1. The increasing focus on teams over the last five years has changed the work environment by making it more flexible than in the past. The team approach has reduced specialization, individualism, and "rigid ownership of work," as well as making generalism, "fluid collaboration," and teamwork more prevalent (Parker, 49). In addition, the open, boundaryless organization that focuses most closely on teams has replaced "vertical hierarchical structures" with various kinds of organizational models, such as network, adaptive, informal, and horizontal ones (Parker, 49). The teams themselves are different from those of yesteryear, also, as they are increasingly cross-functional and are composed of people who have the right expertise for a project, not necessarily a certain title. These types of teams are "ready to move quickly and flexibly to adapt to changing organizational needs" (Parker, 49). The increasing focus on teams has changed both the structure and character of today's organizations.
             2. According to Belbin's (1981, 1993) team role theories, "high team performance is associated with teams which are balanced in terms of the team roles represented among team members" (Senior, 241). This balance is predicated on the fact that people must have roles that complement one another rather than conflicting with or duplicating one another. Some examples of the specific individual roles in teams in the workplace might be the leader, facilitator, problem-solver, and scribe. The leader would be the natural leader of the team-the person who most easily communicates vision and motivates people to follow. The facilitator would be the team member who facilitates discussion, ensuring that everyone is heard and facilitating agreement. The problem-solver would the person that team members are inclined to go to for help in solving problems; this would be a more analytical person wh...