The document discusses teamwork and loyalty in the workplace. It describes how the director of Ridley-Lowell Business & Technical Institute encourages teamwork among employees through team-building workshops, staff meetings, and setting clear expectations. The director believes teamwork is most effective during busy periods. However, a survey of employees found mixed feelings about accountability, fairness in work assignments, and communication between departments. While overall teamwork and loyalty are satisfactory, the medical department appears disconnected from the rest of the organization.

1. Teamwork & Loyalty in the WorkplaceRidley-Lowell Business & Technical InstituteStephanie Perry, LOAOffice ProceduresMs. StewartJune 24, 2011 <br />Executive Summary<br />In the following report you will read about effective ways to encourage teamwork and loyalty in the workplace. It will explain the criteria you should be looking for in order to build a successful team. Through an interview with the director at Ridley-Lowell Business & Technical Institute you will learn firsthand the methods in which she uses in order to ensure that her employees work effectively as a team. For example, team-building workshops, bi-weekly staff meetings, and setting expectations for her employees. After I interviewed the director I conducted a survey among her staff to see if their ideas of how the school was run coincide. Overall, I feel that the director at Ridley-Lowell is doing a satisfactory job at enforcing the benefits of teamwork and loyalty to her employees.<br />Effective Team Building <br />It is essential, when you are building a team to keep a certain criteria in mind. In order to build a successful team; you should not just throw together a random group of people. You must strategically select the group while keeping in mind some key points. An exemplary team member should always be respectful, dependable, honest and loyal to their team leader and also to the other members of the team. Also, there are certain elements that you should always think about when selecting your team members. The purpose or goals of your team should always be one of the main factors, a common goal is essential when it comes to successful teamwork. You must also keep in mind what technical and administrative skills you will need to reach that goal. This is crucial and will ensure that your team will have the appropriate skills necessary to reach the end result. It is also very important that your team has effective interpersonal skills. Collaborating together productively, listening to each other effectively, and being able to resolve conflicts that occur are all examples of effective interpersonal skills. Finally, it is imperative that all team members be committed to the task at hand, if one team member is not on the same page it can be detrimental to your final goal.<br />Ridley-Lowell’s Blueprint for Success<br />In an interview with the director of Ridley-Lowell Business & Technical Institute, Denise Fucito, I asked a multitude of questions in reference to the effectiveness of teamwork and loyalty among her staff. When asked if she encouraged teamwork she simply replied “of course.” As we got more in-depth in our conversation she began to explain some of the ways she encourages teamwork to her employees. First of all, she says setting expectations is key when trying to get a group of people to work as a team. Also, she always makes sure that each employee knows that their job is not limited to what is in their job description. Workshops are also held to ensure that all employees know proper teamwork skills, as well as bi-weekly staff meeting being held to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Denise also pointed out that when she teaches her employees about teamwork she stresses that they should focus on the end result, not the process in which the result was reached, also they should focus on the performance not the person. This tends to eliminate some unnecessary conflicts. When asked when teamwork was most prevalent at Ridley-Lowell she said that during starts and any special event such as graduations, open houses, or advisory board meeting. A common cause of conflict in the workplace is the unfair distribution of work assignments, to combat this Denise says proper communication during staff meetings helps, but she also likes to make lists with everyone’s names on top so that she can visually compare who is doing what. She also said that she allows her staff to delegate as long as they know “they will be the ones held accountable if the task is not completed.” Denise feels that she is overall successful at holding each team member accountable for the decisions they make, as well as listening to the ideas and opinions of her employees, saying she is always open to a new way of doing things and “I think that they know I am not a ‘my way or the highway’ type of person.” When asked if she felt her employees were successful at communicating with each other she stated that since Ridley has grown so much in size it is getting more difficult. “The more people there are the harder it is to keep communication open.” She also says that they tend to rely on written communication now that they are a bigger school. E-mails tend to be the most efficient way for them to communicate. She also feels that there is sufficient communication among the separate departments of the school. When it comes to employee loyalty, Denise feels that it is important but she looks more for loyalty to her not loyalty to the company, saying “I go to bat for my employees and only ask that they are loyal to me in return.” As far as successfully conveying loyalty to her employees she says she fights for her employees, even though she can’t give them a larger pay check, she listens to their needs and does her best to accommodate them. Overall, Denise would give herself and her employees an eight out of ten when it comes to the effectiveness of teamwork and loyalty at Ridley-Lowell, saying “we set a goal as a team to reach 300 students, and we were successful strictly through teamwork and loyalty to each other.”<br />Voices of the Employees<br />After interviewing the director on her methods of enforcing effective teamwork I put together a survey in order to determine if the opinions of the employees corresponded with the information I retrieved from Denise Fucito. Overall, I got quite a mixed review from those who completed the survey. I have recorded the results from each question on the survey in the charts below. <br />Ridley-Lowell encourages teamwork. <br />All members are equally held accountable for the decisions they make.<br />Work assignments are distributed fairly among team members.<br />Sufficient effort is made by my boss/bosses to get the opinions and ideas of the employees.<br /> My boss/bosses make a continuous effort to improve relationships between team members<br />It is important for employees to show loyalty to their employees.<br />My boss/bosses show loyalty to employees who are continually beneficial to the school.<br />My boss/bosses are available when an issue arises that needs to be resolved.<br />Overall, I am satisfied with the amount of loyalty my boss/bosses show me.<br />Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of teamwork occurring at Ridley-Lowell.<br />Conclusion<br />After analyzing all of the surveys when they were returned to me I have reached the conclusion that there are mixed feelings among the employees. The most dissatisfaction tends to be in the areas involving the director equally holding each team member accountable for the decisions that they make. Also, when asked if work assignments were distributed fairly among team members, the staff was split down the middle between always and sometimes. A little less than half of the team members also feel that their director should be putting more effort into making sure the separate departments work as a team. Overall, the team as a whole seems to be satisfied with the effectiveness of teamwork and loyalty at Ridley-Lowell. However, there seems to be a strong disconnect between the medical staff and the rest of the school. I have made this assumption based on the fact that I got equal participation throughout the school’s staff, but only got one response from the medical department. When I spoke to one of the medical staff to ask why there was a lack of participation I was told that they were not comfortable answering the questions that were asked in the survey and that they also were not comfortable with including what department they work in. After I told them it would be acceptable if they omit their department, they agreed to fill it out and return it the next day but I have still not received any other surveys from the medical department. Other than the small amount of attention that should be paid to assigning tasks and holding team members accountable Ridley-Lowell has overall been successful at implementing its blueprint for success.<br />