Table of contents Introduction1 1. Advantages of teamwork1 1. 1 Advantages to the mutual team goal1 1. 2 Advantages to the development of individual ability2 2.
Disadvantages – What makes team not work. 2 2. 1 Team members’ internal barrier2 2. 2 Groupthink2 2.
3 Conflicts3 2. 4 Wasted time3 Conclusion3 Introduction On the one hand “ too many cooks spoil the broth” but on the other hand “ many hands make light work”. In light of these two sayings this report will discuss the pros and cons of teamwork. First, I will introduce the advantage of teamwork to explain why it will make a team better than individual. Then several disadvantages are introduced to explain why teamwork doesn’t always work. 1.
Advantages of teamwork Teamwork is defined in Webster’s New World Dictionary as “ a joint action by a group of people, in which each person subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group. ” Harris also explained that a team has a common goal or purpose where team members can develop effective, mutual relationships to achieve team goals. Teamwork replies upon individuals working together in a cooperative environment to achieve common team goals through sharing knowledge and skills. The following are some advantages of teamwork. 1.
1 Advantages to the mutual team goal 01.? Pooling knowledge and resources In a team with lots of members, members may be from different apartments of the same company, they have different expertise, in such team, members can be free to show their special knowledge, and diversity of information can be provided in the team. It will save much more time to find the resources than individual work. 02? Diversity of skill and experience One person’s skill and experience is limited, but in a team everybody may master his own skill and has his own special ability which is different from each other.
For they don’t grow up or live in the same environment, what they experience will be quite different as well. Different skill and experience input will help the team to finish the task in different aspects. 03? Participative decision makingOne man’s decision may always be a wrong one because one man may see only one side of things. Team members can communicate with each other and have discussion when coming across the problem. Team can make a perfect decision after considering every detail. 04? The recommendations are more likely to be implemented In a team, we can get many ideas as the solution of the problem.
Every member has the right to air his opinion and bring up his idea which is different from others’. The more possible solutions there are, the task will be more likely to be finished in a better way. . 2 Advantages to the development of individual ability 01? Expanded job skills, influence each other and make mutual The cooperation can make members to learn the job skills that they didn’t have before, cooperation also make members united and have mutual team spirit. 02? Increased opportunity to draw on individual strengths In a team, one can also show his individual strengths, in this case, one can also enhance his ability as he is trying to solve the problems, he will be more prominent. 03? Increased understanding of other people’s perspectives During the cooperation, everyone have time to air his opinion and tell others his idea, it’s a good opportunity to absorb the different ideas in the team communication to improve one’s vision.
It’s will help one to understand others’ perspectives and it is helpful to make a team efficient. 2. Disadvantages – What makes team not work. 2. 1 Team members’ internal barrier Some members seldom perform themselves in a team, as a result, a team will have no achievement. There are four points to explain why they don’t make a contribution to a team.
01? Lack of self-confidence Member lacks self-confidence sometimes because they are new to a team or he lacks experience to cooperate with others he doesn’t know. He will always assume that other members must do better than him. 02? Fear of being singled out and exposed as incompetent This kind of barrier often happens to the members lacking skills or competency to perform the task at hand. 03? Fear of taking responsibility for failure or mistakes If most of the members have the fear of taking responsibility, a team will be not a real team. Because of the fear, they don’t attempt to do anything to finish the job.
They can’t accept the fact that they fail and make mistake and have to be responsible to what they have done. 2. 2 Groupthink Groupthink occurs when groups are highly cohesive and when they are under considerable pressure to make a quality decision. Groupthink may have bad influence on teamwork, the negative outcomes of groupthink include: ? Examining few alternatives ? Not being critical of each other’s ideas ? Not examining early alternatives ? Not seeking expert opinion ? Being highly selective in gathering information It’s deadly for a team with groupthink because it will make a team much less creative. Groupthink makes member not be willing to change and not be critical of each other’s ideas.
They think every member’s effort is respectable and will be really helpful to the team. Most of the ideas can be accepted. 2. 3 Conflicts For there are many people in a team and members are always have different characteristics, conflicts is unavoidable on the cooperation.
Conflicts can be concluded into three aspects: 01? Conflict of personality This will happen to somebody not easy to get along well with others for his personal characteristics. This kind of person is always not easy going or lacking of humor sense. 2? Fighting over leadership The conflicts between the leader and team members occur when they are unsatisfied with each other. Members complain the leader doesn’t have the ability to lead the team well, and leader condemns members not to the job he assign for them well. 03? Goal incongruity between team members Sometimes team members have different understand to the goal, they can’t coordinate.
2. 4 Wasted time 01 Time consumption to create a team It’s not easy to create a team. The Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. From forming to performing may be a long time process for some teams.
02 Time consumption for decision-making Too many ideas may go to extreme. It will make interaction ineffective and team meeting unproductive for it needs a long to reach consensus among team members. Conclusion This paper introduces the advantage and disadvantage of teamwork. First, the paper defines what the teamwork is and illustrates the advantages from two main aspects: advantages to finish the mutual team goal and advantages to develop the individual ability of team members.
Teamwork is not a perfect way to solve any problems. It will be useless in some circumstance. When team has internal barriers, groupthink and conflicts, it will be less useful. It’s also a waste of time to make a team decision because members have to reach a consensus in a team. It’s better to use individual work than teamwork if such kinds of problems happen.
Teamwork doesn’t always work. Teamwork and individual work, which is considered to be better depends on the certain situation. References: Books: Webster’s New World Dictionary :” the definition of teamwork”(A fourth edition published in 1998) Websites: 01 Why Teams don’t Work, Retrieved on (June 20th, 2008) from “ http://www. bs. utexas.
edu/resource/onlinetext/teams/WhyTeamsDont. htm” 02 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Retrieved on (June 20th, 2008) from “ http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team” 03 WHY TEAMS DON’T WORK, Retrieved on (June 20th, 2008) from “ http://www.
quality. org/TQM-MSI/decisions. finley. txt” 04 Diagnosing Team Failure, Retrieved on (June 21st, 2008) from “ http://www.
teambuildingportal. com/articles/team-failure/why-team-fail. php ” 05 Advantages of Teamwork, Retrieved on (June 21st, 2008) from “ http://www. teambuilding-solutions. com/index. php/Advantages-of-Teamwork.
html”
