Maslow’s theory came across after the name Abraham Harold Maslow, who was born on April 1st, 1908 in Brooklyn. He developed the needs model in 1940-50′ (USA). Although Maslow died in the year 1970, various publications appear in Maslow’s name in later years. The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or “five-stage model” (structure and technology) is clearly and directly attributed to Maslow, however later versions of the theory with additional motivating stages are not so clearly identified as a Maslow’s work.
Maslow´s hierarchy of needs is formed by basic needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization. Nowadays, new names have been attributed.
Also, the Myers Briggs type indicator (MBTI) is a strongly adaptable solution that has helped millions of people around the world to understand themselves better, as well as the way to interact with others. MBTI assessment improves the performances of people, teams and organization of all sizes in addressing their needs, from team building, leadership, coaching, and conflict management, to career development and retention. It is a highly reliable solution that can be used or made in combination with other evaluations, forming a firm foundation for all training and development initiatives.
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Team and Team Leader definitions
According to the wisdom of Teams published by Harvard Business School Press in 1993: “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose , performance goals , an approach for which they hold themselves mentally accountable.” It refers to a group of people who work well together (Hiriyappa, 2009).
Therefore a team leader is a team member who may not have any authority over other members but is appointed on permanent or rotating basis to: represent the team to the next higher reporting level, make decisions in the absence of a consensus, resolve conflict between team members, and coordinate team efforts (Business Dictionay, 2010)
Some people are born more naturally to leadership than others. Most people don’t seek to be a leader, but many more people are able to lead, in one way or another and in one situation or another, than they realize. People who want to be a leader can develop leadership ability (Businessballs, 2010). Leadership is not the exclusive preserve of the wealthy and educated. We, the writers of this paper consider that leadership is a matter of personal conviction and believing strongly in a cause or aim, whatever it is.
Criteria to select team members
Leaders of course need to be able to make tough decisions when required, but most importantly leaders should concentrate on enabling the team to prosper, which is actually a ‘serving’ role, not the dominant ‘leading’ role commonly associated with leadership (Robins & Langton, 2005).
All projects require the right mix of people to get the job done. Creating a project team may in fact be the most important part of the project creation process. The leader must have a good understanding of the project subject matter, demonstrated leadership skills, and the ability to monitor progress and keep the project on schedule. Therefore, when selecting the member of a team, a team leader should understand the specific needs of the project by selecting people who meet the require needs as a whole. If the current employee base does not cover all of the required needs for a project, a manager should bring in new team members, to round out a project team.
The team leader needs to monitor the overall performance of the team as a whole, as well as that of individual team members, to ensure that the team remains best poised to achieve the team goals. This may require rotating some team members in at certain points in the project timeline for specific needs, or moving members out of the team as needed. Personnel who are underperforming need to be either motivated to improve performance, or removed from the project team. (Kristoff, 2008).
To perform effectively, a team requires three different types of skills: it needs people with technical expertise, with problem-solving and decision-making skills to be able to identify problems, generate alternatives, evaluate those alternatives and make competent choices, as well as people with good listening, feedback, conflict resolution, and other interpersonal skills. (Robins & Langton, 2005). The right mix is crucial.
Team B members, selection and strengths
According to Robbins & Langton (2004), a manager needs to understand the individual strengths that each person can bring to a team, select members with their strengths in mind, and allocate work assignments that fit with members’ preferred styles. By matching individual preferences with team role demands, managers increase the likelihood that the team members will work well together. (Robins, 2004, p 150).
In this case, the multinational team named “B” is formed by Alicia Vicente, Sushma Ponnuru, Mahitha Bikkina, Kevin Wang, Prathamesh Shelar and Shafivulla Shaik. Therefore, we consider that diversity inside a team can bring a greater number of ideas, perspectives, knowledge, and skills to the group, which can be used to perform at a higher level. So, while working inside a team, it is very important to be engaged in problem-solving and decision-making tasks. We believe that our heterogeneous team may have qualities that lead to creative or unique solutions while working together.
Some advantages that we can find inside our team are: multiple perspectives and interpretations, greater openness to new ideas, increased creativity, flexibility and problem-solving skills. So we have to work together to avoid miscommunication, complexity ambiguity or confusion in reaching our goals.
Therefore, because the diversity inside our team, we have agreed that some strengths or dimensions inside our team are integrity, honesty, humility, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, positivity, wisdom, determination, compassion and sensitivity.
Managing a team effectively
According to D.C. Education (2005), there are some factors that are needed to consider in order of managing effectively a team:
Make sure everyone in the team understand the goals and expectations that the managers have for the team. Educate the team about the objectives by communicating clearly about members’ roles, responsibilities and deadlines.
Assess the strength and weakness of each team member by initially assigning simple work. Delegate work accordingly based on the skill and interest level of each person.
Take responsibility for the team and acknowledge their efforts in meetings. Loyalty and motivates of the team members to go the extra mile for the team’s success.
Members can handle problems and changes effectively by having good communicate skills. Encourage the team to value their role in the workplace.
Treat each other in the team with respect and remain courteous while having different opinions. Be friendly and approachable to each other. Understand and be accommodating of family commitments and difficulties (Education, 2005).
