A document on team cohesion

1. Unit 19 P2
Miss Johnston Lewis Appleton
Team Cohesion
A cohesive team is one that has members focusing on different things; some will
focus on task functions whereas others will focus on tasks that maintain the group.
Task Functions
Proposing Objectives – Some team members will try and focus on coming up with
objectives for the team that will help them meet their overall goal if it’s a temporary
team or to meet their current goals if it’s a permanent team.
Clarifying Goals – Some team members will try to focus on making it clear what the
goals are of the team, whether it’s just one big goal or if it’s a goal that divides into
different levels such as breakeven point, profit point, double profit point and stretch
goals.
Seeking information and opinions – Some members will focus on getting the
opinions of team members to make sure that they are not being alienated and that they
are happy with the teams current work, they will also seek information from the team.
As well as this they can seek opinions from the public such as feedback on a product
being sold.
Keeping the group on track – Some members will try to keep the group on track by
attempting to motivate them to excel their usual level of work, this could for example
be in the form of positive or negative feedback or constructive criticism. One example
would be an employee of the month award in a working organisation, it gives
something to work towards and also as well as reinforcing the person that receives it,
and it can persuade the others to work harder.
Summarising ideas – Some members may look at the ideas proposed by the team and
try to shorten them into more simple tasks, for example “come up with enough sales
to ensure that the team makes profit” can be shortened into “make £5000 sales”.
Suggesting ways forward – Some members may be able to suggest ways that the
team can improve, not always in the form of objectives but they may also be able to
tell the team how to do things faster such as using a more responsive keyboard or
changing the mouse sensitivity, usually just small things like that which in the long
run can make a significant difference.
Evaluating contributions – Some members may look at the contributions from the
team members and may have concerns that some of the members may not be doing
enough for the team as well as other members doing too much which leaves no work
for the other members.
Process Maintenance roles
Supporting other group members – This involves making sure that all of the team
members are good with support, this means reinforcing their good actions in the form
of positive feedback, preventing their bad actions with negative feedback and using
constructive criticism where they have the right idea but are not doing something
correctly.
Ensuring all members of the group are included – This involves the prevention of
alienation in the group, its important for everyone to share the load, not only to make
it easier for everyone but also to make sure that everyone feels they are making a

2. Unit 19 P2
Miss Johnston Lewis Appleton
positive contribution to the team. This is important in smaller teams where everyone
knows who is doing what.
Reconciling disagreements and reducing tension – This involves resolving any
potential conflicts that the team members may have with the team goals or team
members, this would involve asking why the person has issues and if possible try to
fix that issue, if its something that fixing would anger someone else then its possible
to try and meet in the middle. Overall reducing tension in the team makes the
operation faster, allowing more work to be done in less time making this highly
important.
Making suggestions for compromise – This involves thinking of possible ideas that
would help in certain difficult situations, they don’t have to immediately take effect
but can take effect if the team has issues. For example the team may fall into a
situation where one of the members is ill or leaves then they may have thought of a
backup team member or may have thought who the additional work can be allocated
to, this can then take effect if necessary.
Monitoring the group – This involves in general making sure that the group is
meeting what it actually set out to do, there are a variety of things needing to be
monitored such as resource usage, time management, group conflicts and goal
progress.