ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the skills relating to working in a team and presents an overview of team working skills, including skills for decision-making in teams. Teams are increasingly a feature of organisations, as work often involves people with different expertise who have to co-operate on the same tasks. Managing interpersonal conflicts in a team setting also involves assertiveness. Effective exchange of information across all levels is essential for team working. Co-ordination results in better team working as opposed to work simply being undertaken by a group of skilled individuals. There are many documented cases where teamwork failures have contributed to accidents, especially in aviation. Due to team member interdependency, team effectiveness can be enhanced through improving the team members’ interactions with one another. The chapter also discusses the distinction between taskwork and teamwork, which is crucial to understanding team performance. One of the key aspects of team working is that of team decision-making.
