Nuyu Lin Self - Reflection Paper Paper (Teams) 29Jan12
NUYU LIN - Self reflection paper for Organizational Behavior
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Organization behavior is about the actions and attitudes of individuals and groups in a workplace and how it plays a role in affecting the organization’s function and performance. I am going to focus on the theme of teamwork with a little touch on leadership, diversity and communication.
My work experience revolve around the manufacturing shop floor environment. From Day One, team working has been an essential part and a regulatory requirement of my work life. Each team had a supervisor, team leader and the rest of us, approximately 1516 in total. We had a common goal to achieve, which were the daily tasks assigned by the supervisor. We relied on one another to get the job done, stay on top of things, motivation and most importantly safety. The true benefit of team work only surface as we got to know each other better regarding personality and technical abilities. The supervisor became aware of which individual has personalities to fit better as a pair in a bid to maximize the synergy of the buddy pair, and avoid or reduce conflict. As technical abilities became more apparent, we were paired based on our technical expertise to complement one another and training opportunities. Productivity and performance inevitably improved. Overall, I enjoyed working in a team and take pride being a team member. Even though the job was routine and sometimes tedious, my team mates made the 12
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hour shift enjoyable and sometimes memorable. We learnt to take hits as a team and compete healthy amongst the pairs. All that matter to us was that we were performing at high quality and it did not really matter if other teams were performing or not.
When I was promoted to a team lead and then a supervisor, different challenges arise. It came to a point where a particular team was becoming more senior and technically stronger as compared to other teams who were having newbies and less trained individuals. In response to business need, management decided to move people around to balance the quality and expertise of our work force. As we knew our employees well, we anticipated negative reaction to this move.
So when the new teams were announced, previously satisfied and happy employees started to become upset and frustrated. They were resistant to the change and reflected to the management that their team dynamics would be broken and productivity and performance will decline. They lost sight of the business objective and personal development opportunities. From this episode, I learnt that communication is a very powerful management tool. A department town hall meeting was immediately set up as a platform for the employee to raise their grievance and the chance for management to ad-
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dress it real time. My manager was concise and objective in his communication - it was a critical business need and everyone in the department had a shared responsibility to achieve our common goal. He also acknowledged the inconvenience created as a result of this business decision and pleaded for understanding and flexibility. His message resonated with the employees.
As always, the first step of change is always the most difficult. Quickly, new teams formed. The senior employees liked to be in control and respected. The newbies were learning and gaining knowledge at a much faster rate. By spreading the seniors who have formed close relationships in all the teams, the entire department dynamics was improved. They continued to look out for one another and this increased overall team efficacy and decreased the number of human errors and significant deviations.
I also had the opportunities to work in a cross functional team. We had to introduce and implement SAP as an inventory business tool and I was selected to represent my department. My team consist of 8 other coworkers from different departments. We had some teething problems when we first started up. SAP was new to everyone. The only SAP expert was our colleague from our San Francisco site. The objective was clear as it
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was a site directive - create, test and implement the SAP recipes within a certain time period. Allocation of roles was simple as each individual brought a different set of skills to the table. Expertise knowledge was obtained and shared very quickly. Although there were times of minor conflicts because priorities and viewpoints were different, it was resolved through timely face to face interaction. As mentioned by Ms Maureen during a class activity, given the opportunity, space and time, communication will enable everyone to realize even though we are different, there is always something common. In this case, the common entity was the success of our task. By the completion of the project, everyone on the team became good friends. The biggest take away of cross functional team is that everyone has a little more understanding of each other’s role in the organization. We were able to work better intra department and it became an advantage to the entire organization.
I love to work in teams - any type of team work as I always find the experience rewarding. Through team work, I get to know myself and my skills better. Team work enables me to broaden and deepen my abilities. I appreciate the results of positive team dynamics - improved efficacy and motivation.
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Organizational behavior is such a broad and interesting subject. We learn something new everyday working in an organization, regardless whether it is people or skill related. No man is an island and we depend on each other for survival, friendship and motivation. Being exposed to management, I have learnt to appreciate organizational behavior even more.
