Assignment 3

1. Discuss the importance of quality team works, and team building.

To talk about the importance of quality team works and buidling, we should first know what the term “team”. A simplified definition is that “A team is a group of people with a common, collective goal.”

The importance of team works based on following reasons:

• Teams satisfy the human social need to belong.
• Two or more heads are better than one.
• The whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.
• People in teams get to know each other, build trust, as a result, want to help each other.
• Teamwork promotes better communication.
• Teamwork multiplies the potential of individual members.
• Teamwork produces positive peer pressure.

As for the importance of team building, obviously it is to achieve team excellence and performance which contains eight characteristics in teams:

• Mutual support.  In teams, individual members depend on each other to get the job of the team done.
• Challenge.  Wise team leaders find that delicate balance between expecting too much and expecting too little.
• Singless of purpose.  A team has a purpose that should be clearly stated in tis misson.
• Trust.  Wise team leaders work continually on building trust among their team mumbers and between themselves and tea members.
• Participation.  Wise team leaders draw out reticent members who tend to hold back rather than contributing ideas, concerns, and recoomendations.
• People skill.  The best teams consist of members who have skills to prevent and resolve conflict and work cooperatively to solve problems.
• Accountability.  The best teams consist of members who know the teams’ goals and expect to be held accountable for achieving them.
• Reinforcement. The best teams reinforc success by celebrating it.

2. How would you handle conflicts in quality team?

To hand conflicts in quality team, we should understand that there about five types of conflicts in the organizations:

1. Ambition to get ahead coupled with fear of being held back by the team
2. Rapid change can casue employees to conclude that they can only trust themselves.
3. Employees who are me-centered find it difficult to work with others.
4. Employees feel that cooperation is not fitting for vigorous person.
5. Egos that do not like to share credit.

 Accordingly, we have a lot of possible resolution strategies to handle team conflicts such as:

• Plan and work to establish a culture where individuality and dissent are in balance with teamwork and cooperation.
• Establish clear criteria for deciding when decisions will be made by individuals and when they will be made by teams.
• Don’t allow individuals to build personal empires or to use the organization to advance personal agendas.
• Encourage and recognize individual risk-taking behavior that breaks the organization out of unhelpful habits and negative mental frameworks.
• Encourage healthy, productive competition, and discourage unhealthy, counterproductive competition.
• Recognize how difficult it can be to ensure effective cooperation, and spend the energy necessary to get just the right amount of it.
• Value constructive dissent, and encourage it.
• Assign people of widely differing perspectives to every team or problem.
• Reward and recognize both dissent and teamwork when they solve problems.
• Reevaluate the project, problem, or idea when no dissent or doubt is expressed.
• Avoid hiring people who think they don’t need help, who don’t value cooperation, or who are driven by the desire to be accepted.
• Ingrain into new employees the need for balance between the concepts of cooperation and constructive dissent.
• Provide ways for employees to say what no one wants to hear.
• Realistically and regularly assess the ability and willingness of employees to cooperate effectively.
• Understand that some employees are going to clash, so determine where this is happening and remix rather than wasting precious organizational energy trying to get people to like each other.
• Ensure that the organization’s value system and reward/recognition systems are geared toward cooperation with constructive dissent rather than dog-eat-dog competition or cooperation at all costs.
• Teach employees how to manage both dissent (not let it get out of hand) and agreement.
• Quickly assess whether conflict is healthy or destructive, and take immediate steps to encourage the former and resolve or eliminate the latter.

3. How do you reward quality achievements in a quality team.

To reward quality achievement in the team, we can re-design compensation into three parts:

Besides the dollar-in-pay-check rewards, nonmonetary rewards can be effective as incentives. Widely used nonmonetary rewards that have proven to be effective include: movie tickets, gift certificates, time off, event tickets, free attendance at seminars, getaway weekends for two, airline tickets, and prizes such as electroinic or household products. One of the most important rule in organizations should ask employees what appeals to them.

4. How do you communicate effectively?

To communicate effectively, we should recognize and overcome inhibitors of communication in the workplace. The inhibitors that should be avoided in advance are:

• Differences in meaning:  This is the reason why managers should invest time to know employees to avoid this communication problem.
• Lack of trust:  The trust between senders and receivers are important so they will neither be too sensitive nor guarded.
• Condescending tone:  Peolpe respond to tone of voice no less than the content of message, so it is not good to talk down to employees.
• Premature judgements:  No one can make permature judgements and maintain an open mind. Therefore nonjudgmentally listening is important.
• Information overload:  It is more than an inhibitor of communication, but sometimes can cause breadown for communication devices.
• Interference:  It is about the environment in which they plan to communicate. With a noise background, effeciency will be low.
• Poor listening sklls:  Serious communication problems usually occur when the sender does not listen to the receiver and vice versa.
• Kill-the-messenger syndrome:  Managers who “kill the messenger” will eventually hear only what employees think management wants to hear.

