ORGANIZATION &

TEAMWORK
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.
HS-Fresenius / Winter 2014/15

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Project Work
Establish a new Business of a traditional company outside

of Europe:
Discuss, which is the best decision for your own goals and
for the companys overall goals?
Human Resources motivate & develop the staff; recruit
the right staff
Accounting keep the numbers down
Sales develop a strategy
Operations organize the logistics and planning from
design/production/new market

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Your Opinion
What do you think is the most important character trait or

ability a person should have in the respective field.

Discuss with your partner and compare your results
afterwards

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

7 Principles of Professionalism
Striving to excel
Being dependable & accountable
Being a team player
Communicating effectively
Making ethical decisions
Demonstrating a sense of etiquette
Maintaining a positive outlook

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Achieving Professionalism
What is Professionalism?
Professionalism The quality of performing at a high

level and conducting oneself with purpose and pride!

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Elements of Professionalism
Be the best

Pros strive to excel, to be the best they can be at everything they do.
Excelling at every level is how you build a great career.

Be dependable

Pros keep their promises and meet their commitments

Pros learn from their mistakes and take responsibility for their errors

Be a team player

Pros know how to contribute to a larger cause.

Team players make others around them better.

Be clear

Communication is the single most important skill you can develop.

Learn to listen as well as you speak and write.

Be respectful

Good business etiquette is a sign of respect for those around you.

Respecting others is not only good, its good for your career.

Be ethical

Responsible professionals work to avoid ethical lapses.

Pros weigh their options carefully when facing ethical dilemmas.

Be positive

successful people believe in what theyre doing and in themselves.

Pros dont complain about problems; the yfind them and fix them.

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Communicating Effectively
Listen actively
Making a conscious effort to turn off your own filters and biases to truly hear and understand what someone is saying

Provide practical information

Give people useful information that is adapted to their specific needs

Give facts rather than vague impressions

Be specific and use concrete language supporting your argument

Dont present opinions as facts.

Offer opinions, and make sure your audience understands it

Present information in a concise, efficient manner.

Audiences appreciate and respond more positively to high-efficiency messages

Clarify responsibilities.
Clearly state what actions need to be taken either in oral or written communication

Offer compelling persuasive arguments and recommendation.

Make it clear to people how they will benefit from responding to your message the way you want them to.

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

30/09/14

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

ORGANIZATION &
TEAMWORK
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.
HS-Fresenius / Winter 2014/15

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Agenda

1.

Designing an Effective Organization

Structure

2.

Organizing in Teams

3.

Organization structures

4.

Team productivity

5.

Unstructured organization

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

1. Designing an Effective Organization

Structure

Affects the way of making decisions, communicate and accomplish important

tasks

Good organization structure helps to achieve the goals

Formal organization:

Lines of Communication and authority flow

The way to accomplish tasks

Informal organization:

Network of interactions between employees

Interactions transcend formal boundaries and organizational barriers

Companies also prefer an agile organization to guarantee a quick workflow

Choosing the right structure to maximize effectiveness and efficency

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Identifying core competencies

Identifying

Core

the business functions they should focus on

competencies

-> Activities that a company considers central and vital to its business

Outsourcing

effectivity

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

parts or processes of work to get a higher

Identifying Job Responsibilities

Work

specialization of overall work tasks -> Divison of

Labor
Organizational

Tasks are broken down into seperate

Jobs
Tasks

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

are well defined and require specific skills

Defining the Chain of Command

Lines of authority that connects the various groups and levels

Flow of authority from managment level to the next

Who is responsible for each task?

Who has the authority to make a decision

Employees have a certain amount of responsibility

Line organization

Clear line of authority flow from the top down

Line and Staff organization

Has a clear chain of command

Includes functional groups of people

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Span of Management
Number
Flat

of people under one managers control -> Span of Control

Organization:

Wide

span of management

A large

Tall

number of people reporting directly to each manager

Organization:

Many

hierarchical levels

Fewer

people reporting to each manager

Reducing

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

time for decisions by Pushing authority to lower levels

Centralization Versus
Decentralization
Centralization

- the concentration of deciscion-making authority at the

top of an organization

Decentralization
-Deligation of decision-making authority to employees in
lower level positions

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

2. Organizing in Teams
Vertically

organized companies may become slow to react

Many

business tasks demand the expertise of people isolated by the

chain of command

Using

a variety in the decision-making process to combat these issues

Involving employees from all levels and functions

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

What is a Team?
A unit

of two or more poeple who work together to achieve a shared

goal
Members

of a team:

