Introduction
One of our major sources of well-being is our relationship with our family, friends, colleagues and tutors. Within each of these relationships we have different expectations and different roles. Knowing how to work effectively within these different groupings is therefore an important inter-personal skill we need to develop and continue developing throughout our lives. Working with groups of people in life can be quite varied and understanding how we and others function in these groups can save us a lot of hassle later.
In this report we will first look at some of the general principles of groups, need of groups, and our own personal point of views regarding working in groups, lastly evidence is presented to support our consensus.
About Groups and Teams
The terms ‘groups’ and ‘teams’ are generally used interchangeably. However, there are differences, and a team can be regarded as a group of people who come together for a defined task. It may mean that that they then disband once the task is complete. For the purposes of this report therefore, we will use the term teams and groups interchangeably because in order for teams to work well, they need to understand how people work in groups.
Functioning of groups as teams
Groups are very often formed just for a particular task and may not have worked together before, so people tend to feel awkward towards each other. Since they will probably be working within a time limit, it is important therefore to understand a little about how groups function in order to be an effective functioning team as soon as possible. John Adair (1986) developed a classic model of how teams function.
< ...