Team/Group Dynamics - Essay Example

A team has been defined as “an energetic group of people who are committed to achieving common objectives, who work well together and enjoy doing so, and who produce high-quality results” (Arthur, Wall & Halligan, 2003). In a team each individual contributes their knowledge or expertise to solving a jointly owned problem which no individual can solve on his own (McGreevy, 2006). A team is like a jigsaw puzzle of complimentary parts fitting perfectly together. Teams could be of different types which include project teams, work teams, operational teams, service teams or cross-functional teams.

Teams like sales, marketing or finance teams find that team working fosters collaborative rather than a competitive or adversarial approach and has an important impact on productivity. An individual, the team and the organization are the three dimensions of an organization (Castka, Bamber, Sharp & Belohoubek, 2001). Hence the three primary tasks for the team development models are purpose, partnership and process. There can be three types of teams – dream teams, standard and hell teams. The general development should be that teams start with teams like hell and become dream teams but the glass-ceiling effect prevents teams from moving from one stage to another.

The barriers to weak team development include weak sense of direction, lack of commitment to team performance, skill gaps and finally hostility, conflicts or indifference. Teamwork is a critical factor in most successful companies especially as total quality management (TQM) and total productive maintenance activities are based on teamwork (Castka, Bamber, Sharp & Belohoubek, 2001). Castka et al., cite Colenso who contends that effective use of teams can bring significant improvement in productivity, creativity and employee satisfaction.

The advantages of teams have been enumerated which state that teams can bring together skills and