Working as Part of a Team

Teamwork is a vital component of successful business. Teamwork is evident in almost all business functions and it also helps to provide structure within an organisation.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary a ‘team’ is ‘two or more people working together.’ The concept of a ‘team’ is related to the idea of a group of people working towards a common goal. This common goal can be in a business environment or even in a sporting contest, what is important is co-operative action towards common goals. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) defines teamwork as:

“A limited number of people who have shared objectives at work and who co-operate, on a permanent or temporary basis, to achieve those objectives.”

Teamwork has become increasingly important in modern organisations as employers have placed a greater emphasis on employee versatility. The changing demands of employers reflects the high levels of competition within the labour market as employers seek to recruit the highest possible calibre of candidate. Increasingly, modern trends within education and the labour market demonstrate an improvement in educational standards with the increasing importance of vocational or career lead educational qualifications to employers. As organisations have become larger and their structures more complex, the need for employees to be able to work within teams has increased.