- Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the people in the group
that is more than the sum of individual goals?For instance, the service depart-
ments of many new-car dealers have introduced teams that link customer
service personnel, mechanics, parts specialists, and sales representatives.
Such teams can better manage collective responsibility for ensuring that
customers’ needs are properly met. - Are the members of the group interdependent?Teams make sense where there is
interdependence between tasks—where the success of the whole depends on
the success of each one, andthe success of each one depends on the success of
the others. Soccer, for instance, is an obvious teamsport because of the inter-
dependence of the players. Swim teams, by contrast, are not really teams, but
groups of individuals whose total performance is merely the sum of the indi-
vidual performances. Others have outlined the conditions under which organ-
izations would find teams more useful: “when work processes cut across
functional lines; when speed is important (and complex relationships are
involved); when the organization mirrors a complex, differentiated, and rap-
idly changing market environment; when innovation and learning have prior-
ity; and when the tasks that have to be done require online integration of
highly interdependent performers.”^85
174 Part 2Striving for Performance
EXHIBIT 5-9Source: S. Adams, Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies(Kansas City: MO: Andrews and
McMeal, 1991), p. 31. Dilbert reprinted with permission of United Features Syndicate.