Team

Teams are an integral part of the management process in many organizations today. But the
notion of using teams as a way of organizing work is not new. The use of teams is not a fad of
the month or some new way to manipulate workers into producing more at their own expense to
enrich owners. Managers and experts agree that using teams can be among the best ways to
organize and manage successfully in the twenty-first century. This chapter presents a summary
of many of the current issues involving teams in organizations. First, we define what “team”
means and differentiate teams from normal work groups. We then discuss the rationale for using
teams, including both the benefits and the costs. Next, we describe six types of teams in use in
organizations today. Then we present the steps involved in implementing teams. Finally, we take
a brief look at three conditions that are essential for team success.

DIFFERENTIATING TEAMS FROM GROUPS

Teams have been used, written about, and studied under many names and organizational
programs: self-directed teams, self-managing teams, autonomous work groups, participative
management, and many other labels. Groups and teams are not exactly the same thing, however,
although the two words are often used interchangeably in popular usage. A brief look at a
dictionary shows that “group” usually refers to an assemblage of people or objects gathered
together whereas “team” usually refers to people or animals organized to work together. Thus, a
“team” places more emphasis on concerted action than a “group” does. In common, everyday
usage, however, terms such as “committee,” “group,” “team,” and “task force” are often used
interchangeably. In organizations, teams and groups may also be quite different. As we noted in
Chapter 9, a group is two or more persons who interact with one another such that each person
influences and is influenced by each other person. We specifically noted that individuals
interacting and influencing each other need not have a common goal. The collection of people
who happen to report to the same supervisor or manager in an organization can be called a “work
group.” Group members may be satisfying their own needs in the group and have little concern
for a common objective. This is where a team and a group differ. In a team, all team members
are committed to a common goal. We could therefore simply say that a team is a group with a
common goal. But teams differ from groups in other ways, too, and most experts are a bit more
specific in defining teams. A more complete definition is “A team is a small number of people
with complementary skills.