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Team and Team Working – Practical Prescription or Problematic Panacea

Complication:

* Lack of ownership at all levels within the team * Lack of visibility on tracking delivery * Lack of team cohesion

Result:

* Generic goals therefore lack of focus * Too many layers of team hierarchy leading to overlapping roles and responsibility * Degrading quality of deliveries * Loss of productivity and margins

The above has been used as a working example in the essay which aims to discuss what makes an effective delivery team and enables productive teamwork in an IT service company (described in the previous section).

Team and Teamwork
Team (Together Everyone Achieves More).
A team can be said to be comprising of a group of people linked in a common purpose. Team for some is a four lettered word which at times is used too much or too less.
The business definition of teamwork relates to the collective decision making processes that lead to goal oriented relationships formed between all participants. Generally, what is required from teams are the integration of work from the people involved, the generation of motives and solutions to the problem concentrated on, high involvement, team leadership and continuous encouragement.
In an interview with J. Richard Hackman by Daine Coutu published in Harvard Business Review, May 2009, the discussion reveals that teams and teamwork may not always work.
Problems with co-ordination, keeping motivation going, social loafing, competing with other teams erode the benefit of collaboration that team and team working bring.

Types of Teams
Although there are various types of team, teams can be broadly classified into the following: A) Self-managed teams B) Problem solving teams C) Virtual teams D) Cross functional team
Self-managed teams are where members work together for a common

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