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Trouble with Teamwork
Mary Owen examines the role and efficiency of teams
Recruiters say that candidates who can give examples of work they have done as members of a essful team are in as strong a position as those who can point to significant individual achievement. Indeed, too much of the latter may suggest that the person concerned is not a 'team player' - one of the more serious failings in the book of management.
The importance of being a team player is a side effect of the increasing interaction across departments and functional divides. Instead of pushing reports, paperwork and decisions around anisation, 'teams provide a dynamic meeting place where ideas can be shared and expertise more carefully targeted at important business issues,' says Steve Gardner, in his book Key Management Concepts. He adds, 'Globalisation has added a further dimension to teamwork. Multinational teams now study policy decisions in the light of their impact on the local market.'
But is teamworking being overdone? 'Some managers are on as many as seven or eight different teams', says Dr Cathy Bandy, a psychologist who recently ran a conference on the subject. 'They take up so much time that managers can't get on with core tasks.' Forming teams and having meetings has, she says, e an end in itself, almost regardless of purpose. There is also the danger of an unhealthy desire to keep th