer in the country and is well positioned to take advantage of the growth and challenges in the agricultural sector. Apart from selling its own manufactured urea, Engro also markets imported di-ammonium phosphate and other potassic and phosphatic fertilizers. For the last two years it is also dealing in the Seed business with its brand name “ENGRO BEMISAL”.

ANALYSIS: WORK TEAMS PRACTICES AT “ECPL”

Over 700 employees are working at ECPL for carrying on the operations of the organization effectively and efficiently. They are having the skilled and efficient employee that’s why they are progressive and growth oriented.

The team concept is in practice in the organization. Which make ECPL one of the leading organizations in this dynamic work environment. They are maintaining the teams in their organization according to the international theory of teams like Study teams, Cross functional teams and Self-managed teams. Anyhow they do have the teams with the responsibility of problem solving in their organization, but they are not having the separate teams for the solution of various problems.

The organization do give the due authority for the implementation of the decisions whatever the teams consider fit for the organization. The organization considers each separate department as a separate team and within one department there are different teams for the different purposes and different activities.

According to the ECPL the size of the team is basically dependent on the size of the department and job description. Most of the time these teams at ECPL have 5-20 employees for the performance of various activities in a sub team while in a team that is department wide that consists of about 50 employees from the same department.

Structure of the team is highly correlated with the structure of the organization. That’s why the various teams at this organization are performing at or above the expectations of the organization.

Whenever the top management of the ECPL is building teams for the performance of the crucial activities it do considers the members’ abilities, skills and knowledge and experience. For the proper working of the teams the top management gives priority to the experience and abilities so that all the time teams’ performance is up to the mark.

Sometimes if there is any conflicting situation in the organization then the members of the teams are also playing the role of organizer, advisor and controller and they resolve the conflicting situation as early as possible.

The management believes that factors like size, ability, specific goals, leadership, performance evaluations and reward system highly affect the teams. Because if the size of the team is too large than the requirement then the productivity suffers. Similarly if interpersonal skill is also not up to the demand of the team’s performance then the efficiency also suffers and the like specific goals and leadership, performance evaluations and reward system also affect the performance of the teams. On the other hand, factors like structure, accountability moderately affect the teams. In addition to above all, the element of trust is very important in the team’s activities.

The rewards are allocated to the members on individual basis for the performance of the individuals in the organization and sometimes the reward allocation is done on the teams’ collective performance.

As we see that team members are individually responsible as well as on the part of the whole team. Often management makes responsible the team members individual because it thinks that it is better to get increased efficiency with the realized responsibility of each member separately.

The shaping individuals to team is also a crucial matter in the organization that’s why the organization believes that training and motivation is necessary for the formation of teams and turning individuals into team and shaping their separate, individual behavior into team’s collective behavior.

Whenever the different teams in the organization meet the goals, the top management ensures the individuals contribution of each and every member of the team through clear communication and reinforcement because it heavily relies on the individual reward allocation. So each and every member at this organization tries its level best to contribute in achieving goals that lead to the organization superior performance and growth.

Commitment of the teams toward the goals is a key to the effective team. Organization measures the commitment through the achievement of the teams and motivation level of the individuals. The organization ensures friendly, open and positive communication between the members of the team by becoming fair, honest, and discussing conflicts in open way.

Management pursue the inter team relationship by sharing the resources offering suggestions and celebrating together. For the development of the inter team relationship the organization arranges the schedule lunches and socialization programs of members.

To build the strong connection between the teams the organization arranges cross team meetings frequently. The organization believes that individuals prefer to work as a part of the team rather than working alone. They highly agree upon the team concept in the organization and argued that the organization’s goal could only be achieved through the collective team efforts.

PART (II): TRUST

Person who filled this part of the questionnaire, he has been working over there for the last seven years. The person believes that productivity of the team is always greater than the individual. The person is motivated to join the team by collective wisdom and sharing the ideas.

The person believes that the trust is the key factor for effective teams because it determines the performance of the team whether it is achieving its objectives as per expectations of the top management or not. That’s why this concept is lying in the team every where in the organization.

He believes that the dimensions like integrity, consistency, loyalty, competency and openness all are equally important and prior to one another for developing the mutual trust among the teams.

For developing the trust among the team members we also consider the factors like a member should act as a team player, practice openness, speak one’s feelings, maintain confidence, and most important is to work for others. The members also believe that accuracy, creativity, timeliness and spirit are very important to improve the co-operations.

Employee motivation to perform effectively is increased by employee recognition programs, rewards, the challenging jobs, different training courses. The person argued that decision making authority must be given to the team members and it is highly practiced at ECPL. At the end he feels pleasure to work as a team member rather than working alone.

