High-Performance Groups and Teams
Introduction
High-performance is a major focus for many organizations since group and teams have become more common among organizations. A high-level of performance makes up the basis for groups and teams today. The collection of ideas, knowledge, and experience of different individuals is better than that of only one person. From problem-solving to innovation, organizations have relied on the high-performances of groups and teams to set the organization apart from the rest. This paper will discuss workplace groups and teams in the following paragraphs, describing how a group can become a high-performance team, the impact of demographic characteristics and cultural diversity on group behavior and how demographic characteristics and cultural diversity detract from high-performance teams.
Becoming a High-Performance Team
A problem-solving team is a group that meets often to discuss a range of issues affecting the organization. (Shermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, Ch. 10) A problem-solving team is also commonly known as "quality assurance" or "quality control" committees which are common to almost any organization. The member of this type of team should undergo specialized training to enable them to have a thorough knowledge of group dynamics, gathering information and critical thinking.
The cross-functional team is a collaboration of people from different departments, and having different skills, specialty, and experience. This type of team is effective because their focus is not limited to only what their departments are responsible for. They are in fact, as a team, responsible for the goings on all of the organization, and ther ...