An informal team is a team that wasn’t essentially created; it may have merged over time. There may have never been a specific purpose as to how it happened. For example it might be a group of students working on an assignment and happened to start discussing the assignment by chance. Related events also occur in the workplace, with groups of individuals working on something and obtaining informal contact with each other and discussing it.
Some teams are quite small, consisting of a couple of people whereas others may be much larger, made up of hundreds even thousands of people for example a team of volunteers finding a missing child. The size of a team must be appropriate to the number of individuals needed in the team, the task in hand and the time constraint put on decisions that are to be made. If a important decisions has to be made by two days, there is no use in having a large team to discuss the problem as this will only delay the decision making process.
It is recommended that the optimum team size is five people, as;
- The odd number will prevent a impasse in decision making
- The team is suitably large to avoid mistakes that root from too little information or the power one individual with an fixed view.
- The group is also small enough to involve all members
However others argue that a modern team should compile between 5 to 15 members as the team will be large enough to provide enough resources e.g. man power, intellectual power, but small enough to function efficiently. If the size of a team is too large then it will become tricky for the members to handle themselves properly as it would be for a typical supervisor to handle them.
It is possible for an individual to be part of several teams at the same time however they will have to have good time management skills to be part of all teams on time. This holds many advantages for a company as the individual can be transferred between different departments however in a permanent team it is less likely for an individual to be part of other teams.
A permanent team is one that works together continuously. The work is frequently ongoing, for example, a group of business lecturers may work together in a business team for years however they may also be part of other project teams.
Permanent teams can change, for example a business may cease to exist. Changes in an industry could mean there is no need for a team anymore for example manufacturing techniques change abd there may be no need for that team. People leave and must be replaced. The need for members in a team may raise or lessen for example in a restaurant if it becomes more popular it may require more waiters.
A temporary team is setup for a relatively short period of time to complete a task. It is assembled when a team plan is agreed and then split up when the project 9s completed. For example a charity team may come together to organise a charity event. The project team might include, event organisers, money collectors etc. in modern organisations, teams are frequently assembled to work on shared projects, such as advertising campaigns for different products. Individuals frequently work for several teams at the same time.
Here is a classification of teams:
- Management teams consist of managers. Each manager will generally represent a specific function e.g. operations, finance, marketing.
- Problem solving teams occur to solve a specific problem. They may be short term, but some problems may take years to resolve e.g. world poverty.
- Work teams are within an organisation and they may be many of them. They are generally formal and help build the structure of the organisation.
- Quality circle teams are a group of individuals who help work based problems. Their central aim is to improve quality within an organisation. They typically represent workers from all over an organisation. They usually meet on a monthly basis and discuss issues. They may assist in solving disputes and misunderstandings between departments.
- Virtual teams are teams who operate through the internet and other communication means. They can cover different countries and even different continents.
Teamwork is important as it helps get tasks completed more effective and efficiently. Two hands are better than one. The benefits of employing the teamwork approach in a business is that;
- Improving the working environment
- Problem solving
- Achieving targets
- Motivation – team members feel proud of their achievement and they know they are a contribution to the team, they feel they have some importance.
- Improve team work
- Boost sales – employees work harder when they are relaxed and feel part of a unit
- Improving facilities
- Loyal
- Team is stronger
- New innovation – it can encourage innovation but other team members may feel threatened or feel their ideas are not good enough in comparison to other ideas so it could also discourage innovation.
- Morale is strong
I think teams can learn from each other as members of a team develop respect for each other because they are able to see that sometimes others come up with ideas they would not have thought of and I feel that if teams genuinely want to improve the business through their work performance they will learn from each other. However some members of team may resent each other and become jealous because of the credit the other members receive, so learning through each other may not be allowed. Workers can also learn from each other through observing and without being told, it’s similar to the expression, monkey see monkey do. Teams may not succeed in all workplaces depending on the work, as it could become overcrowded and it may only need the work of an individual however most organisations benefit from having a team.
Teamwork also provides on opportunity for managers and supervisors to identify talent within their team and to provide development and training opportunities to build on that talent.
In general good team work can be seen to generate an increase in productivity and effectiveness.
Teams will allow an organisation to achieve key goals. For instance by being able to organise a team, give it the skills it wants and needs for its specific purpose. Teams may create synergy. Synergy is where the sum of the parts added together will produce more than the sum of the parts if separate. What that means is, if you have several individuals, they will produce more e.g. units, or deal with more customers as a team, than they would individually. For example four individuals left on there own could make 8 units in an hour altogether, but together as a team they might make 12 units altogether. Synergy is sometimes described as 2 + 2 = 5
Accountability will mean taking responsibility, e.g. responsibility to achieve a team goal.
It is argued that in creating a team (if it is done properly) will help us to identify what the human resource contribution is. That is how much work the employee should do, and what they are responsible for. It is also argued that as the importance of the human resource function grows, so the importance of the accountability will grow
REF: BTEC NATIONAL 2nd EDITION BUSINESS BOOK 1
