Diversity In Teams

Types of work teams

According to Bishop et al. (2014), work teams are a group of people who generate positive collaboration through coordinated efforts. The different types of work teams in modern organizations include functional, cross-functional, and task-force teams. Functional teams are teams that include people from the same department. Each team member in a functional team has specific responsibilities. Cross-functional teams include individuals from different departments. They handle specific tasks that require expertise and input. Task force teams are created during emergencies to find a solution to a problem. They include people with specific skills and competencies needed to resolve a problem.

Advantages of teams

One of the advantages of functional teams is high efficiency. Every team member in a functional team is assigned responsibilities based on their expertise leading to team efficiency. The efficiency of functional teams is also enhanced by exchanging ideas among team members handling the same function. The second advantage is a large scope of expansion because responsibilities are shared among all team members. The main disadvantage of functional teams is limited autonomy because the team manager sets boundaries regulating team members’ actions. The main advantage of cross-functional teams is that they facilitate innovation because team members from different departments can exchange opinions and ideas and collaborate to implement them. However, maintaining team cohesion in cross-functional teams is difficult because members from different departments have different perspectives and goals. Cross-functional teams also have a versatile structure that could contribute to conflict among team members. A versatile structure includes individuals with different qualities or skills (Mears, 2020). Poor management of versatile teams reduces cohesion, thus reducing the team’s productivity. The main advantage of task-force teams is a high commitment among team members because they are all engaged in meeting a common goal. However, task force teams may lack cohesiveness because team members have different knowledge, skills, and abilities. Decision-making in task force teams is also slow because the team members have to settle on a mutual agreement. Conflicts are also likely to occur among team members in task force teams because of different opinions on the effectiveness of selected solutions to an identified problem.

Is one team better than the others?

Cross-functional teams are better than others because they involve everyone in the organization, thus enhancing engagement and a sense of belonging. Cross-functional teams also allow everyone to express their opinions and ideas, thus improving decision-making. Cross-functional teams can also be leveraged during an organizational change to reduce resistance to change by encouraging employees to share their ideas about the change.

References

Bishop, J. W., Dow Scott, K., Maynard-Patrick, S., & Wang, L. (2014). Teams, team process, and team building. Clinical Laboratory Management, 373-391. https://doi.org/10.1128/9781555817282.ch18

Mears, P. (2020). Teams, teams, and more teams. Healthcare Teams, 79-86. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003072744-12

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Type: Discussion Board
Unit: Diverse Teams
Due Date: Thu,10/27/22
Grading Type: Numeric
Points Possible: 75
Points Earned: Points Earned not available
Deliverable Length: 2 parts: See assignment details
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Assignment Description
Primary Discussion Responses are due by Thursday (11:59:59pm Central), and Peer Responses are due by Saturday (11:59:59pm Central).

Diversity in Teams

Organizations use different types of teams. Diversity in teams can mean everything from skill sets to ethnicity. Matching the right team structure to the needs of the organization takes an understanding of the function of that team structure.

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation of future discussions with your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Respond to the following:

Explain at least 3 different types of work teams.
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each one?
Of the work teams you have chosen, is one type better than the others? Explain why.
Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:

Do you agree or disagree with his or her conclusion about the best type of work team?
What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?
What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates’ postings?
For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

Communication Skills

After taking the test, the results showed that I am an intuitor. What surprised me the most about this was the tendency to be condescending or arrogant, which was one of the negative characteristics listed under intuition. Having a condescending attitude is one of the most character traits that one can have, in my opinion, and finding out that I could be exhibiting it really caught me off guard and had me rethinking how I communicate with people. In addition, being absent-minded in conversations was also one of the traits listed under intuition. While I often dismiss my zoning out habit as boredom, having it listed here made me realize that I need to work on my communication skills. Having identified some of the crucial areas that I lack when it comes to effective communication, I can now put more work into these areas, like learning how to pay attention and being more respectful in conversations so that I do not come off as arrogant or demeaning.

Practical communication skills are essential in a business because they contribute significantly to its success. For example, through effective communication, employees can understand their terms and conditions of employment, which in turn motivates their loyalty and commitment  (Husain, 2013). Secondly, effective communication brings about satisfaction and more customer engagement and boosts employee morale (Husain, 2013). All these factors lead to improvement in business performance. Thinking of an effective communicator, what comes to mind is being a good listener. One cannot have an effective conversation if they cannot understand each other, and the only way to understand each other is to listen to both verbal and nonverbal communication cues (Shipley, 2010). Therefore, knowing what the other person is saying and understanding the emotions behind their words enables one to respond effectively.

