Reference no: EM13832426

ASSESSMENT: Diploma of Management

Ensure team effectiveness

The following assessments are to be

(a) completed and

(b) submitted

This section describes the skills and knowledge required for this unit.

Required skills analytical and problem solving skills to examine relevant workplace information and data to identify hazards, and to assess and control risks communication skills to consult with staff and to promote a safe workplace information technology skills to store and retrieve relevant workplace information and data literacy skills to adapt and communicate WHS policies that reflect WHS legislative requirements problem-solving skills to deal with complex and non-routine difficulties.

Required knowledge hazard identification and risk-management processes hierarchy of risk control in-house and WHS legislative reporting requirements relevant WHS Acts, regulations and codes of practice that apply to the business operation.

Assessment Task 1- Establish team performance plan

Performance objective

The candidate will demonstrate skills and knowledge required for establishing a team performance plan.

Specifications You must provide:

? detailed performance plan

? team policy and procedures

? notes from team meeting/s

? third-party reports from each team member.

Your assessor will be looking for:

? communication skills to explain team goals

? planning and organisational skills to consult and develop individual performance plans in team environment

? evidence of knowledge of group behaviour

? knowledge of strategies for gaining consensus

? knowledge of how to support team members to achieve goals through coaching, mentoring, training etc.

Adjustment for distance-based learners ? No changes are required.

Assessment description

In response to a simulated business scenario, you will build a work team, help assign responsibilities for a team project, develop a performance plan, and support team members to carry out assigned responsibilities. You will develop and propose strategies to ensure each team member participates in the project planning and develop policies and procedures for carrying out team work.

Procedure

1. Review the simulated workplace information for Apparel Brands Pty Ltd.

2. Form a team and agree to meet to discuss team objectives and develop performance plans for each team member.

3. Prepare to work with your team:

a. consider several strategies to ensure each team member has input into the planning process

b. consider several ideas for policies to ensure team members take responsibility for own work

c. consider team goals and how team can achieve goals

d. consider strategies for gaining consensus

e. consider group behaviour and how best to present your ideas and work effectively within the group.

f. review the third-party report in Appendix 3 to ensure that you are familiar with the team performance expectations

g. prepare to take notes to provide evidence of team meeting

4. In team meeting, consult to establish ground rules for teamwork:

a. propose and agree on strategies for ensuring participation of team members

b. develop policy and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work and contain ground rules for group work to ensure fairness and high performance.

5. Discuss and determine team goals and how goals can be achieved.

6. Referring to the task requirements in appendix 1, assign and agree on responsibilities to achieve team goals:

a. determine outcomes, outputs and KPIs for each team member - for example, determine agreed responsibilities, quality standards and how performance quality or achievement of tasks will be measured, i.e., number of pages of research, number of network contacts, number of credible sources, hours spent on research, number of coaching sessions conducted to improve performance of other team members, number of inputs into team meetings, etc.

b. ensure work is fairly distributed among team members.

7. Determine and agree on specific duties to support team members with assigned responsibilities.

8. Using the template provided in Appendix 2, develop an individual performance plan in consultation with your team to help achieve team goals:

a. include your support duties in your individual performance plan

b. your performance plan should be at least three pages long.

c. Note: taken together, all individual performance plans must achieve all team goals.

9. Ensure each team member completes the third-party report on your team performance in Appendix 3.

10. Submit all documents to your assessor as per the specifications below. Ensure you keep a copy of all work submitted for your records.

11. Meet with your assessor to discuss your work.

Assessment Part B- Develop team cohesion and facilitate teamwork

Performance objective

The candidate will demonstrate skills and knowledge required for facilitating team cohesion and teamwork.

Specifications You must:

? participate in observed team meeting

? provide notes

? provide meeting agenda.

Your assessor will be looking for:

? communication skills to address team performance issues or conflict

? planning and organisational skills to keep team focused on work outcomes

? knowledge of group behaviour to build team cohesion

? knowledge of how to support team members to achieve goals through coaching, mentoring, training, etc.

