Different Team Types In The Military Management Essay

INTRODUCTION

A team can be defined as two or more individuals who socially interact (face-to-face or, increasingly, virtually), possess one or more common goals, brought together to perform organizationally relevant tasks, exhibit interdependencies with respect to workflow, goals, and outcomes, have different roles and responsibilities and together embedded in an encompassing organizational system, with boundaries and linkages to the broader system context and task environment. [] To transform a team of team members must start with understanding what with all the team and the unique characteristics distinguish them from smaller groups. This essay will explore about how team selection should be established in the military and discuss whether team selection is relevant and applicable to the military context. Then it will explain how and where the military should implement team selection.

DIFFERENT TEAM TYPES IN THE MILITARY

For the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF), it is best to have joint together when working in a dedicated team whether it is at strategic or tactical level. The differences with the six teams’ types in MINDEF/SAF (Command Team, Work Team, Management Team, Project Team, Action Team and Peer Team) are on their roles and responsibilities. The configuration and processes of the team remain unchanged. Each of this teams have own significant task and behaviour to perform and accomplish their mission. The choice of type also depends on the organisational context and resources available. To select the right selection team, it must be conducted by the right assessment for team candidates and the assessment for different teams will be different for one another. Characteristics that distinguish teams from small groups include the multiple sources of information, task interdependencies, coordination among members, common and valued goals, specialised member roles and responsibilities, task-relevant knowledge, intensive communication, and adaptive strategies to help respond to change. [] Success depends not only on knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) required for individual task performance, but also on those traits of individual team members that facilitate team interaction and functioning (e.g. learning ability, initiative, risk-taking propensities, adaptability, tolerance for stress, etc.). These characteristics are critical for teams that require more coordination, such as command teams. Overall, leadership qualities influence the performance of all teams, whether they are exhibited by formally appointed leaders, or by non-appointed, emerging leaders. [] To understand further of how team selection being conducted, one must understand how group of individuals function to produce effectiveness output.

TEAM SELECTION IN THE MILITARY

Team selection involves establishing appropriate team size. This becomes problematic when the task has not been performed before, or when it is artificially constrained by such factors as leader preferences, available resources, or the number of people free to participate. If too few people are chosen, undue stress will be placed on team members. On the other hand, if too many are chosen, resources are wasted. [] As a general rule, teams should be staffed to the smallest number needed to do the work. As mentioned by Kozlowski and Bell – 2003, the ideal team size is seven people however the number of five to twelve people in optimal team size is partially contingent on the nature of the team task.

Military members come from different background and different personality. Each person has unique individual. In order to establish team selection, the model of the team performance is derived from the basic Input-process-output (I-P-O) framework for team effectiveness. [] The first phase of the framework is to study the team inputs e.g., personality, values and knowledge, skill and attitudes (KSA). The aspect of team composition must be determined and may vary along several dimensions; attributes such as age, gender, race, intelligence, aptitude, training, experience, personality, etc. Further to determine the type of individual personality, it can be judged from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). [] The first step in understanding the MBTI psychological type is to define the characteristic ways in which the individual prefer to gather information and orient themselves to the world. The preferences are grouped into four pairs which are explained briefly in MBTI table. Other model can be used to describe people’s behaviours in a team by using I-TEAM. This can be done simply by 5 teams’ roles to summarise the 5 categories of behaviours in a team context (Innovator, Teamworker, Executor, Ambassador and Mover). From this, the individual can be categories to help the team members knowing and understand their preferences. There is a need not only to understand individual effectiveness, but also team effectiveness to evaluate probable interactions between group and individual level factors.

Overall team composition includes mix members from relevant units/organisations involved in the team selection having a wide range of experience and skills such as technical expertise, administrative skills, interpersonal and communication skills. Once the team selection is established, there is a need to explain why the team exits, what the common vision is and what the goals and targets are to be. This is further to maintain the team for the team development process by giving each member a role and responsibility and create cohesion among team members for better relationship. However certain conflict will rise throughout the development of the team but can be settled through team mental model and team trust.

IS THE CONCEPT OF TEAM SELECTION RELEVANT AND APPLICABLE TO THE MILITARY CONTEXT?

In this case, most theories have incorporated a general I-P-O approach, whereby certain variables are fed into the system (e.g. environmental and organisational variables, individual input variables, and team input variables), team processes follow (e.g. orientation, communication, adaptation, etc.), and team output (productivity) results. [] As in the military organisation, working as a different team types in a selection team is a norm. It has been learned that team selection in the military is effective and relevant in a way such that the involvement of military organisation to conduct a certain task has been proven not only on operational duty but also working jointly with civilian agency.

Looking back at the Input framework, military organisations need a good team selection which consists of different background, personalities and KSA to achieve their goal effectively and efficiently. To know better about the individual performance, it can be familiar through the beginning of military recruits. This will enhanced further the team selection and the suitability of team type. The integration of specific cognitive, behavioural and affective competencies allows team members to adapt and optimize their performance. They have identified competencies that enable teams to meet their goals, and have developed effective techniques for capturing, measuring and teaching those skills.

IMPLEMENT OF TEAM SELECTION IN MILITARY

As the use of teams has become common within organisations where human resources are actively seeking people who can demonstrate their ability to work well in a team. The method of determining team composition by having assessment to ensure that military personnel assign to a certain team meet the criteria. The different task of the team will make difference criteria to assess someone. The selection of team members is base on the ‘best and brightness’ on the team but even those people work well together for the task/goal to succeed. To implement of team selection, giving preference to individuals who are; concerned about and committed to the common purpose and goals, enthusiastic, optimistic, creative, flexible and open minded, proactive, good team players, can devote time to the initiative. [] The important selection criteria are the people skills, personal characteristics and readiness. Selection also becomes important in areas where training is unlikely to have an effect. For example, training may influence an individual team member’s attitudes, but not his personality traits.

CONCLUSION

The concept of team selection in the military is now became norms and researchers are trying their best to improve on the weakness area. On the team types in the military, there are not many differences on the six team types in MINDEF/SAF compare to RBAF. The process of team selection begins on the team building process based on the I-P-O framework. Throughout this selection process, it is focused on the Input framework explain further on how the team established. The detailed of team size, team composition (personality, values, KSA, etc) are the factors to be considered during the process of forming. There are some challenges at this stage where conflict may arise due to different view on certain members. However, this can be solved by the team trust through their relationship building. Team selection is relevant and applicable to the military context due to involvement of military nowadays in the area of their operation and working environment. Human Resource Department played an important role in supporting for the selection of military personnel through assessment based on the criteria of team requirement.