Why Is Teamwork or Cooperation Important in the Workplace?

A workplace is necessarily composed of individuals, but a workplace in which these individuals don't work together in positive ways will never perform to its full potential. Creative teamwork maximizes individuals' strengths and minimizes their weaknesses, leading to a workplace that is efficient, dynamic and productive.

Synergy is a process in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Synergy is a central factor of effective teamwork. The combined efforts of a team that works well together accomplish more than the total efforts of all the members would have accomplished if they were each working alone. This is because many of the functions of business are improved by the creative interaction of people cooperating together. Individuals can learn from each other, consult with each other about problems and come to agreements about the best ways to reach goals.

Teamwork and cooperation greatly increase the efficiency of an organization. If employees are working separately and unaware of each other's activities, they could be unwittingly duplicating their efforts to no great advantage. By delegating tasks based on abilities and having each member of a team focus on accomplishing certain aspects of a project, a cooperative team can achieve goals using far less time and energy than if each of the team members was working alone.

Communication skills are critical to the success of any group endeavor. When coworkers share information, it helps them all to remain aware of who is doing what and of where they stand in relation to their final goal. Cooperation and teamwork facilitate communication by fostering an atmosphere of mutual support in which each member of the team feels supported by the others. This communication between team members increases feelings of solidarity as everyone begins to develop similar ideas about where their team is headed.

Some personalities enjoy working alone, while others prefer to be part of a team. For people in the latter category, cooperating as part of a team provides an important sense of support and morale in the process of completing a job. Working alone or, worse, competing with others in a negative way, drains people's motivation to complete a task. When working as part of a team, a sense of responsibility to one's coworkers maintains energy levels and determination to do high-quality work.