Sunday, October 24, 2010

Different Types of Team Structures - Organizational Structures That Meet Specific Objectives

There is nothing like one size fits all type of concept at play when handling different types of team structures for specific goals in mind. Deep thought and consideration is required to identify, assemble and also convince the team members to work together on a variety of assignments.

Here are two major team structures that an organization forms to meet objectives.

Functional teams:

Some teams are like a shadow in the background - always there but not very visible, yet most essential to run day to day operations of the organization. These teams for most part handle finance, sales and marketing and are deemed to be the functional leg of the entire organization. Such teams usually work under broad guidelines and policies formulated by the top executives of the corporation and it runs more or less smoothly without much fuss and noise.

Largely they are left to execute and achieve the grand vision of the organization, until there is need to take stock of the situation. Such scenarios may arise out of market dynamics like competition breathing down the neck, technological shifts, and change in regulatory framework or amendments in the Law of the land.

These teams are recruited with due consideration and deliberation and they follow a routine and pattern laid down beforehand by the executives. They are more or less permanent and some team members may even outlast the organization.

Project teams:

On the other hand project teams are different animals altogether. They are put together to execute certain tasks, reach certain goals or accomplish a vision in a time bound manner. Once the target is achieved, these teams are in most cases disbanded and team members go back to their routine tasks. For example a project specific team may have ten percent increase in market share as their target to be achieved in a span of three quarters.

Such a team may comprise the marketing head, the advertising head, the financial controller and the operational supervisor, each contributing with their respective expertise and skill set to realize the common goal.

As soon as the market share goal is achieved within the time frame, they may hand over the reigns of maintaining the market share to the functional team. Some time the goal is too large to achieve by a single team, so it is broken down into smaller goals and set to be achieved by sub teams within a matrix of teams.

By : Takuya_Hikichi

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