Communications and Media

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explain the work design approaches that Nemiro discovered, when and why they would be useful in future learning teams and the interrelationship between creativity and communication.

There are various kinds of work design approaches. Nemiro discovered that there were three work design approaches which were mostly followed by virtual teams, starting from idea generation and finally ending on the closure of the creative process. According to Nemiro the three work design approaches are called the wheel, the modular and finally the iterative approach (Nemiro, 2004).
Nemiros first work design approach is an example of a communication network in which there is one person, who is the leader and he is the only one who communicates with the team members. In the wheel approach the leader will start the creativity by giving out work to the team members, at his discretion or the subordinated giving their ideas to him. In this approach there is no horizontal communication within the team and moreover it is avoided.

The modular approach, which is Nemros second work design approach, is based on group work. In this approach the team members will first meet and decide what work, design, project etc is to be done. Then once this has been decided, the work will be given out as a group or then, it shall be divided into parts and each member will get a particular part based on his expertise. When everyone is done with their part of the work, the team members will again meet with their completed parts and join them together, resulting in an impressive final product. However in this approach, since each member does his part and there is no involvement of anyone in that part of his, the team loses creativity which comes with two or more than two people thinking about the same thing.

Nemros third work design approach called the iterative approach. This approach is based on the idea of frequent consultation, small brainstorming sessions and frequent interaction between the team members. In this approach each team member does a little part of his work and then presents it in front of all the team members. The team members would then give him feedback on it. Using this feedback he would then work further on his part and this will keep on happening until the project is complete. During this time team members will also interact via email or other informal means in the organization. However it has been seen that this approach is normally integrated with the wheel and modular approach.

However not all approaches are suitable for all situations. It is the virtual team designer who has to decide when and why particular approach will be useful. For instance, in case of the wheel approach, it will work well, only when decision making is in the hands of a superior team leader, who the team members know is here to stay and will be there for a long time. Moreover this approach will be successful only when each team member trusts the other to complete the part assigned to that team member and this will happen only when the work of one team member does not require the advice of another team member.

Besides this, this approach will work for future learning teams who are eager to give their input on things, when the team leader takes the input of each member individually and utilizes it in the project.
Similarly the modular approach will work well with future learning teams when the task on hand is such that it can be broken into parts and given to each member of the team based on his experience and expertise in that field.  This approach will work well when, the work once allotted, does not require feedback from anyone because the member is already an expert in that department. Another advantage of this approach is that, there is full accountability of each team member, regarding the work he has done. This is possible because that individual was the only one working on that part and hence no one else can be held responsible if anything was wrongly done.

Moreover many people do not like a dictatorial way of working and this approach gives them that. This is because this approach is more on the lines of democracy.

Nemros third work design approach will be useful in future learning teams because this approach works well with certain situations as well. When the project is big, there is a lot of time available on hand. When this is the case, team members have enough time to do a little part of their work and then sit down and discuss it, thereby getting feedback. This approach will work well with future learning teams because, now a days the trend is to give open and honest feedback. When feedback will be honest, the person getting the feedback will be able to improve his work.

Similarly future learning teams will also benefit because, there is a well designed system for communication. Communication is the backbone of any organization. When the system of communication is well defined, team members can effectively give their thoughts and feedback. However it is also essential that team members can take constructive criticism and are not hurt or become annoyed by those points of views which do not conform to their own point of view.
There has been a lot of improvement and innovation in technology in the past few years. Future learning teams will be exposed to even more innovations. Hence this approach will also help them because an essential part of it is, sharing of views and ideas via technology and less through meetings.

When we say that teams are creative and are coming up with innovative ideas, this means that they are communicating. Only when a team will communicate within itself can it agree on a single idea which is acceptable to all and can be presented to the higher ups as the teams idea. This shows that there is definitely an interrelationship between creativity and communication. Creativity is actually the ability to imagine new, unusual and unique ideas (Rigie M, 2009). However all these idea and thoughts would be of no use if they are not communicated to the team, so that they can be deliberated over and it can be decided if an idea should be pursued further.

I have seen in my personal experience that many people among the team have very good ideas, which can benefit the company and give a good name to the team as a whole. But some of these people with idea are too shy and may be even worried how their idea will be reacted to during team meetings. This causes them, not to put forward their idea, when the time is right. Instead they talk about it to a person or two alone and when its too late. I would like to implement the informal rule that every member has to give some idea or the other. This will encourage such member to come forward with their ideas, which will ultimately benefit the team.