Part 1 : Types of Teams

What is a Team ?

A Team is a group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to

complete a common goal.

Teams usually have a defined membership (which can be either large or small)
and a set of activities to take part in.

Each member is responsible for contributing to the team, but the group as a
whole is responsible for the team’s success.
Types Of Teams

The type of a team can depend on various factors such as purpose, location, and

organizational structure (Kukhnavet, 2019).

● Project Teams

● Operational Teams

● Self Managed Teams

● Virtual Teams
Project Teams

● Project teams are groups of employees (Project Manager along with team

members) who work collectively toward shared goals (Windsor, 2019).

● This type of team is structured in a specific and measurable way.

● Clear roles, responsibilities, and deadlines can be assigned and tracked

effectively.
Types of Project teams
The structure and characteristics of a project team usually vary, but the
project manager’s role as the leader of the team remains constant

Functional Teams

● Traditional Project management

● Inflexible

Cross Functional Teams

● Teams tackle specific tasks that require different inputs and expertise
(Hajric, 2015).
● Diversity can cause conflict
Operational Teams
● Operational teams are often referred as face of the organization by the
people who use the service or goods.
● The primary task of the operational teams is to implementing its policies,
guidelines and displaying its standards.
● Operational teams also support the other types of teams. They also make
sure that all back office processes go smoothly.
● Operational teams can also have their own projects like a project team,
they have well-defined roles and responsibilities.
Self- Managed Teams

Self-managed teams are a group of employees that are responsible for all of
their activities that are included in the delivery of a project.

These teams are more successful if all the members on the team are trained
with all kinds of job skills that are required.

Usually, self-managed teams are responsible for managing different types of

business assignments.
Virtual Teams
● Teams with group of people working in different geographical locations.

● Often comprises of multicultural teams.

● Mainly depends on technology to communicate between the team

members.

● Important to understand that people live in different time zones.

● Ground rules should be defined among the team members to resolve any

type of issues (Malone University, 2019).

Virtual Team Challenges / Solutions
● Developing trust among individual team members

● Availability of required technological resources

● Communicating with different members across time zones

● Restricting the team size to less than 10

● Establishing a strong leadership to effectively coordinate

● Have an initial face to face meeting to overcome contact and trust issues
As a group, which of the teams do you mostly
identify with and why?
● As a group, we mostly identify with the Project team. Because Project
team simply mean that the administrator generates a formal project plan
and establishes duties and responsibility for getting the task done. When
we have a framework, expectations for completing work become clear.
● Efficient teams go through phases of development. Successful team
employees interact efficiently to form positive, lasting relations and
contribute to prospective projects as well.
As a group, which of the teams do you mostly
identify with and why?
● Organizing employees into project teams lets us assign designated
workers to particular sets of jobs. It also enables us to prepare selected
people to complete these jobs. This way, when an operator can not
complete the job, due to sickness, injury or individual confinement, we
can re-assign the task to another operator (Grayson, 2019).
● When personages operate as a team, they understand the purposes and
responsibilities of the other team members.
As a group, which of the teams do you mostly
identify with and why?
● When employees work together, they have the chance to learn from each
other, get concepts for different approaches, avoid working too many
hours by distributing the load, receive feedback and guidance from more
experienced employees, and experiment with new concepts.
● Project teams consist of multiple people working towards a common goal.
When we have multiple team members, they can work together to use
their common knowledge, skills, and experience (Duggan, 2017).
Part 2 : Challenges to Team Management

● Information Technology

● Competition

● Globalization and Culture

● Multi-Generational Teams
Information Technology
● Today, information technology has enabled us to work remotely and be a part of

virtual teams.

● IT plays it part in benefitting team management in many ways.

● However, it also shows how incapable IT or virtual teams can be and ultimately

pose as a challenge for managers in the team management domain.

● Maintaining regular communication be it live or offline is crucial in managing

virtual teams.
Information Technology
● Another aspect of IT being a challenge in team management is that information

technology and digitization have drastically expanded the interest for in-house

expertise.

● Such high demand has created a shortage of talent in the areas of AI, big data,

analytics, data science, and information management.

● Because of this void in expertise, managers find it difficult to gather such a team

that they need to meet their goals.

Competition
Competition tends to make people competitive and it also helps them to grow.
Learn to stay true In most cases, the spread of innovation and innovation. There
are few different ways to promote a healthy competition between teams.

