Does Teamwork Increase Productivity?

I picked this topic because working in teams is a necessary part of many people's jobs and a skill everyone should have. I feel this topic relates to my job because every employee has an important role to play and the more efficient they are then the more work that gets done and ensures a smooth shift for the day. It is also important to see how more experienced personnel in the team interact with those who are less experienced. Through this project I hope to find just how big a difference in productivity can efficient management and teamwork benefit a corporation.

 The point of my paper is that teamwork will always be more efficient than no teamwork at all.

I believe that team building, and efficient teamwork can increase productivity because you have people who work well with each other working together to achieve a set goal that they all feel is obtainable and want to reach. However, sometimes individuals forsake team goals for their own personal gain. I find this happens quite often at my job in an interesting way although it obviously motivated by money and leads to disruptions in the team setting.

In the summer of 2017 I was working two full time jobs. At my first job I was there for 4 years and my role was head chef in the kitchen as well as a shift supervisor in the front of house. It was here I got a small taste in management, motivation, and teamwork. I found teamwork to be extremely important to ensure everything went smoothly. Multiple employees performing tasks at the best of their ability produces fantastic results from my experience.

My second job was at Domino's Pizza working as a Customer Service Representative. Learning to gel with my teammates was especially important in this fast-paced environment. My first job closed not too long after that and I was left with only the Dominos job. Within six months they had already promoted me to assistant manager and that is the title I currently hold. Managing a team of 10 employees a shift proved to more of a challenge compared to 3 at my old job.

I've come to learn that teamwork is very important at establishments such as Dominos because there is always something that needs to be done and a task is always available to be completed. A typical shift at Dominos involves two to four people working inside and at least 5 drivers. The insiders must work together to satisfy the customers that walk in or call as well as work together to make the food so that it can be sent out. The drivers help by taking care of customers as they walk in or even with preparing the food.

Any company relies on a group of people essentially running the business. These people could be employees from the bottom level all the way to the top. In order for it to be ran successfully there needs to be teamwork between these people. Teamwork is when people come together to achieve a certain set of goals in a timely manner and the results are held to a high standard. There are a few different ways management can organize their department or organization to use teamwork to achieve corporate goals.

Teamwork is needed in practically every organization in one way or another. It is important that these teams are effective in achieving goals through a certain group of individuals. But what exactly fuels teamwork? How does it work? There are nine C's which influence teamwork. They are: cooperation, conflict, coordination, communication, coaching, cognition, composition, culture, and context. All these factors and their varying levels within a team can and will affect the outcome of the team.

Training is always a good thing to have regardless of your field or professions. The same thing should apply to teamwork. Not everyone is a natural team player. A study was done to compare the effect team perceived organizational support for teamwork training (team POS-TT) had on productivity in the health care world. Using shared objectives leads to an increase in team productivity and team innovation. POS makes employees think that the organizations they work for care for their values and wellbeing.

Therefore, the employees will be more motivated to reach the goals of the organization as they feel they are their goals as well. That takes care of the individual level but according to , there is also an impact on team performance. If a team feels that they are supported by the organization with resources needed to reach goals, then the team will feel as if they must come together and achieve their goals. After conducting a study, the researchers found that the team's productivity and innovation was influenced by shared objectives. By creating an environment where the teams feel supported and valued.

The article Key Tactics to Build Stronger Teamwork by Jessy Thomas highlights an example of how teamwork must be effective in the health care industry. Apparently, there are high levels of tension and frustration between the nursing and pharmacy departments. The nurses deal with patients directly and must work with the pharmacists to get their patients the medication they require. The nurses believe that the pharmacists don't recognize the pain a patient is going through and therefore don't provide the medication as urgently as the nurses would like them to.

On the other side the pharmacists believe that the nurses don't understand the time and preparation that go into getting the medication ready for the patients. A breakdown in communication between these two departments can lead to many unhappy patients. It is important that effective teamwork is used to satisfy the needs of the patients and is an excellent example of two different teams of people needing to work together to achieve the goals of the hospital and increase productivity. Another way teamwork promotes productivity is through idea generation in a group setting.

Dirk Deichmann and Michael Jensen study why idea generators may choose to work alone or in a group setting. Of course, being part of team when generating ideas has its positives as well as its drawbacks. They figured that an idea generator working on radical ideas would seek out a team due to requiring access to more knowledge as well as resources. This will also help them share the risk of the idea failing with others than just themselves and a successful idea generator is thought to be ""a more attractive partner to others.""

On the other side they believe that an idea generator working on a less radical idea and one who hasn't had much success will find themselves preferring to work alone. This not only hinders personal development, but the development of the corporation as well. After a test was conducted, they found that their assumptions were in fact correct. The only potential downside would be the ""communication and coordination demands of working with teams quickly can overshadow the potential benefits."" But what effect does teamwork have on the members within the team?

In The Buffering Effect of Teamwork Effectiveness on the Relationship between Employee Work Engagement and Behavioral Outcomes Rizwan Ullah, Sajid Rahman Khattak, and Shams ur Rahman a study was done to attempt to link employee work engagement and negative work behavior. Negative work behavior was referring to absenteeism, deviant behavior, and high turnover intention.

The ""wisdom of the crowd"" was described as the diversity provided in teams based on knowledge, skills, and experiences. This promotes performance of the organization and improves the satisfaction level of those within the team. They would measure work engagement based on three dimensions. These dimensions were dedication, vigor, and absorption. The study actually proved that there was a positive impact on workplace engagement when the supervisor was able to motivate the employees.

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