INTRODUCTION TO

PAK-ARAB FERTILIZERS (PVT) LTD.

Pak-Arab Fertilizers is a living symbol of fraternal relations between Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Emirates of Abu Dhabi. The company was established as a result of protocol concluded and signed on November 15, 1972 by the two governments to further strengthen the brotherly ties through establishment of a joint venture in the filed of fertilizer industry for exploitation natural resources available to the mutual benefits of two brotherly Muslim countries. Consequently a memorandum of understanding was concluded between West Pakistan industrial Development Corporation of Pakistan (WPIDC) and Abu Dhabi National Company (ADNOC) of Abu Dhabi on March 7, 1973 followed by a participation agreement on November 1, 1973 to establish a joint venture for expansion and modernization of the natural gas fertilizer factory Multan. Thus the company was incorporated on November 12, 1973 with authorized capital of Rs 1000 million.

WPIDC interest in the company were assumed by National Fertilizers corporation of Pakistan (NFC) as a result of reformation of public sector corporations and ADNOC interest in the company had been assumed by Abu Dhabi (IPOC) Pakistan has equity share capital participation through NFC and Abu Dhabi through IPIC in the ratio of 52% and 48% respectively with the paid up capital of Rs. 743061M.

Pakarab fertilizers is the largest fertilizer complex in Pakistan and is the only fertilizer manufacturing facility producing compound fertilizer in the country. Fertilizer production plants of Pakarab Fertilizers are located about 08 kilometers from the ancient city of Multan which were completed in 1978 at a total cost of Rs. 2279.010 million inclusive of Rs. 1326 million foreign component. About 1000 employees are working in the organization.

ANALYSIS: WORK TEAMS PRACTICES AT “PAFL”

Although Team concept is in practice at Pak Arab Fertilizers Limited but it is not in its particular real shape and name. They do maintain the Cross-functional and cross sectional team in their organization. They give limited authority to the team members for decision-making and implementation of their decisions but not in all aspects. The size of the team varies with respect to the type and job of the team. The size of the team for the operational activities is relatively larger then that of the warehousing and marketing activities. But as a whole they believe on the small team concept as they consider it as more productive and effective.

The management at this organization considers all the departments as separate teams and structure of the teams also follow the structure of the organization. They form the team on the basis of skills and knowledge and responsive to the problems when ever these problems arise. While forming the teams they do considers the interpersonal skills as core characteristics. Members play the role of creator, linker, promoter, advisor and maintainer in addition to their normal activities. Management considers the size, specific goals, accountability and performance evaluations, reward allocations and mutual trust are highly affecting the team performance at the Pak Arab Fertilizers limited. While the structure and leadership moderately affect.

Rewards are allocated on the individual and mutual team basis and the members are accountable both individually and as a whole for the team performance. Individuals are motivated to turn them into team members through selection of right people, providing them the appropriate training and extending rewards.

Inter team relationships are managed through building the trust between the team members. Inter team relationship is pursued through sharing the resources and celebrating together & with the more socialization of the members and combined training. Commitment of the member towards the organization’s goal is measured by meeting the targets; the actual performance is compared with the standards already formulated.

Contribution of each team member towards the team is ensured through individuals performance evaluations and providing them proper training. The organization ensures the friendly and open communication between the team members through increasing the mutual interactions of the members.

Cross team meetings are play vital role in developing the strong relationship between the teams from various functional areas. Employees prefer to work as a part of team thus the team increases the commitment and organization can achieve its goals in efficient way.

Management feels that team is good for performing the right kind of activities within the organization and outside the organization as well. So they are highly impressed with the teams’ performance and their relative expectations.

PART (II): TRUST

The person is working for ten years in this organization and he is more willing to work as a member of the team because he knows that the output of the team is more important and greater than the individual output in the organization.

The reward systems, diverse skill knowledge, learning of new things and ideas and building confidence are the major motivating factors for joining the teams.

He believes that the trust is the key factor that’s why it is essential part of their teams. All mentioned dimensions i.e., integrity, consistency, competency, loyalty and openness are important for building the mutual trust between the teams. Trust can be created and develop through practicing openness and showing consistency and demonstrating the competency.

Reframing (compromising, win-win) approach is considered to be the best approach to manage the conflict between the team members and the “FACTS MODEL” is the best way to improve the cooperation between members. The person believes that decision making power and authority must be given to the team members for the implementation of decisions effectively and efficiently.

TEAM PRACTICES

AT “ECPL” & “PAFL” AND THE GLOBAL PROSPECTS

The concept of teams and teamwork is increasingly becoming an important key to productivity and employee satisfaction in the contemporary workplace. Teams have definitely become important in organizations because, increasingly, data shows that productivity, quality, and morale improves when teams are utilized. There are many reasons for these positive outcomes but what we have found at ECPL and PAFL is:

· Teams produce a greater quantity of ideas and information than individuals acting alone.

