What makes a team

When looking at what makes up a team, there are different qualities that it has that make it a team. Google’s HR group lacks some of these qualities. Katzenbach and Smith define a team as “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” (Kreitner, 2013 p.300). Looking at Google’s HR group, it is split up into three different groups. The first of the groups are employees that have HR backgrounds. They have expertise in client relations, employment law and compensation and benefits. The second group has little to no human resource experience. They were recruited from strategic consulting firms or Google line functions such as engineering or sales. They have very good problem solving skills and knowledge of how everything outside of HR works. The third group is a workforce analytics group. This group is made up of people who hold doctorates in statistics, finance, organizational psychology and other areas (Kreitner, 2013 p.326). A key to a group becoming a team is that it needs to be able to work together and have a collective goal. Google’s HR group works as three separate groups that all have different goals and have a different purpose. For this group to become a true team, these separate groups should have much more interaction and become one group that is committed to one common purpose (Kreitner, 2013 p.300-301).
Throughout a group, different people hold different responsibilities. Sometimes a task that someone needs to complete relies on the work of others. This happens a lot in teams where many people have to work together towards the same goal to create an end product. Everyone that is in this team needs to be able to trust each other and trust that they will take care of their part so the team can move forward. Without trust in the team, the team will not function the way that it should. In Google’s HR group, there needs to be a lot of trust in the “three-thirds” team for it to be able to perform highly. Communication is a very important part in there being trust in the team. Team members need to communicate at a high level to keep everyone updated about different decisions, issues and concerns, and about progress throughout (Kreitner, 2013 p.313). Without constant communication throughout, team members may start to move in the wrong direction and set the team back because everyone was not working towards the same goals. Google’s HR team works as three separate groups. For these this team to be able to succeed overall as a team, they need to work towards a similar goal. Since they are three separate groups, there needs to be an extremely high level of communication throughout the groups to keep everyone working towards the same goals and so no group strays from the path.
Being in a team, team members need to be able to support each other. Team members need to be able to voice their opinions and be able to express their thoughts and ideas. If a specific few dominate the team, others may feel afraid to voice their ideas. When everyone is supportive and tries to include everyone in the team, the other team members feel like they are able to express their thoughts. When everyone is able to speak up and voice their thoughts and ideas, there is a higher level of teamwork and when an issue needs to be solved, there are more potential solutions to the problem (Kreitner, 2013 p.307).
Google’s HR group is very large and is set up into three different smaller groups. Looking at the group cohesiveness, it is more important that it is instrumental than socio-emotional. Socio-emotional cohesiveness is usually found more in smaller groups which Google’s HR team is not. Since there are separate groups inside the one large group instrumental cohesiveness is more important. The three groups need to regularly update and clarify the group’s goals. Without a constant update throughout, the separate groups will start going in their own direction. For the group to be successful, it needs to come together to get the job done. Different members of the group and the different groups in the overall group have a dependency on each other to be able to get the job done and to meet its goals. Group members need to be frequently reminded that they need each other to get the job done. This will help bring them together as a whole since they do depend on each other because they are all working towards the same goal (Kreitner, 2013 p.315).
When looking at things that could help a manager lead a cross-functional team like Google’s HR team, different advice can be given to improve different aspects. This team works in three different groups and much can be done to help bring these groups together. Communication and participation levels between the groups need to be increased. This will help the overall have a better vision of what the accepted tasks and goals are of the group. Even though there is the formal leader of each group and the team overall, leadership needs to be shared throughout the group. Different team members have different skill sets and in different situations, leadership should be shared so those members who have the skills and knowledge for a task can use them to help everyone else in the team advance so progress continues. Team members need to feel like they belong. This will help build a stronger team. Team members need to feel like they belong and like they are needed in the group. As the team builds, communication becomes simpler, people feel more comfortable and feel able to express their thoughts and ideas, leadership starts to become something that is shared throughout the team, and trust starts to build throughout the team. Many of these things will help build a stronger team with team leadership.

Citations
Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. (2013). Organizational behavior. (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGrawHill/Irwin.

Citations: Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. (2013). Organizational behavior. (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGrawHill/Irwin.