What is the difference, if any, between a group and a team? In what situations would using a team make work more effective, efficient, and productive?
A team refers to a gathering of individuals who depend on one another to achieve specific goals and objectives. Thus, a team is characterized by a common goal and specialized individuals. On the other hand, a group refers to a gathering of people who are out to achieve their own individual goals, and there is no commonality of purpose. Hence, in a group, one individual does not depend on the efforts of others to achieve certain objectives. A team always proves to be more efficient, effective, and productive than a group in cases of handling a long term project. This happens because such a project would need team effort, the commonality of goals and objectives, as well as some aspect of specialization from every member.
What is a distributed team? Describe the pros and cons of working on such a team
A distributed team refers to individuals who have to achieve a common goal but work from different geographical locations during different times without being tied up to the normal conventional office space (Butterfield, 2011). The pros of a distributed team are that it is cheaper since there is no need to have an office space, work is done on a 24 hour basis due to the difference in time zones globally, there is increased diversity because the team is composed of members from different cultural backgrounds and the team is likely to have the best employees as it is not limited to recruiting from a single locality.
The cons of this team are that work progress is hard to track and only depends on the honesty of team members, it is difficult to create a team culture since members are not close to one another, and there is a minimal model of communication limited that is limited to telephone calls, video conferencing and instant messages.
What roles can people play on a team?
The roles people can play in a team, depending on their individual strengths and weakness. There are people who can help in achieving the team goals and objectives by being the co-coordinators, while some people can be resourceful by providing ideas for the team, such people are referred to as innovators. More so, a team also needs to plan how it will achieve its objectives and thus the need for planners. Evaluators and specialists are also needed to come up with the right schedule, budget, and path to be followed by the team members. Finally, the work of a team cannot be a success without the individuals who implement the ideas and plans in order to achieve the goals; these people are known as the implementers and project finishers.
What is groupthink; and what can a group do to avoid groupthink?
Groupthink refers to instances when members of a group make irrational decisions that defy logic as well as common sense simply because they lack proper mental judgment. This sort of behavior is common among people who share the same background and is seen to be the root cause of mob justice. Thus, to avoid groupthink, members of a group should be from different diverse backgrounds since in this way there is an opportunity for members to reason and listen to other people’s opinions before making a decision that could have adverse effects on the society (Butterfield, 2011).
What are the advantages/disadvantages associated with both small and large teams?
The advantages of larger groups are that work takes less time, there is a diversity of ideas, and it is fun to work in such a group. Its disadvantages are; a long decision-making process, discrimination among team members, and rowdiness due to many individuals (Butterfield, 2011). On the other hand, small groups offer a more personal touch to members, there is less time consumed in decision making, and every member is guaranteed equal participation in the project. Its disadvantages are that skills are limited to the few members, projects take a long time, and team members may be overworked.
Reference
Butterfield, J. (2011). Illustrated Course Guides: Teamwork & Teambuilding-Soft Skills for a Digital Workplace. Web.