Significance of communication and group work

Overall introduction

Group work means that a certain group of members who are capable and faithful work
together and offer help for each other for the purpose of achieving a mutual target, which is
not only able to stimulate all of the resources and intelligences of the group members but also
to initially get rid of unfavorable factors during the work process. Goethe once put group
work this way: no matter what the target is and no matter what kind of job people pursue, he/
she have no power on his/ her own and is incapable of finishing anything. In addition,
adapting to the group is always the highest need for those who possess kind thought and
active motivation.

Countless realistic truths proved that no matter in a country, in an organization or even in a

department, if it merely relies on the effort of the leaders and be lack of the active
participation of subordinates, this group is definitely an ineffective one. Just as fighting a
battle, only if every soldier join hand and fight together can they possibly fight against the
enemies and finally win the battle.

In addition, at the current stage, it is no longer a self-sufficient society but the one in which
all people and all organizations rely on each other for existence and provide assistant and
suggestions for perspective development. In this rapid development of society with fierce
competition, it is quite difficult for individual to accomplish things without joint efforts,
especially for enterprise or organization which aims to seek for development. If organization
wants to increase turnover and gain sound and sustainable development, favorable and
harmonious group work is essential part in the operating management (Race, 2000). Every
project, every work achievement and even every household article are the production of
collective effort. From this perspective, there is no doubt that the interrelatedness of
organizational practices is able to support better performance evaluation in organizations.
Along with the development of modern industrial civilization, social labour division has been
divided more and more specifically. However, personnel labour division is merely a kind of
form but not objective. Group work and team cooperation are the purpose of it. The
achievement of every kind of job cannot be done without team collaboration and mutual
communication.

Group power

As is known to all, group work is able to exert enormous influence on the work achievement
and efficiency, and the combination of organizational practices enables members and
organization to gain better performance. The power in groups mainly shows in the following
aspects: firstly, group members work together, share ideas and conduct discussion, which are
conductive to seeking for broader and more diverse evidences for supporting the arguments
or more effective solutions for solving the problems. Secondly, with the collective effort by
members in the organization, group members are able to maximally exert positive influence
on the development of the organization. Thirdly, by the means of joining hands of group
members, they can achieve the specific purpose more effectively and efficiently. Therefore, in
order to gain sustainable and sound development of organizations, by no means should they
lose sight of the significance of team work and the power in groups.

Current state of organization

However, Chinese enterprise and organization are being witnessed of lacking of teamwork
spirit. Most of the personnel merely focus on own benefit, status and promotion and overlook
the importance of group work and the true meaning of development. Whats more, they put
much emphasis on the individual power and have faith of realizing specific target merely by
own strength. Under this working environment and atmosphere, the practices in the
organization cannot be united and promoted the working performance, which is likely to give
rise to the consequence that many organizations are suffering from slow development or even
stagnant state because of being lack of team work spirit and combination of organizational
practices. From this point of view, a conclusion can be draw thatif the organization and
enterprise are lack of teamwork and group work, they will not combine their work practices
together and are bound to achieve nothing. Under the circumstance of work independently
and desultorily, no favourable thing will leave in the organization but vicious competition,
disharmony and incompatibility. In addition, without positivity and initiative, there is no way
can organization gain sound development in the future.

Evidence

Take IKEA as example, every operating part in this company, such as internal procurement,
external procurement, production and delivery, cannot leave group work and work
dependently. In the IKEA Company, everyone is not only individual but also the member of
group. They put emphasis on the group work and united strength. Every department, such as
design department, production department, marketing department and packing department,
work together and offer help for each other. Group work contributed a lot for its success of
becoming the biggest manufacturer of furniture household product.

In addition, in the IT industry, group work also plays an important role for its development.
For example, there is a learning method called Pair programming which is a useful method to
finish a program by two programmers. It is exactly the expression of group work. To be
specific, programmers can offer support and help for each other, achieving the
complementation of capabilities. In addition, the method is available for students to work out
the problem more efficiently and effectively by costing shorter time. Whats more, while
conducting programming by the means of pair programming, both programmers can not only
share knowledge and experience but also learn during the practice.

Whats more, Teamwork is also management software of task progress and team
communication, possessing multiple functions, such as task management, project
management, group management and work log management and so on. Every letter of this
term has its specific meaning which points to the cooperative working method: T means
together, E means everyone, A means accomplishes, M means more, W means with, O means
organization and R points responsible as well as K means knowledge. The value of this
software lies in the following aspects: firstly, it is available to manage project progress and
save the cost of manpower and material resources. Secondly, it enables organization to
enhance cooperation and communication of group members and thus reduce the
communicative cost during the process of operation. Lastly, it improves the working
efficiency and thus reduces the cost of single project.