Sharing a Mission

Are collectively responsible for their work

A Team

can accomplish more together than they could individually

-> Synergy
Goals

may set by either the team itself or someone in the formal chain
of command

Team
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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Leaders are often appointed by senior managers

Types of Teams

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Problem-Solving Team:
Assembled

to find ways of improving quality, efficency or

other perfomance measures

Can

attack a specific problem and disbands after presenting

or implementing the solution

Can

continue to meet over time, evaluating trends, and fixing

new problems as they crop up

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Self-Managed Team...:
Manages

its own activities and requires minimal supervisions

controls the pace of work and determination of work assignments

Selects

their own members

Represents

a significant change for organizations in command and

control structures

Advantages

like lower costs, faster decision making, greater

flexibility , improved quality

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Functional Team/Cross Functional

Teams:

Organized along the lines of the organizations vertical structure

Draws together employees from various functional areas and expertise

Facilitate information exchange, help coordiante multiple organizational units...

Can causse Conflicts with an individuals regular departmental workload

Often involve some form of a matrix structure

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Virtual Team:
Composed

of members at two ore more geographic

locations
Can

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

be as effective as face-to-face teams

Three Important Rules:

Taking

advantage of versatile opinions, experiences and

skills of members

Applying/Seizing

technology to replicate resources that

in-person teams rely on

Should

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

take extra care to keep the team effectively

Social Networks and Virtual

Communities
Erasing

the constraints of geographic and organization boundaries

Helping

people coordinate their efforts in pursuit of a shared goal

Collaboration

and identifying of the best people on problems, or

projects
Has

become a an essential tool for many teams, matrix organizations,

temporary organizations and other structures

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

3. Organizing the workforce

Departmentalization:

grouping people within an

organization into logical groups (for example according
to function, division or network)

vertical structure : how many layers the chain of

commmand includes

horizontal

structure: how the business functions/ work

specialties are divided across the
company

Endless

variations of horizontal and vertical structures

are possible

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Functional structures
Grouping

employees according to their skills, resource use and

expertise
Advantages of splitting the organization:
Efficient

use of resources and encourages the development of in depth

skills
Unified

decision making by top managment

Enhance

communication and coordinating of acitivities within

departments

Problems:
Employees
BTAT_3

Can

Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

may just focus on departmental goals

create problems with communication, coordination and controll

- 29 -

September 30, 2014

*
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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

September 30, 2014

Agile Organization

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- 30 -

- 31 -

September 30, 2014

Functional Organization

BTAT_3
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- 32 -

September 30, 2014

Functional Organization
Pro
Specialists

with similar skills

Top-Down-Management
Internal

Communication among immediate colleagues

Con
Development

of silos

Geeks

Solution:

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Cross-Functional-Teams

Grouping departments according

toProduct
similarities
in:
divisions

Groupings around of each of the companys product

Process divisions

based on the major steps of a production process

Customer divisions

satisfying specific groups of customers

Geographic divisons

Respond to local customs, styles and product preferences

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

- 34 -

September 30, 2014

Product Division

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

- 35 -

September 30, 2014

Product Division
Pro:
React
can

quickly to change (more flexibility),

often provide better services (specialization)

Contra:
may

neglect the overall goals of an organization,

compete

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

with other divisions for customers or

- 36 -

September 30, 2014

Customer Divisions

*
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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

- 37 -

September 30, 2014

Geographical Divsion
Pro
Self-contained
Short

ways to act flexibility

Con
Expensive
Divisional
Strong

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

duplication of departments

goals vs. organizational goals

competition between different divisions

- 38 -

September 30, 2014

Matrix Structure

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

- 39 -

September 30, 2014

Matrix Structure
Pro
Pool

& share resources

Project

oriented

Con
Reporting
More

communication & coordination

Bigger

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

to two bosses

challenges for managers hands-on

- 40 -

September 30, 2014

Successful in Matrix Structures

Ensure

that teams are more diverse

Create

enterprise-level training programs

Implement
Facilitate
Identify
Dont

rational assignments

different leadership styles

competencies & correct if needed

try to use hierarchy to solve an issue

Resist

escalation

Handle

emotionally charged communication: face-to-

face
BTAT_3

Ruth Malloy HBR Managing Effectively in a Matrix

Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Networking Structures
Structure

in which usually more than one company

works together to produce a good or service

Perform

selected tasks for a headquarters organization

(virtual organization)

