Human Resources: Executive Summary:Teams

The concept of teamwork has been around since early man first banded together to hunt for food. Today's corporations have learned to use various forms of teams to boost productivity, innovation and creativity. In fact, there are many tasks that could not be completed without assembling a team of people whose combined skills are necessary for success. There are several types of teams, including high-performance, cross-functional, self-directed, multicultural, virtuoso and virtual. A team can also be a combination of any or all of these types.

The demand for productivity has shown teams to be powerful tools corporations have at their disposal to tackle projects. Bringing the proper mix of people together to focus on a task can achieve better, faster results than individual performances can. Companies that are admired for their quality count teams as one of their most effective tools. Cross-functional teams that bridge divisions in a company are often used to provide breakthrough solutions. Given the right guidance, infrastructure and resources, a team can solve just about any problem.

Despite their benefits, teams engender their own set of difficulties. Some employees find working on a team difficult. Also, once the right people for the job are assembled, no matter how qualified they are, there is no guarantee that they will immediately band together as a cohesive unit. Teamwork fosters conflict, although many experts agree that this is a positive attribute. Properly channeled conflict leads to innovation and creative problem-solving. Without trust, though, no team can be successful. A lack of trust is the number one reason teams fail. It chokes communication, stifles new ideas and destroys cohesiveness.

Leaders are essential to guiding teams and preventing problems that can break a team down. Even self-directed teams will see a leader begin to emerge as the project progresses. These leaders need to be adept at working with a group as opposed to several individuals. A leader must be able to guide the team to success from start to finish, including choosing the right team members, defining roles, setting goals, managing performance and rewarding results. All along the way, a sense of trust and openness must be maintained to keep the team cohesive and on track.

Virtual teams are becoming essential to operating in a global economy, but the fact that there is often little or no face-to-face interaction among team members amplifies any problems a traditional team might face and creates new challenges for team members and leaders alike. Virtual team leaders need to have all the attributes and skills of traditional team leaders, but they need to apply them in a virtual setting.

Human resource departments are involved with teams on many levels. Not only do they often select workers to be on certain teams, HR departments themselves use teams to interview prospective employees. Many companies use training to help their employees become better team workers. It can be in the form of traditional classroom training or off-site teamwork sessions meant to build trust and cohesiveness.

Teamwork is essential to the success of any organization in any industry. Companies themselves can be thought of as teams - groups of people brought together for a common purpose. By using small teams to tackle specific problems and projects, companies can take full advantage of the human capital they have at their disposal.

To have full access to this report, become a member of i4cp today at www.i4cp.com.

The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp, inc.) improves corporate productivity through a combination of research, community, tools and technology focused on the management of human capital. With more than 100 leading organizations as members, including many of the best-known companies in the world, i4cp draws upon one of the industry’s largest and most-experienced research teams and Executives-in-Residence to produce more than 10,000 pages annually of rapid, reliable and respected research and analysis surrounding all facets of the management of people in organizations. Additionally, i4cp identifies and analyzes the upcoming major issues and future trends that are expected to influence workforce productivity and provides member clients with tools and technology to execute leading-edge strategies and "next" practices on these issues and trends. i4cp is a for-profit company with offices in St. Petersburg, Florida.