Teamwork is fashionable today. Business firms brag about their high performance teams. Management texts would have you believe that work teams are the natural way to accomplish most tasks at work.
I disagree.
Teams probably make somewhat better decisions than individuals, but at a much higher cost in money and time. There are certain tasks at work that are best done by teams, tasks that require the coordinated and collaborative efforts of several people. When the task demands teamwork, teamwork is what we should do.
However, teamwork is not the natural state for individualistic Americans. It isn't popular with star performers who prefer to be responsible for their own performance. I was involved in research which showed that, in an open marketplace, top performing students chose to avoid teamwork situations while mediocre students chose teamwork over individual responsibility. Teamwork makes teasing out the contributions of individuals difficult. This difficulty looks good to mediocre performers and looks bad to star performers, for the obvious reasons.
My experience suggests that when the work can be done by individuals working independently, then it should be done that way for reasons of speed, cost, and accountability. In the United States, teamwork should be considered only when it clearly can produce superior results at a reasonable cost.
