By Said Maldonado - Student of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
Have you ever wondered why in study and workplaces, teachers and bosses make you work in a group? Teamwork has some aspects that ensure effectiveness, productivity and better results by doing it this way. Teamwork is a combination of coordination, cooperation and communication. Every person does their best to contribute by applying all these aspects of teamwork and they overcome challenges together after they set a common goal. Teamwork provides the opportunity to work with different groups in specific tasks and improves performance through external feedback and creates a better product that will result in the benefit of everyone.
Teamwork is defined by Ellis and Bell (2005) as the process “where two or more employees interact interdependently toward a common and valued goal or objective, and who have each been assigned specific roles or functions to perform”. It makes the difference when it comes to effectiveness and cooperation. Sometimes when people are stuck and can’t think of a solution, what they do is that they go to other people for help. As reported by the Deloitte Millennial survey in 2016, millennial workers claimed that aspects of teamwork made it easier to work and showed that they were more capable of working like these since they found it more productive. According to Martin and Hans (2001), working in groups leads to a better performance as a whole since goals are accomplished in an effective and efficient way. Susan Heathfield (2021) establishes that people in a group can take better decisions together since each member feels supported by the other. For these reasons, teamwork is more effective than working alone.
Teamwork brings a lot of benefits to the outcome of the work. Since all the team members work for a common goal and set their responsibilities. It is a skill that nowadays is highly requested due to the convenience that it produces. Students create value from working in teams, it also gives them the opportunity to experience real life situations and, also, being a part of society, since it promotes participation.
¿Why is receiving feedback from your teammates is so important and how can it benefit you? According to Nikki Thorpe (2020), when feedback is well delivered, it creates an atmosphere of cohesion. Receiving feedback is very important because it leads to constant learning and to a better interaction with the members. Giving feedback is a skill managers or leaders need to be prepared for, because if it not well delivered it can lead to problems in the group. As stated by Tomas Chamorro (2015), everyone reacts different to feedback and, if it badly delivered, it can create a discussion and a bad atmosphere between the team members.
Although it is proven that many companies and students can work better as a team, many others disagree with this opinion. Studies assume that individualism means the person is very competitive and likes to do the work alone. Wagner (1995) says that individualists are most likely to achieve their personal goals alone. This doesn’t mean that they can’t work in groups but that they prefer to work alone since it is a better fit for them. They always have a goal in mind which is personal achievement.
Different tasks require people to work in the different circumstances and they need to be able to respond correctly. Accepting feedback is part of it since it helps you to improve in many ways. Teamwork is the one of the best ways to develop it because you learn day to day to improve and accomplish goals together. The real reward and benefit is for yourself, accepting being part of a group and receive feedback only makes you better in all the aspects. If you want to accomplish your goals and the goals of your team, you must work in group, and giving and accepting feedback it's one of the best ways to improve as a person.
