Abstract

The purpose for this study is “The Effect of Teamwork on Employee Performance: a Case Study Telecommunication Firms in Buea Municipality. Its specific objectives are to establish the effect of Team communication on Employees Performance in Telecommunication firms, to examine the effect of team cohesion on Employees Performance in Telecommunication firms and to analyse the effect of collaboration on Employees Performance in Telecommunication firms in Buea Municipality.

A descriptive research design was adopted as an appropriate study design were a sample of 80 employees in telecommunication firms in Buea were selected Purposive sampling and Convenience Sampling techniques. It also combined quantitative as well as qualitative research approaches. The quantitative methods of data collection were used in this work were a self-administered questionnaire composed of closed ended, and likert scale questions was used to collect data from the respondents.

Data obtained through a structured questionnaire were analysed using analysed using descriptive statistics and the multiple regression analysis (Ordinary least square Regression technique) with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The findings show that teamwork has a significant impact on employee’s performance in telecommunication firms in Buea.

Team communication has a negative and significant effect whereas team cohesion and team collaboration has a positive and significant effect on employee’s performance in telecommunication firms in Buea.

The study therefore recommends that effective teamwork should put in place so as to increase the employee’s performance in telecommunication firms. The study further recommends that the management should build a strong relationship with their employee’s based on team communication, team cohesion and team collaboration so as to build positive relationship with the employee’s performance and operations.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, problem statement, research questions, research objectives, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope of the study, Organization of long essay. The aim of this study is to examine and evaluate the impact of effective teamwork on employee   performance.

1.1 Background of the Study

The idea or concept of teams has been applied many centuries ago. During the establishment and development of human civilization, that is why it is a very valuable and important concept in any occupational and developmental process. Teamwork is a precise organizational measure that shows many different features in all types of organizations including Non-profit.  Mulika(2016), Conti and Kleiner (2010) all reported that teams offer greater participation, challenges and feelings of accomplishment.

Team building, planning events and activities have the potential to bring the people you employed to a strong sense of direction, workable plans and solutions, a powerful feeling of belonging with and on the team and clear strategic customer-focused value.  Poor team building and planning sessions bring disillusionment, low morale and negative motivation of the entire organization. They fail to deliver the results expected.

Organizations flounder with little strategic direction. Everyone works hard, but, usually on the wrong tasks and goals. Employees take baby steps toward accomplishing key action items and nothing important is finished (Husain, 2011). Team work is the ability to work together towards a common vision. Teamwork is a fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

Collective action is widely recognized as a positive  force  for  teamwork  in  any  organization  or  institution  to  succeed.  Teams enable individuals to empower themselves and to increase benefits from cooperative work engaged on as a group.  Getting together with others  also  can  allow  individuals  to  better  understand  the importance of teamwork and how  the organization operate as  well as promote the culture of teamwork  success. Without teamwork houses take long to build, government collapse and companies are outshined by their competitors in the market.

Teamwork is a small number of people with complimentary skills who are committed to goals and the approach they hold themselves mutually accountable. Large desire goals usually require that people work together, so teamwork has become an important concept in organizations. Effective teams are intermediary goal toward getting good results. Industry training and cross training to help people to work together more effectively and to accomplish shared goals whether colleagues are present or absent.

Through teamwork, members are able to share knowledge and experience in the best interest of the team. It encourage attitudes and behavior that respect and value diversity. Teamwork promotes a culture where staffs are encouraged to develop without fear of blame and provides the opportunity to deliver results skills for high performance. Teamwork gives team members the communication, discussion and decision-making skills they need to build and maintain a positive social environment.

Teamwork is an integral aspects of an organizational life cycle as well as a prominent feature of modern organizations (Mijakoski et al., 2018), one of the key features of a team is that “members working independently and being jointly accountable for performance goals” (Adil., 2015, porter, 2008), however, recent literature has opined that leadership behavior in promoting and championing a change initiative plays a substantial role in observing organization overall effectiveness (Muiki, cuemmerer, and Heggde, 2015).

