Most of the contemporary companies, especially those operating in the context of the global market, strive for creating the environment in which the process of Information sharing and the production of innovative ideas will be unceasing. Therefore, building a team in which the employees both feel secure about expressing their suggestions and are capable of producing original ideas is a challenging task, mostly due to the issues in identifying the concept of emotional safety in the context of a company.
The study carried out by Google suggests that people are eager to be innovative and participative in the environment involving lack of control over the discussion process and poses a range of questions regarding the choice of the organizational behavior strategies and the design of the leadership approach. Unless the employees are aware of the basic principles of corporate ethics and have respect for the rest of the team members, the introduction of a loose style of communication for the decision-making process as Duhigg suggests is barely sensible.
On the one hand, the environment in Team B, which the author marked as the most favorable for the success of the decision-making process, is inspiringly new and fresh. It seemingly has no boundaries for the creativity of the participants, and it makes every idea suggested open to the criticism. As a result, the sensitivity of the team members reduces as they stop attaching themselves to their ideas and only view them as possible opportunities.
On the other hand, the proposed model creates the impression of a complete absence of supervision, which is not quite right. In order to reach an agreement in the course of decision-making, team members need supervision, as well as the leader that will guide them to a compromise. Therefore, though Duhigg’s framework has an admittedly good premise, it needs to be improved (Duhigg par. 33).
The idea of production as the phenomenon that is intrinsically social and cooperative, however, does not seem completely doubtless. While operating in the environment where cooperation and mutual assistance are viewed as essential is important, the HR managers must bear in mind that it is typical for people to care about themselves and their wellbeing first. As long as the members of an organization feel insecure in the environment of a firm, they will be unable to form a team in which they will feel completely uninhibited from sharing information and knowledge, as well as supporting each other.
At this point, the issue of safety must be addressed. As stated above, it is principal to create the environment where people will feel secure. However, the concept of safety in the context of an organization may be blurred to a considerable extent as it incorporates personal security (e.g., the safety of one’s personal data), emotional security (e.g., being a part of the team with inviting environment and non-confrontational participants), etc.
Therefore, it is important for a team manager to not only maintain the atmosphere that each of the participants will find comfortable but also to get the idea of a compromise across to every team member so that the atmosphere could be sustained and should not be disrupted. In other words, the manager should realize that people are geared by the need to pursue their personal goals and, thus, make sure that the participants could align their goals with the corporate values and ethics.
Works Cited
Duhigg, Charles. “What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team.” New York Times 25 February 2016. Web. 16 July 2016.