5. Why are listening skills important?

Effective listening means receiving the message, correctly decoding it, and accurately perceiving what it means.

So it is easy to see that listening skills are important because with these skills, we can understand the content clearly and waste less time on unnecessary arguments by avoiding following inhibitors:

• Lack of concentration
• Interruptions
• Preconceived ideas
• Thinking ahead
• Interference
• Tuning out

Most of us have room for improvement in their listening skills. These skills are important and practical. We only need to apply the strategies for the improvement.

• Listen more and talk less: Good management requires that managers listen more and talk less. The strategy here is to make a conscious effort to learn as much as possible from every conversation. This will force the issue of listening instead of talking.
• Ask clarifying questions: Two managers can hear the same words but receive different messages. Consequently, it is important to ask questions that will clarify the message and above all is to make a summary at the end of each point.
• Listen intuitively: This is a matter of listening to more than just words. It involves going beyond what is said to why it is being said.
• Concentrate: To eliminate errors such as failing to concentrate, tuning out, giving in to distractions and interrupting, keep tabs on how frequently you make each kind and focus on the errors are most frequent.

6. What are the management strategies for quality-focused interpersonal needs?

Management strategies for interpersonal relationships shuold follow four steps to ensure that members of the workforce have sufficient interpsonal relations to be effective communicators. Figure below shows a breif summary of the steps.

 

1. Recognition of the Need: To have employees with good interpersonal skills, managers must recoginize the need for these skills.
2. Careful Selection:  When interpersonal skills are made a part of the selection process, the employees should be carefully selected whether they have skills such as listening, patience, empathy and open-mindedness.
3. Training:  People can learn to listen better, empathize with different types of people, be tactful and facilitate positive interaction among fellow employees.
4. Measurement and reward: If managers value interpersonal skills, they should be measured as part of procees and built into reward system.

7. What are the principles of overcoming negativity and conflicts in the workplace?

The principles of overcoming negativity contains five parts which are:

1. Communicate: Frequent, ongoing effective communication is the best defense against negativity in organizations, and it is the best tool for overcoming negativity that has already set in.
2. Establish clear expectations: Make sure all employees know what is expected of them as individuals and as members of the team. People need to know what is expected of them and how and to whom they are accountable for that is expected.
3. Provide for anxiety venting: The workplace can be stressful in even the best organizations.  Deadlines, performance standards, budget pressures, and competition can all produce anxiety in employees.
4. Build trust: Negativity cannot flourish in an atmosphere of turst.
5. Involve employees: It is hard to criticize the way things are done when you are a part of how they are done. Involving employees by asking their opinions, solicting their feedback, and making them part of the solution are some of the most effective deterrents to and cures for negativity.

8. How can you manage conflict in the workplace?

Mangement of the conflicts in workplace have two parts. Most conflicts should be prevented and resolved, but some of them should be stimulated when team members agree too easily with new ideas. Conflict resolution and stimualtion together are known as conflict management.

The following guidelines can be used by managers for resolving a conflict:

1. Determine how important the issue is to all people involved.
2. Determine whether all people involved are willing and able to discuss the issue in a positive manner.
3. Select a private place where the issue can be discussed confidentially by everyone involved.
4. Make sure that both sides understand that they are responsible for both the problem and the solution.
5. Solicit opening comments from both sides. Let them express their concerns, feelings, ideas, and thoughts, but in a nonaccusatory manner.
6. Guide participants toward a clear and specific definition of the problem.
7. Encourage participants to propose solutions. Examine the problem from a variety of different perspectives and discuss any and all solutions proposed.
8. Evaluate the costs versus the gains (cost-benefit analysis) of all proposed solutions and discuss them openly. Choose the best solution.
9. Reflect on the issue and discuss the conflict resolution process. Encourage participants to express their opinions as to how the process might be improved.

9. How do you communicate in conflict situtaions?

Communication in conflict situations is very important for that human conflict in the work place is normal, to be expected and in cartain instance, to be promoted. The following guidelines for using communication in managing conflict will be helpful:

• The initial attitude fo those involved in the conflict can predetermine the outcome. Communication prior to such a situation aimed at convincing either or both parties to view it as an opportunity to cooperatively solve a problem can help predetermine a positive outcome.
• When possible, conflict guidelines should be in place before conflicts occur. It is not uncommon for conflict to be exacerbated by disagreements over how it should be resolved. Before entering into a situation in which conflict might occur, make sure all parties understand how decisions will be made, who has the right to give input, and what issues are irrelevant.
• Assessing blame should not be allowed. It is predictable that two people in a conflict situation will blame each other. The approach that says “We have a problem. How can we work together to solve it?” is more likely to result in a positive solution than arguing over who is to blame.
• “More of the same” solutions should be eliminated. When a particular strategy for resolving conflict is tried but proves to be ineffective, don’t continue using it. Try something new instead of using “more of the same” solutions.
• Maintain trust by keeping promises. Trust is fundamental to all aspects of total quality. It is especially important in managing conflict. Trust is difficult to win but easy to lose. Conflict cannot be effectively managed by someone who is untrustworthy. Consequently, managers in a total quality setting must keep their promises and, in so doing, build trust among employees.

