Disadvantage of Collaboration in the Workplace

Collaboration in the workplace has many disadvantages, if they do not work well together. There are many things that need to go wrong in order for collaboration in the workplace not to work like it should. Bringing together a group of people for one common goal can introduce a wealth of problems. You have different personalities, different work experience, and different expectations trying to collaborate with each other to complete a task.

The personalities of the different people can make it difficult for the group to work together. We know that some people use their personality to take over and or dominate the group that type of behavior. Personality conflicts are devastating to the group that is trying to collaborate together. The personalities that are so persuasive tend to take over the discussion and supplement their ideas as the outcome for the group. When this type of personality is involved in the group, people have to be will to step up and let that person or persons know that they cannot take over the group. "While bringing different stakeholders together for the common good can introduce various new perspectives to the dynamic of the discussion, there is also the looming threat of group think. This occurs when the stronger personalities are so persuasive that they manage to take over the discussion and supplant their ideas as the outcome for the group." (Bright Hub, 2011)

Having different work experiences, can be a very good thing, because it allows the group to have diversity when it comes to figuring out the potential problems. The diversity of the group can be a disadvantage because it can cause false confidence among the people in the group. Some people think that it may be use to make unsound decisions for the group, and fear of dissention among the group. "When team members are constantly at crossroads over key points, the project suffers. Personality clashes have a lot to do with the ability to come to an agreement and if the chosen individuals are not able to communicate effectively, the overall project objectives will not be met."

(Bright Hub, 2011)

Having different expectations of the collaboration can be a disadvantage, because each member of the group can have the ability to tap masses of information with little or no credibility. Credibility of the people in the collaboration can become suspect, and then the other members will not be as likely to share the most pertinent information necessary for the group. Accentually, this hurts the group as a whole, because there is a lack of trust and honesty among the members in the group. This concept can be projected for a business group or international organization trying to collaborate with another group from another area of the country or the world.

The Cost of Collaboration May Be High

The cost of collaboration can be very high due to