1. Description of modern team leaders現(xiàn)代隊領(lǐng)袖的說明

 

管理是組織中非常重要和必不可少的。一般來說，經(jīng)理人，誰試圖實現(xiàn)組織的目標(biāo)，經(jīng)常整合和監(jiān)督其他員工的工作角色。通常情況下，所有的管理者需要做出明智的決策和發(fā)展的目標(biāo)，戰(zhàn)略和計劃。在我看來，根據(jù)經(jīng)理的分類，團(tuán)隊領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者應(yīng)該有。此外，學(xué)習(xí)動機(jī)，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和控制的知識也是管理者的各級普遍。

和三種管理者之間的差異是明顯的為好。高層管理人員作出決定，這樣做影響了整個組織的管理工作，以及高層管理人員更側(cè)重于概念技能;中層管理者決定全系工作，負(fù)責(zé)部門的發(fā)展，還需要概念技能，人際技能和技術(shù)技能的同時，因為中層管理者作為高層管理人員和一線管理人員之間的聯(lián)系;一線經(jīng)理們這對員工的影響和他們的管理工作，特別強(qiáng)調(diào)技術(shù)技能的本地決策。 （墨爾本皇家理工大學(xué)，2014年）。事實上，管理是由各種內(nèi)外因素決定的。經(jīng)濟(jì)環(huán)境，政治環(huán)境，組織規(guī)模和類型，法律，技術(shù)，甚至是文化差異都有著不同程度的管理重點的影響。 （墨爾本皇家理工大學(xué)，2014年），在這種情況下，要成為一個成功的現(xiàn)代組長，各隊和時間分配方式的詳細(xì)特征的了解就顯得尤為重要。從我的角度來看，來分析管理的所有影響因素的綜合能力，對現(xiàn)代團(tuán)隊領(lǐng)導(dǎo)顯著的意義。此外，有現(xiàn)代化的團(tuán)隊和組織的功能，良好的知識可以幫助管理者做出更可靠的決策和計劃。

 

Management is extremely essential and indispensable in organizations. Generally, managers, who try to achieve organizational goals, always play a role of integrating and overseeing other employees’ work. And there are mainly three types of managers, top-level managers, middle level managers and front line managers.(RMIT University, 2014)

Commonly, all managers need to make intelligent decisions and develop goals, strategies and plans. In my opinion, according to the classification of managers, team leaders should have. In addition, learning motivations, leadership and controlling knowledge is also common for all levels of managers.

And the difference between the three types of managers is obvious as well. Top level managers make decisions and do management work that impacting on the entire organizations, and top level management focuses more on conceptual skills; Middle level managers decide department-wide work and are responsible for department development, and also they need conceptual skills, human skills and technical skills at the same time because middle level managers serves as a link between top level managers and front line managers; the front line managers make local decisions which have influence on staff and their managing work put particular emphasis on technical skills. (RMIT University, 2014) In fact, management is determined by various internal and external factors. Economic environment, political environment, organization size & types, laws, technologies, even cultural difference all have different degree of impact on management emphasis. (RMIT University, 2014) In this case, to be a successful modern team leader, understanding of detailed characteristics of various teams and methods of time distribution is particularly important. From my point of view, the ability to analyze all influence factors for management comprehensively has significant meanings for modern team leaders. In addition, having a good knowledge of modern teams and organizations’ feature can help managers make more reliable decisions and plans.#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

2. Description of different types of teams不同類型的團(tuán)隊的說明

From my own understanding, team is a basic element in every organization, which can make employees work together to achieve specific goals or purposes. Team Interdependent teams include team members focusing on each own task, which is totally different from others’ work. In this type of team, how to bring team members is the key to team success. On the other side, in an independent team, members perform similar work and each individual’s success is mainly determined by their own efforts. (Brounstein and Marty, 2014) Additionally, teams can also be classified by subjects, such as executive teams, command teams, project teams, work teams, action teams and virtual teams. (Honts, Prewett, Rahael and Grossenbacher, 2012) In this paper, work teams and virtual teams are introduced in detail, which has significant influence on organizational operations in contemporary companies.

