THE CHALLENGES OF GROUPS AND TEAMS

The challenges of Groups and Teams

The challenges of Groups and Teams

Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to share Learning Team D's collective findings from individual respondent's perspectives on three different elements that determine individual behavior and communication within organizations. The three elements chosen as topics for discussion on individual behavior and communication include: 1) ethical responsibility, 2) diversity, and 3) leadership communication responsibility.

Ethical Responsibility

Ethical responsibilities in the workplace should be clearly defined so that employees understand what is expected of them in various situations. Because of this truth management is charged with taking the active role in portraying how the definition of ethics should be considered in all decisions at work.

Ethics in the workplace is necessary in order for the business to survive. As an example, the Enron Corporation was charged with unethical behavior which led to the demise of that corporation and the loss of jobs for its employees. This example of a lack of ethics set a precedent with other major corporations in showing the strong explanation of a code of ethics is vital to the livelihood of a corporation. Because of this belief businesses are beginning to invest in a strong ethical foundation. Ethics training is another element that is beneficial to the sustainability of these codes (NJGilmore 1998).

Maintaining a strong ethical foundation is essential to becoming a high performance team. In order to maintain a strong ethics foundation, there needs to be a system in place for people to use as a reference to go to in questionable situations. This system can be a person, a committee, or a whole department. This system serves as a coach or as a confidential outsider who can look at a situation and help guide members of staff through it.

Diversity

Diversity can be accurately described as the characteristics of a group and not an individual's characteristics (George and Jones 2005). It involves several dimensions which include gender, race, ethnicity, age, demographics, religion, social class and sexual orientation. The characteristics can be defined as diverse, if they impact an individuals identity, world view or manner in which they problem solve (NJGilmore 1998). In essence, it's any attribute used to target an individual as different.

The trend of American society is the demographics are changing (George and Jones 2005). In association with this transition is an increasingly diverse workforce. The United States has more Women, Latinos, African-American, and ...