Team, Types of

There are many different types and terms for teams, with several terms often overlapping or having the same meaning as others, including:
• Functional / Departmental / Work: This is a team that is based around a specific function or department, carrying out similar work, for example, administrative; finance; customer service; operations; quality; personnel / human resources; marketing; IT.
• Formal / Informal: Two types of team which are distinguished by their purpose and organisational structure. A formal team will have more well-defined responsibilities and role, whilst an informal team be more ad hoc, often unstructured, having limited direction on responsibilities but will be created to address a specific issue which might only be broadly defined. A formal team can be expressed as a functional team, project team or similar, whilst an informal team might be special interest group, or work social group.
• Temporary / Permanent / Casual / Volunteer: A term used to describe the employment status of a team, or a team which is often created to resolve a short-term ad hoc solution, for example, to aid a core workforce during peak work periods, to support permanent employees, or to fulfil tasks on an unpaid basis.
• Project / Special Project / Task Force: A team which has been put together for a temporary, yet defined, period of time to resolve a problem or undertake a specific task.
• Virtual: A remote working team, heavily reliant on technology to communicate and collaborate. This type of team may either carry out routine operational work, or for a specific task where regular face to face communication is not practical or cost-effective.
• Self-Managed / Self-Directed / Self-Organising: A team that is able to manage its own work schedule and make its own decisions. It has autonomy from other teams and management, although there will often be a periodic reporting requirement to more senior management to inform on progress.
• Trouble Shooting: A team that is created to solve a problem which is negatively impacting on the efficiency and/or effectiveness of an organisation. This will usually be on a temporary basis until the problem is solved.
• Cross Functional / Multi-Functional / Cross Operational: A team that has members from different parts of an organisation, bringing together a range of skill sets to collaborate on solving a stated issue.
• Management / Senior Management / Leadership: A team that is responsible for managing the performance of a department or organisation; ensuring that targets are achieved through team motivation; building relationships with staff and customers; delegating to, and empowering, others; ensuring adequate resources are provided to staff to achieve the desired outcomes; etc. Providing vision and planning will also be important aspects of this type of team
• Geographic / Site based: A team that is dedicated to a specific region or site.