The performance goals of the team are understood to apply to every member of the team, and accountability for accomplishing those goals is shared. The special contribution that a team makes to an organization is the pooling of the collective creativity, skills, knowledge and experience of its members. This benefit is only realized in a climate of open communication based on trust, mutual respect, and commitment to a common purpose. The meeting provides a forum and structure within which a team may work. The structure of a natural work group is a traditional hierarchical one in which the performance manager is ultimately responsible for the performance of his or her staff.
Employees are part of the group because they work in the same unit or department.
Another name for a natural work group is a functional group , because the performance manager and employees make a product or deliver a service together. Authority and accountability are not shared equally, and the specific definition of a team given above may not apply in all respects to a natural work group. A group of people brought together from different functional areas to redesign a process or product or to make decisions or recommendations about a process or a product. Membership will come from a number of areas within the department or organization, but may also include suppliers or customers of the organization. Members may represent different levels of the organization and different functional areas, but while they are participating on the cross-functional team, they share responsibility and authority for the way the team works together and the accomplishments of the team.