The Team's the Dream

Throughout our history people have always combined their efforts and imaginations to achieve their shared goal. We’ve always understood the value of teamwork.

But do we really understand what teamwork is? When we work together are we really combining as a team? What constitutes teamwork and why is it so important in human society?

Researchers at Aston Business School, part of Aston University, in the West Midlands, at the heart of the UK, are conducting research into Team Working – trying to understand how groups of people can work effectively together in modern organisations to achieve the tasks that organisations need them to do, whether it’s drilling on oil and gas rigs in the North Sea or carrying out surgery in hospitals. They’re trying to establish how we can get people to work together in the most efficient and productive way.

As society develops it throws up increasingly complex structures and organisations, making team working ever more valuable. Trying to co-ordinate the activities of individuals in large organisations is time consuming and inefficient – team based organisations respond quickly to change and can work faster and more effectively.

The research from Aston Business School is showing that this need to build diverse teams is essential to our modern way of life. If we can create teams that are diverse, and learn the skills of good team working, the improvements to our society are immediately apparent.

Footage:
- Aston University
- Aston Business School
- Students campaigning in University elections
- Sports teams in action (football & netball
- Fire crew on training exercise
- UNHCR relief teams in Kosovo

Interviewees:
- Professor Michael West, Head of Research & Professor of Organisational Psychology, Aston Business School