MN1000 – Foundations of Management – Third Article Report
108549281

Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith are two authors who combined their knowledge and skill to study team work in organizations. They try to define how to improve high performance in teams.
First of all, it is very important to distinguish the two notions of group and team; no good performance can be made without it. A team is a group of persons, but not all groups are teams. This subtle difference must be made in order to increase team performance, and “for managers to make better decisions about whether, when or how to encourage and use teams, it is important to be more precise about what a team is and what it isn’t” (Katzenbach and Smith, 2005: 164). A team is “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable” (Katzenbach and Smith, 2005: 162). The members succeed or fail as a whole, which set up a connection between them. On the contrary, members of a group are more independent, the accountability is individual, as well as the tasks and roles. The responsibility is delegated to individuals.
Once the distinction has been made, we can focus on how to improve a team performance. To make a teamwork approach more effective, four notions are important according to Katzenbach and Smith. First, a team needs to agree on a common commitment and purpose. Without it, the members can’t focus on a specific work, and it is proved that “the best teams invest a tremendous amount of time and effort exploring, shaping and agreeing on a purpose that belongs to them both collectively and individually (Katzenbach and Smith, 2005: 165). Then, performance goals have to be settled, in order to avoid confusion and thus failure. With these performance goals, productivity increases and team members are motivated in getting results. Another essential requirement to encourage team