People have always worked in teams from the first moment when one of our ancient forebears wanted to life a rock that was too heavy for him to pick up alone groups began to be formed to accomplish collectively what no one individual could ever do by himself or herself. Like all primates, humans are social animals down the very core of our genetic code so much so that people might be seen to have a biological compulsion to work with each other.
But all working groups are not equal. There is an aphorism: "A camel is a tiger designed by a committee." In contrast, we have all had many personal experiences in which working by oneself would have been far more efficient and efficacious than working with a particular group.
These seemingly conflicting aspects of human behavior mean that one of the skills that a good manager must possess is the ability to tap into people's natural skills and desires to work together while at the same time fashioning and directing those groups in a way that makes them as productive as possible.
One of the newest workplace tools (although some companies have in fact been experimenting with the idea for two decades, when the idea for work teams began slipping out of the academy into the business world) along these lines is called the work team concept. This paper explores how work teams are formed and how they can best be managed. While many companies (in a wide range of fields and with very different employee demographics) have found at least some success in using work teams, the transition from a traditional hierarchically organized workplace to the more egalitarian world of the work team-centered workplace can be a bumpy one. It is the role of the good manager to anticipate the sorts of problems that can occur during this transitional phase. The effective manager will continue to apply techniques specifically tailored for team work situations after the work teams have been established ...