When we talk about teamwork, we talk about many things at the same time, there are those who understand the same team as group, who believe that a group of people already constitutes a team. However, these are different concepts.
The first difference between team and group is found in the definitions given by the Dictionary:
· Team: Group of people organized for a service, sport, etc.
· Group: Plurality of beings or things that form a set.
The team refers to a set of interrelated people who are going to organize to carry out a certain task, while the group refers to that set of people without considering the task for which they have formed a set, considering it in its entirety.
But for a group of people to become a team, it needs to meet a series of essential requirements:
1. Although it is true that there is no ideal number in its composition, it is important that the members recognize that they need each other and that without that need they have for each other, it is unlikely that they will be able to carry out their intended objectives. This is called a sense of interdependence.
2. Furthermore, it is important that the team has its own identity that defines it and gives it coherence, because it is precisely this feeling of coherence that will identify it as a team.
3. As a consequence of the above characteristics, in the team there must be an interaction between its members (interdependence is materialized through interaction and this generates a common identity that is the engine of the team).
As a consequence of the need for interaction that exists in the team, which we have called interdependence, each of its members must play a role that complements the rest of the team. This is a characteristic that is not present in the group.
This statement makes the proper performance of a role determine the end result by the interdependence between the two. That is, the roles in the team interact while in the group, they do not. (Juan Carlos Cubeiro).
In this way, we can give a more concrete definition of work teams: units made up of an undetermined number of people who organize themselves to carry out a certain task and who are related to each other, who as a consequence of that relationship interact within it team to achieve the objectives they have set themselves to achieve, recognizing that they need each other for such fulfillment and recognizing themselves as a team. Furthermore, these demands mean that the roles of its members must be complemented.
This leads us to the conclusion of Novotec Consultores that teamwork is an inherent philosophy of the company and the team is the materialization of that philosophy, that is, teamwork is the set of values, attitudes or ideas that constitute a culture for the organization and the work team is in charge of translating this culture into the organization.
