Factors affecting relationships in teams

5. Factors affecting relationships in teams

Businesses exist for a reason. Most of the time they aim to make a profit, but there are those that do charity work, community services (e.g. schools, churches) or exist in order to provide essential services, such as the SPCA. Very few people are multi-talented enough to run a business entirely on their own – making the products (or providing the services), selling, doing the books and administration, handling the finances. So teamwork becomes essential in order to run a successful business, whatever its aims and objectives may be.

Whenever people are working together in a team, the following factors will influence whether or not they attain synergy:

Prejudice

Prejudice: A pre-formed opinion (usually unfavourable) based on inaccurate stereotyping, irrational feelings and insufficient information. Encarta Online Dictionary

Individuals that are prejudiced tend to generalise and assume that people with certain characteristics follow a specific mould. For example, they may assume that all blondes are less intelligent, all Americans are outgoing or all Japanese are quiet. This is, of course, not true! People of the same nationality or religion will still have different personalities, views and beliefs.

By being prejudiced, you close your mind to accepting others and may in the process lose out on important friendships and contacts. For example, if you refuse to work in a team with your set group of friends, you may lose out on the benefit of something important such as someone with superb computer skills, a good general knowledge or a wide network of contacts.

Beliefs

People’s beliefs are grounded in their upbringing, nationality and religious views. For example, some societies believe it is unacceptable to eat the meat of domestic animals – in other societies it is totally acceptable. Other issues based on beliefs such as abortion, cloning, the slave trade and drug trafficking all affect the way people work within a business situation.

Values

Values such as honesty and integrity are an important part of formulating a business’s vision and mission. In some cases, businesses will be set up with strong moral values and they will go to great lengths to maintain their integrity by being honest with clients and the public. Although this resulted in lost sales for a period of time, it boosted the public’s confidence in the company’s integrity over the long term. There will also always be those businesses that are based on values that are totally different to society’s norms: illegal trading, smuggling, slave trade and others who trade in black market goods.

Diversity

Embracing diversity is probably one of the most crucial factors in why we, as a ‘Rainbow nation’, have been able to transform into a workable democracy without civil war. However, managing diversity is not about eradicating differences, it is about celebrating them, and using them to stimulate creativity. A diverse group will bring far more ideas to a brainstorm, have more contacts in their network and ultimately come up with better solutions to problems than a uniform group with similar backgrounds and ideas.

Exercise 1.4: Diverse Greetings

How diverse is your family and the community in which you live? Do you have friends or family of different races, genders, languages, religious backgrounds etc.? How tolerant or understanding are you of people who are different? Do you become irritated with older people who are slow at doing things? Do you reach out to people who are different? Speaking to people from different cultures or learning more about what makes the world so wonderfully diverse is a good way to start understanding how others think and what they feel. Do the quick fun activity below:

Which of the following languages and dialects can you identify?

Greeting Sawubona

Goeiemôre

Jambo!

G’day mate Namaste Language Greeting Howdy Guten Tag !Gäi//goas* Lumela

Marhaba Language

Learning to greet someone in their own language is a simple way to start demonstrating your embrace of inclusivity, and it may lead to further conversations on cultural differences and diversity.