6 Pros and Cons of Group Work

The notion of a group has been defined as having at least some key attributes, such as shared goals, collective perception, interdependence, needs, social organization, cohesiveness, interaction and membership, and if any of these are present, group work can be successful. However, it does not always work in your favor, especially when a group is composed of individuals from different backgrounds who have varying knowledge and skill levels. Here are the pros and cons of working as a group:

List of Pros of Group Work

1. It allows for more ideas to be shared.
Great things can be achieved if there are plenty of heads looking for solutions and sharing ideas. With the ability to gather several different perspectives and possible approaches, you will be able to accomplish a more successful project. The fact that members can bounce around concepts makes group work highly advantageous.

2. It promotes a common direction.
When you put together a team to manage certain tasks or handle special projects, members will always find a way to follow the same direction. Of course, there will be conflicts and arguments between individuals having different beliefs, but once all is on the same page, they will be able to find a common ground.

3. It can increase efficiency.
Having more people to search for ideas, think and work will make things faster and lessen the amount of time required to complete each project. Unlike what many people say, group work will result in increased efficiency, even when dealing with larger-scale projects. Plus, there will be several people to detect flaws.

List of Cons of Group Work

1. It can create conflicts among members.
If you have different personalities clashing in a team, combined with ineffective communication, you will surely see conflicts arising. Now, having individuals who no longer feels happy about working as a group will affect all parties, causing them not to be able to focus on their tasks at hand.

2. It can lead to loss of resources.
Though group work can be efficient, there are also cases where a team would just spend a lot of time organizing and planning without really getting anywhere. In fact, there may even be difficulties in getting started, especially if the members do not take the time to get to know each other prior to brainstorming.

3. It poses the risk of having a free-rider in the group.
It is almost always possible that there will be someone who rarely does everything, yet he also enjoys the accomplishments and benefits of the entire team. Well, all of us know that nobody likes a free-rider, so this can cause conflicts and arguments. Also, if someone does not contribute to the completion of tasks, the projects will not be completed on time.

Generally, group work is part of a business environment and is used as an approach to complete projects and achieve goals. However, it does not come with the difficulties of making different personality types share a common goal. Based on the pros and cons listed above, what do you think?