Institutions
The need for change causes leisure organizations to struggle with matters of project speed, deliverable quality and complexity. Incorporating work teams in facilitated work sessions into the life-cycle of the project enables production of specific deliverables, contributing to the process and the deliverable quality (Means & Adams, 2005). In addition, it facilitates the ownership of results. Facilitation is the process, which brings people together for the purposes of accomplishing a particular outcome within a specific amount of time (Means & Adams, 2005). Working in a group has important benefits: members in the group draw from each other’s perspectives and knowledge; members bring different work styles which complement each other; and group work motivates participants to contribute to the good of the overall project.
Conflict often arises in work groups. This particularly happens when cliques or cluster groups (subgroups of individuals having the same goals, expectations and values). When there are differences in goals, ideals and values exist; disagreements are likely to occur. As a result, work teams are preferred to work groups (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2014). There are several differences between work teams and work groups. First, the strength of a work team depends on the harmony of purpose as well as the interconnectedness between its members. On the other hand, the strength of a work group often comes from the number of members or the willingness by members to carry out the commands of one leader. Secondly, the group is easier to form than a team. For example, professionals in a room may be grouped in terms of their gender, experience, age or other criteria. However, these professionals may not have shared objectives or vision. Forming a team is difficult because it may involve selecting people who have complementary knowledge or skills (Settle-Murphy, 2011).
References
Hughes, R., Ginnett, R., & Curphy, G. (2014). Groups, Teams, and Their Leadership. Home. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://answers.mheducation.com/business/management/leadership/groups-teams-and-their-leadership
Means, J., & Adams, T. (2005). Accelerating Your Project Using Facilitated Work Sessions. Global Congress Proceedings, 3(2), 1-11.
Settle-Murphy, N. (2011). Facilitating your way to project success. Guided Insights, 3(23), 1-12.
