Developing_and_Maintaining_Trust_at_Bwork

Developing and maintaining trust at work Trust is an integral part of forming a high performance team, “High performance teams can only operate in a climate of trust” [Tuckman]. There are many factors to look at when assessing how trust is built up and maintained, trust can’t occur without effective communication this should be good communication between all members of a team. For effective communication to occur each person within the team needs to feel free to communicate without repercussions or fear of being targeted or not listened to. Effective communication is not only verbal and also encompasses body language, active listening and effective interaction within a group. Staff meetings when organised and run efficiently can be an excellent example of effective communication. A staff meeting should give all present the opportunity to add to the agenda and play an active part in putting across their ideas, issues and concerns. Within residential child care we recently changed the format of the staff meetings ensuring that all staff had ample opportunity to list agenda items before attending, and with the aim of making it less of an authoritarian style. When an issues is discussed the chair will start the discussion stating the agenda item and will then give each staff member starting from the left and heading in a clockwise rotation round the room the opportunity to have their input listened to. This method for facilitating staff meetings solved issues including employees or managers talking over the top of someone trying to make a point, giving an equal opportunity to each employee regardless of status or how loud they can talk and creating an environment of respect and shared ownership of input into the staff meeting. This co-operation forms good group bonds of trust Tyler [2002] stated “We display cooperative behaviour by performing our assigned job or participating in other activities to benefit the group” Many times within residential setting staff attend the staff meetings despite it being during their time off. Before each staff meeting ground rules are outlined ensuring each person within the meeting is aware of the expected behaviours required of them. Other factors that are imperative to the forming of trust within a team include equal opportunities for all staff to develop and achieve. A feeling of belonging that ensures no staff member feels isolated or excluded and a culture of respect for each other and having a leader who they feel is trustworthy. If within a group there is a strong bond of trust this can help build relationships and assist managers to create an effective and productive team. A manager’s behaviour is fundamental to developing trust and respect in the workplace, a manager should strive to follow the ‘CRAFT’ model if they wish to gain respect. This suggests that a manager should be seen by their employees as consistent, reasonable, approachable, fair and transparent in their working practices. I will look at one factor of craft and try to discuss how if a manager fails to behave appropriately then this will have a detrimental effect upon the team cohesion and levels of trust. A manager must be transparent in their working practices, meaning staff should see them as open and honest, free from deceit with open, good communication, easily understood without hidden agendas. This transparency of management ensures that a manager’s employees can see clearly why decisions are made and understand the reasons behind the decision making. This ensured that staff felt more comfortable and aware of what is expected of them and that they will be treated fairly and consistently. If staff feel like this then trust of their manager is much more likely to occur. They will feel that you are approachable and they can come to you with concerns about work or even private and personal issues that may be in some way affecting their work practice. If a staff member was to come to their manager and disclose information of a personal nature during supervision and the manager did not maintain this information confidentially then this would be a breach of the data protection act [1998] and would have devastating effects on the perception of trust within the group. The data protection act [1998] contains eight data protection principles and the breach of one of these principles would mean breaking the data protection act. Within residential child care the data protection act applies not only to the young people who are cared for but also to the employees working within the service. One of the eight principles is that any information and written copies of conversations that occur within supervision must be kept securely within a locked cabinet that only the managers have a key to. If a manager completed supervision notes and left these out on the side for anyone to read then this could have very detrimental effects on the level of trust and respect that an employee has for a manager. An example could be that a staff member discloses that they are having issues with their alcohol consumption and they come to their manager for support and advice, if this information was not kept securely and was left out for anyone to see then other staff members may become aware of these issues. This would lead to the staff member feeling isolated and talked about behind their back, eventually causing them to exclude themselves from the group. Already this has an effect on group cohesion and therefore group efficiency and productivity. Other staff members would then feel that they could not trust you as a manager, and would be unlikely to come to you for advice, guidance and support when they need it. This loss of respect and trust would certainly impact on group productivity. Building the team The difference between a group of people who work together and a team is down to the way that they work together. A group of people who work together will each work independently, fulfilling their own tasks or roles but not working as one team co-operatively, putting the goals and needs of the team above that of the individual. A team will work in an environment where there are strong bonds and relationships and they can rely on each other for support and assistance even when they have differences of opinion. In a group a difference of opinion can lead to disagreements and arguments and potentially the feeling that they need to be careful what they say or admitting to mistakes or errors of judgement. Problems in a group can lead to fragmentation and isolation while a team will bond further and problem