You are working part time as a customer care assistant in a branch of a national high street retailer. You are hoping that in the not too distant future you will be given the opportunity to take on a supervisor role in one of the departments. You have discussed with your line manager how you might prepare yourself for this future role, and it has been suggested that you carry out a short research task to investigate what constitutes an effective team, and the part they play in achieving corporate objectives.

You feel this is good advice, and wonder how you might complete this task. You need to select a business organisation to investigate the benefits of team work. You decide that you should examine the theory linked to teams and team working to help you make informed judgements about what a good team looks like.

You are to research a business organisation and, at least one other business that uses team work to good effect. Your

research will then be used to produce a report in two parts that provides your line manager with your findings on effective teams.

Part one of the report will include an explanation, using examples, of the types, purposes and characteristics of an effective team from the chosen business you have researched. This part of the report should also include an assessment and evaluation of the benefits this team brings to the organisation. The evaluation must be supported by specific examples from your chosen business, and also from the second business.