Albos, Jasmin Rose D.

BA 151
Reflection Paper

I realized the importance of team dynamics and culture when I worked for our church
organization for a year and a half. In our organization, there were 200+ females from all over the
world, working towards a common goal of helping visitors who visit Temple Square in Salt Lake
City.

Just like any other individual in a group, we were all given roles, which are expected behavior
patterns. Those who were in leadership positions had bigger roles and were in a higher status.
Something that I noticed was we had different views on how we should carry on our roles (role
perception), maybe because our organization was composed of a diverse group of people. But
despite that, our organizational culture was collectivistic, and that led to a higher conformity to
norms. I was amazed by how each member did her best to conform to our organization's norms,
even though we came from different places and had different cultures. An example is conformity
to performance norm, were we were taught and trained how we should approach our work, what
our level of output should be, and how we could improve our work. There was an unspoken rule
that we should never have even a moment of idleness, and that we should always be seen
talking to visitors with a cheerful expression. There were also appearance norms like strict dress
codes that we had to follow. Those who didn't would be 'judged' by others and would feel 'left
out' by the group.

Our organization also had a clear hierarchy, and each one had to report to members who hold
higher status. Just like what the status characteristics theory says, there were three sources of
status; power, ability to contribute to goals, and personal characteristics. Most of the time, all
members would agree to the president's decision, but sometimes some of our members would
feel that there was status inequity. For example, I had a coworker under my team who felt that
our president was playing favorites and was putting incapable members to leadership positions,
to which I responded that he was closely observing each one's strengths, weaknesses, and
personality, and how one could contribute to the attainment of our goals. I knew that he was
looking for traits and behaviors that a leader should possess, and based on the trait theories of
leadership, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience are the most
important traits leaders should have. True enough, he did select extravert, conscientious, and
those who are open to experience as leaders. Most of the leaders were also transformational
ones, mainly because they were able to increase follower self-efficacy, and this type of
leadership was effective because they interacted directly with the members under their
leadership. A lot of effort was placed on leadership training and development, which I think were
crucial to the performance of our teams and the whole organization. Because of the nature of
our work, emotional intelligence was another factor that he considered. Each member of the
organization stayed with a coworker or 'teaching companion' for at least 6 weeks, and a lot of
times there were relationship conflicts that the leaders needed to resolve.
The organization's diversity played a big part in the conflicts that would happen from time to
time, because there were different cultures, there were also different opinions on how to get
things done, which resulted to process conflicts. But over time, the surface-level diversities
didn't matter, and we felt that our diversity contributed to the success of our organization.

There were a lot of factors that contributed to the effectiveness of our team. The climate of trust
that we fostered played a big part in our being effective, simply because the interpersonal trust
among the team members made us more cooperative and more committed to attaining our
goals. Whenever we would reach our goals, individuals and groups would also be justly
rewarded. Our reward system was unique, for it focused more on the intrinsic rewards rather
than tangible ones, and that led to a greater sense of purpose, and a greater desire to
contribute to the team. We were also held accountable for everything we did, so there was little
deviant behavior that occurred. Roles were allocated according to our abilities, but we also had
the opportunity to switch roles so that all would be given the chance to hone their skills and
have more experience. Social loafing was also avoided because each one knew that she had
something to contribute to the team's effectiveness, and we were jointly accountable for the
team's goals and purpose.

Communication also contributed to the effectivity of our team. Downward, upward, and lateral
direction were used to communicate our goals and purpose. Most of the time, we followed the
line of authority, where if one member of the team had an idea, concern, or suggestion, she
would talk to the team leader, and the team leader would relay the message to a higher leader
until it reaches the president of the organization. Downward communication would be applied
when giving assignments, point out problems, announcing organizational changes, and
providing instructions. We would also have meetings wherein members of the organization
within the same level would discuss ways on how to improve.

Our organization was more of organic than mechanistic, even though we had leaders, decisions
were decentralized and span of control was wide. The organization’s small size made it easier
to have an organic structure. Specialization was also present, but the leaders made sure that it
was the right balance. We were also encouraged to achieve meaningful and unique innovations
for our services. Because of a greater amount of autonomy, job satisfaction was positive and
performance was maximized. Our individual differences, such as personality and culture, were
also taken into account. The positive culture that we also had resulted to increased satisfaction.
Although the organization had its fair share of problems, what I noticed was that the leaders
focused on building on their members’ strengths. There was also a culture of providing intrinsic
rewards, which we valued more than tangible ones. Because of this, we all learned to
compliment and praise coworkers for achieving goals. I believe these things were crucial factors
to having an effective organization.