Benefits of Teamwork in National Bank of Bahrain

Discuss about the Difference Between A Group And A Team.

A group is considered as getting a band of individuals to maintain proper coordination with one another and make efforts to contribute to the well-being of an organisation. Examples of a group can be ethnic groups or trade unions. On the other hand, a team is considered as Drescher et al. (2014) stated that a team consists of people that have a common aim and objective. Examples of a team can be any sports team or a management team. In this regard, a detailed difference between the group as well as a team can be provided. For instance, in a group, only one leader exists while in a team more than one leader exists. Although Menear and Davis (2015) stated that only one individual might be selected to lead a team but the opinion of the experienced people are also welcomed. In the case of The National Bank of Bahrain, teams and groups exist that provide stability and ensure that individuals get to understand the differences between the two concepts.

Comparison	Group	Team Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper
Meaning	Individuals work in a united manner to complete a task	People having collective identity unite to achieve a common goal
Leadership	Only one leader	More than one leader
Members	Independent	Interdependent
Process	Discuss, decide and delegate a particular task	Discuss, decide and do the tasks provided to them
Work products	Individual	Collective
Focus	Achieving individual goals	Achieving team goals
Accountability	Individual accountable	Individual or mutual

Table: Comparison between group and team

(Source: Created by author)

According to Forsyth (2018), managers of a reputed bank such as the National Bank of Bahrain can encourage individuals to work as a team rather than as a group. Convincing of the individuals is necessary so that they can work together to share similar goals and provide the necessary support required for success. The managers can apply the development strategies of team formation that so that the individuals can develop mutual unity for one another. For example, the managers of National Bank of Bahrain can meet with a group of people that exists within the bank and convince them about the benefits that can be obtained while working as a team. The goals can be set in such a way for the group that it ensures that a team is formed to accomplish it. Apart from this, the National Bank of Bahrain can align the business objective with that of the objectives of a team (Banks et al. 2014).

According to Jungert (2016), a good and effective team need to maintain proper communication with one another. This can help in exchanging information and provide the necessary assistance that is required to meet the goals. The support helps every member of the team to continue with the tasks provided and finish it effectively. At the same time, Certo (2018) stated that effective leadership is also required for maintaining unity among the team members. The team members need to be adaptable to the situations and remain enthusiastic about the type of job that has been provided. In the case of National Bank of Bahrain, the manager needs to ensure that the team have a vision and remain selfless. Having a vision can help the individuals to remain focused on the type of goals that are required to be achieved. The managers need to arrange a relaxation time so that the employees are free from the monotonous working hours. Another characteristic of a good team is that they remain committed to the members and the team in which they form a part. Thus, National Bank of Bahrain needs to ensure that such characteristics exist within a team.

Characteristics of a Good Team

The main advantage of working as a team is the fact that individuals can gain experience. As observed by Ford, Piccolo and Ford (2017) the experience that is gained by individuals are mainly due to the interaction with various people that exists in the organisation. In the case of the National Bank of Bahrain, the bank employs people from different background and cultures. Thereby, the employees can gain a proper understanding of the various cultures that exist in the world (Nbbonline.com 2018). This can help in the improvement of the banks and of the employees. The efficiency of the employees can also increase with the knowledge gained from the experience. Furthermore, support from the team members can help in completing a particular task without much delay. The outcomes related to the work of the employees can be enriched. The National Bank of Bahrain can build a mutual support for the employees so that they can interact with one another in a positive manner. Hence, a sense of accomplishment can be maintained that can help in specific goals and strive for the further improvement of the bank.

Communication is important for organisations so that people can express their thoughts and convey an important message (Guinalíu and Jordán 2016). Communication is considered as the centre for success as it helps in defining the goals to the employees. In a major organisational structure that is followed in a bank like National Bank of Bahrain, the communication can help every team member and employees identify their roles and responsibilities. Assigning tasks to different people can be done by maintaining communication with one another. Therefore, with the application of proper communication, the employees of the National Bank of Bahrain can attain their goals as the leaders can guide the people in an efficient manner. According to Hoch and Kozlowski (2014), communication helps in developing trust among the people and the employees of the National Bank of Bahrain can maintain such trust within the banks. Lanaj and Hollenbeck (2015) also stated that communication also helps in maintaining a positive work relationship as an exchange of information can allow the employees to continue with their work in an effective manner. Trust among the teammates and proper guidance from the leaders can help the employees of National Bank of Bahrain to maintain their productivity.

Some of the examples of barriers to communication can be the use of jargon and the defining of unclear goals. Lanaj and Hollenbeck (2015) stated that inability to understand a particular language might lead to problems in communication. In the case of the National bank of Bahrain, this can be an important barrier as the language of the country is different and people from other parts of the world may find it difficult to communicate with the local employees. This is an important disadvantage for the team, as the goals of the teams cannot be defined in a clear manner. At the same time, psychological barriers can play a major role in the communication. As observed by Nguyen (2016) the psychological state of an individual can prevent them from responding to the messages in an effective manner. For a bank, this can be a huge problem as the information regarding goals or other strategic measures needs to be delivered on time. Therefore, it is necessary for the managers of National Bank of Bahrain to ensure that flaws in communication do not exist.

