Essay by mareeah December 2005

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A team can be best understood as a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. They consist of a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable for (Anderson, 1998). Each member of the team has a shared responsibility for getting the job done, and therefore their cooperation is essential to the overall success of the group. In most cases, the task is split into parts appropriate to each individual's talents and/or specialization. Frequently each team member represents a function, department, or specialty, and together they provide the full set of capabilities needed to complete the project.

The success of a team heavily relies on its performance as one body. Whereas a group's performance is the sum of individual efforts, a team's performance is the sum of individual efforts plus collaborative results (Anderson, 1998).

With teamwork, goals are acquired much faster because more cooperation and communication exists between the members, therefore more prospective solutions can be examined in a shorter amount of time. The team provides an environment in which each individual has the opportunity to maximize their input to the task. Working in a team also builds better relationships with people, thus raising the productivity level. Simple ways to gain such relationships within a team includes a friendly smile, being genuinely interested in people and making the other person feel welcomed and important.

Working in a team revolves around the idea of interdependence (Covey, 1990). With interdependence, we come into a realization that although we are independent and know that we can accomplish things on our own, working with someone else can bring far more success than we, as individuals, could ever hope...