Importance of Uniqueness in Team Member Roles

When assembling groups or teams, management wishes to produce the most product or highest yield for the company. There are many challenges to assembling groups that are best for the company, this is because every team member has there own strengths and weaknesses, this is what makes people unique. Just as the analogy of a wolf packs howling as stated by Towery in The Wisdom of Wolves, “While the notes may change, as in any beautiful song, one wolf will not copy the pitch of another” (Towery, 1995). This uniqueness in team members, creates a huge challenge and headaches for the managers assembling the groups. Uniqueness can be viewed as bad when thinking of a company as a whole, companies usually want employees the fall in line and have the “Yes Sir” personality. When in reality team member uniqueness stimulates positive team success through; proper utilization of employees strengths and weakness, along with proper employee disbursement among teams. Management may not want to face this challenge of team member uniqueness, but in reality it can greatly benefit the company in many different ways. The most significant and most valued benefit would be increased output of the group. The reason for this increase in production is by utilizing the strengths of certain team members to fill in the gaps or weaknesses of the other team members. With this balanced sense in a group there are no weaknesses left unaccounted for. Another Benefit would be increased employee relations. Going back to the wolf pack analogy, if there were more then one alpha team member they will be butting heads and fight for the lead, which in turn reduces production and moral of the group. This is why uniqueness is important if everyone was the same, there wouldn 't be a leader and there wouldn 't be followers. With proper dispersement of employees into groups the management will also have to deal with the groups less because they are less likely to need attention, or a larger hand to control them.

References: Johnson, P. R., Heimann, V. L., & O’neill, K. (2000). The wolf pack: team dynamics for the 21st century. [Editorial]. Journal of Workplace Learning, 12, 159-164. Retrieved June 16, 2008 from MCB UP Ltd database. T, T. (2005). The Wisdom of Wolves. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc.