Making the Team: A Guide for Managers

Team Dilemma: Group Versus Individual Interests

In most teams, members have both cooperative and competitive motives (Deutsch, 1973). Team members share a common objective when they work together—this is the cooperative aspect. Yet in many teams, individual members have an incentive to further their own interests. Team efforts are often subverted when individual agendas lead to competition between members, and members become preoccupied with what others are getting, relative to what they themselves are getting. Sometimes the way teams are set up can lead to these kinds of conflict. For example, when individuals are compensated according to team rather than individual performance, conflict may arise to the detriment of the team if members' skills, ...