Affiliation
– Everyone working together
Today, leaders are redesigning
work to include teams at all levels of their organizations.
In using teams, skills and tasks are widely distributed among all
team members. Also, team
members are held accountable for maintaining and improving the processes
and outcomes for which their team is responsible.
The synergy that comes from
putting individuals together to form teams to solve problems, make
decisions, and initiate action is power that must be harnessed for
continued organizational success. When
a team is working in such a way, we clearly recognize that within any
team, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
When individuals come together
to form a team, a number of dynamics occur simultaneously.
Some team members are very goal oriented, while others spend time
working on interpersonal issues. Team
members often test issues that concern them, such as influence, expertise,
conflict management, decision-making, and roles.
Such tests are part of effective team development.
One aspect of team dynamics is
the way in which team members' work together to reach their goals.
As team development progresses, members settle into individual
“roles” by mutual consent. Such
roles include both task and process aspects of the team’s interactions.
The member-role viewpoint of
team building suggests that the team requires the participation of members
in both task and process areas if it is to develop into a fully
functioning team.
For teams to maximize their
performance, it is important that each team member understands and plays
the appropriate role at the right time.
Building an effective team is dependent on how the relationships
between the dynamics of task and process are managed.
