My fellow classmate Ethan talks about the benefits of working in a team as well as the advantages of working in teams. He does prefer working in teams and believes that such a framework can create maximum productivity given a range of skill sets. But thinking about it, isn’t this basically the modern workplace culture where promotions and ranks simply pit employees against each o
ther and encourage a growing culture of backstabbing your peers and unhealthy competition?
As can be evident and validated by most employees in the modern workplace, rivalry, promotions, bonuses for top-ranked employees, and workplace discrimination simply creates a very unproductive environment for work since it would only result in a workplace environment flooded with conflicts and competition. From the company’s point of view, the competition does produce the best product financially, but it compromises on the workplace environment for the same, which would eventually be a tougher task to repair in the long-run.
Another essential criterion to consider which choosing an individual versus group decision, is analyzing the scale of operation and a group size that would match the scale. For example, in a company like Adidas, the Marketing department cannot be managed by one person, they do need a huge team to do with different aspects from social media to event sponsoring.
Therefore, a shift from an individual performance based reward system to a team oriented reward system is an ideal model for a more cooperative workplace- “If you give employees incentives to cooperate, they will share information and take time to train their colleagues instead of thinking [only about] themselves,” Kuhn concludes in an article on the BusinessInsider, which I echo while proposing a solution to the current workplace environment filled with power struggles.
Word Count: 292
References:
http://www.businessinsider.com/teams-more-productive-than-individuals-2013-8
