Introduction
Team building is an important activity in any organization. This trend is currently being over emphasized in most of the organization. People are gradually appreciating and realizing the importance of team building. The application of team building activities in a company is vital to its success. Team building is a motivational activity aimed at improving employees’ performances. In an organization, team building is very vital for the growth and success of the company. Periodically, workers need to be motivated and encouraged to do their work diligently. Team building processes enhance productivity and quality of work. This paper sees to discus in depth the importance of team building to an organization.
My job environment
I work in hotel and our branch is one of the busiest branches in town. Due to our strategic location, our customer-flow is normally constant on a daily basis. We barely take a break from the time one begins his or her shift. It is not a matter of being overworked but the heavy traffic is overwhelming. Most of the times we even forget to take lunch and tea breaks. Our branch is one of the best fast-food joints in town and the place is very popular among the local young professionals and local schools especially colleges. The orders placed by a single institution on a daily basis sometimes equals the total weekly sells of our affiliate branches in other parts of the town.
This shows how much we get tied up with work the entire working hours. Work here is a lot and the time is limited as always. Meeting targets and satisfying our customers at the same time is one of the greatest challenges in this job. My job environment as described above is quite challenging. I believe that this is the case in any business organization especially businesses are service oriented. Service delivery involves personnel. In labor intensive businesses, it is very important to take care of the workers. However, managing workers is not limited to labor intensive organizations. Every organization that depends on human inputs in its chain of production must remain very sensitive to its workers welfares.
In our job, team work is a fundamental aspect. We operate from time to time with the help of others. In a hotel one cannot manage to do all the work alone and expect to be effective. Through team work, we always make even the most challenging task work. Therefore, cooperation with fellow employees is very critical in this job. However, the ability to work together as a team is not an intrinsic human characteristic. One needs to deliberately create it within his or herself. Having said that, I believe team building is vital in my job and in every other success-drive organization. First of all, even without looking into any other benefits of team building, it is important to note that through team building mental and psychological stress is released.
Characteristics of team building activities
Team building activities are mainly activities held outside and mostly in the serene fields. With such activities in an institution’s calendar of events, the employees are given an opportunity to discharge their anxieties and stress of job. Such activities act as rejuvenators (Pentland 62). Every time we go out for a team building escapades, the first few months after we are back, our sales go up significantly. Through team building activities, groups contribute a lot and in addition they get to discover each other. This helps in creating a harmonious employees interaction and mutual understanding.
Importance of team building activities
Identifying individuals’ personalities
One fundamental importance of team building is that it helps employees to identify individual’s personalities, strengths and weaknesses. When the work force interact and get to understand one another in terms of strengths and weakness, the points of conflicts at work will be minimized. It is important for organization to ensure that conflicts between employees are reduced to the minimum levels (Pentland 63). Such conflicts can impede the success of the organization and consequently inhibit production. Consequently, to shun such occurrences, the administration must come up with team building activities that can facilitate interaction and generate bonding ties.
There are some employees who are talented in many areas apart from what they do in the work place. Some are great leaders, while others are peacemakers. Some are good team-builders and others are just good followers. These traits can hardly be displayed in the normal schedules at work where everything is run too fast for anyone to pay attention to other talents and skills (Pentland 63). Therefore to discover traits that can help the management in making informed decision, team building is the most suitable strategy. This also helps the employees by exposing their skills and abilities therefore availing opportunities to maximize and achieve their maximum potentials.
Job satisfaction
Team building gives the employees a relaxed mode of thoughts. Workers feel appreciated and esteemed by their bosses when such measures are prepared in their honor. This feeling creates satisfaction. Job satisfaction is highly influenced by team building activities. For instance, every time we go out for a team building activity, we always have a moment where we speak freely about our job experiences and the areas we feel can be improved. Most of the issues raised in such forums are normally addressed with the urgency they deserve. Addressing employees’ concerns is a very certain way of creating job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a very important aspect of an individual’s employment (Duarte and Snyder 78). Staffs who feel pleased with what they do are more content with their occupation. Such employees execute their duties better and yield more in terms of creation.
Easy interaction
Team building is beneficial to both the employer and the employees. People who hardly ever work together are required to work collectively in the team building functions. This helps the workforce to find out that they can effortlessly work together and assist each other. Some people who never thought they could ever be friends realize that they actually have a lot in common and new friendships are created (Duarte and Snyder 79). Without team building programs, employees can easily form groups and isolate themselves from the others. This kind of segregation is not healthy for the success of a business.
Improves communication
Team building also improves communication among employees. When the workforce is free to interact with each other, dissemination of information is easy and fast. People can freely air their views and express their displeasure without fear of retribution. This also makes the work place more enjoyable and comfortable. Team building also creates an environment that motivates the workers (Duarte and Snyder 86). When workers feel more comfortable with their job and their employer they become more loyal and dedicated to their work. In addition, the company benefits because every member of the team gets synchronized with the organizational goals and objectives.
Increases workers morale
Unquestionably, team building develops workers’ drive as well as management proficiency. Through team building some of the hindrances that impede creativity are disabled. During these sessions, the management can emphasize on the need for the employees to uphold and pursue the company’s objectives. It helps in creating a harmonious mutual understanding and respect that aids the employees to put the company’s objective first in their actions (Duarte and Snyder 87). This creates a sense of belonging to the company and with this the employees will guard their job as their own.
Enhances harmonious process and procedures
Processes and procedures in an organization are improved as a result of team building. This includes information procedures, management procedures, and senior/ junior employees’ interactions. All this consolidated benefits have an ultimate result, organizational productivity (Duarte and Snyder 89). Organizational power is improved and enhanced by identifying the employees’ strengths and weaknesses. An organization that has team building activities periodically is able to solve organizational problems more efficiently compared to those that do not hold such events.
Conclusion
This paper has discussed the importance of team building in an organization. The discussion has mainly emphasized on businesses dealing with service delivery since that is where my job category lays. The paper begins with a brief description of my working environment. It then explains the different advantages and importance of team building.
Works Cited
Duarte, Deborah and Nancy Tennant Snyder. Mastering virtual teams: Strategies, tools, and techniques that succeed. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Print.
Pentland, Alex. “The new science of building great teams.” Harvard Business Review 90.4 (2012): 60-69. Print.