solve together to get past issues that arise. The level of responsibility that employees are willing to take on can also be reflective of a strong team. Employees will be prepared to take on extra responsibility and workloads for the good of the team while in a group often you may get responses back like “I am not paid to do that” or that is a senior job. Within residential child care I have seen occasions when people have pulled together and acted like a team and also occasions when it has seemed more like a group. I have sat previously in a staff meeting and heard a manager make statements about how the diary sheets have been filled out incorrectly. This has turned into a situation where employees begin to point out that it is not their diary sheets that are poor and time has been wasted while people argue about who is to blame. This is representative of a group of individuals because instead of accepting that mistakes have been made and trying to spend time discussing and working together to eliminate any further mistakes as a team from everyone’s practice a culture of blame and alienation had formed instead. This is non productive and does not help anyone in their work practice or the team/ group as a whole to improve quality and productivity. This is a team because the individuals are looking out for themselves and not thinking as a group. A good example of a group has been when a new resident arrived at the unit and there was a major increase in violent incidents and restraint. This can leave staff feeling very stressed and could possibly lead to a de-motivated workforce. Instead a meeting was called and all staff members turned up regardless of whether it was there day to work or not. Long discussions and planning took place about the best course of action to take to reduce the incidents in the long term. Many of the staff had different opinions about the best plan to put in place, but through discussion eventually a plan was formed. Some staff members at the time had openly aired their disagreement to the plan but once it was decided as a group they openly accepted and agreed that the only way the situation would improve is if the firm boundaries agreed were rigidly adhered to by all staff. It was agreed that the plan would be reviewed and alternatives would be looked at if there was no improvement. This plan was carried out by all and at the following review it was agreed that it had been a success. The feeling of success was shared by the whole team and this further strengthened the good working relationships within the group. This is a group behaviour because everyone had input, and worked together to problem solve. People went above and beyond their regular hours to try to improve practice and accepted that although there were disagreements within the group over the best course of action, once one was agreed all the employees and manager worked together sticking to the accepted plan. When looking at group formation Tuckman B and Jenson M [1977] suggested there are five stages for group development. Stage one an immature group is called the forming stage it is the initial stage where the relationships between the group members are uncertainties and the members are testing the ground rules and ascertaining the group goals. An example of this type of group could be a near company opening and the staff team going through their initial induction. The second stage is a fractional group called the storming stage; this is when a group has disagreement and conflict. There will be tension, hostility and clique formation. During this stage the individuals work separately and not as a team. This could be exampled as when team leaders have left and staff members are looking to fill the vacancies. Due to the staff members jostling for position their own goals may be more important than that of the team meaning they are in a storming stage. The third stage is a sharing group known as the Norming stage after passing through the disagreements of the storming stage staff will know and accept each other better, appreciate each other’s skills and experience and feel as if they are part of a cohesive and effective group. They may at this stage however be reluctant to change for fear of the group cohesion breaking down. Many staff groups reach this point but do not graduate onto the fourth stage which is the performing stage. At the performing stage the group is interdependent and flexible. The roles and responsibilities change depending on the group goals and the skills and qualities of the individual members of the group. There is a high level of trust, respect and team unity and everyone is equally task orientated and team orientated, due to this the energy of the group can be entirely directed towards the task at hand. The final stage is the disbanding group known as the adjourning stage. This is after successful completion and involves disengagement from the group. During this stage the group members should reflect the positive work achieved and mourn the loss of the group. Whenever creating a group it is vitally important that the manager understands their staff and they can then benefit from assigning them more preferred team roles. This will increase the efficiency of a team as each staff member has different skills and abilities and will think and act differently as well. If a manager can understand their staff and therefore assign them to more suited roles within the team the staff member will be more productive, more confident and feel more satisfied while at work. Belbin [1996] suggested there are nine different team roles that employees may fit into. I will example on role to show how certain types of roles will certain types of jobs within the residential sector. The example I will use is a specialist these are single minded, self starting, dedicated and provide knowledge and skills in rare supply. We have assigned an employee the role of health and safety officer in the residential unit, it is important that this person has high specialist knowledge of health and safety and that they look at issues that arise with their health and safety ‘hat on’. The weaknesses of a specialist that they may only contribute on a narrow front of dwell on technicalities can actually be an asset within this role. If the specialist was assigned to other roles within residential which have much more generalised duties they may struggle and appear to under achieve or struggle with tasks. By assigning them a suitable role the manager keeps them motivated, makes them valued and useful within the team. This improves team harmony and efficiency.