Teams are seen as a necessary condition in contemporary organisations, Essay - 2

Teams are seen as a necessary condition in contemporary organisations, but are they effective - Essay Example Teams should operate as functional units in which various knowledge stemming from individual group members becomes part of a collaborative environment. The question that has been asked is whether teams are effective, despite the literature which proposes its necessity in the contemporary business. The evidence provided suggests that teams are effective, so long as certain organisational and objective components exist. These include cultural knowledge, building commitment at the leadership level, the structure of the organisation or team environment, and the importance of communication. This report examines the literature associated with teams, offering a critical analysis of findings. The findings are important to organisational studies as what was uncovered in this analysis can act as a template to assist in leadership, culture and knowledge exchange designs in team environments. Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2005) first offer that specific business studies are confused between what individuals perceive the world to be versus what the world actually consists of. In the forming stage of team development, defining specific goals is a paramount objective after individuals have been recruited. During this stage of team development, uncertainty abounds in a variety of categories from job role identification to setting up group norms and rules that will drive the functional group. A special project team requires a specific set of regulations that will guide forward momentum, something especially important in a special project team with a clear and concise end result goal. In this team, cohesion and knowledge exchange may be the objective, however the actual reality is that the organisation, itself, is guided by a centralized and vertical hierarchy where individuals have grown accustomed to the organisational culture whereby decision-making is always delivered from the top-down.