A team refers to a group of individuals working together to achieve a common purpose or goal. Such persons usually have some levels of attaining their objectives (MAXWELL 2008). Teams can be beneficial to both the individual and the organization, and this is due to their known level of achievement in terms of the organizational objectives (BUTTERFIELD 2011). It is, therefore, advisable that an organization should arouse its interests in developing teams since a wider range of opinions and ideas can be generated from the teams rather than an individual(MAXWELL 2008).
The advantage of having a wide range of opinions and ideas is that it can boost or rather promote innovations. Team members also have the capability of giving themselves motivation. This is because; the members support each other, and are not so much into task orientation. A team can also turn out to assume very high levels of risk taking when compared to an individual initiative (MAXWELL 2008).
The benefit of teamwork is that it can lead to outcomes that are of higher quality, more efficient, and can lead to effectiveness. Efficiency in this case refers to the level at which the organizational resources are used for their intended purpose (KING, & LAWLEY 2013). This implies that the efficiency is the ratio of useful work and the expended energy. The primary benefit of team working is that an organization will be able to attain things that cannot be achievable by an individual.
An organization can benefit from teamwork in three main ways. One of this ways is that an organization will be capable of attaining outcomes that are of high quality. This is because, the resources will now be used in a better way, since there will be the cooperation of richer ideas and efficient resource utilization (MAXWELL 2008). In this case of higher quality outcomes within the organization, the element of higher efficiency will be evident, since the individuals within a team will be able to combine their efforts, and accomplish more work, than an individual working alone could do.
Faster speed is the other element that can lead to outcomes of high quality. This is because, the teams utilizes the efforts of its contributors (MAXWELL 2008). In this regard, an individual will be able to complete their tasks in less time. The other component that can lead to outcomes that are of high quality is that, there will be many thoughtful ideas. For instance, an individual working on problems or rather a series of tasks can incorporate different information that will be helpful (KING, & LAWLEY 2013). The results can be the solutions as well as the approaches that an individual could not have come with while alone.
Last but not least, greater effectiveness can also bring about outcomes that are of higher quality. For instance, when individuals ensure that their efforts are coordinated, they can allocate various roles and tasks that can address the issue in a thorough manner (KING, & LAWLEY 2013). An example on the benefit of a team in relation to the higher quality outcome can be in the health care setting, where team work has proved itself to increase the level of patient safety, as opposed to when a single individual applies his or her efforts (SALAS, & FRUSH 2012).
Teamwork can also have some economic benefits to the organization (WEST 2012). This may include an improvement in return on investment towards training and development. An example in this case is whereby an organization may decide to train one person on certain pertinent skills. The expectation of the organization is that such an individual will share the same to his or her team members (WEST 2012). Apart from that, the cost of overtime can also be minimized within an organization, since tasks will be accomplished most probably before the given time frame.
The third benefit of teamwork in an organization apart from higher quality outcomes and economic benefits is that, the organization will end up becoming more flexible. This is because, a team comprises of employees from different functional areas. An example in this case is whereby the manufacturers of automobiles may use experts in different fields. In this regard, the designers, engineers and the suppliers may agree to form a single team that is properly coordinated.
The benefits of teamwork can also be associated to an individual. In this regard, people will feel motivated to do work since their morale will be high (KING, & LAWLEY 2013). Individual within a team tends to work harder, thereby increasing their earnings as a result of the improvement in their output. People will also be able to accept change with ease, since all the team members may be engaged in decision making (KING, & LAWLEY 2013). There will also be a better relationship between the managers and the teams since teamwork will strengthen the bonding between the two. All this individual benefits are related to the worker.
The other individual benefit that is associated with team work is on the management. The managers will be at a better position of managing the absence of employees (NICHOLL 2010). There will also be an improvement in the quality of work, and this will bring about job satisfaction in a manager. Last but not least, there will also be an improvement in terms of the image and the reputation of the organization (WARD, & DANIEL 2012).
References List
KING, D., & LAWLEY, S. (2013). Organizational behavior. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
WEST, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: practical lessons from organizational research
. Chichester, West Sussex [u.a.], BPS Blackwell.
MAXWELL, J. C. (2008). Teamwork 101 what every leader needs to know. Nashville,
Thomas Nelson. http://www.contentreserve.com/TitleInfo.asp?ID={D064B743-C445-4EF0-8922-18968FB0E487}&Format=50.
WARD, J., & DANIEL, E. (2012). Benefits management how to increase the business value
of your IT projects. Chichester, West Sussex, Wiley. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=470599.
NICHOLL, C. G. (2010). #Teamwork tweet lessons for leading organizational teams to success
. [Cupertino, Calif.], Happy About. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=331842.
SALAS, E., & FRUSH, K. (2012). Improving patient safety through teamwork and
team training. New York, Oxford University Press.
BUTTERFIELD, J. (2011). Teamwork and team building: soft skills for a digital workplace
. Boston, Course Technology/Cengage Learning.