Outsourcing

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

functions and focus on core competencies

- 42 -

September 30, 2014

Networking Structures
Pro:
lower

costs,

more

felxibility (reacting more quickly to market demands),

boost

of competiveness

knowledge

& skills

Contra:
Relying

on outsiders

Vulnerability
Immediate
BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

competition with suppliers

4. Working in Teams
ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

Higher quality decisions

Inefficiency

Increased diversity of views

Groupthink

Increased commitment to solutions

and changes

Diminished individual motivation

Lower levels of stress and destructive

internal competition

Structural disruption

Improved flexibility and

responsiveness

Excessive workloads

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Is supporting a group decision you dont

completely agree with always a case of
groupthink?

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

September 30, 2014

What makes an effective Team?

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

- 45 -

CHARACTERISTICS OF
EFFECTIVE TEAMS
(1)

Right size of the team

(2)

Right mix of people

(3)

Clear sense of purpose

(4)

Open and honest communication

(5)

Creative thinking

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

TEAM MEMBER ROLES

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

5 STEPS FOR EFFECTICTIVE TEAMS

(1)

Make effective teamwork a top management priority

(2)

Select team members wisely

(3)

Build a sense of fairness in decision making

(4)

Manage conflicts constructively

(5)

Stay on track

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

TEAM DEVELOPMENT
(1)

Forming

(2)

Storming

(3)

Norming

(4)

Performing

(5)

Adjourning

Development of cohesiveness

Emergence of norms

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

What are the risks of not giving new teams the

time and opportunity to storm and norm before
tackling the work theyve been assigned?

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

TEAM CONFLICT CAUSES

Disagreement over responsibilities
Poor communication
Withholding of information
Basic differences
Power struggles
Different goals

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

TEAM CONFLICT SOLUTIONS

Proactive attention
Communication
Openness
Research
Flexibility
Fair play
Alliance

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

TEAM CONFLICT PREVENTION

Establish clear goals

Well-defined tasks
Facilitating open communication

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Have you ever had to adapt your personality in

order to suceed on a particular team?
Was this a positive or negative experience?

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

5. Managing an Unstructured
Organization
Best

way to organize might be with little or no structure

at all
Formless
Cloud

Form enabled by:

computing

Mobile

communication

Online

collaboration platforms

All

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

manners of social Networking tools

What exactly is an unstructured organization?

Unstructured
No

organization:

conventional structure

Assembles
Virtual

talent as needed from the open market

and networked organizational concepts taken to the

extreme

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Example
Solo

entrepreneur can now quickly assemble a product

development team to design a new product and then

disassemble that team and build a manufacturing

team

afterwards assemble a sales and customer support

team to get the product on the market
-> Without hiring a single employee <-

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Company TopCoder
Membership

of more then 300.000 computer scientists

and software engineers

TopCoder

members compete to come up with the best

solutions
Entrepreneur

design
BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

can get the very best of each part of the

Benefits for Companies

Lower

fixed costs and more flexible capacity

management:
Hiring

employees increases the fixed costs

Much

more flexibility in adjusting their expense level to

match revenue level

Increased
Virtual

BTAT_3

agility:

organizations can be assembled/disassembled,

reconfigured much faster than a conventional employee based
organization

Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Benefits for Companies

Access

to otherwise unreachable talent:

Managers

can rent top talent that is too expensive to hire

full time or unwilling to work full time

Benefits
Firms

of competition:

can stage competitions in talent markets to see who

can devise the best solutions to problems

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Challenges for Companies

Complexity
Less

and Control issues:

control about their talents

Workers

have to report to multiple bosses

Uncertainty:
Without

staff at the ready, companies wont know if theyll get the

talents they need

Management
No

succession:

groom of future Managers -> Companies could be hard

pressed to replace upper manager when the time comes

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Benefits for Workers

Performance-based
The

evaluation:

only thing that matters is getting the job done

Freedom

and flexibility:

Workers

have more leeway in choosing which projects they want

and how much they want to work

Access

to more interesting and more fulfilling work:

Workers

can get access to opportunities that might be

unreachable otherwise

BTAT_3
Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

Challenges for Workers

Uncertainty:
Workers

cant ne sure theyll have work from one project to the

next

Loss
No

of meaning and connection:

sense of working together

Career

development:

Workers

are left to fend for themselves and to keep their skills

current at their own expense

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.

People have to be motived according to

their understanding of the job

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Danny Laker-Senadheera M.A.