The article highlights the power of teams over individuals. It examines a number of examples of teamwork from business and non-business situations. It also attempts to provide different ways of learning about teamwork. Some of the finest examples of teamwork prevail in the animal kingdom. Indeed, certain species of animals and birds engage in teamwork as an inherent part of their lifestyle for determining their survival. This article emphasizes the need for organizations to build an organizational capacity around teamwork to ensure their survival in the current business scenario.
Speed, uncertainty, complexity, and connectivity are the characteristics of today's business. These factors combine to make work environments more complex and demanding. Businesses are faced with intense competitive pressures. Hence, this requires them to continually develop their competencies to respond to the ever-changing market forces. Complexity is an outcome of the diverse factors which have to be integrated together to arrive at the optimum business solution. Greater connectivity across national and organizational borders implies that organizations have instant access to customers, to colleagues, and to highly sophisticated information about their performance. As a result of these pressures, managers are required to keep abreast with the developments in the fields of technology, science, and the different business forms, to sustain their market positions. To respond to these challenges, organizations have to look at newer forms of work, which have the capacity to handle a complex and sophisticated marketplace.
Organizations have experimented with a number of innovative designs in the recent years to address these new demands. These innovations include: Flexible organizations, high performance work organizations, new design plants, self-managing organizations, virtual organizations, reengineered corporations, and ambidextrous organizations (Beyerlain et al., 2002). They offer flexibility to adapt to the changing circumstances, and build faster responsiveness to the customer needs.
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