Groups and Teams
Brandon Stewart
MGT 307
July 14, 2011
Janel Carr

Groups and Teams
A group and a team may sound the same but in many ways are very different. The reason individuals interact with one another from a group to a team are unique. Diversity inside the workplace can affect the dynamics of a group or team in positive and negative ways. Achieving high levels of job performance, member satisfaction, and team capability is the definition of an effective team or group.
Groups
A groups is two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives (Robbins & Judge, 2009). A work group is a group that interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility (Robbins & Judge, 2009). A work group does not assign the same job responsibilities to multiple members.
Teams
A work team is two or more individuals who individual efforts result in performance greater than the sum of the individual inputs (Robbins & Judge, 2009). A work team assigns multiple members to the same job responsibility. A work team creates positive synergy through a synchronized effort (Robbins & Judge, 2009).
Differences
The goal for a group is the share information. The goal for a team is their collective performance. The synergy for a group is neutral. The synergy for a team is positive. The accountability inside a group is on individuals. The accountability inside a team is individual and mutual. The skills inside a group are random and varied. The skills inside a team are complementary between team members. Each team member’s performance is the summation of each group member’s individual part (Robbins & Judge, 2009).
Workplace Diversity
Diversity in the workplace is not only important but also relates to the dynamics inside a team. Diversity consists of cultural, race, and gender in the workplace. Even though there are benefits to diversity in the workplace, there are also costs. In the early stages of developing a group, diversity tends to increase conflict inside a group. Group conflict can result in a drop in group member’s morale and can cause members to drop out. Research shows that, over time, diverse groups perform better if they can get over their initial conflicts (Robbins & Judge, 2009).
The biggest problem is when group and team members view the physical characteristics or his or her other team members and then decide, before speaking with the individual, that there will be a difference of opinion. Even though the differences of opinion can lead to conflict inside a group or team, these differences give individuals the opportunity to resolve conflict in distinctive ways (Robbins & Judge, 2009). One example is jury. Research shows that a more diverse jury deliberates longer, shares more information, and makes fewer factual errors when conversing about evidence (Robbins & Judge, 2009). Also more physically diverse groups lead to higher level of openness than groups without surface-level diversity. This means that individuals subconsciously become more open-minded in their views when faced with a diverse group (Robbins & Judge, 2009).
In summation, groups and teams may sound like the same thing but are different. Groups are two or more individuals that share information, have neutral synergy, have individual accountability, and have random skills. Teams are two or more individuals that perform collectively, have positive synergy, mutual accountability, and have complementary skills. Diversity in the workplace can have positive and negative results. Some positive results are the opportunity to resolve conflict, open mindedness, and can perform at higher level than groups that are not diverse. The biggest negative result is that the conflict cannot be overcome.

Reference
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2009). Organizational Behavior (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.