Team Building

Abstract

Because there are no pure formal or informal organisations in real world, one may conclude that an organisation is a mix of formal and informal groups. Thus, its performance depends on the management ability to recognise the existence of these groups, to transform them from groups into working teams, to motivate and stimulate them to achieve organisation’s goals. We must differentiate the concept of group versus the concept of team. A simple definition of the group can be: two or more persons who come into contact for a purpose and who consider the contact meaningful. A team has to accomplish bigger goals than any individual group. The purpose of a team is to perform, achieve results and be successful in the organisation or marketplace. The literature describes several types of groups according to a set of criteria. Formal groups (work team) is created by an organisation in order to achieve a certain goal, being recognised and receiving full support from the organisation. Informal groups arise from natural attractions among individuals for social reinforcement or other benefits. They seldom share the organisational objectives and have a temporary basis.The roles within a team actually represent tasks and functions in the self-management of the team's activities. Belbin developed a test to identify individual team roles. Many teams go through a life-cycle of stages, firstly identified by Bruce Tuckman in 1965 as: forming, storming, norming and performing. This model has become the basis for further models of group development, principally adding the 5th phase of adjourning. If there are many advantages of the teamworking, there are also disadvantages that should be considered by a manager when building a team.