Different Types of Team Structures: Organizational Structures that Meet Specific Goals

There is nothing like one size fits all types of concepts in play when managing different types of team structures with specific goals in mind. Deep thought and consideration is required to identify, assemble, and also convince team members to work together on a variety of tasks.

Here are two main team structures that an organization forms to meet objectives.

Functional teams:

Some teams are like a shadow in the background: always there but not very visible, but more essential to running the daily operations of the organization. These teams, for the most part, handle finance, sales, and marketing, and are considered to be the functional part of the entire organization. Such teams generally work under broad guidelines and policies formulated by the corporation’s senior executives and function more or less smoothly, without much fuss and noise.

To a large extent, they are left to execute and achieve the grand vision of the organization, until it is necessary to take stock of the situation. Such scenarios may arise from market dynamics such as competition, technological changes, and change in the regulatory framework or amendments to the Law of the country. These teams are recruited with due consideration and deliberation and follow a routine and pattern established in advance by the executives. They are more or less permanent and some team members may even outlive the organization.

Project teams:

On the other hand, project teams are completely different animals. They come together to execute certain tasks, achieve certain goals or achieve a vision in a given time. Once the goal is achieved, these teams in most cases disband and team members return to their routine duties. For example, a specific project team may have a 10 percent increase in market share as a goal to achieve within three quarters.

Such a team may be comprised of the head of marketing, the head of advertising, the financial controller, and the operational supervisor, each contributing their respective experience and skill set to achieve the common goal. As soon as the market share goal is achieved within the time frame, they can pass the reins of maintaining market share to the functional team. Sometimes the goal is too big for a single team to achieve, so it is broken down into smaller goals and set for sub-teams within a matrix of teams to achieve.

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