The role an individual’s personality plays in the success
Work teams are groups of individuals who have a common purpose, interact to accomplish organizational goals, and share responsibility for team outcomes. The classic framework for understanding team effectiveness is the input-process-out-put model. Both input (individual, environmental, and group-level) and process (e.g., communication patterns, personal disclosure, conflict, and influence) variables affect teams’ output capabilities. We adopted this framework in considering the team composition variable of personality as contributing to team effectiveness (Maginn, 2003).
Individuals are the main force of the team, while personalities are essential to the success of the team work due. Each one should take the responsibility of what they may be good at.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
A useful tool to integrate and understand team members’ performances is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It was introduced by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Cook Briggs. MBTI investigation was the result of the “psychological type theory” introduced by Carl Jung. MBTI indicate personality preferences of a person and found to be reliable and valid.
According to Culp & Smith (2009), the classification of personality preferences is based on the MBTI test and in line with the answers obtained, a person’s personality type can be classified as extroverted or introverted (E or I), sensing or intuitive (S or N), thinking or feeling (T or F) and perceiving or judging (P or J). Sixteen personality types are made using the combination of these preferences.
Extraverts or Introverts type (E or I)
In extravert personality energy is directed out-ward. Extravert people get energy by interacting with others. In work environment extravert people can contribute by initiating discussion, providing enthusiasm, encouraging new concepts and bringing them up.
If energy is directed inward then it is an introvert personality. Introvert people like to be alone and process information internally. They are good in listening. At work they provide peace and calmness. Introvert people have a thinking nature and they always examine the situation before taking any decision. Introvert people possess reflective type of leadership style (Culp, 2009).
Sensing and Intuitive type (S or N)
Sensing personality type people perceive what is present. They are practical people. They observe what is real and accurate and uses it accordingly. Employees having this characteristic contribute by providing facts, notice important information and identify practical solution to the problem. Intuitive personalities have the focus on future. Intuitive tends to think on future possibilities. They are always thinking several things at once. Intuitive employees generally contribute in providing an outline, identifying potentials, notice patterns and always focusing on future (Hagey, 2009).
Thinking vs Feeling type (T or F)
Thinkers usually make decisions on practical and uses logic and unbiased analysis to reach a conclusion. They are realistic people. They often find practical solution to the problem. Employees of this characteristics contributes by objectivity, focus on facts and analysis.
Feelers give importance to values and emotions for making any decision. Feelers are easily identified due to their friendliness. They contribute at the workplace by giving benefit of doubt, providing empathy, accommodating others, encouraging loyalty, and finding settlements (Culp, 2009).
Judging vs perceiving type (J or P)
Judging personalities are very disciplined and organized life. They also expect the same at the workplace. If they are in unorganized atmosphere, they either correct it or constantly complain it. Their positives at the workplace are quick decision making, organizing and setting goals. They like to go with the timetable and hate surprises.
Perceivers like to live in a flexible and unplanned way. They prefer to gather information continuously. Their personality type is spontaneous and creative. They contribute at the workplace by allowing flow of information, fetching new options, recognizing the desirable change and handling of surprises comfortably (Hagey, 2009).
Team members in MBTI personality type
Based on the Personality Type theory, our team has completed the MBTI survey to help us understand each team member. The results are as follow:
NAME
PERSONALITY TYPE
Alicia Vicente
– INTJ introverted intuition with thinking
Sushma Ponnuru
– ENFJ extraverted feeling with intuition
Shafivulla Shaik
– ENFJ extraverted feeling with intuition
Xiaohu Wang
– ISTJ introverted sensing with thinking
Prathamesh Shelar
– INFP introverted feeling with intuition
Mahitha Bikkina
– ENFJ extraverted feeling with intuition
From this chart it is possible to extract that most of the team are introverted person, so it is necessary that we, as team and individuals should develop communication skills to achieve team’ goals members.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
At simple level it seems to be obvious that people do things, such as go to work, in order to get stuff they want and to avoid stuff they don’t want. Overall, the basic perspective on motivation looks something like this. People seem to have different wants (Abraham Maslow.com, 2010). This is fortunate, because in markets this creates a very desirable situation where, because you value stuff that I have but you don’t, and I value stuff that you have that I don’t, we can trade in such way that we both are happier as a result. Therefore, Abraham Maslow has developed a category of needs that every human being has to fulfill, so they can reach happiness.
This theory is named the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Robbins, 2004), and our team has related Maslow’s category into job satisfaction, and it is described as follows:
Self-actualization: training, advancement, growth, creativity
Esteem needs: recognition, high status, responsibilities
Social needs: teams, coworkers, clients, supervisors, subordinates
Safety needs: work safety, job security, health insurance
Physiological needs: to be comfortable at work, a base salary, etc.
We, the writers of this paper, believe that working in a team should be easy as well as team members have an exclusive role to achieve team goals. If a team is motivated, works properly and has good communication between team integrants; then the task will become easier. So it is very important to select a good and skilful team.
