Some kinds of work can and should be handled by a single person. That individual has all the expertise, knowledge, and skills needed to do the job and is solely accountable for getting the job done. If the workload increases so that one person can no longer handle it, the company can create additional positions.

This work unit consists of a group of people who may work together and may all do essentially the same kind of work but who are not dependent on each other for information and skills needed to accomplish the job. For instance, the regional sales managers of a large national company would constitute a workgroup, even though they aren’t located in the same office. In a human resources department of a large organization, all staff members with responsibilities for administering benefits could be considered a workgroup. They all perform similar or related tasks, but the amount of work is too large for one person.

This is a common work unit category. Individuals in such a group need information from one another in order to achieve results. The work might be handed off from one individual to another, as in a manufacturing system. Each individual completes one step in a complex process that leads to a finished product. In collaborative workgroups, one person’s errors in execution affect the ability of others in the group to do their work.

Well-functioning collaborative workgroups may look like teams, but they differ in that each individual is accountable for his or her work and is rewarded for individual performance. Another difference is that collaborative workgroups are most often permanent parts of an organization (a department, division, or branch office, for example), but teams are more often created to perform a specific task and dissolved when the mission has been completed.

A team is a small group of interdependent individuals who collectively have the expertise, knowledge, and skills needed to c...