DIFFERENTIATING TEAMS FROM GROUPS

Teams have been used, written about, and studied under many names and
organizational program: self-directed teams, self-managing teams, autonomous work
groups, participative management, and many other labels. Group and teams are not the
same thing, however, although the two words are often used interchangeably in popular
usage. A brief look at a dictionary shows that “group “usually refer to an assemblage of
or objects gathered together whereas “team” usually refer to people or animals
organized to work together .Thus, a “team, “places more emphasis on concerted action
than a “group “does. In common everyday usage, however, ”committee ,”group” ,”team”
and “task force” are often used interchangeably.

In organization, teams and groups are quite different. As we noted chapter 9, a group
is two or more persons who inter act with one another such that each person influences
and influence by each other person. We specifically noted the individuals interacting
and influencing each other need nor have a common goal. The collection of people who
happen to report to the same supervisor or manager in an organization can be called a
“group work”. Group members maybe satisfying their own needs in the group and have
little concern for a common objective. This is where a team and a group differ. In a
team, all team members committed to a common goal.

A group maybe defined as two or more persons, interacting and interdependent, who
have come together to achieve certain objectives.

Groups maybe classifies as:

Formal group. This one is defined by the organization structure, with a designated
work assignments and established tasks. An example of formal group is the economics
of the university consisting a six faculty members and an idea chairman.

Informal group. This group type is neither a formally structured nor organizational
determined. It is formed individuals and develop around common interests and
friendship rather than around a deliberate design .An example is a group of six faculty
members of a university , who love music and bring their instruments at the place
outside the university , and play for a few house every Saturday evening. They don’t get
paid for playing; they just enjoy themselves.

A team are important element in the organization. They are groups expected to deliver
high performance when the organization require it. It is a formal group comprised of
people interacting very closely together a shared commitment to acom0plised agreed-
upon objectives.

Group and teams are not similar . A Group is that interacts primarily to share
information to make decision to help each member perform within his or her area
responsibility .
 Group emphasize individual leadership ,mutual accountability ,and collective work
products.

Agreeing in the common approach is especially important for teams because it is often
the approach that differentiates one team to others. The team’s approaches usually
covers how works will be done, social norms regarding dress, attendance at meetings
,tardiness, norms of fairness and ethical behavior, and what will and will be included in
the team activities.

Finally, the definition state that teams that hold themselves mutually accountable for
result rather than merely meeting a manager’s demand for results, as in the traditional
approach. If the manager translate accountability to an external manager into internal,
mutual ,accountability ,the group moves forward acting like a team . Mutual
accountability is essentially a promise that a member make to each other to do
everything possible to achieve their goals, and it requires the commitment of trust of all
members .It is the promise of all member to hold herself himself accountable for team’s
goals that earns each individual express his or her views and expect them to get a fair
and contractive hearing .with this promise .members maintain performance goals and
common approach serve as standards to which the teams hold itself .Because teams
are mutually accountable for meeting performance goals, three other difference
between groups and teams become important.: job categories, authority, and reward
systems. The differences for traditional work groups and work teams are shown on table
10.1.

JOB CATEGORIES

The work of conventional groups is usually described in terms of highly specialized job
that requires minimal training and moderate effort .Ten or even hundreds of person may
have similar job descriptions and see little relationship between their effort and the end
result or finished product .In teams, on the other hand, members many different skills
that fit into one or two broad job categories. Neither workers nor management worries
about who does job as long as the teams put out the finished product or service meets
its performance goal.

Table 10.1 Differences between Team and Traditional group work

Issue Conventional Group Works Teams
JOB CATEGORIES Many narrow categories One of two broad
categories
AUTHORITY Supervisors controls daily Team controls daily
activities activities
REWARD SYSTEM Depends on the type of job, Based on team
individual performance ,and performance and individual
seniority breadth of skills
AUTHORITY

As shown in table 10.1, in conventional works groups, the supervisors directly control
the daily activities of workers. In Teams discusses what activity need to be done and
determines for itself who in the team has the necessary skills and who will do each task.
The Team ,rather than the supervisor ,make the decisions .If a “supervisor” remains on
the team ,the person’s rule usually changes to that of coach ,facilitator ,or one who
helps the team make decision ,rather that remaining the traditional role of decision
maker and controller.

REWARD SYSTEMS

How employees are rewarded is vital to the long term success of organization .The
traditional reward and compensation system suitable for individual’s motivation .
(discuss in chapter 4) are simply not appropriate in a term-based organization. In
conventional setting employees are usually rewarded on the basis of individual
performance, their seniority, or their job classification. In the team-based situation,
teams are rewarded for mastering a range of skills needed to meet team performance
goals, and rewards are sometimes based on team’s performance. Such a pay system
tends to promote the flexibility that teams need to be responsive to changing
environmental factors .Three types of reward system s are common in a team
environmental skill-based pay, gain sharing system, and team bonus plans.

Skill-Based Pay. Skill-based pay system requires team members to acquire a set of a
skill core needed for their particular team plus additional special skills, depending on
career tracks or team needs. Some programs require the members to acquire the core
skills-before any member receive additional pay .Usually employees can increase their
base compensation by some fix amount say P21.50 per hour for each additional skill
acquired up to some fixed maximum. Companies using skill-based pay systems include
Eastman Chemical Company, Colgate-Palmolive Company and Pfizer.

Gain-Sharing System. Gain-Sharing Systems usually reward all team members

from all team based on the performance of the organization, division or plant. Such a
system requires a baseline performance that must be exceeded for team members to
receive share of the grain over tha baseline measure.

Westinghouse gives equal one time ,lump-sum bonuses to everyone on the plant based
on the improvements of productivity ,cost and quality. Employee reaction is usually
positive because when the employees work harder to help the company ,they share in
the profit to help generate, on the other hand ,when business condition or other factors
beyond their control make it impossible to generate improvements over the present
baseline , employees may feel disappointed and even disillusioned with the process.
 Team Bonus Plans. Team bonus plans are similar to gain-sharing plans except that the
unit of performance to pay is the team rather than the plant, a division, or the entire
organization .Each team must have specific performance targets or baseline measures
that the team consider realistic for the plan to effective. Companies using team-bonus
plan include Colgate-Palmolive and Harris Corporation.

Changes in the organizational compensation system can traumatic and threatening the
most employees .However, matching the reward system to the way that work is
organized and accomplish can have very positive benefits. The three types of team-
based reward systems presente4d can be used in isolation for simplicity or in some
combination to address different types of issues each organization.