The basics of teamwork [Hausarbeit plus Präsentation]

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Leadership and Human Resource Management - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0 (A), , language: English, abstract: At the moment teamwork is a very popular term. People say, that it is nowadays essential for being successful in business to be a teamworker, a teamplayer. But what exactly is a team and what makes teamwork special? Several books and the internet helped me to gather relevant information in order to answer this question. Worldwide markets have changed enormously in the last two decades. Globalisation and liberalisation on the one hand and saturated markets on the other hand have led to high quality standards and customer orientation. In addition to that product life cycles have shortened, so that companies are under pressure to develop more new products and product variations in less time to reasonable costs. The need for more flexibilty and the necessity to adapt quickly to changing market conditions involved a reduction of layers in the management. One of the results is more responsibility for the employees. Not only that they become more and more involved in the decision making process, they also have to meet higher expectations as the tasks become increasingly more complex. It seems obvious that at a certain point one person alone can not handle difficult tasks any longer, especially if high financial and economic risks are associated. Therefore a rising number of companies forms teams. This essay focuses on aspects a team leader has to consider if he or she gets the task to start a team from scratch. While the first chapter has given a short introduction, the second chapter defines teamwork and the steps on the way from a mere group towards a team. Then the third chapter examines conditions under which teams can prosper and perform outstandingly. After that the fifth chapter gives a short summary and allows an outlook. The last three chapters contain a list of vocabulary, references and a test, where you can find out what kind of teamplayer you are.