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Team Building

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Team Building
What makes a team player? Some people have that characteristic naturally, while others prefer to work solo. For those who do not like working in groups, may find themselves having no other choice. Many organizations are gearing toward completing task in teams rather than individuals. This may mean employees may be required to attend training seminars or workshops to show them how to do this. Rewarding these individuals is essential for organizations to keep the team building moving forward. IBM showed how a company close to collapse can be turned around by working in teams, not just individually. By understanding the group-decision making process, the stages of group development and ways to improve teams, working in teams will be a much easier task to do.
If you calculate the person-hours devoted to IBM's team projects, they amount to more than 180,000 hours of management time each year. Do you think this is a wise investment of IBM's human resources? Why or why not?
IBM was once an organization with a promising future, until the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, but when the new CEO, Louis V. Gerstner took over in 1993 his ideas brought the company back into competition. IBM was once an individualistic organization, where the employees and sales department worked solely by themselves. This just is not the way most organizations work anymore. The amount of hours IBM devotes to management time for team projects is an excellent idea and has proven to the market how well teams can change an organization for the better. Team projects takes a lot of work with many different people, but it requires those different people to accomplish the task that is given. The human resources at IBM have made a very wise decision in devoting so many hours to team projects. The teams IBM sends oversees, not only brings in new clients but broadens the possibly of new clients through helping organizations. If the numbers are looked in terms of each team member, 180,000 really



References: Brownlee, T. (2013). Multicultural collaboration. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1177.aspx Cooper, J. (2011). What it’s like to work at IBM. Retrieved from http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/03/20/what-its-like-to-work-at-ibm/ Heathfield, S. (2013). 12 tips for team building. Retrieved from http://humanresources.about.com/od/involvementteams/a/twelve_tip_team.htm Lagace, M. (2002). Gerstner: Changing Culture at IBM. Retrieved from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3209.html Robbins, S. & Judge, T. (2010) Organizational Behavior. 14th Ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

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