2.1 Work teams

Most organizations understand the advantage of teamwork which make a number of employees working together in a collaborative and cooperative environment to achieve specific goals and purposes. Therefore, build effective work teams has teams, which are functional work teams, cross-functional work teams, and self-directed teams. (Honts, Prewett, Rahael and Grossenbacher, 2012)

2.1.1 Functional work teams

In functional teams, generally, there are several employees from different vertical levels who are responsible for specific organizational functions. And a typical functional team are composed of managers and subordinates. Managers are in charge of internal operations inside department and external communications with other divisions in the organization. (Honts, Prewett, Rahael and Grossenbacher, 2012) Commonly, the responsibilities of functional team members are different, but their function performances are same in the department. And typical functional work teams include marketing, human resources and finance.

2.1.2 Cross-functional work teams
To achieve some organizational targets, the combination of multiple functional teams is necessary, which is cross-functional work teams with experts from different functional areas. These experts members usually have authorities and powers to make decisions in their own individual areas. And each of the team member can bring unique perspectives to the team because of their functional expertise and cohesion is increased during the work process. (Honts, Prewett, Rahael and Grossenbacher, 2012) Cross-functional teams have great positive influence on the improvement of coordination of interdependent operations among departments.2.1.3 Self-directed teams Self-directed work teams (SDWT) consist of people, usually, employees, with different work skills and talents. And genenrallly SDWT members have no functions or responsibilities on management and supervision. In this situation, a clear mission statement provided by the company or organization is important support for team members to make decisions. (Honts, Prewett, Rahael and Grossenbacher, 2012)Organizations can establish boundaries, bulid rules and policies, and train members to obtain necessary knowledge and skills to accomplish their goals.#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

2.2 Virtual teams

In modern society, establishing virtual teams is a popular and universal way for organizations to overcome time, space and boundaries difficulties by modern web communication technologies, such as emails, phone calls, teleconferences and virtual meetings. And this kind of team is beneficial to organizational savings from time and business costs. (Brounstein and Marty, 2014) However, higher standards of communication skills, performance, employees’ motivations and efficiency, and result-orientation have to be set in virtual teams to achieve goals.

3. Introduction of contemporary business organizations 引進(jìn)現(xiàn)代企業(yè)組織

With progress of society and economic development, business organizations have obvious changes from traditional organizations. Business organizations are more organic due to economic environment’s flexibility.

Compared with traditional organizations, modern organizations are more dynamic and flexible, for example, the operation scope is broadened and diversity of promotion is richer. Modern organizations put emphasis on customers than rule.

Meeting customers’ needs have positive effect on companies’ operation and earning power. And work is defined in terms of tasks instead of job positions, which is advantageous to efficient goals achievements. In addition, jobs are always temporary and not permanent that leads to motivated employees and efficiency. (RMIT University, 2014)Moreover, modern organizations are more team oriented than individual oriented.

Cooperation among employees can avoid mistakes and individuals can learn from each other. Workers’ sense of participation and involvement are increasing significantly and they also need to make decisions. (RMIT University, 2014) Job levels among employees are decreasing. And the relationships between managers and employees become more lateral and networked instead of hierarchical relations in traditional organizations.

Also, work time and work place are unset and much more flexible. (RMIT University, 2014) For example, because of economic globalization, international business is increasing sharply; to overcome jetlag, people have to vary work time. And getting a good knowledge of characteristics of modern organizations is benefit for managers to face challenges in work.

 

4. Critical view/analysis of challenges modern managers face in contemporary 挑戰(zhàn)臨界查看/分析現(xiàn)代管理者面對當(dāng)代

business organizations Actually, management is always not an easy work. To make good progress for specific plans, managers always need to solve numerous problems in modern companies.Five challenges and measures that modern managers can take to face these challenges in contemporary business organizations are introduced below.

4.1 Limited resources

In general, resources, such as time, funding, equipment, raw materials, and employees etc. Are always limited for managers to complete particular projects; and this situation may affect projects or work negatively to some degree. (Tony Bovaird, and Paul Davis, 1999)#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

Bovaird and Davis (1996) provided some useful suggestions to solve this kind of issues, help monitoring , organizing , evaluating work outcomes with limited resources. Making a good list of necessary required resources at the beginning of work can assist managers earn much time to make professional plans for work. Team leaders may use the existing resources to the maximum. If lack of specific resource, trying to ask higher level managers or personal connections’ help is useful sometimes.(Bovaird and Davis, 1996)

4.2 Over-dependence on other’s work performance

Modern organizations is team oriented and the performance of teamwork is very important for managers. Teamwork performance determined action’s implementations and the complement of specific objectives and goals. Managers never work alone and rely on others’ work performance. And performance can be constructed by management systems and managers. ( Michel J. Lebas, 1995)

According to Michel’s theory (1995), there are mainly three effective methods: plan,monitor, review and Evaluate. Making detailed plans is an effective measure to control job schedules of both managers and employees. And time schedule, objective identifications are particularly useful to evaluate performance. Continuously monitoring employee’s work progress and performance is necessary to build an effective and efficient performance management system. Managers can put emphasis on employees’ results achieved, individual behaviors and team dynamic.( Michel J. Lebas, 1995) Providing necessary support for employees’ work timely and asking for feedback regularly is also essential for their performance.

