essay - GMAT: Issue 36

Businesses and other organizations have overemphasized the importance of working as a team. Clearly, in any human group, it is the strong individual, the person with the most commitment and energy, who gets things done.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
I totally disagree with the opinion that working as a team is much inferior to the power of individuals. Working as a team is the most essential for almost all enterprises, even though the importance of individual ability remains unchanged. I'd like to describe the importance of the team below, mentioning differences in various industries and the size of corporations.

Admittedly, the importance of the role of individuals vary with the industries. That is, enterprises providing a certain professional service such as law services and medical cares might not need the strength of forming team as much as the other types of business. A super intelligent attorney can bring big profits to the company, because courts are places where a few attorneys work at any given time. Almost all enterprises, however, need a power of teamwork, because almost all work that the company needs to perform require a certain amount of employees; in other words, an individual can affect a limited influence. How does a factory of automobiles operate? How does a product such as a candy bar appear in front of customers? Tens and hundreds, or thousands, people need to work as a team to perform a very single task in the business function. In the environment, what an individual can do is limited, and above all, emphasis on individualism should not disturb the sense of coorporation that is essential to form a great team.

A size of the corporation might also be one factor of determining the degree of influence of teams. At a small business, certainly, a competent person can make a big change on the company, because the individual can do a certain work affecting the outcome of the business, and the influence of the individual reaches out a certain degree in the company. On the other hand, at big corporations such as Fortune 500 companies, the range that an individual can affect is limitted. Thus, for the employees, it becomes important to work as a team rather than tend to exert his individual influence. From my personal experience, I have worked for both sizes of corporation. At a middle-sized company, I could enjoy my personal significance, while at a big-sized company that I currently belong to, I know the limitation of my personal influence and try to maximize the power of the team that I belong to.

In conclusion, my belief shows that working as a team is much more important than exerting personal influence at any organizations. Although the degree depends on the type and size of the business to some extent, how we work effectively and efficiently as a team will make a big difference for all companies.