Hackman's Misconceptions On Teamwork

J. Richard Hackman was a professor of social and organizational psychology at Harvard University. Hackman was known for his many contributions to our understanding of work design and team effectiveness. (Wageman & Amabile, 2013) He was also the author and co-author of 10 books. Throughout his career Dr. Hackman observed corporate boards, sports teams, orchestra players, telephone-line repair crews, hospital workers and restaurant kitchen staff members. (Hevesi, 2013) According to Hackman teamwork and collaboration are critical to mission achievement in any organization that has to respond quickly to changing circumstances. My research in the U.S intelligence community has not only affirmed that idea but also surfaced a number of mistaken beliefs
Our company is one of those believers in teamwork but Hackman argues that most company has misconceptions on teamwork. The first misconception that Hackman mentions is on “harmony.” Many companies feels that if a team has smooth interaction it would avoid wasting time and having debates on how to proceed. (Hackman, 2011) According to Hackman (2011), “Conflict, when well managed and focused on a team’s objectives, can generate more creative solutions than one sees in conflict-free groups.” Conflict and constructive criticism seems to bring out great ideas and help see more than one point of view. The second misconception that Hackman mention was “mixing it up.” According to Hackman (2011), the longer members stay together as an intact group, the better they do. As an employee who participates in groups it easier to continue to work with the same people because you get to know and learn the people in the group which helps with knowing their triggers and fuses. When adding new people to an existing group or changing team could possibly prolong the project because now that team has to reacquaint themselves with each other as well
One advantage is when working in a team everyone’s strength and expertise can be utilized and responsibility can be distributed. (Goodman, 2015) Typically, teams are formed by the expertise of each person that is need to get the job done. As the world famous Michael Jordan quotes, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” Another advantage according to Frost (2015), the sense of security and support a team creates may encourage employees to take more risks. Sometimes when working on a team project, that extra boost or knowledge transfer from other team members can lead to relationships that would benefit the team. When you have multiple people working on a project, this allows for many checks and balances to catch any mistakes or missing information that later can hurt the company. (Frost, 2015) Many customers and business partners may find it easier to communicate with a team rather than a number of individuals working in isolation. (Nordmeyer, n.d.) When working on a proposal the government would like to have one document from the company which means a member from each department needs to work together to deliver a final product that represents the company. If individuals were to put together the proposal document it runs the risk of not being well put together and not what the customer