? evidence of resolution techniques or strategies.

Adjustment for distance-based learners

? No changes are required; meeting may be observed using video conferencing tool.

Assessment description

In response to a simulated business scenario, you will carry out assigned tasks in performance plan and participate in meeting to support team in achieving team goals.

Procedure

1. Review the simulated workplace information for Apparel Brands Pty Ltd (see Appendices).

2. Carry out all tasks contained in the individual performance plan you developed in Assessment Part A.

3. Consult with your team and assessor to determine an appropriate time for your teamwork to be observed in a team meeting.

4. Prepare for meeting:

a. Reflect on your achievements of team goals: Which goals have you achieved? Which goals have you not achieved?

b. Identify at least one issue you have encountered with respect to carrying out your tasks that you have not yet fully overcome to discuss with group so that they may assist you in enhancing your performance.

c. Consider possible processes for resolution of team issues. For example you may consider leading a brainstorming session, or creating an issues matrix.

d. In consultation with team, develop a meeting agenda to ensure that all issues, concerns and problems with carrying out performance plan activities are addressed in the meeting in order to keep team on track to achieve goals. The agenda should include opportunity for each team member to employ a process for resolution of team issues. Provide the meeting agenda to participants and assessor.

e. Prepare to take notes on issues and solutions and any unresolved issues.

5. Participate in team meeting:

f. Present your achievements of team goals and issue/s encountered.

g. Provide feedback to team members to encourage and reward efforts and build team cohesion.

h. Ask questions and encourage team members to contribute to meeting.

i. Lead or play a prominent role in a process to resolve team issues. Ensure you clearly signal each step in the process and explain your methods to model effective team behaviour to emulate.

j. Identify performance problems and propose solutions during process to resolve team issues to keep on track to achieve goals. If applicable, you may suggest coaching, training etc.

k. Work through any issues that can be resolved during the meeting with team members.

l. Record notes on issues and solutions and any unresolved issues. Note unresolved issues or improvements to group work that you will propose later, after consultation with the manager (assessor).

6. Submit all documents to your assessor as per the specifications below.

Assessment Part C- Liaise with stakeholders

Performance objective

The candidate will demonstrate skills and knowledge required for liaising with stakeholders about the performance of the group.

Specifications You must provide:

? a report on team performance issues resolution

? third-party reports from relevant team members.

Your assessor will be looking for:

? communication skills to address team performance issues or conflict

? planning and organisational skills to keep team focused on work outcomes

? knowledge of group behaviour to build team cohesion

? knowledge of how to support team members to achieve goals through coaching, mentoring, training, etc.

? knowledge of resolution techniques or strategies.

Adjustment for distance-based learners

? No changes are required; meeting may be observed using video conferencing tool.

Assessment description

In response to a simulated business scenario, you will liaise with your manager (assessor) and team to resolve team performance issues. You will prepare a report to your manager on steps taken to resolve performance issues.

Procedure

1. Review the simulated workplace information for Apparel Brands Pty Ltd.

2. Initiate a meeting with your manager (assessor) to ensure you obtain advice from outside the work team.

3. Consult with your manager (assessor) to discuss team performance issues. Use your notes from Assessment Task 2 to provide the basis for this discussion.

4. Discuss your own solutions to improve team performance and achieve team goals. During your consultation:

a. note suggestions from assessor to implement with team/individual team members

b. note any information provided by your manager to be given to team members.

5. Meet with team members to resolve performance issues as discussed with the manager. For example, you may help or coach team members to improve their performance. Review the thirdparty report in Appendix 2 to ensure you are familiar with the task requirements.

6. Write a report for your manager on resolution of team performance issues:

c. describe how you maintained an open communication process between stakeholders (manager, team)

d. describe how you were able to initiate and maintain this communication process so that input from outside the team could contribute to team performance

e. describe your evaluation of team performance and rationale behind corrective actions in order to provide evidence of:

i. knowledge of group behaviour to build team cohesion

ii. knowledge of how to support team members to achieve goals through coaching, mentoring, training etc.

iii. knowledge of resolution techniques or strategies

f. describe corrective actions you have actually taken to ensure team goal/s are achieved.

