In a business context, ‘groups’ and ‘teams’ do not give the same meaning. It is often difficult to distinguish one from the other, hence management should define and clarify the difference.
A ‘work group’ interacts primarily to share information and make decisions to help each member perform within their area of responsibility. The end-product of the work group’s performance is merely a summation of the group member’s individual contribution.
A ‘work team’ not only involves interaction amongst members, but also generates positive synergy through a coordinated effort. All these individual efforts would then result in a performance that adds more value, compared to the value of the sum of individual inputs. ‘Work teams’ get a greater degree of individual commitment to reach a common goal and in most cases, individuals want to be identified with the team.
Management who seeks positive synergy in their organisation to improve performance, should have extensive use of work teams to potentially create a greater degree of output with no increase in inputs. However, management should be reminded that the benefits of using teams should exceed the costs.
Here are three tests you can try to determine if a team is more effective:
- Is the work performance better if it is done by more than one person? Simple tasks may best be left to an individual whereas complex problems can be tackled by using the team’s combined skills.
- Does a collective approach ensure a greater level of achievement? For example, can you achieve greater customer service by utilising a team setting?
- Does forming a team fit the situation? Having teams only make sense when individual tasks are interdependent. For example, linking customer services personnel with sales representatives or mechanics in a new car service department.
Source: Robbins, Millet, Cacioppe, Waters-Marsh