Does being part of a team actually improve performance and if so what is it that makes a group a team?Professionally the first time I truly felt part of a team in the world of work was when I was a Newly Qualified Teacher. But even then something was not quite right. I had been given the job of teaching Citizenship (which was the focus of my Post Graduate Certificate of Education) and languages (as I am also a linguist). As a result I was put in to two different departments at my first school and both departments had a different atmosphere and as a result people worked in very different ways together. The Humanities Department was lacking something intangible and this set it apart from the more cohesive Language department. I have always tried to be reflective and I was aware that in the language department I felt like I was part of a team while at the same time in the Humanities department I did not have this impression.
Language Room
English: Team work
HumanitiesIn this essay I am going to reflect on my personal experience in these two groups and consequently unpick the differences between a group and a team, suggest why being a team is more effective than being just a group and suggest some strategies for helping a group develop in to a team based on my reading of what various academics have written.
While I was in full time higher education I remember feeling that although I was one person among many students, I was actually just a solitary unit and my success or failure depended on the work that I put in individually. As a group we happened to be very cohesive and the atmosphere was very amicable. Within the whole group there were sub-groups of...