Teamwork and collaboration are two terms that are often considered as the same. In fact, both are very similar in nature and cooperatively work towards achieving a common objective. The key difference between teamwork and collaboration is that in teamwork, a group of people perform their individual roles to contribute to the achievement of a goal whereas in collaboration, all individuals are partners that share work as well as ideas and insights to achieve a common objective. Both teamwork and collaboration are commonly seen many organizations of various scales.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Teamwork
3. What is Collaboration
4. Side by Side Comparison – Teamwork vs Collaboration in Tabular Form
5. Summary
What is Teamwork?
Teamwork is an exercise where a group of people perform their individual roles to contribute to the achievement of a goal. A team is led by a team leader and the success of a team depends on having a strong leader to direct the team toward the objective. In an organization, a team can operate on an ongoing basis or can be formed for a specific assignment such as a project. A team is an internal component in an organization.
E.g. KLM is an engineering firm that produces electronic devices. Recently, KLM decided to undertake a project to design and develop a new prototype. A project team is formed including employees from each department and the team will be guided and managed by a project manager.
Successful resource and responsibility allocation are essential for teamwork where exertion of control also plays a key role. Team members are accountable to the team leader who will continuously monitor the performance of the team. The team leader should possess effective negotiation and problem-solving skills where he or she should be able to resolve any conflicts that may arise between team members.
Figure 01: Teamwork is where a group of people perform their individual roles to contribute to the achievement of a goal.
What is Collaboration?
Collaboration is a cooperative arrangement where two or more parties work together towards achieving a common objective, sharing work as well as ideas and insights. Within a collaboration, the parties not only have to work together, they also have to think together. All parties are equal partners in a collaboration; thus, there is no leader. Effective collaboration often leads to synergies where alignment between ideas and useful insights from both parties is essential for the success of the alliance. Collaboration can be internal or external to the organization.
Internal Collaboration
This is where the teams from different departments within the same company work in collaboration to achieve a specific objective.
E.g. BCD is a cosmetic manufacturing company which has recently faced reducing sales due to an international competitor. A team from the marketing department conducted a market research and came up with a number of possible changes to the current product range. As a result, they collaborated with the production and research and development department to execute a plan to implement the changes.
External Collaboration
Collaboration can take place externally where the company enters into partnerships with other companies to form an alliance. This can take the form of a merger, acquisition or joint venture.
E.g. Standard Chartered Bank acquired the Middle East and South Asian Grindlays operations from the ANZ Banking Group in 2000 in order to increase its market share.
Figure 02: Collaboration forms an agreement between two parties.
What is the difference between Team Work and Collaboration?
Team Work vs Collaboration |
|
| Teamwork is an exercise where a group of people perform their individual roles to contribute to the achievement of a goal. | Collaboration is a cooperative arrangement in which two or more parties work together towards achieving a common objective sharing work as well as ideas and insights. |
| Nature | |
| Teamwork is internal to the organization. | Collaboration may be internal or external to the organization. |
| Scope | |
| Teamwork is carried out for an exercise of limited size and scope; thus, usually involve a limited number of individuals. | The scope of a collaboration is wider than teamwork where many individuals are involved. |
Summary – Team Work vs Collaboration
The difference between teamwork and collaboration can be identified as the effort to collectively work towards achieving a common objective where individual perform separate roles to contribute to the achievement of a goal (teamwork) and where individuals are partners that share work as well as ideas and insights are named as collaboration. Collaboration can also be described as an advancement for teamwork that takes place in a greater scale. In both teamwork and collaboration, all individuals should work with goal congruence to successfully obtain the desired goal.
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References:
1.”When was the last time you said this?” BusinessDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. Available here. 02 June 2017.
2.”Emergence and Evolution of R&D Alliance Management.” Robert Thong’s SciTechStrategy Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. Available here.02 June 2017.
3.”Collaboration vs. Teamwork – What’s the difference?” The Theatrefolk Blog. N.p., 20 July 2015. Web. Available here.02 June 2017.
Image Courtesy:
1.”383939″ (Public Domain) via Pixabay
2. “How to run an effective meeting” by Nguyen Hung Vu (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr