Working Life > Modes of Working > Team Work

Good Results with Effective Team Work

Definition, Explanation

Definitions of team work comprise:

• A group of equal workers. A team leader’s role is mainly moderating, not disciplinary
• Independency in single work processes and freedom of decision
• Shared responsibility for the achieving of a certain goal
• Delivering the result to an employer
• Team spirit

Forms of team work:

Forms of team or group work are:

• Quality circles
  are held to work on self-chosen problems in work
• Project groups
  are built temporary to solve new and complex problems
• Classic work groups
  work on tasks following instructions of a chief
• Manufacturing teams
  are found in production activities. Are directed by executives
• Partly autonomous work groups
  work on tasks autonomously. Framework conditions have been set by executives

In most cases, a team is a group temporarily responsible for a project. Permanent loose work groups are found in departments of similar tasks, e.g. as distribution teams or development teams. Spatial proximity of team members is not necessarily required. Today, there are teams working together as virtual teams across places, across companies and countries, using email, web, intranet and special team work software.

Depending on magnitude and complexity of a project or task, several teams can work on single tasks. Such teams can be called subteams. The central team mostly is the project director and representatives of the subteams being subteam-leaders. The central team coordinates and communicates among the subteams.

Within a team, there can be distinguished certain person types, according to team-design model:

• Adviser
• Creative
• Persuader
• Evaluator
• Decision-maker
• Doer
• Assessor
• Conserver

Importance of team work:

Companies regard team work an important factor of success due to savings, innovations, motivation, employees’ satisfaction and increased employees’ identification with the company.

Team work examples:

• Defining interfaces among departments in a company as well as with clients and suppliers
• Developing company visions, guidelines of an organizational culture, or a company strategy
• Advancing innovations
• Designing and realizing change management processes
• Prepare decisions
• Realizing clients’ projects

Advantages:

• Personal involvement of team members in the task
• Identification with the task and goal
• Direct communication and argument between colleagues
• Knowledge and experience of different members mutually potentiate (synergy effect)
• Creativity is stimulated
• More flexible reacting to requirements
• Less leading responsibility of executives
• Better information and communication flow
• Better working spirit and employees’ contentedness
• Solving more complex problems by motivation
• Flat hierarchies
• Greater feeling of responsibility
• Discovering and advancing of potentials and talents
• Higher performance by mutual inspiration as well as competition and group pressure
• Stronger identification with the company

Disadvantages:

• The team is important, not the single one. So there are no individual results
• Building and developing of teams takes time
• Argument can disserve the result and lead the team astray
• Individuals hide in the team

Problems:

• The group might not grow together since alpha-types and worriers hamper collaboration or make it impossible
• Conflicts and communicative problems might not be addressed and brought to a solution
• The project goal or the problem to work on might be unclearly defined
• Pseudo teams without real support by the client or employer lead to pressure and demotivation
• Power hunger and competitiveness of individuals might stress and psychically harm people as in bullying, burnout, sickness
• Since the team leader is recruited from the circle of colleagues, conflicts might arise when the one takes over leading functions without a real director’s status

For successful team working, the development phase of a team at the beginning of a project is very important. According to Francis/Young, it runs through the following phases:

• Forming: get to know the task
• Storming: assigning of roles
• Norming: first working on the task by exchanging ideas and opinions
• Performing: work through to achieve the goal

Rules for successful team working

• Conscious selection of team members with clear defined criteria, aiming at voluntary participation
• Define competencies and remits of team leader and members
• Take measures for team development and possibly qualify the team (e.g. for teamwork capacity, working in a team)
• Securing mutual valuing and trust
• Made decisions are represented to outside commonly and congruently
• Keeping of agreements (obligingness)
• Take differences of interests and arguments as chances
• Moderation
• Listening
• Constructive critique and feedback
• Open information and communication by regular team meetings
• Documenting the project (esp. decisions and results), agree procedure
• Solve conflicts
• Agree sanctioning measures in the team
• Make up game rules
• Organize tasks
• The number of people in the team depends on the task complexity and can be 3 – 12 members

The fewer of the above rules are followed, the greater is the risk of negative consequences. A well known negative effect is that individuals count falsely on others to do their work.

Tips, Checklist

• Everyone should know his role and task, and act on it. Similar important is to know the others. Tasks to be defined and taken over are moderating, arbitrating, mediating
• Improve team work by common activities outside work. Company sports, a company trip or lunch are good for team development
• Check yourself honestly whether you are being a team player
• What kind of team player are you?
  Not everybody likes this kind of work organization. If you decide or know that you do not, better do not work in a job that requires it very much, although this might be a relatively weak argument when work is hard to get
• Talk about conflicts early and openly in the team. Involve the team leader. If no satisfying solution is found, include a boss

Last update: 07/30/2010