Groups and Teams

As I was reading the article on groups and teams as well as the one on diversity within teams, I continually made connections with points in the article and the internship I currently work at. First, the article on differences between groups and teams made more sense when I connected it to work. This is because I am constantly having to work on obtaining certain pieces of information or work on projects with people from all over the organization. This really made the difference between groups, pseudo-teams, etc. more apparent. This is because I have interactions with different people on many levels. Sometimes group work is short lived and we only have to collaborate to come up with certain figures for a spreadsheet. Other times there are daily interactions in an attempt to solve a in depth problem within the company. The article helped in realizing the importance of the interactions I have with others at work and how to improve the quality of work that is accomplished. The diversity article was also very relevant to the company I work for. We have manufacturing plants on every continent and there is heavy interaction between all of them. Almost daily I see visitors from another country and many of my coworkers have daily phone conversations with foreign colleagues. This reiterates the fact that in this type of global economy it is important to be aware and sensitive to foreign customs and how to conduct business. I feel that this is extremely crucial for those taking part in foreign business to take these factors into consideration. this is so crucial because as stated in the article, something that may seem minor could offend someone enough to be a multimillion dollar deal breaker. Also I think it might be important for, at least college curriculum, to put emphasis on this aspect of the business world.