Team members in Maslow’s hierarchy
We have applied Maslow’s hierarchy to our team integrants and these are the results:
NAME
LEVEL
Alicia Vicente
Self-actualization
Sushma Ponnuru
Esteem
Shafivulla Shaik
Self-actualization
Xiaohu Wang
Esteem
Prathamesh Shelar
Esteem
Mahitha Bikkina
Self-actualization
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, each integrant of our team has placed him/her-self into one of the several stages, and people’s skills and talents were taken into consideration. Alicia was placed in self-actualization because she is achieving her goals and has a high self-esteem. Sushma was placed in esteem because she respects herself and has obtained a good recognition among others. Shafivulla was placed in self-actualization because he is making important decisions by himself that compromise his future. Xiaohu was placed in esteem for the reason that he wants to finish his Master and achieve his goal of working. Prathamesh was placed in esteem because he is on the way to achieve his professional goals. Mahitha is located in self- actualization because she considers herself with an efficient perception of reality, with personal goals achieved and accepts responsibility of her actions.
Maslow’s hierarchy affecting self-motivation
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has had a great impact inside our team’s development, for the reason that it is easy to apply an equal distribution of work according to our skills. According to Langton (2004), the more you know about the other person, there is more chance of becoming a successful team. (Langton, 2004)
The relationship of trust inside a team performance
The intra-team trust as a powerful strategy and critical part inside a team’s performance; therefore it has received a wide academic attention, as well as many studies have been done on the motivational area. Teams are one of the most prevalent types of strategy used in contemporary organizations.
In terms of team duration within a task, short-term teams are expected to disband after having worked together for a brief period of time: however, ongoing teams are those who their tasks involve a longer time working together, with contemplations on future tasks.
Teams are not only a good work strategy; they have proved their prevalence and importance in organizations, but several arguments have been developed on the trust-performance relationship while working within a team (Shen, 2007). Moreover, a theoretical work suggests that the effects of trust are likely to be more pronounced in ongoing teams than short-term teams. Ongoing teams are more focused on interpersonal relationships that increase the impact of trust dynamics on team member.
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The perception of trust resides at the individual level, but the meaning of trust in a team-level comes from the shared quality of these individual-level perceptions. These shared perceptions of trust are believed to emerge naturally from team membership and social categorization processes. Team members’ collective sense about their shared experiences and contextual factors reassure team members and constrain their interactions (Costa, 2003).
Build trust for a sustained high performance
The concept of trust is simple: build individual confidence and eliminate fear as an operating principle (Learning Center, 2010). The process is achievable once we understand the emotions associated with trust and incorporate them into these four steps:
1. Define what we mean by trust,
2. Understand our blind spots,
3. Communicate with intention, and,
4. Produce.
Team monitoring after team selection
Team monitoring based on Longfred and Costa (2003) refers to team members’ observation in certain standards, such as fulfilling obligations to the team like meeting deadlines or practicing an open communication. According to Longfred it is necessary that everyone in the team meets deadlines to increase effectiveness. We, inside our team, have focused our efforts in fulfill team requirements and in this case deadlines by completing with quality one’s work on time.
According to K.J. Klein (2000), a team leader should evaluate team quality by focusing on two aspects: the quantity of output, and the overall assessment of team performance. Team leader also should be instructed to evaluate team performance by using a ranging scale from 1 to 10; and after the evaluation, team leader should give a feedback to each team members (Klein, 2000).
Selecting strategies factors to motivate a team
Some factors that we, as a team, consider while selecting strategies to motivate our team are: trust in team leader, individual autonomy, organizational tenure, and team size (Schippers, 2003). Moreover, according to Alan Fairweather (2010), for team leader or a manager, is possible to have a highly motivated team who don’t take time off work, don’t keep looking for other jobs, and make a positive contribution to business, by simply implementing 3 steps: Spending some quality time, giving feedback and coach, as well as being a believer by using empowerment (Fairweather, 2008).
Conclusion
A team is equal to the integrants working in it, and team members are what bring the success or failure. Selecting the right mix of talent, expertise and leadership will ensure that the work they accomplish will lead to success for the team or company they are working for. Therefore it is important that a team focus their efforts to improve itself constantly.
According to Robbins (2002), “a team generates positive synergy through coordinated effort. The combined individual efforts result in a level of performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs (Robbins, 2002, p 161).
Motivation is important because, under optimal conditions, effort can often be increased and sustained, employees or in this case, team members can become self-motivated and provide a competitive advantage by offering suggestions and working satisfactory (Hiriyappa, 2009).
Individuals take a great role in the team and individuals are the main force of the group work, so the personalities of individuals also decide the failure or success of the team. Try to do the strength and learn from others can improve the members knowledge and thus improve the whole team. That is why, MBTI tool can be useful to recognize the personality type of individuals working within a team or company. Although, this theory is not scientifically supported, it can be used to understand overall behavior of the person at the working place. This study also shows that communication can be improved between the team members by applying MBTI theory.
On the other hand, we believe that the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can easily estimate where each individual stands. It has a greater impact on teams when distributing and delegating work, by developing task in an easier way, according to the skills that each team member has.
In conclusion, a team should be selected, coordinated and motivated to successfully achieve goals with quality and efficiency.
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