As an old adage asserts, "two heads are better than one," it is evident that people working together as a unit can accomplish more than the individual members can do on their own. Due to intricacy and diversity of some works, there are those that one can do on their own, while others require enhanced efforts of more than one person for them to be done better. This is because, as individuals people have their unique strengths, ideas, and diverse skills in performing tasks thus working as a team creates more power than working alone. Moreover, mutual support from a team has the benefit of encouraging group members to achieve their objectives, which could not have been realized easily while done independently. Working as a group, therefore, maximizes the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization due to the diversity of skills and knowledge.
There are so many advantages related to working in small groups than alone. Working as a team fosters creativity and learning since brainstorming ideas bring unique perspectives from each team member and also maximizes shared knowledge and skills (Mumford, 2015). Group work also allows members to build complementary strengths by discovering the talents of teammates. Additionally, it also builds trust and bonds by establishing a strong relationship among group members which in return brings a feeling of safety that allows ideas to merge ( Covi, Olson, Rocco, Miller, & Allie, 1998 ). Group work instills conflict management and resolution skills since resentment occurs due to the diversity of ideas and uniqueness of the team, and also provides a sense of ownership by encouraging members to feel proud of their contributions. Ultimately, it promotes healthy risk-taking; for example, if a project fails when working alone, one takes the blame alone while working with other people spreads the responsibility for a failed assignment.
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Although well-conducted groups offer satisfaction, sometimes conflicts arise which leads to time wasting and energy loss. Failure to remedy this will not only lead to a breakdown of the team but also a decline in performance. In some instances, imposed decisions by team leaders may lead to discord and loss of opportunity to take advantage of good ideas from members. Also, a team could waste much time in reaching a consensus on a scenario where some members do not agree on decisions made by the group. Furthermore, there is a possibility in which some team members will work less than they would do if they worked individually, hoping the other members will compensate for their reluctance (Klein, 2014). Working in a team may require many meetings, and as such if it is not managed well, it can go off topic and decrease the efficiency of the team.
Math was a problem to most students I was teaching as a part-time lecturer. Having realized that these students could not perform well if they worked on their own, I grouped them according to their knowledge in math. Each group had a good, an average, and a poor student. In less than one month, there was a significant individual performance in the students and the time they were doing an end term examination; the students were doing even better. It is through these group work assignments that the students developed, harnessed and nurtured each other's potential and learned from one another. It is therefore essential to learn the potential power that lies on the unity of purpose and working together as a whole.
References
Covi, L. M., Olson, J. S., Rocco, E., Miller, W. J., & Allie, P. (1998). A room of your own: what do we learn about the support of teamwork from assessing teams in dedicated project rooms?. In International Workshop on Cooperative Buildings . Springer, Berlin: Heidelberg
Hu, J., & Liden, R. C. (2015). Making a difference in the teamwork: Linking team prosocial motivation to team processes and effectiveness. Academy of Management Journal , 58 (4), 1102-1127.
Mumford, S. (2015). In praise of teamwork. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport , 42 (1), 51-56
Klein, J. (2014). Working with Groups (Psychology Revivals): The Social Psychology of Discussion and Decision . New York, NY: Routledge .
