Groups and teams
A group is usually a collection of individuals who contribute their efforts in a coordinated forum. A team, on the other hand, is typically a group of people who have a common purpose or challenging goals that drive them to work together to achieve (Kozlowski, 2012). Team members commit to the goals at hand and each other. They work as one and are equally accountable.
Teams and groups all have a common goal at hand, but the method used in achieving these goals vary. The people in both the teams and the groups have the skills required in accomplishment of the task only that the means by which these skills are utilized vary too.Working in groups can be advantageous in personal skill development and promotion of independence. However, the lack of interdependence leads to conflicts, and delay in task completion due to unequal participation. Teams, on the other hand, are more productive due to the collaborative atmosphere they create. Task completion is fast due to the effective communication encouraged in the team. Decision making is, however, prolonged due to the need for consensus in decision making (Michaelsen, 2004).
I have worked with a team tasked with developing a particular mobile application model for Samsung. The team was created to allow us to bring together our programming skills and develop this software. I was among the seven developers in the team. Each of us was selected due to the success we had attained in the field in our years of programming. Working together was advantageous in the sense that we would solve the problems inthe application development from the different experienceswe had in the field. Having the skills from each one of us increased the efficiency of the application development.
References
Kozlowski, S. W., & Bell, B. S. (2012). Workgroups and teams in organizations. Handbook of Psychology, Second Edition, 12.
Michaelsen, L. K., Knight, A. B., & Fink, L. D. (2004). Team-based learning: A transformative use of small groups in college teaching.