Issues of group work

In this age of greed, many people pay much attention to own benefit and overlook the
importance of group work. They would rather work independently and fight for own
development. From this point of view, several problems about group work are likely to take
place if they are not being handled properly, for instance, freeloader effect and opinion
conflict, undefined responsibility and week executive force and so on.

Firstly, the freeloader effect points to the uneven distribution of common resource, which will
give rise to the conflict and negative effective for the group and thus be detrimental to the
cooperation and development of a group. Therefore, effective methods must be implemented
to tackle the negative effectives during the cooperation of group work (Mayordomo and
Onrubia, 2015). Firstly, strict punishment mechanism and reward system should respectively
be implemented. Secondly, task aims should be set up for motivation. As is known to all,
individual activities or action influence the distribution of advantages or disadvantages within
the organization.

Secondly, opinion conflict is also another problem that is likely to encounter of group work.
Every individual in the group possess own specific ideas and opinions which are sometime
different from others (Toseland and Rivas, 2009). If he/she insists own thought and resists to
accept others opinion, the members in the group are likely to cause conflict and thus ruin the
cooperation or retard the process of accomplishing the task. From this point of view, it is
important for every member in the group to listen to and give credit to others opinions before
putting forward own thought, and thus conduct discussion about the ideas and draw
conclusions together. By this way, members in the group can cooperate with each other in a
more effective and efficient way.

Thirdly, in the building of group, some organizations generally have no idea of giving
specific and explicit tasks and responsibility for the group and the group members, and
establishing a systematic and reasonable check-up system (Cummings, 2004). Without these
systems, members in the organization will be lack of motivation and direction to conduct the
work and realize the purpose. Under this urge, the organizational practices are likely to lost
track and move to the wrong direction. Therefore, the explicit responsibility division and
motivation system are in urgent need of being implemented so as to motivate the members of
organization to finish the practices more effectively and efficiently.

Fourthly, the success of group work requires the members to share the same amount of task
and possess similar degree of professional capability and executive force. Only in this way
can members in a group can offer help for each other while cooperating with each other. On
the contrary, if some of the members possess strong executive force but others possess week
executive force, the cooperation will not be conducted smoothly and effectively.

Communication

On the other hand, to facilitate the process of group work or team work, effective and
efficient methods of communication among the individuals in the organization is absolutely
of great importance and is needed to be paid attention to (Asif and Sargeant, 2000).
Communication is not only the transference and the understanding of meaning but also the
negotiation of meaning. Employees are required to transfer and share the information and
resource by the means of communication, by this way, they can learn something new and
useful from the communication and keep on perfecting own capability and thought and thus
achieve better. As for the significances and functions of communication in the organization is
as follow: first of all, communication is able to take control of the behaviors of members and
then urge them to abide by the rules and regulations of work in the organization (Donohue et
al, 1994). Secondly, communication is conductive to sharing the information about
personnels rewarding performance so as to foster the motivation for those who have not
reached the standard yet. Thirdly, communication is a useful and effective means for
releasing personal emotional expression, both negative emotion and positive attitude, which
is beneficial for personnel to eliminate the passive psychological thought and pay full
attention to the work. Lastly, communication enables personnel in the same or different
department to establish and sustain relationship, which is of great significance for the healthy
development of organization.

Models of communication

The models of communication can be divided into two models, one is transmission model
and the other is transaction model. It turns out from the transmission model that non-verbal
communication is also essential for the information exchange and the development of
organization (Adler and Elmhorst, 1996). Generally speaking, non-verbal communication
includes all means of communication which is not merely done by the use of word but use
other means which can be performed as words. Along with the rapid development of
economy and society, many advanced electronic information technologies sprung up and
attracted peoples attention. The utilization of these technologies to share information is also
a useful way to exchange ideas and communicate. For instance, EDI, short for Electronic
Data Interchange, has been widely used by enterprise and organization to share information.
By the means of computer application system, EDI transfers the data to the application
system of another computer through the electronic way, which enables the data in two
computers to be known, handled and responded automatically. In this way, it can guarantee
the efficient information sharing and make sure that the personnel in every related department
are able to gain the product data and information at the very beginning.
Constructive suggestions

The meaning and point of awareness and theory is to apply them to the practical work and
use them to help finishing work more effectively and efficiently. Then, how to conduct group
work is the common concern. As is shown in the name that it requires group members join
hands and put effort to achieve a common goal and needs each individual to share own
objective and idea and thus form mutual opinion. In addition of this, IM, short for impression
management, can be adopted to leave good impression on the mind of other people and build
favorable relationship with them. The techniques of it include conformity, excuses, apologies,
self-promotion, flattery, favors and association. Therefore, constructive suggestions are as
follow for all walks of life and all kinds of industries and organizations:

Firstly, in the organization, group leader of the member should focus on people-oriented but
not on material, wealth, status or benefit (Aimea, et al, 2010). Only in this way, can
organization fully give play to the capability of both individual and group. Take one certain
IT Company as example, according to the organization policy, personnel in this company are
free to set the amount of salary for themselves. Therefore, they ask for the salary on the basic
of evaluating own capability and contribution for the organization, and the leader will always
approve the offer, which in some extent inspires the personnel in the aspect of voluntarily
working. In the way, personnel in this organization always pays full attention to the work
content and spares no effort to offer contribution for the company. At last, it turned out that
the company gained lots of profit and increased its turnover year on year because of the
people-oriented policy.

