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Pacs Essay Groups and Teams at Kluster 1. What are the challenges of working together as a team? How have members of the Illuminator project overcome these challenges? What are the benefits of a team-based approach? Teamwork is a huge factor of the success for many companies around the world. The performance of teamwork in the workplace will bring the sense of trust, loyalty and security among every worker. The morale and productivity will be higher as a result of that. However, working on a team has its own challenges. Working with people that have different personalities, ideas, cultures, backgrounds, ages, needs and values is one of the most challenges that teamwork faces during its performance. Conflict, mistrust, poor performance can be created as result of these differences. Finding a way to overcome these obstacles is the foundation of a strong and successful teamwork. Illuminator project has overcome these challenges by respecting and using every skill and idea that each team member delivers. That makes every team member feel important and productive. Also communication among each member is very critical for the success of the Illuminator project. Today, teamwork has been found to be as a better way on using every employee’s talent and skill toward a more effective and efficient organization. † Management has found that teams are more flexible and responsive to changing events than are traditional departments. Teams have the capability to quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband. † Robbins and Judge, pg 323. 2. What type of individual would fit in well on the Illuminator team? What characteristics are important? According to the engineer of the Illuminator project, each team member should have self-disciplined and self-leadership. Individuals that are careful, reliable, organized, hardworking, persistent, and honest are those that are more likely to give a higher performance than those that lack any of these characteristics. Conscientious personality which describes someone that is responsible, persistent and organized would fit in well on the Illuminator team. Also, someone who is emotionally stable meaning a confidence, calmness and secure personality would fit in well on this team. . How has technology changed the way we do business? Identify how Kluster has embraced technology in its operations. Advanced technology such as computers and computer networks have changed and helped businesses on being more efficient and effective. Downsizing, outsourcing and empowerment are some of the substantial gains of the organizations due to the technology. New ways of communicating among members, stor ing information and researching for ideas and ways to achieve and succeed are result of the advanced technology. Kluster has taken advantage of the technology by using the telecommuting as a way of communication among team members. Since members of Kluster project live in different areas and some of them travel to different cities, it’s very important to communicate with each other at all the time. Therefore telecommuting through Web based program has made it possible. â€Å"Telecommuting refers to employees who do their work at home on a computer that is linked to their office. † Robbins and Judge, pg 223. 4. Describe the different parts of the Illuminator team. Why is it necessary to have each of these parts represented? The illuminator team is created by combining different ideas and skills of different individuals. Each team member has to be self- disciplined and committed to their job. As every organization, Illuminator team has the founder, the project designer, the engineer of the team and the project manager. The importance of this system is to keep the work in place and run effectively and naturally. Each member has different responsibilities that need to be established and require different skills. Illuminator project runs under job enlargement design which increases the degree of each member to control, plan and evaluate the work done. â€Å" An enriched job organizes tasks so as to allow the worker to do a complete activity, increases the employee’s freedom and independence, increases responsibility, and provides feedback so individuals will be assess and correct their own performance†. Robbins and Judge, pg 220. 5. Ben Kaufman, founder of Illuminator, says it is important to recognize that sometimes people need a break from the team. Explain what he means by this. Sometimes, personal life issues can cause stress, pressure, disorientation and weak performance. Therefore, it’s very important that every team member to have the right and be able to work sometimes on their own away from the team as long as they work on their job responsibilities. Depending on the personality, some individuals can perform better while under stress when they work alone. Being able to accept that break from the rest of the team, the organization is helping their member to establish his/her responsibilities required for the organization’s success. . What two or three suggestions would you provide to address ways that virtual teams could celebrate successes? How would you implement them? I would give two suggestions that could help virtual team succeed. The first one is to set a time of the day every week for all the team members to participate in a meeting via internet. In this way, everyone will be able to get the same feedbacks, ask questions and receiv e answers at the same time and share their ideas with the rest of the team. So every week the meeting will provide each member with the result of their work, how much has been achieved and where they need improvement. The second suggestion would be for the virtual team to have a leader where the team members can address all their questions and concern. The team leader should be reached at anytime of the day and be able to address these concerns in the best way possible. 7. As a manager, what two or three suggestions would you implement to ensure that individual members were recognized for their contribution? Obviously, financial incentives will help motivate every employee to perform better. A pay raise would be one of the suggestions that would ensure that the good work of a member has been recognized. Also, bonuses such as a paid day off or a gift card would be another suggestion. Employee of the month nomination can be a third suggestion. This way the competition to get any of these recognitions among employees will provide a better performance and more productive workers. Therefore, I as a manager will be able to lead a successful organization.