Reflective Essay consultancy

MNGT509: MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE MSc Management - Anais Anais - 31733942

Management Consultancy Project Reflective Essay – Word Count (1434 words)

Management Consultancy Project: Reflective Essay on Teamwork using Belbin’s Team Roles The management consultancy project that last for two weeks as part of Management in Practice module was a meaningful experience for my postgraduate study. However, at first, I was quite disappointed with the project in terms of the duration which is quite short and also the difference regarding the scale of the clients’ businesses assigned to each groups, for instance Kendal Nutricare which is considered as medium to big scale company compared to JF Hudson which is a small company owned and run by one person. Prior to my study as a postgraduate student in Lancaster University, I was employed in two boutique management consultant companies focusing on human resources for almost three years. This experience helps me to start seeing the project positively especially with the fact that JF Hudson, client that assigned to my group, is a business that focus on design and installation service in agricultural industry which for me considered as a new industry that will enhance my experience in management consultancy. During this project, I worked with four other students which one of them has two years working experience in an IT company while the other three do not have any working experience. The purpose of this essay is to reflect on my role in the team during this project using Belbin’s (1997) team roles theory and identify possible improvement and application in the context of my future working place.

As part of the project, in the previous month before the project, I went to Rydal Hall with my team in a leadership workshop session run by the MSc Management program team. Within this session, there are five teamwork challenges which each member in all groups is assigned to lead one of the challenges. After each challenge, there is a review session where all members discuss on the strength and constructive feedback for the assigned leader of each session. I was leading the team for a leadership poster challenge that should be finished within twenty minutes where I propose to spend the first five minutes to discuss the content and finish the poster in fifteen minutes which agreed by all members. Then, I divided the task into picture searching, cutting, sticking, writing, drawing and colouring. The team worked well and finished on time. The 1

facilitator acknowledged our work and also praised our teamwork and as the leader of the session, I felt that I have done my best and I felt happy. After all the five challenges were done along with each leader’s review, final review was held. During this final review session, all members in the team think that I was the best example in showing leadership skill due to my communication, time management, task delegating and decision making skill. Therefore, during the first group meeting of the consultancy project, I was appointed as representative or communicator based on my skill that they have seen in Rydal Hall, my working experience and also my English skill. However, this communicator role is considered as functional role which distinguished from team roles. As explained by Wilson (2013) who described functional roles as those that relate to a person’s job or function in organization and distinguished from team roles. The definition of team role is a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way (Belbin, 2000). The Belbin team role theory was developed through a number of years at Henley Management College and is based on empirical observations on team behaviour. Unlike most personality tests a Belbin team role is not a definition or judgment of how a person is, but only a characterization of how the person acts in a given group. The surprising discovery was the great importance of functions that were not strictly connected to the task to be carried out. It was not enough to gather a number of very intelligent people who knew a lot about the topic that the team was working on, for them to be a winning team (Godskesen, 2009). The different functions to be taken care of in a group are all of equal importance even though some are social and communicative while others are more technical and academic. Belbin have operationalized these insights in a theory of nine team roles. According to the Belbin (2004) most people have between two and four natural roles and in teamwork in practice each person often covers several roles. During this project, I covered three roles which are coordinator, shaper and resource investigator. Coordinator described as mature, confident, a good chairperson who clarifies goals, promotes decision-making and delegates well (Belbin, 2004). Then, shaper described as challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure type of person who has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles (Belbin, 2004). I was highly motivated in this project since it is such a long time that I have not work on a real case. My excitement helped me in pulled the group together to work towards several goals that we have discussed in each group meeting. I 2

also spot individual’s talents and use them to pursue group objectives. As one of the example, one of the member in the team is a Chinese girl who studied marketing during her bachelor degree and I observed that she is quite active in several social media, so I offered her to handle the social media marketing part which is one of the focus in our project. All other member supported my idea and she agreed and looked happy with the task that she got. It is really effective regarding the task delegating process which help us move on to the next agenda during the meeting.

Resource investigator is an enthusiastic, communicative person who explores opportunities and develops contacts (Belbin, 2004). Within this project, I was assigned as communicators for the client, mentor and the team itself. During the client meeting I lead the discussion and sometime when someone in my team was struggling in communicating their idea or question to the client, I helped them by paraphrasing their sentence. I also act as negotiator, for instance, I lead the team to negotiate about client’s request to create a promotional video which is not realistic considering the project is only for two weeks. So I offered another solution, instead of asking the team to create the video which might be resulted in a standard or even low quality and it also unrealistic considering the time, it is better for him to use Fiverr service where he can hire someone to produce a professional and high quality video starting from only five pounds. During the presentation, I showed him the sample video in Fiverr where he saw a sophisticated computer graphics video and really excited on Fiverr quality with such an affordable price. My assertiveness, knowledge and communication skill really help in the smoothness of the negotiation and communication process with the client.

However, as coordinator, shaper and resource allocator, I can be headstrong and emotional in response to disappointment or frustration (Belbin, 2004). There is a moment when I feel disappointed on one member of my team who was not finished in researching her part which consequently hinder the progress of the project. At that time, my negative emotional response was affecting the mood of the team which is not effective during the meeting. However, in the next couple hour when she told me that she did not finish in researching her part because she 3

did not really understand some part, it made me feel bad for being emotional without asking her reason in the first place. Therefore, it was clear that I should have been more careful with my emotion since being emotional only worsen the condition. I also reflected that I might not be clear while dividing the task and failed to make sure that all members understand with the assigned task since Varney (1989) cautions that negative conflict can destroy a team quickly and often arises from poor planning. Therefore, in the future, if this kind of issue raise in my work place while I am leading a team or just being part of a team, rather than being emotional, I will ask for clarification in the first place and act on what is important. I will also make sure that my colleagues and I personally understand the task and remind them and also myself that it is better to seek help as soon as possible before the deadline so that it will be more effective rather than ask for help when it supposed to be collected already.

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References Belbin, M. (1997). Changing The Way We Work. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Belbin, M. (2000). Beyond the Team. Oxford: Butterewoth-Heinneman. Belbin, M. (2004). Management Teams: Why they succeed or fail. Amsterdam: ButterewothHeinneman. Godskesen, M. (2009). Improving Teamwork Abilities Across Cultural Differences: Belbin group role theory applied. Lyngby: Technical University of Denmark Varney, G. (1989). Building Productive Teams. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Wilson, F. (2014). Organizational Behavior and Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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