Advantages and disadvantages of working in groups
Advantages and disadvantages of working in a group
"A group is a collection of two or more people who possess a common purpose" (Bennett 1997 (Hollings and Rimmer (2007) Pg 171)). This is shown where a shared goal is accomplished by multiple people together. Group work can be effective however problems may also arise in which could be detrimental to the effectiveness of the group. Working in groups can increase productivity if synergy can be formed. This is to say that "a group can give access to shared knowledge, experience and skills....where the group is likely to outperform the individual in most cases, due to shared resources and shared ideas" (Hollings and Rimmer 2007 Pg??), so theoretically the best ideas are put forward and used to bring out the best outcome for the task. If formed properly the group can form cohesion so that the task can be done quicker if certain aspects of the task are shared out for everyone to do a specific thing to contribute to the overall work. However this cohesion may result in a negative effect in the group, "As the group becomes more cohesive, its functioning is affected in a number of ways. First, the interactions and communication between members increase. Common goals, interests and small size all contribute to this. In addition, group member satisfaction increases as the group provides friendship and support against outside threats", (Wikipedia 2011) as indicated by Wikipedia in their article on Synergy. This means that as the group becomes more cohesive social communication increases, so the members of the group may become distracted from the task in hand and therefore there may be a decrease in the productivity. Also because of the increase in friendship the group will develop the same ideas and tend to agree with each other as oppose to differing so new ideas won 't be introduced to the main group because "there is little effective collaboration as members do not know about each other so there will be an
"A group is a collection of two or more people who possess a common purpose" (Bennett 1997 (Hollings and Rimmer (2007) Pg 171)). This is shown where a shared goal is accomplished by multiple people together. Group work can be effective however problems may also arise in which could be detrimental to the effectiveness of the group. Working in groups can increase productivity if synergy can be formed. This is to say that "a group can give access to shared knowledge, experience and skills....where the group is likely to outperform the individual in most cases, due to shared resources and shared ideas" (Hollings and Rimmer 2007 Pg??), so theoretically the best ideas are put forward and used to bring out the best outcome for the task. If formed properly the group can form cohesion so that the task can be done quicker if certain aspects of the task are shared out for everyone to do a specific thing to contribute to the overall work. However this cohesion may result in a negative effect in the group, "As the group becomes more cohesive, its functioning is affected in a number of ways. First, the interactions and communication between members increase. Common goals, interests and small size all contribute to this. In addition, group member satisfaction increases as the group provides friendship and support against outside threats", (Wikipedia 2011) as indicated by Wikipedia in their article on Synergy. This means that as the group becomes more cohesive social communication increases, so the members of the group may become distracted from the task in hand and therefore there may be a decrease in the productivity. Also because of the increase in friendship the group will develop the same ideas and tend to agree with each other as oppose to differing so new ideas won 't be introduced to the main group because "there is little effective collaboration as members do not know about each other so there will be an
Bibliography: Books: • Hollings and Rimmer reference x2 • Tyson, S [2006] "Essentials of Human Resource Management" (5th Edition). India: Charon Tec LTD (still need to include) • Electronic Resources: • Wikipedia. (2011). Synergy. [Online]. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synergy [Accessed on 14th November 2011] • eCollab. (2008). Group Cohesion Problems. [Online]. 2007. Available from http://eCollab.eco-innovation.net/group-cohesion-problems [Accessed on 14th November 2011] • UKEssays.com. (2003-2011). Management Essays, Formal and Informal Groups. [Online]. Available from http://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/formal-informal-groups.php [Accessed on 14th November 2011]