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Career Development Issues with Teams
Taking the above mentioned example further and assuming a team of people from across various departments. Different people from different departments make up for an interesting mix in terms of skills, competencies and attitude. People from quality, for example, can teach or introduce various quality concepts to those who are naive to the latter e.g. the marketing department. People from operations would be reasonably good in quality concepts and HR may or not be up to the mark depending upon the kind of organisation. Marketing people can similarly share their competencies in marketing communication which may be a weak link in the productions department. This exchange of skills and competencies can lead to better staffing flexibility. In yet another way, team members may help in identification of training needs for members. Even if team members do not make a conscious effort on acquiring of new skills, a simple rotation of tasks or assignments among the team members will facilitate the skills exchange. The need analysis program can lead to a developmental plan for each member of the team. In highly empowered teams the execution of the developmental plan also lies on the team members. In Cadillac, for example, each plant and work unit has a training needs analysis program in place that reminds the members of the KSAs required to achieve targets or goals. Teams can thus be geared towards acting as a very powerful tool for individual career development, where team members can enhance their own work skills and those of their peers. One strong reason why teams fail is an inappropriate staff / member selection for the team, which creates barriers for skills transfer. Once this is overcome development issues within a team is taken care of.
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