Improving Worker's Performance through the Use of Teams

Introduction

In the subject of organisational behaviour, teams and groups are classed to be the backbone of the organisation because an organisation that forms a team or a group is likely to meet its objectives. The reason why organisations form a team and a group is to ensure that employees influence each other to meet a common goal. However, the use of teams and groups from a manager's point of view is to improve the performance.

Groups

A group could be defined as “A psychological group is any number of people who interact with each other, are psychologically aware of each other and perceive themselves as a group” (Schein, 1988: 1). There are different types of groups and they are formal and informal or temporary and permanent, for example: a group can be put together for one event such as a jury for a court case (informal and temporary group). The formal group takes the professional approach whereby this group is form set of objectives and co-ordinates its activities in order to meet the goals set; whereas the informal group is made up of individuals that influences other people’s behaviours and the structure for an informal group is flexible or loose (Hodgetts and Hegar, 2007; Dutt, 2008).

There are different kinds of groups and they are counteracting group, co-acting (coaching) group and interacting group (Rahim, 2011; Jain, 2005). The counteracting group is the kind of group that interact with each other which creates a conflict whereas the co-acting group is formed on a temporary basis for example: students that comes together to carry out a one-off project. Additionally, the interacting group is a little complex because this group is formed to achieve its goals when individuals’ tasks are completed and this kind of group is used during a project work which involves constructing a building whereby individuals have to work together in order to complete the task.

Teams

However, a team could also be defined as “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable” (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993: 5). There are different types of team and they are: interacting teams, cross-functional teams and self-managed teams; in addition, these teams have good characteristics that help a team achieve its goals (Pride et al, 2010; Daft, 2008). Moreover, these teams have common goals that must be achieve and the interacting teams ensure that the functional areas of the organisation are met regularly to discuss the important aspects of the business such as quality, efficient and cost.