10. What does quality suffer if there is a major conflict?

If there is a major conflict exist within the organization, employees are surely involved in the conflict. Due to all or most of the attentions are on the conflicts, they will pay no attention on the quality of products and services the provided to both internal and external customers. Moreover, the worse the quality is, the more conflicts will occur such as blame on others and do not trust others in the organization. In return, the quality will continoully going down when such terrible situation occurs. At this situation, talented employees will have to leave the organization to better companies. Others remains usually have no patient on their jobs and works. The situation of this companies get worse and worse.

Social Networking Articles

Heat and light controlling smart window tech gets less-expensive, more flexible

A team at University of Texas at Austin headed be Delia Milliron has come up with a flexible- smart window material that can be fabricated at low-temperatures and is easier and cheaper to use than previous electrochromic smart materials. Windows made of electrochromic materials have the ability to selectively keep the light or the heat out with a flip of the switch.

Initially the same team had attempted to create such materials using a high temperature process that embeds compounds into glass. As a result of high temperature fabrication, the amorphous material was brittle and inflexible. Also, the embedding process at high temperatures was inefficient.

Now the UT Austin team, in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, CNRS of France and Spain’s Ikerbasque, has come up with a high efficiency low-temperature process to embed compounds (niobium oxide) into a plastic film.

In addition to its ability to be applied to curved glass surfaces as a coating, the new polymer film darkens faster and requires less power owing to local arrangement of the atoms in a linear structure.

Aside from its immediate applications, the film provides new insights into how such materials are formed and how they behave. Because of this, it may one day be possible to form new components, such as more efficient supercapacitors. In the meantime, UT Austin will continue to develop the low-temperature material to improve its performance in comparison with the high-temperature versions.

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Drones do mix with airports, so long as they’re kept on a leash

Traditionally, unmanned drones have been considered a threat to privacy and safety in public as well as privates spaces. More so in the vicinity of airports owing to threat they may pose to the airplanes.

UAVs have usually been used in applications which require them to fly wide and far. But there are some applications that simply don’t require unmanned aerial vehicles to fly that far. A UAV might be sometimes required to hover over a particular area and provide continuous surveillance and other information.

A French technology firm Elistair has found a way to make use of the UAV’s strengths while maintaining safety by tethering the drones to the ground while they carry out inspections. It has developed two tethered ground stations for drones, the Safe-T and High-T. These groundstations hook up to multicopters and provide them with continuous data transfer abilities and continuous power. This enables  for the UAV to hover over the surveillance area indefinitely up to an altitude of 50 or 100 m (164 ft or 300 ft). It also reduces the chances of the battery failing and the drone crashing to the ground and also keeps them from running amok and interfering with flights.

The tethered drones have been used to inspect high walkways and also in the calibration of air navigation instruments at the airports in Paris as seen above. Similarly, drones have a potential to carry out certain tasks at airports, like safety surveillance or inspections.

As I said earlier, there are some reservations about letting UAVs loose in airfields, but keeping them on a tight leash might present a more reliable way forward.

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UK’s iconic red phone boxes take on new lives as smartphone repair shops

Walking around the streets of London, it’s hard to miss the iconic red telephone booths scattered across the city. These have become a symbol of neccessities of the days gone by, since they are rarely used by modern homo sapiens equipped with cellphones and pads.

A smartphone and tablet repair outfit, Lovefone has found a revolutionary way to give these red telephone boxes a new purpose. Lovefone is converting the underused booths into the kind of mobile phone repair shop. Each one will consist of workbenches, charging stations and free Wi-Fi. There’s also a possibility for adding soldering stations and the units would also act as a drop-off and pick-up point for devices that need to be repaired.

The boxes are a listed structures in the city’s records, so no permanent changes can made to them and CEO of The Lovefone Company Rob Kerr explains that this, in addition to their unusual shape, made designing the new interiors extremely challenging. A perforated back panel provides a place on which to hang tools and behind which to run wiring and communications devices. There is a workbench for technicians to ply their trade and closed shelving units to help keep things tidy.

The first Lovefonebox has begun operating in the Greenwich area of London, with another eight already planned across the city. The company’s aim is to open around 37 units in London over the next 18 months, as well as to offer franchise opportunities elsewhere in the UK.

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