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Working in diverse teams
Working in diverse teams

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2 Functional team roles

When you are thinking about a team you have been part of or know about, you might find it difficult to think of how to describe the roles people play. Some of the roles people have in a team might be due to their technical know-how. They may have been brought into that team for a particular task due to a skill they have.

Described image
Figure 2 Technical roles – poor Herbert
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This figure shows a man called Herbert in a hole digging. Standing around him, but not digging, is a group of people: a Human Resources Manager, a Marketing Manager, a Logistic Manager, a Communication Manager, a Security Manager, an IT Manager, a Project Manager, an Internal Supervisor, a PR Manager and a Product Development Manager. They look to be talking amongst themselves and watching Herbert.

Figure 2 Technical roles – poor Herbert

People may also perform a particular functional role within that team. The functional roles are the tasks that are required to make the individual members of the team function as an effective team and not just a random group of people.

In Week 1 you started to think about some of the teams you have been part of. You will now revisit this.

Activity 2 Recap on experience of teams

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

Have a look back at the notes you made in Week 1 for the teams you are and have been part of. Choose one of these examples and think about how you would describe this team. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What was the size of the team?
  • What was the overall purpose of the team?
  • What task were you working to achieve?
  • Who did what in the team?
  • Can you identify particular roles that individuals took in this team?
  • How did you decide who was going to do what in the team?

Use your example to fill in the table below. The first column has been filled in using an example from Jane and her experience on the School Parents Association.

Table 1 Describing a team you have been part of
Team example School Parents Association
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Purpose of team Raise funds for school
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Size of team 8
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Identified roles in team

Chair: Susie

 

Room set-up: Jane

 

Record-keeper: Jo

 

Coffee and tea: Tom

 

Clothes collectors

 

Classroom reps

 

Newsletter
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Words: 0
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Discussion

How did you find this activity? You might have found it hard to distinguish the different roles that people played. In reality there may have been less distinction between what people did. It is useful however to have considered some of the different things that needed to be done as part of the team activity and who did these. Was there any rationale to why one person took a particular task? If not, would the activity have been improved if roles had been more formally assigned?