Problems of team functioning as special type of social group

In the article the analysis of different concepts of "team" from the point of view of sociology, which today can be divided into two large groups. The first affects his symptoms and descriptions, and the second structure of the definition. Summarizing them all, the author highlighted that currently the "team" can only be called an effectively functioning social group. Despite the fact that "command" is a kind of small social group, described the differences between these concepts. The article examines the question about correlation of concepts "team" and "team". A comparison of their characteristics reveals that they are extremely close to each other. Identified problems in the functioning of the team as a special type of social group. The features of leadership in the team, in particular, the possibility and feasibility of a divided leadership. Divided leadership implies that at different stages of achieving the team purpose leadership position is given to those team members who are most competent in solving a particular task, but the final decisions are made by joint efforts of the group. The presence of a clearly defined leader in the team is imperative. On the other hand, many teams are able to function effectively using only one type of influence ‒ vertical, when a mutual influence on each other have a leader and his associate, boss and employee. The presence of horizontal influence that occurs in the process of interaction between team members (excluding leader) among themselves, it is necessary to perform tasks that require synchronous operation of several (or all) team members. In the end, formulated the following conclusion: the presence of vertical interactions is a necessary condition for the existence of the team.