On 17 November 2015, Taylor’s Lakeside University had organised an educational trip to the museum. There were a total of 5 buses. We were divided by groups of 3 and were supposed to gather information for our integrated assignment. The purpose of the trip was to educate us about history and the importance of inheritance in Malaysia. Aside from that, the museum also inspire us through personal connections with visitors as we have to interview the visitors for our tasks. Furthermore, it also teaches us to not repeat the mistakes of the past and continue to improve ourselves. So, here are the informations we managed to gather by going to the museum.

1) Problem solving team

- A group of individuals assembled to work on a project that involves resolving one or more issues that have already arisen or to deal effectively with issues as they arise.

2) Cross-functional team 

- A cross-functional team is a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. 

3) Virtual team

- Virtual group is a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology.

So, the suitable types of work teams in the related working environment are the cross-functional teams because it is composed of people from various functional areas and work cooperatively towards organizational goal which is in this case, we split roles in our team such as we assigned one to do the editing and design while others do the report. By doing this, we believe that it is more effective and will help us finish the work and achieve goals.

Selection of team members

In face to face teams, members are largely selected based on their required skills. This is because an individual with good skills are more qualified and are able to produce in the working environment. However, when it comes to a visual team environment it is not easy for everyone. This is because when there is an absence of face to face interaction and social focus, this can lead to loneliness and solitude. In our team, we chose the one who has different abilities that can work in different ways and be a little different so that our group is unique.

Leading in a face to face team and virtual team are different.

Leading a visual team requires extra effort as the level of structure has to be created before teamwork can be advanced. When it comes to face to face team members, a leader is able to build relationship with their team members by just walking over to them or running into them and engaging in social chat, help team members who are having problems or also corresponding important work. In virtual team, the need of having teamwork becomes even more a problem. Thus, in virtual teams, team members have to be always reminded to contribute when it comes to work. Teamwork in virtual team has to be promoted more compared to face to face teams because the need of teamwork is much more needed in a virtual team. Thus, as the leader of a virtual team, he or she has to be proactive to create a structure that encourages teamwork and helps the team regulate itself. Our team uses both face to face and virtual because we take advantage of both. We do work while we are in campus as well as operating at home through Skype and Whatsapp.

Knowledge Exchange & Decision-taking

Many times in face to face teams, information can be exchanged during informal discussions. However in virtual teams, members have a very limited or no informal access to the information. Therefore, team members are responsible on giving frequent updates on project status and building a shared database to provide all the important information to the team. Therefore, virtual team members have to find the right time in order to conduct a meeting. Thus in case of virtual teams there will be a delay when it comes to fix a problem or reaching a consensus, whereas in traditional teams a meeting can be called at any time of the day when all the members are present together in the office, resulting quick decisions being made and problems being solve at a much quicker rate. In our team, we do prioritize knowledge exchange via face to face because of its benefits but we still use virtual although it may be a little delay when we are doing work.

Difference in relationship building

When face to face team members meet in the workplace every day they tend to communicate with each other and are able to develop social ties with one other. Thus it is much easier for them exchange information and are able to find and solve any problems that arises. For virtual teams, the interactions are more to task oriented.

Listens actively

Good listener play a huge role when it comes to completing a task. This is because a team needs a person who is able to understand, absorb and get ideas from other people without arguing at any point. This type of people can also be criticized without reacting defensively. In order to have an effective communication when it comes to problem solving, team members need the discipline to listen first and speak second so that when he or she says something it becomes meaningful. For example our one of our group members are actually good listeners where they are able to absorb a lot of information that is given by lecturers and able to create a lot of new ideas that can be related to the assignment . Therefore, it becomes much easier to perform an assignment when there is a team member that has the ability to listen well.

Function as an active participant

 Team members who are active participants are considered as good team players. They will always come prepared when there is a meeting and would listen and speak up during discussions .They would always engage fully in the work of the team and do not just sit there and do nothing. Team members who function as active participants tend to have the initiative to help make things happen, and would always try to volunteer as tribute when it comes to completing assignments. They would always have the mindset of what they could contribute as a team member in order to complete a specific task. We as team members participate actively on doing our assignments where we would always help each other and try to volunteer on doing task. This is because in order to complete task every team member should have the initiative to volunteer on a task. Therefore, assignments that is given can be completed at a much effective and efficient manner.

 Shares openly and willingly.

 Good team players tend to share information, knowledge, and experience among each other. They take the action to keep other team members always informed and updated. When it comes to a discussion at organised meetings, team members need to feel comfortable and confident talking among ea other and able to provide important news and information on a daily basis. Good team players are active when it comes to sharing information among each other. They would always provide team members with information and ability that helps get the job being done. For example our team members actually have the ability to share information openly and willingly when there is task that is need be done. We would always provide useful news and information which can be used in completing a task. This also benefits us as we are able to build a closer relationship among each other when we share news or anything among each other. Thus, it is important for an individual to have the ability to share openly and willingly in a team.