Analyzing Managerial Decisions: Why Teams Fail
Introduction
Teams fail because their management is ineffective and the organization does not provide the
support and the motivation needed to maintain the staff morale and determination to achieve its
goals.
The following are the reasons why teams fail.
Environmental influences
The ability of individual team members to coordinate their meetings from different locations,
communicate effectively and reach balanced conclusions is sometimes frustrated by the distance,
communication or location of individual team members. Communication is critical for the team
to succeed. Inadequate provision of the required information and the needed resources for the
team to succeed is normally the major reasons why teams fail. The existence of the team should
be recognized and appreciated by the management and even motivated to achieve its targeted
results.
Analyzing Managerial Decisions: Why Teams Fail
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Targets
The team should be involved in setting the targets and goals for the group and even for the whole
organization. This way the team members feel they are also part of the larger group and the goals
of the organization become clearer and a general feeling of ownership and overall direct
responsibility develops among the team members.
Roles
The team members should not be given responsibilities that they do not understand their goals or
roles that they are against their objectives as they will not deliver on such targets. The problem of
free riding develops where there is no direct individual responsibility on the team performance.
(Harkins, 1987, p. 1-118) Free riding is a problem where one member of a group or several
members don’t perform part or all their duties and instead wait for the rest of the team members
to finish the task and reap the same benefits of their accomplishment as they are also part of the
group. (Morris and Hayes, 1997, p.3). Free riding discourages the hard working employees from
working hard and achieving the overall objective of the company. This problem if it’s not
addressed affects the performance of the group and ultimately the whole company is affected.
(Jones, 1984, p.684-695)
Trust
Lack of trusts among the team members can also contribute to the failure of the organization.
The team members don’t reveal important and critical information to one another hence the
conclusions made are inadequately addressed. (Dirks, 1999, p. 445-455)
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There are other reasons besides the ones mentioned above that can also contribute to the failure
of team work in organizations but all the issues can be resolved if the management of such
companies are determined to make the teams succeed. Teams are vital components in any
organization their failure eventually leads to the failure of the company.
Reference
Dirks, K.T. (1999). The effects of interpersonal trust on work group performance.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 84 (3), pp. 445-455.
Jones, G.R. (1984).Task visibility, free riding, and shirking: Explaining the effect of
structure and technology on employee behavior. Academy of Management
Review, Vol. 9, pp. 684-695.
Harkins, S.G. (1987). Social Loafing and social facilitation. Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology, 23, pp. 1-18.
