Synergy

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, synergy is the positive result that occurs when “the simultaneous action of separate agencies have greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects.” Management professor Stephen Robbins relates positive and negative synergy to business in the following way:
Synergy is a term used in biology that refers to an action of two or more substances that results in an affect that is different from the individual’s summation of the substances. We can use the concept to better understand group processes. SOCIAL LOAFING, for instance, represents negative synergy. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. On the other hand, research teams are often used in research laboratories because they can draw on the diverse skills of various individuals to produce more meaningful research as a group than could be generated by all of the researchers working independently. That is, they produce positive synergy. Their process gains exceed their process losses.
According to prominent MANAGEMENT theorists, including Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in their classic managementdevelopment theory, synergy is a critical element of the managerial grid. In managerial-grid theory, managers (leaders) have as much concern for developing their people as they do for attaining their goals or objectives. The grid provides a visual framework for considering leadership approaches with axes of concern for production and concern for people. Simply put, if synergy is fully utilized, one plus one should be more than two. Managerial-grid training became quite popular in the 1970s and 1980s as a mechanism for developing managers; extensive public and custom programs were developed. A critical component of the training process is basic PROBLEM SOLVING or decision making through the use of critique, or constructive criticism. Managerial-grid workshops focus on how to use this in a positive fashion to obtain optimum operational solutions while maximizing teamwork. In addition, work by Janis discusses the phenomenon of groupthink and the loss of synergy if the leader or manager allows this process to take place. Groupthink is social conformity and pressure to conform. Groupthink reduces individual initiative, creative problem solving, and the benefits of synergy through teamwork.