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Effective Business Teams in Asda (Team Building Assignment 1 ) Distinction
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- PEARSON (PEARSON)
Team Building Assignment 1
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Team Building in Business Level 3, Business Extended DiplomaEffective Business Teams
Introduction
In this report, I will investigate the importance and the benefits for a chosen business to
have effective teams and how the team contributes to achieving the goals of the business,
making references to a second business when I will talk about the benefits. Also, in the
second part of this report, I will explore the different roles that team members play, as well
as techniques and theories that are used for the improving and developing the effective
team of the business.
The main business I will write about in this report is Asda and another business that has
good results in teamwork and I will refer to is The Savoy Hotel.
A. The benefit of teams in a business setting
A.P1. The purpose of a given team in Asda
A team is a number of persons who work, communicate and collaborate in order to fulfil
a common objective (e.g. marketing team of a company, NHS team). Instead, a group
consists of people who have a common interest, but work individually and have separate
purposes (e.g. classmates, football fans - people in the same location in the same amount of
time).
There are different types of team and each company will use the appropriate ones for the
business to achieve their goals:
Permanent team – the members of the mean work together for long periods of time,
not just until the goal is achieved.
Temporary team – it is a team that, once it achieves its goal, lose its importance and
disappear.
Interdependent team – to accomplish the task, each member of the team must be
involved and to cooperate with others.
Cross-functional team - the members are people from different departments of the
business (marketing, finance, sales, customer service etc.) and they work together to
achieve a common goal.
Virtual team - the members work online, they can be from all around the world
(work through email, video or voice calls etc.)
Horizontal team – all members are involved in, the team has a formal leader, but
everyone is almost equal, has responsibilities and can set the direction of the team.
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Vertical team - the structure of the team is set; there is a leader and every member
is hierarchical situated in a team. The leader (the manager) is responsible for
establishing the objectives and the direction, as well as, solving the problems and
making the decisions.
The main purpose of a business team is to achieve the objectives and the goals of the
business more easily. Teams in a business lead to growth of business success and
consequently to increasing the productivity and efficiency of the company. Additionally,
team work can lead to innovation, creativity and imagination being encouraged within a
team.
My chosen business is Asda which, being a supermarket chain, has several teams and
departments (Marketing, Sales, Logistics etc.) that ensure that it provides the best quality
products for customers to be satisfied. Within the business, I will investigate the purpose,
the characteristics and the contribution to the success of the shop assistants’ team. The
purpose of this team is to arrange in shelves the products received from the suppliers; to
display the prices; to help and guide the customers to the desired products; help with the
cleaning in the store and to collect customers’ money at the checkout point. The shop
assistants check that the products are placed on the correct shelves and if there are enough
items in the shelves. They also looks at the expiration date of the products date to sort them
accordingly and try to place the products in the most attractive way possible to make
customers buy them, that leads to increasing sales and profit. Moreover, for a shop
assistant, it is important to know how to behave and to talk to the customers. They will be
polite and kind and will provide help and advice for the customers.
The shop assistants’ team in Asda is a formal team, because the members work in order
to achieve a goal and have set roles. They are overlooked by supervisors and managers. The
team is a vertical one, in Asda existing different authority levels: employees, supervisors,
assistant manager, shop manager, regional manager. As the size, the team of shop
assistants may vary from store to store, but in general it is a large team (approximately 50-
60 shop assistants). Furthermore, the team of shop assistants are usually permanent teams,
however in busy periods (e.g. before Christmas) the team can increase the number of
members and temporary teams will be created in order to help the business to fulfil the
demand.
A.P2. The characteristics of a given team in Asda
The team of shop assistants in Asda is considered to be successful due to certain
characteristics such as:
Clarity of objectives – it is important for each member of the team to know the
goal and mission of the team. If the objectives are not clear, the team members
will not know what to do and confusion will arise.
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Defined Goals – each member of the team must know what job role he has as
well as how to capitalize on his skills and knowledge in order to help his team to
be successful.
Good communication skills – communication is the key to success in a team,
every member needs to know how to listen to others, how to express their
opinions clearly in order to be understood by others so as not to create
confusion and everyone knows what to do.
Decision making – All team members should be involved in making decisions so
that they can find a way to make the best decision for a certain situation.
Balanced participation – Every member of the team must be involved in
achieving the goal.
Differences and diversity – Each team member is different which means they will
contribute new ideas and solutions, giving the opportunity to the team to choose
the most suitable option.
Managing the conflicts – Conflicts lead to a decrease in the effectiveness and
productivity of the team, so methods must be found to avoid conflicts or if they
appear to find solutions as soon as possible.
Positive interpersonal relationships – A positive atmosphere based on trust,
honesty, friendship etc. has the effect of increasing team productivity.
Cooperation and collaboration – Team members need to understand that only
together can achieve the goal, so they need to cooperate and work together.
Leadership – Not only the leader should make decisions than the other members
should also get involved by giving at least opinions about how to solve a certain
issue.
It is necessary for each member of the team to know which the purpose, the mission and
values of the business are. Asda wants to offer the best quality products and to satisfy
customers and the team knows this goal and works in order to achieve it. Each team
member is directly involved in achieving success, but only together as a team, the success is
possible. The profitability and effectiveness of the company is directly influenced by the
team.
It is very important for the team of shop assistants in Asda to have a common sense of
purpose because all the members have to want to accomplish the same goal: help Asda to
increase sales and profit as well as having an excellent customer service. The team will be
united and aligned and each member will be proud of his contribution in achieving the
success of the team and of the business. Knowing that they have an impact over the
business, the team members will be more motivated to work harder. If the team members
do not have the same sense of purpose, a negative effect on the team can appear, that
could lead to decreasing the productivity. The prioritisation of the tasks and of the goals is
other essential characteristic. The team members need to know what the most important
tasks are in order to be done before other tasks, and also what are the most important goals
to be achieved before other goals. For example, the shop assistants will put products on the
shelves that do not have any products before storing shelves that still have some products.
In addition, having clear roles for every member of the team will make the things easier for
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