In an effort to improve my communication skills, I will continue learning more about negative traits associated with being an intuition, as shown in the test taken above, so that I can work on them. In addition, I will also work on improving my positive traits; this way, I will continue to improve as an effective communicator.

References

Husain, Z. (2013). Effective communication brings successful organizational change. The Business & Management Review, 3(2), 43.

Shipley, S. D. (2010, April). Listening: A concept analysis. In Nursing forum (Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 125-134). Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing Inc.

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1. To assess your knowledge of communication skills, complete the following evaluation: Evaluate Your Communication Style: Self-Assessment Exercise.
   • Self-check your responses to the answers at the bottom of the assessment.
2. Consider the results from your self-evaluation and answer the following questions in 275 words, double-spaced:
3. • What answers, if any, surprised you?
   • How will this new information help you when communicating with others?
   • How would you like to improve your communication skills?
   • How can practical communication skills improve your business performance?
   • Who comes to mind when you think of an effective communicator? Why?
   • What steps will you take to improve your communication skills?

Customer Relationships-Kiamarie

Engineered Strategies Kiamarie Might Use to Capture Repeat Sales

Capturing repeat customers is vital in maintaining business sustainability. According to El-Zayaty & Coff (2017), repeat business increases customer retention, word-of-mouth marketing, and customer spending. One engineered strategy that Kiamarie might use to capture repeat sales from past customers is creating a loyalty program. The company might offer exclusive offers for repeat customers, rewards, and bonus points. Customers can be encouraged to redeem their bonus points when purchasing another car. The bonus points can be awarded based on the type of car a customer has purchased at the dealership. The second strategy is offering personalized customer service. For example, customer service can be provided by customer service agents with expertise about a specific car so that one agent addresses a customer’s questions and issues. The third strategy is sending re-engagement emails to get customer feedback on the purchase experience. Customers can also be encouraged to suggest improvement areas.

Effective CRM Strategies and the Ones to Avoid

According to Baran & Galka (2016), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the process of maximizing the value a business or organization proposes to customers through marketing activities founded on customer knowledge established through leverage, management, and collection of customer data and contact history. One of the CRM strategies that I believe is most effective for Kiamarie is using Customer Relationship Management software to track all communications between the company and customers to identify customers’ needs and complaints easily. Another CRM strategy is personalizing the car’s configurations to meet customers’ needs and preferences. The company should avoid automating customer relationship management because it would limit customer engagement because automation includes using a specific set of questions and pre-established responses. Therefore, automation may discourage customers from contacting the company due to the assumption that they will get the same feedback.

References

Baran, R. J., & Galka, R. J. (2016). Customer relationship management: The foundation of contemporary marketing strategy. Taylor & Francis.

El-Zayaty, A., & Coff, R. (2017). Appropriation of value from competitive advantages. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.18.

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Unit 7 DB: Customer RelationshipsUnit 7 DB: Customer Relationships
its all about relationships
We already know that competition is fierce in most every business sector. This drives smart business owners to add to their competitiveness in the market place. Successful businesses have created strategies to shield their current customers from their rivals.

For example, the Apple brand that has earned the trust of their customers and turned them into raving repeat customers. They offer more than a good product, they offer cool products! Their competitors offer comparable products at much lower price points, but in the eyes of Apple fans… they are not cool! Apple has created thick walls surrounding each of their fans – walls that are nearly impossible for their rivals to penetrate.
Business Scenario
Kiamarie is recently promoted sales manager of a Honda car dealership in Memphis, Tennessee. As a salesperson, she’s consistently been at or near the top of the sales team for over 10 years and has built a large repeat business from her client list.
Now that she’s in the position of sales manager, the owner of the dealership has given her a goal to increase year-over-year sales by 20 percent. Kiamarie intends to roll out a new strategy which is similar to the one she used when she was a salesperson.
Research by the Honda Dealership Network (HDN) indicates that most new car buyers trade-in and/or buy a new car every 3-4 years. Based on this statistic, the owner wants Kiamarie to create a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) plan and asked her to present it him at the end of the month.
Questions
What engineered strategies might Kiamarie use to capture repeat sales from the past customers of the dealership?
What CRM strategies do you think are most effective? Which should be avoided?

