The term 'reporting to one boss' can be a misleading one. In a well-designed organisational structure, people reporting to one boss do often form 'teams'. But reporting lines are frequently designed within the constraints of grading structures. Of necessity, there is often a compromise between pay structures or traditional reporting lines, and grouping people together who are a team. In reality, team structures are often complicated, and people can be members of several teams, because a team is a group of people working together towards a common goal. .
Common goals Consider the example of a financial services organisation, selling pensions.
From the definition of a team, you first have to define the common goal of the sales team before you can define who is in it. Let us suppose that the goal is 'to increase the sales of the company'. In this example, it is easy to see the need for a corporate culture that recognises and values the contribution that everyone makes to the sales process, and other important goals. The whole organisation is truly a team, and working together towards a set of common goals. The example also shows the hierarchy of goals that exists within the company.