Groups And Teams

5 Pages 1248 Words

Groups and Teams
In this age of rapidly changing technology, market-driven decision making, customer sophistication, and employee restlessness, leaders and managers are faced with new challenges. Organizations must build new structures and master new skills in order to compete and survive. As work settings become more complex and involve increased numbers of interpersonal interactions, individual effort has less impact. In order to increase efficiency and effectiveness of high performance, a group effort is required. The creation of teams has become a key strategy in many organizations. Team building is an essential element in supporting and improving the effectiveness of small groups and task forces and must be a key part of a total program of organizational change.
This paper discusses the characteristics of high performance teams and how a group can become a high performance team. Included is an examination of the impact of demographic and cultural diversity on group behavior. Diversity in culture and demographic characteristics can be a source of friction and conflict or be one of the team's greatest strengths. A group can become a high-performing team by understanding how cultural and demographic dissimilarity influences group behavior. High-performing teams leverage their diversity for competitive advantage.
Firstly, let us examine the definition of teams and high performances and the link between those two. A team is a small group of people with complementary skills, who work actively together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively accountable (Schermerhorn, 2003, Ch. 10). The high performance team is the unit of effectiveness for the high performance enterprise. Relevant topics include kick starting a brand new team, the intensity and focus of 'hot groups,' team building success strategies, and team process management. High performance teams are otherwise known as self-managed groups or sel...