In Search of a Quick Fix – Teamworking and Why It Doesn’t Always Work

By Matylda Rabczenko
Guest Writer, Warwick Business School

Over the past 30 years, teamworking has become a widespread phenomenon, which has since been renowned as the panacea for organizational ailments. Still, recent studies show that teamworking does not guarantee improved performance and managers continue to struggle with creating successful teams.

Oftentimes, this is due to the fact that when searching for a quick fix, supervisors overlook the crucial factors that are largely responsible for forming viable teams– the first one being team type.

The two most popular types of teams include shopfloor teams, which are responsible for producing goods or providing services, and project teams, which produce one-time outputs like a new product or service to be marketed by the company.

When designing a team, the team type should be used as a starting point, whilst other factors such as task design, supervisory behavior, group characteristics, and organizational context should be adjusted accordingly.

To give you a better idea, below you have a couple of examples illustrating how team factors may affect shopfloor and project teams differently.

Contrary to common belief, implementing teamworking is never as simple as putting two or more people together and asking them to complete a task. It requires careful planning and constant monitoring to ensure success. The above should provide you with a basis for what to consider, the rest is up to you!

Have a look at the Profiles Performance Indicator as well, which includes a group report called Team Analysis.