Discuss the critical issues in managing team performance through team-based reward schemes

Essay by changqingwUniversity, Master'sA, August 2006

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Nowadays, organizations have to learn how to adapt to dynamic environment, and accept the reality of constant changes. When old functional structures and vertical communications are become ineffective, organizations has adopted new business process based structures, in terms to improving services and responsiveness in order to re gain, sustain and improve competitiveness (Kepa M T, Derek L, and Jill M, 2002).

One of the consequences of this, organizations have been moved from functional and hierarchal structures towards business process based structures, where teamwork has become the key working practice (Kepa M T, Derek L, and Jill M, 2002). In many organizations, teams have become the main building block (Kozlowski & Bell, 2003). A team may be defined as 'two or more people working interdependently toward the achievement of a common goal' (Allen and Hecht 2004). As the result, improving management and measurement of team performance has captured the interest of many organisations intending to increase their competitiveness (Kepa M T, Derek L, and Jill M, 2002).

More and more organizations have developed different reward schemes for performance, but they centralized around the individual as opposed to the team, because traditional appraisal systems focus on the individual's personal performance (Prendergast, 1999). Many managers are finding difficult to measure team performance, as well as to manage and motive the people within the teams, in a manner that is consistent with the strategy and objectives of the organizations (Kepa M T, Derek L, and Jill M, 2002).

However, many organizations are lack of group orientated performance management. Hammer and Stanton (1999) mentioned that traditional ways of measuring performance, determining compensation, identifying training needs, and even organising facilities are tailored to vertical units, not processes, and to individuals, not teams.

Despite the matters team performance appraisal, the team based reward really the panacea to...