Groups and Teams

Groups and Teams Paper
“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work” (Lombardi, n.d.). Vince Lombardi, famous football coach, linked the terms group and team together in his quote, indirectly suggesting the two are the same. However, groups and teams differ in how they function in the workplace and in the manner in which the individual members interact with one another. The objective of this paper is to describe the differences between a group and a team. Additionally, this paper will examine the importance of workplace diversity in an organization, and how it relates to team dynamics in the workplace.  
Webster’s dictionary defines a group as any collection or assemblage of persons or things. S. Robbins and T. Judge, the authors of Organizational Behavior, expounded on that definition by stating, “A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives” (S. Robbins, 2009). The authors went on to define a work group by saying it is, “a group that interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility” (S. Robbins, 2009). Robbins and Judge also point out that a joint effort from the members is not required for the unit to be considered a group.
Conversely, a team as defined by Webster is a number of persons associated in some joint action. A work team “generates positive synergy through coordinated effort. The individual efforts result in a performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs” (S. Robbins, 2009).   Simply put. If tasked with a writing assignment, a group of tourists at a museum would write about several different experiences. A team of tourists at a museum would collaborate to write about one experience. A diverse team of tourists would collaborate to write about one experience that is both... [continues]

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