1. Recognizing the best performers

2. Giving a fair feedback
3. Encouraging Team Building
4. Giving required resources
5. Avoiding conflicts
Globalization and Culture
● Globalization and Cultural changes has a significant impact in the whole
nature of project team work. Most of the international organizations have
their projects with people from different countries involving greater
geographical distance and different time zones.
● As increase in the number of geographically distributed projects teams to
work within the matrix, and it is believed that working in this structure is
often difficult.
● Companies often complain about how difficult it is to manage and diversity is
known to lead to a poor performing teams.
● Virtual teamwork is complex when compared to working in the same office
space and site related specific cultures and also lack of familiarities are most
commonly reported to be source of conflict.
Globalization and Culture
Top themes which are considered as most significant and impacting all aspects of
the team management are:

● Leadership challenge
● Virtual aspects of communication
● Developing trust
● Managing the task
● Managing people
● Managing language and cultural issues
● Managing the matrix
Multi Generational Teams
There are various generations which are part of the company workforce such as
Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y or Millennials and
Generation Z. These groups often can be a part of a team and are tasked to work
together, hence forming a Multi Generational Team (Alsbury, 2018).

The main differences between these generations fall under the following three
areas:

● Communication Style
● Change Management
● Technical Skills
Multi Generational Teams
Communication Style:
● Baby boomers are more likely to be reserved.
● Gen Xers generally favor a more control-and-command style of communication.
● Millenials prefer a collaborative approach to communication.
● Gen Zers are more likely to have in-person interactions.

Change management or the ability to adapt to change:

● Baby boomers are more inclined to take a cautious approach to a change.
● Generation X and Millennials generally see a change as a vehicle for new
opportunities.
● Gen Zers are more likely to be accustomed to a change and usually anticipate it
in a workplace.
Multi Generational Teams

Technical Skills Learning Preferences:

● Baby boomers and Gen Xers usually value instructor-led courses and prefer self-
learning tools.
● Millennials and Generation Z prefer a collaborative approach to learning and
also generally prefer technology-centric options for learning.
 References
● Alsbury, J. (2018, October 11). Multi-Generational Teams: How Can We All
Work Together? Retrieved from
https://www.harvardbusiness.org/multi-generational-teams-how-can-we-all-w
ork-together
● Duggan, T. (2017, November 21). The Advantages of Project Teams. Retrieved
from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-project-teams-56232.html
● Grayson, L. (2019, May 8). The Advantages of Project Teams. Retrieved from
https://bizfluent.com/info-10068259-advantages-project-teams.html
References
● Hajric, E. (2015). Knowledge Management Tools. Retrieved from
https://www.knowledge-management-tools.net/project-teams.php
● Half, R. (2019, December 25). The Key to Managing a Multigenerational
Team: Don't Overthink It. Retrieved from
https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/management-tips/the-key-to-managin
g-a-multigenerational-team-dont-overthink-it
● Kukhnavet, P. (2019, July 8). 5 Types of Teams. What's Your Choice?:
Hygger Blog. Retrieved from https://hygger.io/blog/5-types-of-teams-in-
organizations/
 References

● Levasseur, R. E. (2012). People Skills: Leading Virtual Teams--A Change

Management Perspective. Interfaces, 42(2), 213–216.
https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.1120.0634
● Malone University. (2019, September 17). The challenges and advantages
of virtual teams: Where do you stand? Retrieved from
https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/11/the-challenges-and-advantages-of-vi
rtual-teams-where-do-you-stand/
● Multicultural Teams. (n.d.). A Global View on Intercultural Management.
doi: 10.1515/9783110376289.201
References :
● RABOTIN, M. B. (2014). The Intricate web Connecting VIRTUAL TEAMS. T+D,
68(4), 32.
● Rodrigues, Sbragia, & Roberto. (n.d.). The Cultural Challenges of Managing
Global Project Teams: a Study of Brazilian Multinationals. Retrieved from
https://scielo.conicyt.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-27242013
000300004
● Small Business Trends. n.d. What Are Self Managed Teams And How Can
They Serve Your Business? - Small Business Trends. [online] Available at: <
https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/11/self-managed-teams.html>
References
● Windsor, G. (2019, August 21). 7 Habits of Effective Project Teams.
Retrieved from
https://www.brightwork.com/blog/7-habits-effective-project-teams
● Working as Part of a Virtual Team. (2007). Bloomsbury Business Library -
Actionlists & Checklists, 240
● 6 Ways To Create A Competitive Work Culture That's Team First (And Not
Me First).
https://www.inc.com/workpop/6-ways-to-create-a-competitive-work-cult
ure-thats-team-first-and-not-me-first.html