Business

The ultimate success of any organisation is highly dependent on the level of coordination, understood and unity among its constituent members. It is by working in teams that execution of an organisations plans is realized more easily and effectively (Edens, Bowers, Salas 2001, p. 141). It is also commonly known to all that teamwork encourages brainstorming among members thus increasing the chances of successful decision making for the good of the organization. Working in a team has still the advantage that it ensures the ultimate utilisation of employee potential through workforce flexibility and cross training among workers. Working as a team is quite vital in nurturing character and leadership skills among workers (Rosen 2004, p. 23). It encourages improving of ones socialization capabilities as it allows for improved chances of learning and living with diversity of personalities and culture. Such are quite crucial in ensuring the sustainable skill building culture and employee engagement in the organization.

It is however to be stated here that although teamwork has many advantages for an organisation, it can also greatly compromise the sustainable success of the organisation. It has been evidently claimed that working as a team is the major result for workers strikes in an organization (Edens, Bowers,  Salas 2001, p. 170). Team work can also lead to conflict with members of other teams or departments. This is because it encourages lack of decision making independence outside the teams concerns. It is thus clear that working in team does not only ensure the ultimate success of the organisation but can also negatively impact on the sustainable success of the organization. Nevertheless, the disadvantages of working as a team can be greatly reduced by ensuring effective rule of law in the organisation as well as encouraging employee engagement practices.
It is due to the fact that working as a team has advantages and potential disadvantages that this paper is written. The author gives a critical discussion with examples on both the advantages and disadvantages of team work. A discussion on how the disadvantages of working can be reduced or avoided for the sustainable success of the organisation is also given.

Teamwork can be understood as the act of involving collective actions among workers in the process of executing plans andor the daily activities of the organization (Rosen 2004, p. 14). It has been rightly claimed that unity is strength. Working as a team ensures the fast execution of an organisations activities (Fincham  Rhodes 2005, p. 81). With a collective acting power the sharing of activities among the different team members allows for a fast and easy completion of duties. The aim of any organisation is to maximize profits. It is therefore an advantage of working as a team that it realizes fast execution of duties thus increasing production andor service provision in the organisation. This has the end result of increasing and sustaining the profitability of the organisation.

It is here to be noted that working as a team encourages sharing of ideas among workers (Fincham  Rhodes 2005, p. 83). Therefore, teamwork is crucial has it gives team members an opportunity to learn from each other. Such are vital in ensuring an effective and highly reliable skill development culture in the organisation. Just to be emphasized here is the fact that the ultimate success of an organisation evidently determined by reliability of its workforce. It is due to this reason that organisations invest heavily on training its employees. As teamwork encourages cross training among workers, it is a crucial tool of encouraging the sustainable transmission of skills among workers (Rosen 2004, p. 26). This ensures the long term survival of the organization in the marketplace.

Teamwork encourages an effective and reliable information and communication exchange in an organization (Huczynski  Buchanan 2007, p. 113). Communication among the different members of an organisation is one of the key success determining factors in the organization. It is by having an effective communication that an organisation is assured of effective coordination and thus execution on plans and activities. Still to be noted is the fact that employee just like other human beings are out to live their social life. The aim of being in an organisation is not only for profit making but more to interact with others. It is thus to be noted that employees are happier when working in a team (Beaubien 1998, p. 67). Therefore, working as a team does not increase the overall efficiency of the organisation but also greatly gives concern to the employee needs.
Also to be stated is that working as a team leads to motivation among workers (Rosen 2004, p. 25). Once in a team, employees are bound to oversee the success of the activities of the team. Such a sense of not failing the team greatly factors in motivating the employees to be more productive. It is to be understood that success of a team is the ultimate success and sustainability of the organisations vision and missions in business. It is thus by ensuring a motivated workforce that the organisation is assured of its long term survival in the market. Still in concern of working in teamwork and motivation is the fact with shared targets and common aim, the team members will help each other in resolving any difficulties that will arise during the process of executing their duties (Rosen 2004, p. 27). All this are crucial in realizing an efficient and highly reliable workforce in the organization.

Working as a team has been claimed by many to have the advantage of fostering improved cooperation among employees (Fincham  Rhodes 2005, p. 91). An organization is made up of many interconnected departments each of which are vital for overseeing the overall success of the organisation. It is thus a crucial advantage of teamwork spirit in the company that cooperation is improved. It should be clearly established that cooperation in an organisation is quite vital in ensuring the inter dependence of work by improving coordination and communication. Also clear is that such improved cooperation among management and employees are an added in improving the decision making process of the organisation. This is because such encourages members to feel free to comment on underlying problems of the organisations plans. It has been established that identity and sense of significance are critical elements in realizing the potential of employees. Thus by encouraging teamwork spirit employees found sense of identity and significance in the organisation and thus improving their productivity ability (Rosen 2004, p. 28). Teamwork spirits thus increases the potential for understanding and thus ensuring overall support for the organisations decisions.