Importance of Communication

While working in a team there may be cases, which may conflict between the members. Therefore, it is necessary for the managers and the leaders of the teams to ensure that the conflict among the team members does not take place. Serrat (2017) is of the opinion that the some of the examples of behaviours that may cause conflict among the team includes differences in the personalities of the team members. In the case of the National Bank of Bahrain, the bank employs people with different cultural backgrounds and ideas. Therefore, the team composition is also based on such people that are of different cultures. Therefore, this may lead to a conflict situation in which the team members may disagree with the ideas of one another. This, in turn, may cause a huge problem in the team as the people may lose faith and therefore may lead to a conflict of interest. The conflict may be caused due to the disagreement between the people. At the same time, Homans (2017) is of the opinion that poor leadership may be another cause of conflict along with a selfish attitude of the people. Poor leadership may be in the form of excessive favouring of one team member while the excess neglect of the others.

As stated by Ovsiannikov (2014) one of the ways to solve conflict is by maintaining effective communication. In the case of the National Bank of Bahrain, the main conflict of the bank is that the people belong to the different culture. Therefore, the differences in the culture and ideas provide the employees with the reason to cause conflict. Therefore, it is necessary that a sense of trust be developed between the employees. This can be done by the application of proper communication and conduct an icebreaking session every day. The leaders of the team in the Bank of Bahrain can help in increasing the support of the team by ensuring that they participate in sports activities that require proper team collaboration. According to Cox and Bobrowski (2016), the team members need to maintain the communication so that any type of conflict does not take place in the company. At the same time, the leaders can act as intermediaries between the team members involved in the conflict.

The analysis has shown the effectiveness of team and groups in an organisational setting and the manner in which a good team member can help in the development of an organisation. Hence, an analysis can be made about the effectiveness of my skills as a team member. My strengths and weaknesses as a team member are analysed that can help me to improve my skills. I had been working for the National Bank of Bahrain and my team oversees the finances. My job in that team is to analyse the transactions that go on in a bank. For this, I need to be a good observer as this is one skill that is required for spotting any type of discrepancy. My observation power needs to be backed by my ability communicate so that I can convince my tea leaders about the problems that I have analysed. At the same time, my weakness is that I lose focus easily. This can be considered as a psychological barrier to communication as I tend to divert my attention to other factors that take place around me. Thus, effective communication and efficiency of work can be hampered due to this drawback.

Barriers to Effective Communication

The analysis of my strengths and weakness suggest that I need to improve my concentration. I need to be focused on the task delegated to me so that I do not let my team members down. I need to ensure that the role delegated to me is carried out in such a manner that any flaws can be reported immediately. For this, I need to develop the communication power that can help me to interact with the members. This can be done by listening to the people and trying to get their consent about any discrepancies that I may find in the financial transactions. Thus, these changes can help me to improve my performance as an effective team member working for the financial sector in the National Bank of Bahrain.

References

Banks, G.C., Batchelor, J.H., Seers, A., O’Boyle, E.H., Pollack, J.M. and Gower, K., 2014. What does team–member exchange bring to the party? A meta?analytic review of team and leader social exchange. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(2), pp.273-295.

Certo, S.C., 2018. Supervision: Concepts and skill-building. McGraw-Hill Education.

Cox, P.L. and Bobrowski, P.E., 2016. The team charter assignment: Improving the effectiveness of classroom teams. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 1(2).

Drescher, M.A., Korsgaard, M.A., Welpe, I.M., Picot, A. and Wigand, R.T., 2014. The dynamics of shared leadership: Building trust and enhancing performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(5), p.771.

Ford, R.C., Piccolo, R.F. and Ford, L.R., 2017. Strategies for building effective virtual teams: Trust is key. Business Horizons, 60(1), pp.25-34.

Forsyth, D. R. (2018). Group dynamics. Cengage Learning.

Guinalíu, M. and Jordán, P., 2016. Building trust in the leader of virtual work teams. Spanish Journal of Marketing-ESIC, 20(1), pp.58-70.

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Homans, G.C., 2017. The human group. Routledge.

Jungert, T., 2016. How Team Member Can Support Each Other’s Needs: An Intervention in Real Teams. In Academy of Management (pp. 387-388).

Lanaj, K. and Hollenbeck, J.R., 2015. Leadership over-emergence in self-managing teams: The role of gender and countervailing biases. Academy of Management Journal, 58(5), pp.1476-1494.

Menear, K.S. and Davis, T.D., 2015. Effective Collaboration among the Gross Motor Assessment Team Members. Strategies, 28(1), pp.18-21.

Nbbonline.com. (2018). National Bank of Bahrain – Home – National Bank of Bahrain. [online] Available at: https://www.nbbonline.com/en/ [Accessed 25 Apr. 2018].

Nguyen, D.S., 2016. Success Factors for Building and Managing High Performance Agile Software Development Teams. International Journal of Computer (IJC), 20(1), pp.51-82.

Ovsiannikov, L. V. E. (2014). Group analysis of differential equations. Academic Press.

Serrat, O., 2017. Managing virtual teams. In Knowledge Solutions (pp. 619-625). Springer, Singapore.