What is a team?
There are many different definitions of what a team is. According to French & Bell, an appreciation of the importance of a formal work team as a determinant of individual behaviour has come from cultural anthropology, sociology, organisational theory and social psychology.
Johnson & Johnson defines a team as a set of interpersonal interactions, structured to achieve an established goal. Cummings & Worley defines a team as a group of interdependent people who share a common purpose, have common work methods and hold each other accountable.
Kriek defines a team as any group of people working together in order to achieve a common goal. He identifies the following 5 commonly recognized characteristics of a team:
- A team exists to achieve a goal shared by its members.
- Team members depend on one another to attain the common goal.
- A team is bound together and established over time.
- Team members have the authority to manage their own work and internal processes.
- team operates within the context of a social system.
What is Teambuilding?
Teambuilding refers to a broad range of planned activities that help groups improve the way they accomplish tasks, help members enhance their interpersonal and problem solving skills, and increase team performance (Cummings & Worley).
Why Teambuilding?
Organisations depend on teams to accomplish work tasks. However, team effectiveness isn't guaranteed. Teams quite often fail to meet performance objectives resulting in negative consequences for example they may not reach their goals, they may lose their competitive advantage and work relations may be damaged. This may lead to low productivity and high personnel turnover. Teambuilding helps to improve team performance, strengthen morale and lead to higher efficiency.
According to Johnson & Johnson, to ensure that a team is effective, they must be “nurtured” by means of training members and engaging in Teambuilding procedures to ensure that their effectiveness keeps improving. Teambuilding is an effective approach to improving teamwork and task accomplishment (Cummings & Worley).