Working in Teams Reading Answers

Unless a business is really small, the chances are that people are going to be working at various points as part of a team. Here are some points to bear in mind when considering teams in your business:

• Extend teamworking throughout the organization to realize its full potential
• Limit the size of teams to increase efficiency
• Give teams ownership of a distinct product process or service
• Select team members with skills to carry out the full range of tasks
• Consider team leadership issues
• Develop the teams' independence

Team Leadership

The influence and usefulness of team leaders come from their ability to lead from the front and in training, coaching, and counselling their team members to high standards of performance, these skills are usually built on their ability to carry out most of the tasks themselves. They also need to be able to co-ordinate and evaluate ideas for operational Improvement.

Above all, team leaders need to be capable of facilitating the process of transformation in their organisation. Team leaders are generally selected by management, although the views of the team or group can usually be accommodated. In some organizations, team leaders are elected by team members or have their appointment endorsed by an election. The term 'team' is used loosely to describe many different groupings and a variety of labels are given to them. It is doubtful whether any definitions of types of teams would be universally acceptable. Here are three types of team:

1. Operational Teams

Operational teams may be defined as permanent groups of workers with a range of skills organized to produce a product either for internal or external customers. Very occasionally, teams have complete responsibility for converting raw material into a finished product. Alternatively, the 'product' of teams may involve completion of a segment of the production process. Different names are given to operational teams, including primary teams, shop-floor teams, autonomous work groups, cells or cellular teams and self-managed teams.

2. Service Teams

In manufacturing organizations, service teams commonly comprise maintenance,administrative and clerical staff and provide support to production areas. In commercial and service organizations, teams are likely to be based on the need to service a particular client or group of clients.

3. Cross-Functional Teams

Cross-functional teams are made up of representatives from various functions and disciplines. They tend to be set up to look at particular problems or issues, either on a part-time basis or full-time for a fixed duration. Issues commonly dealt with by cross- functional teams are quality improvement and product development. To be effective, members of cross-functional teams will also frequently be members of other teams.