A community of people sharing common norms, values and interests would always remain a group and would never become a team unless individual members forming the group start to respect one another’s feelings. A team essentially works for the attainment of organizational goals by sidelining the personal interests of individual team members.
“A major advantage a team has over an individual is its diversity of resources, knowledge, and ideas.” (Townsley, 2008). A sound strategy to build the effect of a team in an otherwise group of workers should be based on certain exercises that would serve to enhance the interaction among the members of opposing views. Team members should be given enough time to socialize frequently and work jointly to accomplish predefined tasks.
Managers should organize task based workforces in which specified teams should address particular tasks. The idea is to achieve the effect of contact hypothesis in the task force. One member should be selected from each department as a representative of the department. In this way, a holistic approach can be adopted in which the finance, human resource, administration, operation and various other departments as required should work together in close cooperation and collaboration with one another to achieve the objective of organizational significance. The task force should be strategically designed and every individual member should be fully educated on his boundaries and limitations prior to the commencement of the task. All foreseeable antecedents of conflict should be clearly addressed to the maximum extent to minimize the chances of conflict. Tasks should be designed to allow maximum communication among the members. This can be achieved by formulating interdependent activities within the task. The services of individual departments should be integrated into the work elements. In the course of working together, healthy debates should always be encouraged.