How can you create a successful International team-1

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How Can You Make a Successful International Team?

Submitted By: Mr. Vishal Saran

Student Id: 0716714

Programme: MBA’08-09

Date: 25/02/2008

Table of Contents

        Topic                                                                        Page

  1. Introduction                                                                2
  2. Importance of Teamwork                                                3
  3. How Teams and Groups Operate                                        4
  4. How to Build a Good Team                                        5
  5. Stages of Group Development                                        7
  6. Working in International Teams                                        8
  7. Bibliography and References                                        10

Introduction

What is a group or a team?

Although different authors may have a different definition of group from one another, a more basic and general definition as per the Oxford Dictionary could be as follows:

A group may be defined as a number of people gathered or classed together.

A team may be defined as two or more people working together to achieve a common goal.

Since, there is but a very slight difference between the meanings of the two terms, we will be using them interchangeably.

Marion Hampton (1999, p.113) informs about the symbolic and practical aspects of groups:

“Groups embody many important cultural values of Western society: teamwork, co-operation, a collective that is greater than the sum of its parts, informality, egalitarianism and even the indispensability of the individual member. Groups are seen as having a motivating, inspiring influence on the individual, drawing the best out of him or herself as a detached individual. Groups can have a healing effect on individuals, bolstering their self-esteem and filling their lives with meaning.”

        

Groups also play a very vital role in every ones life. Similarly, most of the work in an organization is also performed in teams. This, in turn, results in either the success or failure of the whole organization. Companies have now started to emphasize that their employees are good ‘team players’ in order to work productively and comfortably with each other. Due to this, many organizations have benefited from teamwork. Companies also invest in team building exercises to develop the teamworking skills of their employees. Research by Proctor and Mueller (2000b, p.7) show that teamworking has increased significantly in all types of industries globally.

Importance of Teamwork        

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Mohrman et al. (1995) points out the benefits of working in teams. These are as mentioned below:

  • Cost-effective and time-effective productivity without compromising quality.
  • They provide a learning ground to the organization and also help in retaining the learning.
  • Cross-functional teams benefit the organization by improving the quality management.
  • Cross-functional teams undertake effective process re-engineering.
  • Task being performed should be concurrent between the individual and the team to improve time-efficiency.
  • Teams working together provide more new and innovative ideas.
  • Monitoring and co-ordinating teams is more effective as compared to individuals.
  • Increase in the information-processing requirements can be handled by ...

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