At the outset, according to Tannenbaum, et al. (2012), traditionally, a team has been defined by certain characteristics. For example, two commonly cited definitions of teams are: .
Salas, Dickinson, Converse, and Tannenbaum (1992) defined a team as ' 'a distinguishable set of two or more people who interact, dynamically, interdependently, and adaptively toward a common and valued goal/objective/ mission, who have each been assigned specific roles or functions to perform, and who have a limited life-span of membership'' (p. 4).
Kozlowski and Bell (2003) defined teams as collectives ' 'who exist to perform organizationally relevant tasks, share one or more common goals, interact socially, exhibit task interdependencies, maintain and manage boundaries, and are embedded in an organizational context that sets boundaries, constrains the team, and influences exchanges with other units in the broader entity'' (p. 334).
Following the previous existing definitions, Richardson (2010) defined a real team as ' 'a group of people working together in an organization who are recognized as a team; who are committed to achieving team-level objectives upon which they agree; who have to work closely and interdependently in order to achieve those objectives; whose members are clear about their specified roles within the team and have the necessary autonomy to decide how to carry out team tasks; and who communicate regularly as a team in order to regulate team processes'' (p. 86).
According to each definition listed above, we can see that they all share common characteristics. I believe those characteristics are the basic conditions that need to be present before we can call a group of people a "team". Those characteristics are: the team members are motivated and committed to their shared common goals; there is both a high level of task and social interdependence among the members; and members have clear roles and boundaries (Salas, et al, 1992; Kozlowski & Bell, 2003; & Richardson, 2010).