Essay Example on The term strategic Management

The term strategic management is the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by a company's top management on behalf of owners based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and the external environments in which the organization competes It is the continues planning monitoring analysis and assessment of all that is necessary for an organization to meet its goals and objectives One major strategy that is used in many projects is the concept of teamwork According to Mariam Webster dictionary team involves work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole teamwork Before the course personally i had the perception that a team involves a group of co workers who work together without fulfilling basic requirement for effective teamwork The French language has an excellent expression to describe the term teamwork esprit de corps This means a sense of unity of enthusiasm for common interests and responsibilities as developed among a group of persons closely associated in a task A team is a group in which members work together intensively to achieve a common group goal Lewis McClear and Taylor 1998 Katzenbach and smith 1993 defines a team as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose performance goals and approach for which they are mutually accountable 

According to MIT Information Services and Technology 2007 a team is made up of people working together in a committed way to achieve a common goal or mission Meredith Belbin 1981 argues that the optimum size for a team is four people The term team dynamics skills is the behavioral relationship between members of a group that are assigned connected tasks within a company Some of the skills include communication conflict management listening reliability respect the right environment participation rational debate asking questions being helpful etc In my opinion the two main outstanding features that led to the success of my team was good communication between members and the respect for time management My major contribution towards the success of the group was to gather data for the group This I did using secondary source of data from the internet This was the backbone of the group work The data that I collected was what helped the group to get relevant information on the group work Without my input it would have been very difficult if not possible for the group to have the relevant data organize it represent it interpret and make inferences One major skill that I learnt for the first time prior to the start of the degree program was the skill of conflict management among group members Though I did not anticipate that in academic settings conflict can arise among group members who appear to be friends and colleagues who got on very well I had to learn as well as practically put this skill in to practice This was because though we are all in the same class each group member had their own ways of doing things Some were lazy whiles others were very laid back and not time conscious and dragged the group behind Others did not do their assigned tasks or did it hastily whiles others who thought they were working very hard got into conflicts with these who they thought were not very serious 

These problems that came up during the group work were resolved by the skill of conflict management for the group work was resolved by the skill of conflict management for the group to finish the work and present it successfully In my opinion I prior to the start of the course I thought teamwork involves a group where task is shared among members i e division of labour and each person tasked with a particular assignment On the surface I also thought that each group member was on his her own and would submit his her when done I did not really know that teamwork involved lots of skills Skills like communication respect coordination listening time management conflict resolution and participation being helpful asking question to seek clarity were skills I never knew would be needed to work in a team At the end of the module honestly my opinion about team management changed totally This was because of the skills that I learnt about and how I saw it practically being implemented in my team work for its success Prior to this I thought that team work was a very simple thing and did not involve certain processes but I later learnt that it was not as simple as I thought since all the various skills that I learnt is needed to be coordinated and integrated for the success of any teamwork If teamwork was done the way I thought prior to the program it would not be successful and the whole group would not achieve the objectives or goals we set out to achieve In conclusion I would be very glad if certain factors that were over looked in my group will be critically looked at to improve future teamwork performance Each group member should be given a specific and made accountable to the lecturer This is because some of the members did take the group work very serious and had to leave the work for others to do Each team member should also be given a specific date schedule to finish his her individual work and submit it before the deadline to avoid laxity of some members The various processes involved in team building should be emphasized in great detail among members to foster respect amongst them Effective communication and listening skills should also be looked at In my opinion I will believe if all this is critically looked at it will help in improving future teamwork performances