Secondly, group members should offer help for each other without giving much thought on
own benefit; before putting forward to own opinions or ideas, individual is encouraged to
listen carefully to others opinion first and give credit for it (Beersma, et al, 2003). Only in
this way, can group members realize the true meaning of discussion, information sharing and
brainstorming. For instance, take a design company as example to testify this argument. The
new fashion show was just around the corner, the company held a meeting in order to
brainstorm from every designer. During the period of meeting, every personnel actively put
forward to their own specific opinions. At the same time, they listen to the ideas of other
designers and give credit to those talented and excellent suggestions. Some of them had
useful suggestions for the raw materials and others put forward to ideas about tailor, sample
and target consumers etc. At last, group members work out an elaborate and systematic plan
and operating strategies for the fashion show and gained huge success in the end (Che & Yoo,
2001). From the analysis mentioned above, the effective and equal information sharing and
learning is of great significance for the brainstorm of making plan.

Thirdly, selfless service is encouraged and the freeloader effect should be avoided in the
group work. In the organization, personnel should not only share resources and work
achievement, but also need to contribute even work amount for the company. Only in this
way can they complement each others advantages and gain development. Whats more,
personnel should handle with the dialectical relationship between group competitive force
and individual competitive force in the organization.

Fourthly, as for the part of leaders in the organization, they should aim to establish effective
communicative system and information feedback platform so as to provide a platform for
personnel in every department. Organization should endeavor to constantly broaden the
communicative channels so as to make sure that every kind of benefit appeal has abundant
expression channel and effective response. In this way, it can promote the cooperation and
planning of every aspect of work.

Fifthly, as for the group itself, an excellent group points to the one which possesses high
leadership skill, decision-making skill and operation power. Whats more, different market
competitive states have different demands on the knowledge, quality and mastered skills of
the group and the members, which means that every individual is required to possess specific
understanding and research, knowledge and skills in the own industry. However, in order to
cultivate the spirit of group work, the premise is to faster active, favorable and harmonious
working environment and human relationship. The humanized management pattern and
active working environment are conductive to the personnel development and team building.
Members in organization solve the problems through communication and improve cognition
through mutual discussion. They should also connect the initiative and forward looking
together, connect the pertinence of problem and efficiency together, in order to improve the
work efficiency and foster favorable working environment.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, spirit of group work is the motivation and soul of group existent. Positive
cooperative awareness forms on the basic of mutual purpose and mutual value orientation.
Because of the same target, every member possesses strong sense of belonging and
collectivity and thus puts a hundred percent of effort on the process of achieving the goal.
Only group competitive force can comprehensively and effectively compete with the fierce
competitors and keep on sustainable competitive advantages.
References

Adler, R. and Elmhorst, J. M. (1996) Communicating at Work: Principles and Practices for
Business and the Professions 5th Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Co.

Aimea, F., Meyer, C. J., & Humphrey, S. E. (2010). Legitimacy of team rewards: Analyzing
legitimacy as a condition for the effectiveness of team incentive designs. Journal of Business
Research, 63(1), 6066.

Asif, S. and Sargeant, A. (2000) Modelling Internal Communication in the Financial Services
Sector European Journal of Marketing, 34,299-317.

Beersma, B., Hollenbeck, J. R., Humphrey, S. E., Moon, H., Conlon, D. E., & Ilgen, D. R.
(2003). Cooperation, competition, and team performance: Toward a contingency approach.
Academy of Management Journal, 46(5), 572590.

Che, Y. -K., & Yoo, S. -W. (2001). Optimal incentives for teams. American Economic
Review, 91(3), 525541.

Cummings, J. N. (2004). Work groups, structural diversity, and knowledge sharing in a global
organization. Management Science, 50(3), 352364.

Donohue, W. A., Atkin, C. K., and Johnson, S. (1994). Difference between formal and
informal communication channels. Journal of Business Communication, 31, (2). 111-122.

Mayordomo, R. M and Onrubia, J (2015). Work coordination and collaborative knowledge

construction in a small group collaborative virtual task. The Internet and Higher Education,
25, 96-104.

Race, P. (2000). 500 Tips on Group Learning. London: Kogan Page.

Toseland, R. and Rivas, R (2009). Understanding group dynamics. In R. Toseland & R. Rivas
(Eds.), An Introduction to group work practice (6. Ed., 64-91). Boston, MA: Pearson
Education.