· Teams improve understanding and acceptance among individuals involved in the process.

· Teams create higher motivation and performance levels than individuals acting alone.

· Teams offset personal biases and blind spots that hinder the decision process.

· Teams sponsor more innovative and risk-taking decision making.

The advent of the global business environment has caused major changes in who does the planning, how it is done, and the content of the plan. It is common to find teams of line and staff managers globally. There are several traditional techniques often used to improve team performance and what we find consistent with ECPL & PAFL that not according to the world standard but up to some extent they are using such techniques.

· Plan and schedule the work to be done;

· Schedule which team member will handle which assignments;

· Select, layout, install and manage new equipment;

· Secure predictive/preventive maintenance for their equipment;

· Repair, or secure repair for, their equipment;

· Organize their own material supply process;

· Contract directly with outside suppliers, or negotiate with purchasing department about their input quality and timing requirements;

· Set up regular feedback and interaction channels with customers;

Some of the Similarities Exist Between Two Organizations

· Create a common, shared goal

· Promote interdependency

· Have measurable outcomes

· Continually stress the team's purpose

· Make sure team members have the right skills

· Use training to help team members develop interpersonal, intercultural skills.

· Spell out lines of communication

TEAM PRACTICES

COMPARISON BETWEEN “ECPL” & “PAFL”

ECPL is 2^nd largest company in the fertilizer company of Pakistan, it hold almost 22% production shares after FFC, which has about 58% production share. ECPL has two plants with total capacity of 850 MT. While the PAFL keeps 10% production share and it has one plant.

Approximately 700 employees are working in ECPL and about 1000 in PAFL.

ECPL has got the mixed structure regarding centralization and decentralization in both decision-making. It has got the simple structure in their organization. While at PAFL the structure is very complex, more lines of authorities are involved in decision-making.

Team concept is applicable in both of the organizations, ECPL in particular while PAFL approximately applies this concept but not up to that extent.

ECPL has self-managed, cross functional and study teams while PAFL mostly concerned with the problem solving teams whenever any kind of problem arises teams become active. Both the organization use to give authority to implement any decision by team, with this philosophy the organization is getting the right kind of work and achieving the overall goals of the organization.

Both of the organizations mainly rely on the small size teams but at PAFL sometimes-large teams also present in the production department. In large teams there are more than twenty members.

Formal organizational structure forms the teams in each of the organization. Each member of the team is bound to follow the strict rules and regulations of the organization. While forming the team both organizations take into account the knowledge, abilities and interpersonal skills of each and every member of the organization.

At ECPL team members plays the vital role of creator, liaison, organizer, and assessor while at PAFL teams play the role of creator, linker, advisor and promoter. It means the role of the team is basically same in both the organizations but depending upon the unique characteristics they have built a little bit difference in team concept.

At ECPL the performance of the teams is highly affected by the following variables like Abilities, Specific goals, Leadership, Structure & Mutual trust.

In addition to the above-mentioned factors PAFL considers performance evaluations, reward systems, and accountability for the effective teams.

Both the organizations are using the individual and teams based reward systems because the members of the teams are individually responsible as well as for the team as a whole.

ECPL turns its employees into the effective team members using training, and reward allocation and it motivates the employees to be effective team player. While PAFL uses the selection, rewards plus0. motivation concepts but they give high weightage in selection of a team member.

In pursuing the inter team relationships both the organizations share the resources within the teams and often celebrates together on the achievement of the objectives of the team.

Socialization, training together, schedule lunches are being applied in developing the inter team relationship at ECPL, at PAFL applies the socialization and training together while shaping the teams in the organization for the effective and superior performance.

Both the organizations use the cross team meetings in building the stronger connection between the teams so that their performance becomes important for the achievement of the organizational goals so management considers it as a crucial matter for designing the inter team relationships. Both the organizations have thought that the team concept should be in the organization, even it is a new concept in Pakistan but it increases productivity, commitment, performance and mutual trust among the members of the teams.

TRUST

At both organizations team members are of the view that productivity of the person in team is much greater than the individual performance working alone. Both organizations have a same answer that the reward system mostly accelerates the persons to join the team because they are rewarded individually and as a whole. Team members from both the organization believes that integrity, consistency, competency, and loyalty are they key factors in developing the mutual trust.

In case of any conflict among the team members normally both the organizations try to reach the compromising situation like Win-Win.

Authority is granted to each team whatever the decision is made by the team members it is happened in the both organizations. During the survey we perceive that people would like to work in team rather than individually.

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