Digital Library: Teamwork

Teamwork

Definition of teamwork is the “ability of team members to work together, communicate effectively, anticipate and meet each other’s demands, and inspire confidence, resulting in a coordinated collective action.” (International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences).

Teamwork is the ability of being able to work with others in groups or teams, both formal and informal.

Teams and groups: The word ‘team’ is used loosely to mean a group of people working together to achieve a common aim. Some academics, however, suggest that this is a better definition for ‘group’, with ‘team’ being reserved for much closer relationships, such as that seen in a small singing choir.

The dynamics in a group can change over time due to the knowledge that people get, the functioning of the group will change.

Several studies show that the most effective groups are diverse, as they contain people with a wide range of skills and role preferences.
Teamwork requires work in team and in cooperation and commitment to the organization. It is “contributing actively in a group to achieve a common goal; sharing resources and responsibilities; and encourage the participation of all group members.”

Teamwork skills such as communication, conflict management, listening, reliability, and respectfulness, among others, must be developed.

Meredith Belbin identified a set of nine roles shown by people working in groups.

The Belgin’s team roles are:

1. Shaper – has a clear idea of the goal and direction to take;
2. Implementer – looks ways to act and to take things done;
3. Completer-Finisher – focuses on completing tasks;
4. Coordinator – leader, manages the group dynamics;
5. Team worker – supports personal relationships in the team;
6. Resource investigator – gathers resources to help the team;
7. Plant – gives ideas and creative solutions;
8. Monitor-Evaluator – critical, assesses ideas and solutions, helps decision-making;
9. Specialist – gives expert knowledge to the team.

Significance in Times of Crisis (e.g. pandemic)

Teamwork in time of crisis is being able to effectively collaborate for long-term commercial/business success. Especially in a crisis, organizations need to bring together experts with unique, cross-functional perspectives in order to quickly solve complex and rapidly changing problems that have long-term implications. Diversity of experience allows a group to see risks and opportunities from different angles, so that it can give rise to new solutions and adapt dynamically to changing situations. Therefore, one of the most important skills of client-centered help and support on social level is a sufficiently high level of teamwork.