BSA 313 Management Theory and Practice
             The use of "Teams" in the workplace has become more and more common; most
             organizations find that teams enhance productivity and workplace performance. Another place
             that teams have become more common is in the academic arena; especially in Graduate and
             Professional Studies type college programs such as those offered by Averett University.
             The text book definition for a team is a "number of people with complementary skills
             who are committed to a common purpose, a set of performance goals, and an approach for which
             they hold themselves mutually accountable". (Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, 2002). One of the first
             tasks accomplished by any student upon enrolling in a program like Averett's is the formation of
             study teams, this say this was an interesting experience would be an understatement, the cluster
             is made up of individuals from diverse backgrounds, experiences and levels of education. It was
             further complicated by the fact that some students had previously worked with others in the
             The common goal for all the students in our cluster and in our team is to graduate from
             Averett with a Bachelors Degree in December 2003. Since all members of the class are working
             professionals the first problem that we have is that there are frequently scheduling problems due
             to our varied work schedules and commitments. Another issue that affects our team (and many
             others) is that we all have family obligations. It is hard to balance work and family and devote
             the "right" amount of time to each; it is even harder to balance work, family and school. Thus
             far we have all been able to balance these obligations in the right amounts.
             When we enrolled in the program, like all of the other study teams we developed a code
             of conduct and a constitution, that clearly identified what was expected of each of us and what
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