Groups and Teams

All for One and One for All

Alexander Dumas in his book The Three Musketeers wrote (1844) “All for One and One for All”. This philosophy is what high performance teams are all about. Is it better to belong to a group or a team? Groups or teams can evolve into high performing, extremely effective, useful tools in any organization if developed and managed correctly. Working as a Team

What is the importance of working together in groups and teams? A team or group is two or more people working together to achieve a common goal. An increasing body of literature distinguishes between groups and teams suggesting that teams are more effective than groups. Katzenbach and smith (1993) provided a clear distinction between work groups and teams. A work group is a collection of people working in the same area or placed together to complete a task. The group’s performance is the result of people coming together to share information, views and insight. The focus of groups is individual performance and actions within are geared toward it. All teams are groups, but teams are a special subset of groups. They establish a working definition. A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutual accountability where groups do not.

The Differences Between Groups and Teams

It is helpful to identify the characteristic of teams and group, nothing which are common to both. By understanding the difference between these two concepts we can begin to create an appropriate environment for each and determine the conditions in which each is effective. Group members are concerned with and are measured by individual accountability. Team members hold themselves to be mutually accountable. Likewise, both groups and teams have a sense of shared purpose. The group’s purpose is essentially that of the organization. While the team’s purpose is jointly determined and planned with management. All groups have formal rules and norms. Leaders of work groups are most often mangers based positions. Teams have a leadership role shared by team members. In addition, team members are committed to working together and achieving their agreed upon common goal. To accomplish this they work collaboratively by respecting team members. Such high powered teams result in on going learning as team members collaboratively work on agreed upon problems. These teams exude creativity in reaching their goals and producing their joint output. Teams have collective work products requiring joint contributions of members while typical work group’s members produce individual output. There are several differences in the typical work groups and teams. In the typical work environment a manger determines and plans the work of his or her subordinates and the jobs are narrowly defined, whereas in the team environment the mangers collaborates with subordinates as peers and jointly establishes and plans the work. Thus, the skills set required is border, providing for individual growth and development, often accomplished within the context of cross training and working directly with other team members. This learning process is continuous and is part of the culture. Joint accountability exist because, people work together, rather than working individually on specific tasks.

Team Dynamics and Conflict Resolution

As every team is comprised of different people the dynamics of each team will be unique. In today's online education systems we must understand the real execution of team effort and how to achieve quality work and top performance as a group. Communication plays an essential role in team dynamics. Each team member should be able to communicate well with other members of the team both individually, and as a group. A team captain can help with communication issues as well as keeping the team on track. Lack of leadership, conversely affects the team in its focus and goal achievement. Responsibility is another important element to team dynamics. Members of the team must be accountable for their contributions to the team effort. Each team member is dependent on the others to a certain extent. Different qualities will be brought to the team by each member. These differing qualities can be multipliers or detractors to the overall team performance. Teamwork depends on team members being able to identify which of their peers possess these qualities, and set consequences for irresponsible members. A seasoned team leader will generally make individual assignments, and sub-groups based on these traits that lend themselves best to the mission at hand. Communication between team members is vital to the overall functions of the team. There are situations when team members do not participate in the group because of lacking of channels of communication. Talking with team members and asking and answering questions build a solid foundation with the team

References
Katzebach, J.R. & Smith, D.K. (1993). The Discipline of teams. Harvard Business Review, 71 (March-April), 111-1146
Darling, J & Nurmi, R (1997) International Management Leadership. New York: International Business Press.
John M. Ivancevich, Robert Konopaske, Michael T. Matteson. (2008). Organizational Behavior and Management.