7. Ensure each team member completes the third party report on your corrective actions performance in Appendix 2.

8. Submit all documents to your assessor as per the specifications below. Ensure you keep a copy of all work submitted for your records.

Appendix 1- Apparel Brands Pty Ltd

Apparel Brands, founded in 1901, is an Australian based manufacturer and distributor of generic clothing and footwear. The company takes orders from retailers and supplies retailers with clothing products that have been manufactured to retailers' specifications. These clothing products are then sold to consumers under the retailers' various brands.

Recently, Apparel Brands has found its market share in decline due to a strong Australian dollar and increased overseas competition. In addition, labour costs are eating into profit margins. Trends in the Australian textile industry suggest that the company, although it is in a strong financial position now, will struggle to make a profit within two years.

To ensure the continued existence of Apparel Brands, the company has embarked on a bold new strategic direction:

? develop own brands and product range and sell direct to consumers

? leverage ecommerce opportunities to reduce distribution costs and increase profit margins.

Company vision: In the next five years, Apparel Brands will establish a range of innovative and exciting online clothing brands and help secure a future for Australian clothing manufacturing.

Task

Your team has been charged with the task of identifying an ecommerce opportunity for Apparel Brands and developing a proposal to put to the board of directors. For example, your team could decide to propose setting up an online business in which customers design their own custom t-shirts. Your budget for setting up the ecommerce venture is $30,000.

Task requirements

For your proposed ecommerce venture, your team will need to determine:

? Value proposition: What will you offer consumers? What product? What price? What quality? How will it benefit your customer?

? Who your target market is: What are the characteristics of the people who will buy your product? What do they need or desire?

? How you will gather necessary information for setting up the venture?

? Who you will consult or network with to benefit from others' expertise?

? What steps you will need to take to set up the ecommerce venture, from website design, to ensuring a system for payment, to establishing an online presence through web search engines, etc.

? How you will determine the benefit to Apparel Brands: What is the benefit? Reduced costs? Increased productivity?

? How you will determine cost.

Once you have determined the above requirements, your team will need to plan specific activities to carry out in order to find the required information for your proposal. Assign tasks to each team member. Each member of the team will develop an individual performance plan.
Important reference: For information on setting up ecommerce opportunities and example case studies refer to https://www.digitalbusiness.gov.au .

Appendix 2- Performance plan

ACTION 1 ACTION 2 ACTION 3

DESCRIPTION

DEPENDENCIES

TIMELINE

RESPONSIBILITY

RESOURCES

REVIEW DATES

MEASUREMENT: KPI; OUTCOME

Appendix 3- Third-party report

ASSESSMENT 1 - THIRD-PARTY REPORT FOR CANDIDATE:

Did the candidate propose and agree strategies for ensuring participation of team members? Y/N. Describe how:

Did the candidate help develop policy and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work? Y/N. Describe how:

Did the candidate work with group to determine common understanding of organisational requirements and team goals? Y/N. Describe how:

Did the candidate work with group to determine and agree specific duties to support team members with assigned responsibilities. Y/N

List the candidate's support duties:

Did the candidate demonstrate knowledge of group behaviour and how to gain consensus and work within groups to enhance team effectiveness? Y/N

Describe how the candidate demonstrated this knowledge in their interactions with the team:

TEAM MEMBER/OBSERVER'S NAME SIGNATURE/DATE

CANDIDATE'S NAME SIGNATURE/DATE

Appendix 4- Third-party report

ASSESSMENT 2 - THIRD PARTY REPORT FOR CANDIDATE:

Did the candidate provide you with information from manager? Y/N

What was the information?

Did the candidate help you to achieve goals by overcoming issue with achieving activities on performance plan? Y/N. Describe how:

TEAM MEMBER/OBSERVER'S NAME SIGNATURE/DATE

CANDIDATE'S NAME SIGNATURE/DATE.