Chapter One

Introduction

1. Background of the Study

In this age, for most of us, teamwork is a part of our everyday life. Whether it is at home, in the community, or at work, we are often expected to be a functional part of a performing team. Having a strong team benefits any organization and leads to more successes than failure.

In order to understand the competencies needed to build and lead high performance teams, it is helpful to first define a team. Here is a simple but effective description from The Wisdom of Teams (Harvard Business School Press, 1993.) "A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."

The Work Team is defined by many great practitioners in different sense. According to Griffin and Moorhead it is a “small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, common performance goals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” A group of employees that works semi-autonomously on recurring tasks are called work teams. Work teams are most useful where job content changes frequently and employees with limited skills and a specific set of duties are unable to cope.

A group of employees that works semi-autonomously on recurring tasks are called work teams. Work teams are most useful where job content changes frequently and employees with limited skills and a specific set of duties are unable to cope.(its delted since it’s a replica of the above paragraph)

Over the past decade many organizations around the world have been changing their structures from the traditional hierarchical pyramid structure to a flatter, more responsive and lean structure. Team work and employee participation have become the