Team is a group of two or more individuals who, in order to achieve a certain goal, coordinate their actions and labor force. There are three key components in this definition. Firstly, to create a team at least two people are needed. Sometimes organizations consist of big teams but, as a rule, their number does not exceed fifteen individuals. Secondly, team members regularly interact with each other. Third, the work of the team members is aimed at achieving a certain goal, whether it is developing a new tablet, vehicle or writing a textbook. Students, for example, are often grouped together in the classroom to perform various tasks. In this case, their goal is to complete a task and get a good grade (Daft, 2012)
Despite many advantages, work in teams may have negative effects on the work process.
Team work, in contrast to the individual work, may require additional time. The initial period when team members adapt to one another can be quite long. A certain time is also required to find the appropriate form of working together.
Team work is often characterized by slowness. This is especially noticeable in teams with large number of workers. The difficulties encountered in collecting the team members at the appointed time may have a negative impact on the work progress. The discussions that arise when working in a team are time-consuming, especially if individual employees do not possess skills needed to participate effectively in such discussions. Serious disagreements are possible. Work in teams can delay the decision, as different views of the participants are summarized only after lengthy discussions.
The dominance of one of the group members may give rise to the situation when certain member or group of members influence other members, which is not conducive to effective group work; members are forced to accept an imposed point of view, being afraid to express their own opinions. The stubborn defense of certain proposals by some members of the group can lead to the adoption of their decisions by the entire group, even though the proposed solution may be wrong. Another problem in team work is the division of responsibilities. On the one hand, the awareness of shared responsibility for the performance of group tasks within teams is a positive thing. However, the division of responsibility equally, by all members of the group, can lead to the opposite effect - the lack of individual responsibility. Any team member who has shown a lack of effectiveness, can "hide" behind an active participant in team work (Janis, 1982)
The anonymity of the results of work of individual team members could negatively affect the desire to work. When working in teams, there is no incentive to ambition, as an individual worker does not receive personal rewards for results.
If an employee performs work in a team as complementary to the main activity, it may be too much a heavy load for him. Therefore, it is necessary in each case to take into account whether this is a feasible load and if any personal responsibilities can be discarded in favor of working in the team.
Although mutual trust between team members is always a plus, such relationships have a downside. The higher the level of trust in the team, the less is the chance that team members will monitor each other. The more team is cohesive, the more employees are prone to rash decisions; they believe in partners and unwittingly overestimate their strength. The desire to preserve unanimity in the team reduces the ability to look critically at the decisions of the team members. Atmosphere of trust creates an ideal environment for unscrupulous employees whose abuse can lead not only to serious losses, but also may spoil the relations within the team (Janis, 1982).
Team compensation may lead to the fact that the contribution, and hence the payment of workers, will be averaged. In this case, highly skilled employees believe that there is no need for them to show their best performance in group tasks which has a negative impact on their motivation.
Another problem inherent to the team work is a group polarization, when the group includes individuals with persistent views (positive or negative) on the problem. As a group, they attract to their side the other participants which may lead to a confrontation and conflicts within the team.
However, the main drawback of teams is a groupthink, or the problem of conformity of views. Groupthink is pressure exerted on employees in order to force them to adapt to the norms of the group and make them more prone to consensus. Groupthink includes the following elements that may be detrimental to the effectiveness of the teamwork.
- The illusion of invulnerability - a belief that every decision of the group leads to positive results.
- The illusion of morality - the justification of decision by the higher values of the group. Negative attitude towards "outsiders" - a negative attitude towards opponents or doubting colleagues that allows you not to pay attention even to a fair criticism.
- Self-censorship - suppression of the justified doubts on the pretext of the loyalty to the group.
- Direct pressure - a fierce criticism by colleagues or managers of those proposals that are contrary to the principles of the team.
- Filtering opinions - ignoring inconvenient facts or opinions that are simply left out of the discussion.
- The illusion of unanimity - the situation in which silence is seen as a consent (Janis, 1982).
Works Cited
- Richard L. Daft (2012) Understanding Management, Cengage Learning, 8-th edition.
- Janis, I. L. (1982). Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
