Building Effective Teams



Building Effective Teams

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Building Effective Teams

The success of any business or organization, especially big organizations, depends largely upon teamwork. The organizations, specifically focus on the formation and structure of its teams, so that a maximum level of optimization can be achieved. The more elaborated and clarified the structure of the team more will be chances of progress and growth. There are various types of teams that are formed and work inside the organizations. Some of these types are described below

Functional Team

Functional team performs a specific function or role in the organizations. This team is especially dedicated for that specific task and they do not perform any other functions in the organization for example Finance department, Sales team, etc. The advantage of this type of team is that it is led by a highly experienced person, where the disadvantage is that it gives rise to unhealthy competition (Pangil, & Moi Chan, 2014).

Cross-functional Team

Members in a cross-functional team do not perform a specific or dedicated role, but they come together from different functional areas to complete a task and then go back to their respective teams. The task may be for some limited time like a project or emergency situation. The best thing about a cross-function team is that it can give out an increased level of creativity and exhibit great problem-solving skills (Aime, Humphrey, DeRue, & Paul, 2014). The disadvantage of this type of team is that it may take a long time to develop as the members come from different functional areas.

Self-directed or Self-Managed Team

As the name suggests, it is a team that takes the least help from the management of the company. It is formed on its own and is not formally assigned to any project (Parker, Holesgrove, & Pathak, 2015). A self-directed or self-managed team comes with the benefit of great employee responsibility and accountability, whereas one of the disadvantages may be that the decision-making process may take much longer time.

If asked which type of team is best, the answer to this depends on for what type of task, the team is required. If a team is required for a longer term, a functional team is best, but if a team is required for a temporary task or project, a cross-functional team would suffice.

References

Aime, F., Humphrey, S., DeRue, D. S., & Paul, J. B. (2014). The riddle of heterarchy: Power transitions in cross-functional teams. Academy of Management Journal, 57(2), 327-352.

Pangil, F., & Moi Chan, J. (2014). The mediating effect of knowledge sharing on the relationship between trust and virtual team effectiveness. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(1), 92-106.

Parker, D. W., Holesgrove, M., & Pathak, R. (2015). Improving productivity with self-organized teams and agile leadership. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 64(1), 112-128.