Challenges and benefits of academic group work in teams

Group Challenges

Addressing Challenges in Group Work

Group work can be complicated and challenging, since there are different individuals from different backgrounds attempting to achieve one common goal. Students in many universities are required to work in groups or learning teams. These teams are a representation of the work environment, and team work. In the job force, most types of jobs require working in groups; with one common goal. The academic learning team was established to educate students how to work in groups, work with others to accomplish the same task. In this training plan I will identify some of the challenges, and benefits of working in teams. I will also discuss team communication, collaboration, conflict and how this information would apply to the workforce.

Team Challenges

Some of the main challenges that groups encounter are distrust in team members, communication failure and individuals not knowing how to handle group work. Group work requires critical thinking, analytical skills, and excellent communication skills. Individuals with different personalities and different work ethic can be a potential problem ("Potential challenges with," 2010). Another big problem in team is equal contribution of team members.

Team Benefits

Working with individuals of different backgrounds and different strengths is a great benefit for accomplishing the specified goal. Each team member may have a different skill set which can be utilized differently for task completion. Working in groups could allow individual members to work on the parts of the project that they have familiarity and are knowledgeable about. There are other team members to rely on when help is needed or when one team member is unable to accomplish their task independently. "Groups are understood as potential media through which people express themselves and interact and connect with others, grow and change" (Pattman, 2007).

Collaboration and Conflict

The first recommendation for working in groups is getting to know each other and creating a group plan. The plan should define the goals of the group, it establish rules for handling conflict and deadlines for accomplishing task. The team member's strengths and weaknesses should be discussed. A team leader should be appointed, and the work should be distributed equally based on the individual's strengths (Sarkisian & Bok, 1997). The team should establish their method of communication such as in person meeting, online meeting or teleconferences. Team members should agree upon the meeting type, time and make every effort to attend meetings. This strategy will help prevent conflict and enhance collaboration.

MetLife and Teams

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) is a life insurance company that operates worldwide. The company has been around for over 140 years and operates in over 60 countries (Metlife, 2010). Most of MetLife job functions in teams; individuals are grouped together for projects and given deadlines for project completion. The information learned about team work is essential for functioning in a business environment such as this. Each group has a project leader whose responsibilities are to ensure the members of the team are assigned the proper job responsibilities based on their skills. The project manager is also responsible for ensuring the group completes the project on time and within budget.

Some of the most important concepts that can be utilized in an organization such as MetLife are team communication, collaboration and conflict resolution. The team leader should establish a healthy line of communication within the team, which will allow for discussion of any issues within the team members, with the project, resources or any other problems. Communication is essential in any team; good communication will decrease conflicts within the team. Assigning the work to team members according the strengths is essential for successful completion of task. An organization such as MetLife could utilize the training plan above to create successful team environments. A successful group should understand and follow the group plan for success. Some challenges that the team can face are failure to meet the deadline due to insufficient time for project. In this type of situation the team leader could utilize their communication skills to communicate the need for time to higher authorities.