Collegiate Promotions Discussion

1. Do you think the compensation system at Collegiate Promotions is effective?

Collegiate Promotion Company pays employees based on commissions. These commissions are paid on the framework of piece-rate pay. One drawback of this compensation method is that individuals offered commissions may believe they are free agents without commitment to the business (Stewart and Brown 474). If other sales employment is available, turnover might be substantial. Another issue might occur when salespersons concentrate on short-term outcomes to collect commissions (Stewart and Brown 474). Some sales representatives may put efforts into building their accounts over months, yet their work may take time to be rewarded. The sales representatives will only have the motivation to pursue long-term growth if they are assured of immediate rewards.

2. Why would a sales representative try to sell at the top of the price range? Why at the bottom of the price range? Do you predict that most sales are made at the top or bottom of the range of possible prices?

The company’s sales representatives will likely sell at high-end prices. That is because the commission is based not only on sales volumes but also on sales price, hence the motivation to ask for a higher price. As a result, every sales representative’s responsibility is to aim high and sell at a higher price to earn a higher commission. However, some sales agents may be motivated to sell at a lower price range to increase sales volumes.

3. How does the lack of geographically protected sales areas affect salespersons’ behaviour?

Collegiate Promotions has not implemented the geographically protected sales model, making it difficult for sales representatives to determine an effective target audience. In this case, multiple sales representatives at Collegiate Promotions likely target the same clients. Although the company will sell anyway, some salespeople may be disadvantaged if they operate in an area with other sales representatives.

4. How committed do you think the independent contractors are to Collegiate Promotions? What are some positive features of the independent contractor status for the organization? What might be some positive features for the independent representatives? Would you expect sales representatives to have long-term associations with the company?

The sales representatives at Collegiate Promotions operate under the framework of independent contractors. To that end, the employer has limited control over how long they will work for the company or how many hours they may work per day. Organizations that use independent contractors seek to cut labour costs. However, one problem associated with this model is that an organization has limited control over employees’ conduct   (Stewart and Brown 166). Therefore, they are likely to be less motivated, more so if they understand that no financial incentives are forthcoming. On the other hand, independent contractors benefit from the flexibility characterized by their jobs, allowing them to achieve a work-life balance. However, Collegiate Promotions’ sales representatives may not stay long at the company since they are less engaged. They may leave to organizations that assure them of a safety net.

Works Cited

Stewart, Greg L., and Kenneth G Brown. Human Resource Management: Linking Strategy to Practice. Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2019.

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Please read the case and answer the questions at the end. Please respond to two of your peers. Do you agree or disagree?
Collegiate Promotions distributes products that are marketed to students and alumni of major universities. High-selling products include coffee mugs and T-shirts that bear collegiate logos. Collegiate Promotions has adopted an independent sales representative model to distribute its products. The sales representatives work for themselves and are not actual employees of Collegiate. They have independent contractor status.

Becoming an independent sales representative is easy. An interested person pays a $300 fee to obtain catalogues and other literature needed to advertise and sell the line of products. The sales representative then begins to write orders for products. A sales representative can sell to anyone through any channel. This means there are no protected territories, so several sales representatives often work in the same location. Many representatives also sell through Internet websites.
Collegiate Promotions does not set an absolute price for its products. Instead, it uses a wholesale plus pricing strategy that allows sales representatives to sell within a relatively broad range. The range is normally 30 to 50 per cent higher than wholesale. For instance, if the wholesale price of a coffee mug is $10, then the representative can choose to sell the mug at a price anywhere between $13 and $15. The sales representative receives a commission of half the amount charged over the wholesale price. If the mug sells for $13, the representative receives $1.50. If the mug sells for $15, the representative receives $2.50. Because they are independent contractors, the sales representatives receive no other compensation.
Questions:
1. Do you think the compensation system at Collegiate Promotions is effective?
2. Why would a sales representative try to sell at the top of the price range?
Why at the bottom of the price range? Do you predict that most sales are made at the top or bottom
of the range of possible prices? 3. How does the lack of geographically protected sales areas affect salespersons’ behaviour?
4. How committed do you think the independent contractors are to Collegiate Promotions? What are some positive features of the independent contractor status for the organization? What might be some positive features for the independent representatives? Would you expect sales representatives to have long-term associations with the company?