Teams and the Workfoce 2000

Throughout the past few years, companies have been focusing more on a team-based structure. It is this structure that Americans seem to have the most difficulty adapting to. Acuff (1997,p.10) found that “ Americans are the most individualistic and less team-oriented culture in the world”. What causes this team-based structure to fail in America? I have been questioning this issue, but I can only come up with one conclusion: the work force 2000 is to blame.

The workforce 2000 is the incoming flow of workers who are bombarded with continuously changing roles. According to the US Department of Labor (Labor Day 2000) The workforce has expanded nearly 5-fold during the 20th century, from 28 million in 1900 to139 million in1999. Many people have been forced to enter the workplace because of the rising cost of living. People are finding it difficult to maintain a standard of living off a single income-based home. The rise of divorce is forcing housewives out into the workplace. The total numbers of U.S. divorces reported are 957,200 in 2000, 944,317 in 1999, and 947,384 in 1998 (Americans for Divorce Reform,2001). The constant fl

working independently. They are not quite ready to focus their attention to a team until they learn how to balance work and their personal life. As with every new concept, it will take constant reenforcement in order to convince this workforce 2000 the benefits of a team-based structure.

Francis and Young (1992,p.6)define a team as a "high performing task group whose members are actively interdependent and share common performance objectives". However, a team requires more than interdependence and common objectives. Certain requirements must be met when participating in a team. Some of these are: commitment to the team and its goals; you must be able and willing to do the work; must follow clear rules of behavior; stay well informed; and have great communication skills. Keeping all this in mind, a team must have members who are focused on the goals needed to be accomplished. They must be organized and adapt well to changes that may occur. The ultimate goal of a team is to achieve goals together by utilizing each other as resources.

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