Concept of Team v/s Group

 

Nowadays, group or team concepts are adopted by the organization, to accomplish various client projects. When two or more individuals are classed together either by the organization or out of social needs, it is known as a group. On the other hand, a team is a collection of people, who are linked together to achieve a common objective.

Most of the work in a business entity is performed in groups. Although the individual personality of an employee is important, their effectiveness depends on the teams in which they are working collectively to achieve any objective. In a particular team, there can be several groups in which the group members individually help their leader to accomplish the goals.

Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR COMPARISON	GROUP	TEAM
Meaning	A collection of individuals who work together in completing a task.	A group of persons having a collective identity joined together, to accomplish a goal.
Leadership	Only one leader	More than one
Members	Independent	Interdependent
Process	Discuss, Decide and Delegate.	Discuss, Decide and Do.
Work Products	Individual	Collective
Focus on	Accomplishing individual goals.	Accomplishing team goals.
Accountability	Individually	Either individually or mutually

Group

A group is an assemblage of persons who work, interact and cooperate with one another in achieving a common goal in a specified time. The identity of the group members is taken individually. The members share information and resources with other group members.

In an organization, the groups are made based on common interests, beliefs, experience in common fields and principles, so that they can easily coordinate with each other. There are two kinds of groups:

• Formal Group: These groups are created by the management of the organization for performing a specific task.

• Informal Group: The formation of these groups is done naturally in an organization, to satisfy the social or psychological human needs.

For example Ethnic groups, trade unions, friendship circles, airline flight crew, etc.

Team

A group of people who are joined for achieving a common goal within a stipulated period, having collective accountability is known as a team. The agenda of the team is “one for all and all for one”. Apart from sharing information, the team members also share the responsibility of the team task. The team is always responsible for the outcome (i.e. Result of the collective efforts of the team members).

The team members have a mutual understanding with other members. They work jointly to maximize their strengths and minimize their weakness by complementing each other. The most important feature of a team is “synergy” i.e. the team can achieve much more as the members can achieve individually. The three key features of team functioning are:

• Cohesion

• Confrontation

• Collaboration

For example Cricket team, a team for accomplishing a project, a team of doctors, a management team etc.

Key Differences between Group and Team

The difference between group and team in the workplace can be drawn clearly on the following grounds:

1. There is only one head in a group. A team can have more than one head.

2. The group members do not share responsibility, but team members share the responsibility.

3. The group focuses on achieving individual goals. Conversely, the team members focus on achieving the team's goals.

4. The group produces individual work products. As opposed to, the team who produces collective work products.

5. The process of a group is to discuss the problem, then decide and finally delegate the tasks to individual members. On the other hand, a team discusses the problem, then decides the way of solving it and finally does it collectively.

6. The group members are independent. Unlike a group, the team members are interdependent.