每日英語 #135: Teamwork

2024/09/29 更新2024/09/29 發佈閱讀 6 分鐘

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Teamwork

In the past 30 years, both schools and businesses in the United States have “stressed” (emphasized) the importance of “teamwork,” of people working together to solve a common problem instead of doing everything alone. The idea is that you will be more “productive” (get more done) and/or learn more if you work with someone else. Businesses often say they are looking to “hire” (employ) someone who is a “team player,” someone who will cooperate and work together well with others.

在過去的30年裡，美國的學校和企業都強調了「團隊合作」的重要性，讓人們一起工作來解決共同的問題，而不是單打獨鬥。這種想法是，與他人合作會讓你變得更加「有生產力」（完成更多事情）或學到更多東西。企業經常表示，他們正在尋找「團隊成員」，也就是能夠與他人合作、共同努力工作的人。

However, not everyone likes working with a “teammate” (a person in your group or team). Researchers in a 2011 study asked 174 people to perform a simple “task” (job). For each task “participants” (those who were part of the study) completed successfully, they would be given 27 cents. They could work by themselves or with another person, but the pay they received would be the same. About 40% of the women chose to work with someone else, but only 11% of the men did. Women clearly preferred to work together more than men did.

然而，不是每個人都喜歡與「隊友」（團隊中的一員）一起工作。2011年的一項研究邀請了174名受試者完成一項簡單的「任務」（工作）。每完成一項任務，「參與者」（研究中的一員）可以得到27美分。他們可以選擇自己完成任務或與他人合作，但得到的報酬是相同的。大約40％的女性選擇與他人合作，而只有11％的男性這樣做。顯然，女性比男性更喜歡合作。

Why did men prefer to work alone more than women? The study found that men thought working with another person would slow them down, making them less able to get the work done quickly. Yet people who worked with others actually did better on average than those who worked alone. Men were more likely to “overestimate their abilities” (think they were better than they actually were), thinking they could do better by themselves than with another person.

為什麼男性比女性更喜歡單獨工作呢？研究發現，男性認為與他人合作會拖慢速度，使他們無法快速完成工作。然而，實際上與他人合作的人平均表現比單獨工作的人要好。男性更容易「高估自己的能力」（認為自己比實際更強），認為自己能比與他人合作時做得更好。

So how do you get men to work with others? You pay them more. When researchers in the study said that they would pay participants three cents more to join a group, the men were just as likely to join a group as the women, with about 75% choosing to work with a partner. The researchers in the study concluded that men appear to need a greater “incentive” (reward) for working with other people than women do.

那麼，怎麼讓男性與他人合作呢？答案是提高報酬。當研究人員告知參與者，如果加入團隊可以多獲得3美分時，男性與女性一樣願意加入團隊，大約有75％的人選擇與他人合作。研究人員得出結論，男性似乎比女性需要更大的「激勵」（獎勵）來促使他們與他人合作。