Teamwork is also good in ensuring the sustainable reputation of the organization. Working as a team ensures not only member performance but also improves acceptability and feedback by members (Edens, Bowers,  Salas 2001, p. 146). This means that gain improved motivation to act as though they are shareholders in the organisation. It is to be noted here that the reputation of an organisation serves a great role in ensuring a sustainable competitive advantage in the market. It is also to be understood that employees are a major determinant of the companys reputation in the general public domain. Therefore, since working as a team encourages commitment of employees to the decisions of the organisation it helps in protecting the organisations reputation.

It is however to be noted that working as a team can be quite detrimental to the sustainable success of an organisation. First is because of the fact that teamwork can encourage free-riding and in some employees of the organisation. Psychological evidence has evidently shown that human behavior is greatly determined by personality more than by the surrounding environment. It is based on this reasoning that working as a team can lead to failure by some members to effectively work as they will be sure of success of executing duties and responsibilities by coworkers (Beaubien 1998, p. 63).

Another disadvantage of working as a team is that it encourages collective bargaining power by employees. Unity is power. It is indeed a major concern that most workers strikes in organizations are a direct of teamwork spirit (Edens, Bowers,  Salas 2001, p. 170). This is because such a spirit brings unity and motivation among members to ensure the ultimate success of their targets and set goals. It is therefore clear that working as a team has the potential of paralyzing the operations of the organisation.

Given the fact that teamwork spirit leads to group thinking, which compromise individual decision, it can easily compromise the decision making process of the organisation. Working as a team greatly influences individual decision making ability (Rosen 2004, p. 32). It is to be noted here that the acceptability and respect for individual opinions in a team is many times marked with discriminative behavior of the members. This means that good opinions are more likely to be ignored based on the contributors influence in the team. It is thus a disadvantage of working in a team that it can compromise the process of making viable decisions in the organization.

Working as a team has been found to complicate the process of workers performance evaluation and rewarding. This is because success of the team can only be rewarded to all rather than on one individual. It is due to this reason that teamwork makes rewards less powerful as a tool for motivating workers. Still on this it is evidently clear from existing examples that teamwork spirit is one cause of member conflict (Rosen 2004, p. 34). This is mainly because of perceived discrimination s during the performance evaluation and rewarding process. To be noted here is that it is hard to defend decisions on promotions and other rewards to individual members while ignoring others and this can easily lead to breakdown of unity among employees.
Teamwork leads to waste and thus compromise profits in organizations. It is clear known to all that working as a team is time consuming as it requires much organisational preparations (Fincham  Rhodes 2005, p. 121). Still on this is the fact that much time is required in coordinating teamwork than individual duties. Time is vital factor in the success of an organisation. It is in fact due to this that organisations are more concerned with time management by employees as it influences production. Therefore, teamwork can lead to reduced productivity as it is time consuming.

Since it is evidently clear that working as a team is a great determinant of the sustainable success of an organisation, there is much need to reduce the disadvantages that come with teamwork spirit. The effectiveness of the management of workers is influenced by not only the underlying rules but also by the effectiveness of the management (Rosen 2004, p. 18). It is due to this reason that the competitive advantage of teamwork spirit in an organisation can be improved by ensure an effective management in place. This helps in ensuring effective resolution of any conflicts resulting from team members thus ensuring its success.  It is also to be not that justice and fairness of treatment should be the sole aim of encouraging teamwork in an organisation (Edens, Bowers,  Salas 2001, p. 161). This calls for organisations to have in place governing rules and regulations and ensure harmonious coexistence of employees. Communication is quite crucial in ensuring success of teamwork (Huczynski  Buchanan 2007, p. 113). Owing to this, all employees should be provided with the right information about the purpose and expectations of working as a team. This greats some sense of acceptance, identity and feeling of significance by members in the team. Teamwork calls for unified acting by employees. It is however to be noted that such team grouping should be clearly based on both suitability and ability. Such reduces chances of conflict among team members as well as ensuring motivation.

All in all, working as a team has many advantages to both the workers and the organisation. This is because it improves the effectiveness of the organisation thus ensuring sustainable growth. It also factors greatly in influencing character and socialization abilities of the team members. It is however clear that working as a team can be to the ultimate failure of the organisation.  Teamwork spirit can intensify conflict between management and employees. It also leads to compromised decision making process due to discriminative opinion acceptance. Nevertheless, there is need for organisation to seek for the competitive advantage of teamwork. There should thus be right rules and regulation to guide its success, an effective and reliable management and reliable communication in the organisation.