Myths And Realities Of Teamwork

In this essay we will briefly discuss the myths of teamwork. I will briefly give my personal point of view on the myths or realities. I will analyze one of these myths and discuss why do people buy into the myth.

There are six different myths that were briefly discussed in the reading assignment. The first one is that the teams are peaceful and that they tend to put their needs aside for the sake of the team. The reality is that the team members have different backgrounds, which is almost always a good thing and you don’t think of yourself it’s always us. I believe this myth to be invalid because the team is always us because if you only think of yourself your team will not be progressing.

The second myth is that disagreement in a team is unhealthy. The reality of this myth is that arguing and disagreeing can actually be good for the team. It may make the team coordinate everything for the better. Nothing comes easy; sometimes you have to agree to disagree.

The third myth that was discussed is that individuals like teamwork. In reality, only a third of people like to work as a team. The third prefers to work alone, and the last third kind of work either way. I for example, am part of the third that could deal with or without teamwork. If I have to work as a team I will, if I could do without it I will as well.

The fourth myth is that teamwork is important for an organization to thrive. The reality is that teamwork is very difficult and that depending on the level of complexity of the assignment, the group can do without teamwork. Teamwork is really difficult and it is not always easy if you could do without it and work individually then it’s just easier.

The fifth myth is that teamwork is easy to deal with as a leader. In reality teamwork is very complex and it needs a very brave and highly confident superior. It all ends up falling on the superior. They have to know what they are doing and be brave enough to lead the team.

The last myth is that superiors love working with teamwork. In reality, the opposite is true. They don’t prefer it because they are worried about losing sense of control and they may worry about all the trouble and problems that will result from teamwo. I think that depending on the personality of the leader the superior may not want to work in teams to portray their own weakness.

The myth that I will further analyze is the third myth that individuals like to work as a team. I believe that individuals may buy into it is because sometimes if it wasn’t for teamwork certain assignments may not be done because you need a diverse group of different thinking and jobs to make it work; even though only a third of people like to work as a group. Teamwork is said to cause a lot of frustration in the workplace and depending how much teamwork is required, employees start looking for other job opportunities. Premuzic (2017) claims that individuals are not susceptible to working well with one another. He also claims that in order to work well together as team, you have to have three personality traits. They are ambition, creativity and openness to experience, as well as conscientiousness and self-control. Ambition is required because it tends to push an individual forward and aim for excellent results even though too much ambition can cause one to think they’re better than others. Openness to experience is both a bad and good thing.

Since you’re open to new experience you will try out new ways to get a result and you wont be afraid to try it out. The downside is that sometimes you end up overworking for no reason. Then comes self-control, this is important because when you are conscious you will be alert to what is going on and then with self control you will know when to stop and will avoid distractions and will aim to work for the better.

In conclusion, I believe that working in a team is quite complicated no matter what leader or group members are in the team. You always have to learn to work well with one another and push for the better of the organization and to get the job done. You don’t want to look bad so try your best and pray for the best. Even though I don’t like working in a team when I have to I will. I don’t think that I will look for another job because of it.