Team Roles and Team Formation - Essay Example

Some of them are indeed positive while others are negative. The medley of thoughts includes the joy of working together and the fulfillment of a goal achieved and the conflicts, the time consuming discussions and the communication barriers. From the first appearance of man on earth, mankind was working in teams. Through out their lives humankind is in one or other teams. There are football teams, firefighting teams, singing teams, card clubs and political parties. Moreover, we are all born in a family, which is also an example of a team.

A team may be called a group people who are dependent on one another to reach a common goal. Now a team should function efficiently to achieve the goal for it has a purpose for its existence. However, research in this field of human behavior is lamentable inadequate: Discouragingly, but not unexpectedly, the research effort seems weakest in those situations where the risks are highest and the tasks are most complex (Schein and Bennis 1965) There are lot of advantages and disadvantages in working in a team.

However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and by careful use of educational tools, the disadvantages can be mitigated. The most important advantage of teamwork is better outcome from efforts. Teams have shown better adaptability to the changing needs of the market place. They are also more sensitive to the needs of the clients and are better in using changing technology. The teams can give better imputes and there is always a relation between the input and the outcome. In team work there is more involvement of every one and hence more desire to get the job done.

Moreover, teamwork enhances the circle of communication and the usual communication hurdles in inter- personal communication is got over in teamwork. The shared information also enhances the opportunity to learn more and the chance to bring together different perspective due to difference between people. Teamwork also derives more satisfaction as persons, as a major portion of our time is spent at our work and our work place might offer the chance to enter into enduring friendship. Working in a team should be like going for ones favorite game.

The main disadvantage of teamwork is that it is time consuming. This is all the more so when the team is in being set up, which can lead to too many meetings. It is difficult to time meetings to suit the convenience of all and decision-making can be painfully slow. If the group is made up of individuals who are capable of performing alone, it will require lot of reorientation in their thinking to make themselves suitable for performing in a group. In a group, individuals may skulk work thinking their lack of contribution will not be noticed.

In teamwork personality, disorders may surface resulting in conflicts, which can aggravate in resulting in lack of effective performance. Just as groups have their inherent strength, they have also their weaknesses. One of the common dangers in teamwork is formation of exclusive subgroups, which do not fall in line with the mainstream thinking and policy of the group. The greatest danger however is the phenomenon called groupthink, which can negate innovation. Groupthink is the result of complacency about the past performance and the feeling that the groups can never go wrong.

In spite of these, draw back group work has been