The importance of teams is becoming more and more apparent in today's dynamic business world. Increasingly managers are searching for a means to improve production and keep their organization competitive in the global market. A lot of these managers have turned to the team as a means for achieving this improvement. Quality circles were originally looked at to fulfill this role, however they are being phased out in favor of self-managed work teams. These teams are increasingly being used to solve many of today's organizations production problems and inefficiencies, and in the process are both badly failing and greatly succeeding. So the discussion of teams is a very important one to address. Managers should be aware of the concept of teams and learn about as a means to further their organization and for when the time comes to implement a team they are prepared with the knowledge needed to build and use a team properly.The basic interpretation of a team is "a collection of two or more individuals who interact with each other, share common beliefs, and perceive themselves as being a group." (Denton '92) Metropolitan Life Insurance Company defines a team fore specifically as "a group of people with specific roles and responsibilities, organized to work together towards common goals or objectives, in which each member depends on others to carry out responsibilities to reach those goals and objectives." (Denton) The implementation and operation of a team can either be a great success or a costly failure, both money wise and time wise. Many companies have benefited from teams, and "when teams work, there's nothing like them for turbocharging productivity." (Denton "94) There are many examples of successful implementation of teams: Federal Express and IDS boosted productivity by 40% and Boeing cut its engineering hang-ups on its new 777 passenger jet by more than half. The Ford Motor Company also has had great success with team...
