Groups & Teams

Groups & Teams

Do you remember as a child being told to work as a team? Well what happens we are told to work in a group? All too commonly we have mistaken the word team for the word group or vice versa. What does a working in a team really mean? What does working in a group really mean? Without most of us realizing it, working in a team and working in a group are different in more ways than one. Both teams and groups are especially important to organization in this day and age. Please follow me as I explain in further details.

“A number of persons bound together by common social standards, interests, etc” (Group,n.d.) Although groups are similar to teams, they differ in many ways. Groups are formed of two or more persons who gather for one common reason. Within a group, each individual is responsible for their own work and accountability. The sole purpose of a group is to gather and share ideas and thoughts to feed off of one another. Groups focus more towards individual projects and goals rather than collective work. One characteristic of groups is that their purpose and goals are determined by their managers rather than the team members. Managers clearly identify the purpose and goal of the team and it is not changed by the team for any reason. Groups usually meet briefly to share their ideas. They play their own individual roles and are usually concerned with their own outcome rather than everyone’s outcome. They gather for their own personal gain.

According to, Teams, a team is a group of people who are put together to work together. “Teams though have to extend beyond the minimal parameters of the group.  Although all teams are groups, not all groups are teams.  Moving beyond the minimum number of people and individuals interacting in an interdependent manner, team members have to share a commonality of thought, embrace a sense of common purpose, as well as feel a sense of accountability toward each other and the larger purpose of the team.”...