8000-253 Developing the Work Team

To achieve organisational goals, most organisations rely on effective and efficient teamwork. Through this nationally recognised qualification, individuals can examine their skills, personality traits, and challenges when working in teams and discover how they can enhance their contributions to the team and the organisation. Team members who wish to learn about team dynamics and how to operate in a team environment, as well as newly recruited team members.

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Who is this qualification for?

The team leader qualification is designed for new or aspiring team leaders. It provides an in-depth look at the role and responsibilities of a team leader.

Learning outcomes

1. Understand the nature of teams

• Describe how teams differ from groups at work
• Describe the characteristics of a successful team
• Describe the stages of team development using a recognised model

2. Understand the advantages and disadvantages of team working

• Identify the responsibilities of the team members
• Describe the benefits of teamwork
• List the disadvantages of working with a team

Unit purpose and aim(s)

• It is necessary to understand the process of developing a team as required by a practising or potential team leader.

Benefits for individuals

• How to lead a team successfully
• Motivation techniques to get the best out of people
• Confidence in addressing complex issues, like underperformance
• Tools for developing leadership skills.

Benefits for employers

• Leaders who are equipped with the skills they need
• Personnel who are capable of managing people and relationships
• Teams that communicate better and collaborate better
• Develop your staff’s potential by rewarding them.

Definition of a workplace team and how it differs from a group

Definition of Team

A team refers to a group of people who are joined together to achieve a common goal within a specified period, assuming collective accountability. This team operates under the slogan “one for all and one for all”. Besides sharing information, the members of the team also share responsibility for the team task. It is always the team’s responsibility to deliver the work (i.e. the results of the collective efforts of the members).

The words ‘team’ and ‘group’ are, for the most part, interchangeable – at least most people do. Groups and teams, however, differ in several important ways. For example, our group is a group of football players, not a football team – or we are a group of special interests, not a team of special interests. There are subtle differences, but those differences do exist, and we should be aware of them.

The primary difference is that a team’s effectiveness or focus relies on the commonality of their purpose and how individuals are interconnected. Another way to form a group is to have many people or a cohesive willingness to work on a typical project, such as political reform.

Despite their subtle differences, it is essential to remember that a group is a collection of individuals who form a unit for a particular goal. At the same time, a team is a group of accomplished individuals who accomplish a specific goal. Taking these words a step further and looking at a workgroup and team reveals how subtle these differences are.

Advantages and disadvantages of teams in the workplace

1.     Teams Can Offer Better Solutions

Companies prefer to work in teams rather than individually to produce better quality results, more complete and more creative solutions. When employees with different backgrounds and perspectives discuss the pros and cons of alternative solutions, the best possible solution usually wins out. In addition, the team members can work together to enhance the impact of the best solution through continued collaboration.

2.     The Team Approach Can Increase Productivity

Additionally, to better quality, well-managed workplace teams often deliver better results, too. When team members are accountable for each other, they are more likely to be efficient in their work. When employees within work teams set their personal goals in concert with team goals, they can create a friendly competitive environment and use peer pressure to motivate one another to meet goals.

3.     Intra-Team Conflicts Can Arise

The path toward better solutions is often characterised by more conflict in work teams than between individual employees in the same office. Generally, work teams are established to encourage more ideas and foster a culture of debate. However, due to more natural disagreements, tension and frustration can enter the mix, resulting in interpersonal conflict among employees.

To maintain effective team functioning over time, employees need to resolve conflicts quickly and move past them. The managers of teams may have to refrain from trying to “pull their weight” since they are not the line supervisors of many of the other team members.

Examples of typical team structures

Per each model, the purpose of each type of work team justifies their creation.

1.     Functional work team

Members of this work team are assigned to a single manager, whose responsibility is to manage the entire group.

The examples we will give illustrate how common it is in companies with rigid hierarchies such as Accounting, HR, Maintenance and other specialised departments.

2.     Inter-working team

As a result, the work team comprises members from different areas of activity and have the same hierarchical level.

In a multidisciplinary team, each area represented by members contributes to the knowledge of others, resulting in more creative and comprehensive solutions.

Such teams could be committees or councils that bring members from multiple departments together to solve specific problems, such as a Sustainability Committee, or they could be strategic, such as the Boards of Directors of companies.

3.     Troubleshooting team

Organisations employ teams like these to identify ways to solve problems that are harming them and improve processes accordingly.

As the team determines the causes of problems, the solutions are sent to the departments responsible, as this type of team does not implement the solutions it suggests.

Wrap Up

In order to provide team leaders and supervisors with practical tools to assist in team supervision, this programme helps them distinguish between the critical differences between working within and supervising a team.

Attendees will participate in interactive workshops that use facilitated discussions, presentations, case studies, and group work. Workshops encourage the development of reflective thinking, and delegates are encouraged to apply what they have learned in their workplace.

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