How Does Work Design Influence Team Performance in an IT organization?

What is Work Design?

‘Work design is the creation of systems of work and a working environment that enhance organizational effectiveness and productivity, ensure that the organization becomes ‘a great place in which to work’ and are conducive to the health, safety, and well-being of employees’. (Armstrong, 2014)

Despite the nature of the end product or services, all the IT organizations are used to perform their task on a team basis. For example, once a project is confirmed by the sales team then there will be several teams allocated for executing that particular project in the given time. Hence, team performance is crucial in every aspect of every IT company. 

What Makes a Team Effective?

 (Anon., 2019)

Four contextual factors appear to be most significantly related to team performance. These factors include

•         Adequate resources
•         Leadership and structure
•        A climate of trust
•         Performance evaluation and reward systems. (Anon., 2019)

Adequate resources and leadership are most sensitive when it comes to the IT industry as almost all the projects are depending on knowledge sharing and teamwork. If you don’t have the correct technology and resources with you then you will hardly ever succeed in a project.

Due to these reasons, IT organizations are focusing on State-of-the-art concepts in their working place with the frequently updated technologies. This will in return help the organization to enhance the employee job satisfaction increases the employee retention.  

How does work design affect IT organization’s team effectiveness?

An effective team should take responsibility together and take collective responsibility for completing tasks. Important work design elements include autonomy, using a variety of skills, being able to complete a whole and identifiable task and products, and working on a task or project that has a significant impact on others.  (Nestor-Harper, 2019)

As mentioned above, Work Design has a profound impact on the effectiveness of an IT organization which will in return help to improve the profitability as well. So top management must take this as a serious concern and take the necessary actions to enhance the work design.

How do you think, in your organization’s work design should change to improve team effectiveness?

References

Anon., 2019. openclass. [Online]
Available at: https://content.openclass.com/eps/pearson-reader/api/item/93e3b7b0-d68f-11e5-95f5-cd3b5082a19b/1/file/robbins_decenzo_coulter-fomecaa-10e_v5a/OPS/xhtml/ch10_sec_06.xhtml
[Accessed 30 04 2019].

Armstrong, M., 2014. In: ARMSTRONG’S HANDBOOK OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE. s.l.:s.n., p. 136.

Nestor-Harper, M., 2019. Chorn. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/work-design-influence-team-performance-18159.html
[Accessed 28 04 2019].