In other words, task performance represents a workers ability and personal drive to work harder and better to meet organizational objective on time. Similarly, other authors (Ahmad, Manzoor, et al 2017) have also found that teamwork enhances employee morale and productivity

The essence of teamwork adopts the principles of reducing and breaking workload in to pieces of work for everyone to take part (AI Salman and Zubair, 2016). Recent studies show that working in teams could lead to individually (Jones, Richard, Paul, Sloane and Peter, 2017). This change of working in teams. Instead of working alone requires employees to co-operate, segment information.

Generally, the collaboration amongst the members of a team represents a supportive force for teamwork in any business organization such as telecommunication firms in Buea, as it enables workmates to work together, side by side, towards realizing the organization performance related objectives.

According to Abdulle and Aydintan (2019) teams and team thinking have been around for years at companies such as (Iftikhar, 2017) examined that managers discovered the large body of research indicating that teams can be move than the tradition corporate structure for making decisions quickly and efficiently.

He further said that teams needed for the restructuring and reengineering processes of the future giving instances that simple changes like encouraging input and feedbacks from workers on the line make dramatic improvement and  said that teams are replacing Individuals as the basic building blocks of organization-French language television programs has shifted to team-based projects giving more recognition to teams than individuals companies are not just looking for technical ability but looking for people who can work on teams and solve problems.

Even from the time of creation, God applied the concept of teamwork when he said,”let us make man in our own image”(Genesis1:26). This statement brings out the fact that God in the creation process work with other heavenly beings hence the essence of team in bringing productivity “man”.

Hence companies have to encourage teamwork in order to gain competitive advantage because its base where new ideas come from. To employees teamwork is seen as constituting a larger group of people that what job position describes. The essence of teamwork is that workload is broken for everyone to take part.

The backward development in organizations today can be attributed to inadequate teamwork among workers in an organization which in the long run affects the performance of the organization. Huge amount of money is also lost due to teamwork inadequacies which to say the least, drains the organizations meager resources with its far-reaching and attendant consequences on the development of the organization.

However, without trust and communication the team will have difficulty functioning effectively. This is the gap the study tried to fill through concentrating on five factors of teamwork effectiveness, including effective communication, level of trust, interpersonal skills, team cohesiveness and accountability.

Many studies investigated the effects of teamwork on employees performance. These include the studies of (Mulika, 2016). Conti and Kleiner(2010), Abdulle and Aydintan (2019), of Phina, et al., (2018), Sanyal and Hisam, (2018), Khan and Mashikhi (2017), Iftikhar and Manzoor, (2017), Septiani and Gilang, (2017), and Zubair (2016), (Husain,2011), (Mijakoski et al., 2018), (Adil., 2015, Porter, 2008), (Muiki, Cuemmerer, and Heggde, 2015), (Ahmad, Manzoor, et al 2017), (AI Salman and Zubair, 2017), (Jones, Richard, Paul, Slone and Peter, 2017)  All of these studies indicated that teamwork has a positive significant effect on the performance of employee in the different organization invested in these studies.

1.2 Problem Statement

Telecommunication firms are there to provide network connectivity within buea municipality like CAMTEL, ORANGE, NEXTEL and MTN. The firms are meant to promote smooth functioning of communications in the form of calls and internet Network within the area to bring people close or pass across information.

However the network has failed in recent times due poor employee performance. Study shows that there has been evidence of network congestion and high cost of purchase. The firms have tried to cope with these challenges but with little success because they seem to use different approach to the problems at hand. Reports show that, there have been conflicts within the firms due to lack of team cohesion within the employees where everyone fights for their selves.

It is against this backdrop that we want to investigate the effects of team work on employee performance of Telecommunication firms of Buea Municipality. We want to know if their failures in addressing pressing issues can be attributed to lack of team work and how if teamwork can be the solution to finding ways to curb the troubles which the Company is facing at the moment.

1.3 Research Questions

1.3.1 Main research question

What is the effect of teamwork on employee’s performance in Telecommunication firms in Buea Municipality?

1.3.2 Specific research questions

1. How does Team communication affect Employees Performance in Telecommunication firms in Buea Municipality?
2. To what extent does team cohesion affect Employees Performance in Telecommunication firms in Buea Municipality?
3. How collaboration does affect Employees Performance in Telecommunication firms in Buea Municipality?

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