What is the nature of the teams?

Teams have emerged as the most important group phenomenon in the organization. Earlier the importance of the team work was confined to sports activities but now in business also team work as become very important. In the past business organizations were focused around individuals but now teams have become the primary means for achieving the organizational goals. Some times the terms team and group are used interchangeably but they are not the same. While a work group consist of a number of a person that report to common superior and have face to face interaction and there is a certain level of inter-dependence in carrying out the tasks but they performance of a team can provide individuals results and collective products also. We can say that though a team is also a group but it has some characteristics in greater degree as compare to ordinary groups. These characteristics include a higher commitment towards the goals of the group and a higher degree of inter-dependence and interaction. These characteristics make a team different from an ordinary group. There are some difference between work groups and teams. While the basic purpose of a work group is to interact for the purpose of sharing information, the basic purpose of work team is to perform collectively. While the work group must have a strong and clear focused leader, teams generally do not have clear leaders and the leadership roles are also shared. The work group meets through the formal and efficient meetings the teams are encouraged to have open ended active problems solving meetings. The functioning of the work group that it discusses decides and delegates the work, the functioning of the team is to discuss beside and then do the real work also.