Organizational Behaviour Organizational Behavior Although

Organizational Behaviour Organizational Behavior Although it is unusual within organizations these days for a team leader to choose who will be the team members that he will include in his team, there are still some instances where a team leader needs to choose his team members. One instance where this occurs is during the development of a special project. Every team leader indeed considers several criteria when selecting his team members. One sees this need because he and his team members will need to work harmoniously as a team.

Together, the team will accomplish a task where each will perform roles that must perfectly be in harmony. Two of the most important factors that team leaders must consider when selecting team members are the skills and experience. According to VVA DMSO (2004) online, There are two general reasons for including someone on the assessment team: technical or organizational expertise. Team leaders must set particular criteria where team members must qualify.

Further, such criteria must be suitable or at least must be associated with the tasks that a team needs to perform. The next important criteria for a good team member is his work attitude.

Although a team may have the most talented and intelligent members, work attitude is important because it is from this ground where a team will be able to work as a "team." A sense of cooperation and willingness to contribute and correspond with the other team members is important to allow less problems or easy and quick resolution should problems exist. The member must have a good sense of communication and teamwork relationship.

Robbins and Finley (1995) suggests that the only way to discover and resolve differences within the team is to open up, acknowledge the disagreement and negotiate a solution. The third important criteria is the commitment of an individual in accomplishing his responsibilities. Without commitment, chances are the performance of the team will not be strong enough to deliver its duties. A team leader must be a good role model to his members.

He must demonstrate the sense of the term "team" - that is, to work together selflessly and to achieve the goal out of every member's contribution. A team leader must serve as a bridge between his members. He must consider every member as a unique individual whose individuality can provide gain to the team. Moreover, he must promote equality among his members. Also, it is a very essential quality of team leader to have a good sense of open communication with his members.

He must provide continuous team information to his members, such as team status, to make the whole team updated. It is also ideal for him to have self-acceptance, such as during instances when members provide valuable suggestions, or when he did something wrong. Success is just around the corner if a team leader with the characteristics mentioned has the stand and respect from his members. Then, he can lead his team well.

From the aspects and factors that have been mentioned, there is still one element that can play a great role in the success of a team. This is the personality of every individual in the team. Member personality has great impact in the success of team. This is similar to the level of strength of every individual in a human pyramid.

A person in the pyramid who has a weak physical strength can cause the fall of the other persons who are on top of him and standing on his shoulders. In the same way, a team member who has unlikeable personality, such as selfishness, incooperation, or irresponsibility, can negatively affect the other team members either in terms of their performance or even influencing the personality of the other members.

According to Abraham and Morrison, teams with higher levels of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness among team members performed better than did other teams Motivation must be present in a team and is an important factor that must go along with the ideal team characteristics that have been mentioned in the previous paragraphs. Marlow's theory of hierarchy of needs define some essential elements that can affect motivation. Student Central online lists the following five basic components related to hierarchy of human needs.

A physiological needs, including essentials such as food and good working conditions; safety needs, safeguarding from financial and positional threats; affiliation, encouraging teamwork and a sense of belongingness; esteem needs, maintaining an individual's confidence and self-respect; and most importantly, self-actualisation needs, developing a will for challenge, promotion and pursuing new goals. Such factors can serve as stimulant to a team to perform at its best. Both material and emotional elements, such as rewards and compliment, can build motivation to every member of team.