Organizations are increasingly becoming dynamic and unstable. Teamwork is an essential component in achieving high reliability particularly in healthcare organizations. A team consists of two or more individuals, who have specific roles, performs interdependent tasks, are adaptable and share a common goal. To work effectively together, team members must possess specific knowledge, skills and attitudes, such as the skills in monitoring each other’s performance, knowledge of their own and teammate’s task responsibilities and a positive disposition towards working in a team. Teamwork is critical for the delivery of healthcare. Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians and other health professionals must coordinate their activities to deliver safe and efficient patient care.
Characteristics of Effective Teams:
Team Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes
Characteristics of Effective Teams (Salas, Sims, and Klein 2004) Team leadership
Have a clear common purpose
Team member roles are clear but not overly rigid
Involve the right people in decisions
Conduct effective meetings
Establish and revise team goals and plans
Team members believe the leaders care about them
Distribute and assign work thoughtfully
Backup behavior
Compensate for each other
Manage conflict well-team members confront each other effectively
Regularly provide feedback to each other, both individually and as a team
The Essay on Effectiveness: Communication and Team Members
Aims / details: The primary purpose of the report is for you to work with three other people and undertake a study of an organization – the steps for establishing team performance plans, the development and facilitation of team cohesion, the facilitation of teamwork and, liaising with stakeholders. Reviewing the effectiveness of teams within an organization is imperative so that opportunities for ...
(“debrief”)
“Deal” with poor performers
Are self-correcting
Mutual performance monitoring
Effectively “span” boundaries with stakeholders outside the team
Members understand each others’ roles and how they fit together
Examine and adjust the team’s physical workplace
Periodically diagnose team “effectiveness,” including its results Communication
Communicate often “enough”
Adaptability
Members anticipate each other
Reallocate functions
Recognize and adjust their strategy under stress
Consciously integrate new team members.
Shared mental models
Coordinate without the need to communicate overtly
Mutual trust
Trust other team members’ “intentions”
Team orientation
Select team members who value teamwork
Strongly believe in the team’s collective ability to succeed
Challenges:
-A theoretical model of team performance in healthcare should be developed. -Proven instructional strategies should be the basis for team training programs in healthcare. -Team training strategies must be further adapted to specific healthcare needs. -Team training must be institutionalized throughout healthcare and professional training. Benefits:
-Improved coordination of care.
-Effective use of healthcare services.
-Increased job satisfaction among team members.
-Higher patient satisfaction.
-Sharing different areas of knowledge and expertise, learning from different perspectives and realizing innovative ideas that come from other team members. Costs:
-Costs of having meetings, along with a place to meet and food and coffee.
-The cost of trying to arrange a time that is conveniennt for most of the participants.
-Time spent in meetings and the accompanying opportunity costs.
-The development of mutually respectful behaviors and trust.
-The cost of risk taking associated with letting go of one’s turf.
The Term Paper on Conflict Resolution Team Member
I. INTRODUCTION Conflict is when two or more people come together with an aligned goal, a team is formed. This team is comprised of members, each with his own plan of action to best achieve the task at hand. Many times one member believes that his point of view is the most correct or most efficient, while another member of the team may disagree, offering her idea as best. When one individual ...
-Potential embarrassment of looking bad in a group.