In addition, holding performance assessment meetings is helpful to review and summarize work completed during the previous work time, including assessment errors and strengths. And established a performance assessment form is general for managers to control performance. ( Michel J. Lebas, 1995)

4.3 Globalization and teamwork

Nowadays, internationalization and globalization integrate the whole world to a big market. International business is developing very fast among countries with diverse cultures. And it is an unavoidable trend for organizations and a challenge for teamwork. Thus, in the future, teams with team members with various values, languages, cultures and work habits are very common. With different background, team members have their own advantages and approaches to solve problems.

Employees from different countries have to overcome time differences and work places diversities. Sometimes geographic variations and time differences may have negative impact on team communications. To overcome this challenge, more meetings may be held for effective work communications though Internet in virtual workplaces. (Oerig M. and Buergi T., 2006) Managers can encourage employees to participate professional communicating trainings to promote efficiency during international meetings.#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

 

4.4 Cultural difference

Additionally, cultural difference may also increase difficulties for global work management. Employees from different cultural may have different work habits, communication methods and business rules. To deal with cultural diverse, the theory developed by Brilin and Richard (2008) introduced the managing cultural difference development circle (MCD development circle).

Increasing and improving cultural difference awareness help employees understand culture significant impact on their performance. (Brilin and Richard, 2008)These cultural knowledge can be obtained through communications, internet, travels, business trips and work and the awareness can be improved continuously.

With cultural awareness, then developing sensitivity of employee’ own culture is benefit to understand other cultures. (Brilin and Richard, 2008) Be sensitive to signs and reactions from colleagues, tourists and immigrants. And comparisons of cultures is a good method to understand other cultures from the external perspective. Additionally, to learn notions and values of other cultures helps employees focus on the work that need to prepare and practice in a total different cultural environment. history, geography, political culture, economic environment, industrial context, and business rules is beneficial for employees to be confident when deal with cultural difference issues.

5. Conclusion總結(jié)

In summary, modern team leaders have some common characteristics, such as decision making ability, planning ability, and controlling motivating abilities. And the difference of the three level managers is their management scope and perspectives.

Also, analyzing internal and external business environment is beneficial to managerial work. Managers can establish suitable teams, such as functional teams,cross-functional teams, self-directed teams and virtual teams due to detailed operation and management demand. In modern organizations, to deal with management challenges, such as limited resources, over-dependence, globalization and culture difference, be positive and taking relative measures to face is essential. (Word count: 1,957)

 

6. Reference文獻(xiàn)

1. Brounstein and Marty. (2014), ‘Differences between work groups and teams’, Journal of marketing.

2. Bovaird, T. and Davis, P. (1996), Managing on limited resources: a review of the literature, First Draft Report to Local Government Management Board, Aston Business School, Birmingham.

3. Brislin, and Richard W. (2008), ‘Working with cultural differences: dealing effective with diversity in the workplace’, Journal of International Business Studies.

4. Dwyer J. (2009), The Business Communication Handbook. Pearson Education Australia

5. Honts Christopher, Prewett Matthew, Rahael John, and Grossenbacher Michael. (2012), ‘The importance of team processes for different team types’, Journal of Team Performance Management, pp. 312-327.#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

6. Michel J. Lebas. (1995), ‘Performance measurement and performance management’, International journal of production economics, pp. 23-25.

7. Oerig M. and Buergi T. (2006), ‘The challenges of managing cross-cultural virtual project teams’, Journal of Team Performance Management, pp 23-30. RMIT University. (2014), Managing for a sustainable future people, technology and design. Pearson Australia. Custom Publication

8. Tony Bovaird, and Paul Davis. (1999), ‘Learning to manage within limited resources: Coping strategies and learning breakthroughs in UK local government’, International Journal of Public Sector Management, pp.293 - 314.