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This study aims to explore challenges arising from the development of teamwork in a new organizational structure, based on the experiences of the staff involved.

An explorative and qualitative approach was used, with individual interviews as the data collection method. These interviews were analyzed using qualitative and interpretative analysis with a modified editing style.

The results describe how the lack of essential organizational prerequisites for teamwork and the absence of the leadership qualities needed to facilitate teamwork contribute to difficulties in working in a team-orientated way. Shortage of information among the team members and few scheduled meetings signify insufficient coordination within the working team. Without a team leader who can keep things together, read the team members’ needs and support and guide them, team work is difficult to uphold because the members will need to seek support elsewhere. Assumed synergies from working together as team member experts will be thwarted.

This study contributes knowledge about the difficulties in creating team-orientated cooperation in a new organizational structure when leadership as well as structures and processes supporting team work are absent. The challenges described are drawn from the experiences of the staff concerned, providing insights to form a basis for theoretical and practical discussion.

The paper argues that the widespread changes in manufacturing industry are best conceptualised as paradigmatic, in that they constitute a patterned reconfiguration of ideas, beliefs and values about manufacturing philosophy, strategy, structure, organisation and operations. The widespread adoption of teamworking is part of this patterning and is argued to reflect a new institutional form of manufacturing organisation. In investigating teamworking, the paper uses the concept of organisational archetypes to investigate whether or not teamworking takes a single, or variety of interlocking forms. Empirical studies are introduced to justify the articulation of three teamworking forms: a “‘self‐directed” archetypal form and two other sub‐types, “lean” and “project”, neither of which, it is argued, are truly archetypal. The paper concludes that broad institutional changes toward a teamworked manufacturing organisation impact on the “interpretive schema” of managers operating in specific task environments who prescribe and deploy this new organisational format. This creates the two hybrid sub‐types in practice. The findings of this research have implications for both practitioners involved in designing and introducing teamworking into manufacturing firms, and for academics researching on team based organisational design.

Posits that while team development has become fashionable managers are often uncertain about its value to their business and what is required from the organization to support its introduction. Explores some key questions faced by managers and answers are supported by case studies and examples. Outlines the benefits of team development initiatives for major organizational change and emphasizes the need to fully support the introduction of teamworking to maximize its impact. Considers various problems and pitfalls and ways of overcoming these difficulties, and details a team development process for those interested in what actually happens to the teams.

In an attempt to address the turbulence which characterises their operating environment, many public sector organisations have been seduced by the concept of teamworking. Often this is perceived as offering an organisational solution to the problems presented by government demands for enhanced levels of performance, efficiency and effectiveness. This paper explores the difficulties experienced by one Next Steps agency in its attempt to introduce teamworking within a bureaucratic maze. More specifically, it highlights fundamental incompatibilities between the teamworking concept and the traditional bureaucracy, which has resulted in the existence of a number of potent “trip wires”. It is argued that these trip wires can only be disarmed and the full benefits of teamworking realised by dismantling the bureaucracy.

The growing use of teams to accomplish work in libraries has brought qualitative changes to the nature of work and leadership in library organizations. Collaborative work in team-based organizations and the rise of distributed leadership require different skills from traditional, hierarchically structured workplaces. The literature on team skills provides insight and direction for library human resources management practices. Growing research on emotional intelligence in the workplace also provides new guidance for selection and personnel practices. The literature in these areas can help library organizations more effectively select those who have the attributes needed to be successful in this new environment. It can also help library organizations shape training and developmental opportunities to enhance these critically needed skills.

Like it or not, change is inevitable if you are to survive. Far better to instigate change than allow other people to inflict it on you. To anticipate the future has to be good to allow time to implement change rather than having to react to it. This appears quite simple, but is it? This special themed issue of Management Decision contains a number of examples of how organizations have managed change. Lessons can be learned from other industries than your own with regard to best practice and basic principles which can then be applied to your own organization..

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

The following case study aims to explore management's, health professionals' and patients' experiences on the extent to which there is visibility of management support in achieving effective interdisciplinary team working, which is explicitly declared in the mission statement of a 60-bed acute rehabilitative geriatric hospital in Malta.

A total of 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the above-mentioned key stakeholders.

Three main distinct yet interdependent themes emerged as a result of thematic analysis: “managing a team-friendly hospital”, “interdisciplinary team components”, and “interdisciplinary team processes”. The findings show that visibility of management support and its alignment with the process and content levels of interdisciplinary teamwork are key to integrated care for acute rehabilitative geriatric patients.

The emerging phenomena may not be reproducible in a different context; although many of the emerging themes could be comfortably matched with the existing literature.

The implications are geared towards raising the consciousness and conscientiousness of good practice in interdisciplinary teamwork in hospitals, as well as in emphasizing organizational and management support as crucial factors for team-based organizations.

Interdisciplinary teamwork in acute rehabilitative geriatrics provides optimal quality and integrated health care delivery with the aim that the older persons are successfully discharged back to the community.

The authors draw on solid theoretical frameworks – the complexity theory, team effectiveness model and the social identity theory – to support their major finding, namely the alignment of organizational and management support with intra-team factors at the process and content level.

In this chapter we examine various human resource management (HRM) implications involved in the leadership of fluid teams. Leadership of fluid teams, which are distinguished by their dynamic composition, requires consideration of issues that may not be as pertinent for stable teams. In particular, we focus on the concept of familiarity. Composing and leading teams with members exhibiting varying degrees of familiarity with one another creates obstacles to effective and efficient functioning and may ultimately lead to poor performance. With this in mind, leaders must pay particular attention to issues of coordination, and composition such that a broad range of generalizable teamwork skills exists within the team. Within this chapter, we explain the concepts of fluid teams, team leadership within fluid teams, and other relevant concepts related to the formation of familiarity. Next, we thoroughly review extant empirical and theoretical research within these areas. We identify areas of correspondence among the various concepts and findings of the reviewed studies and generate an integrated model of fluid team leadership. To conclude, we highlight the distinct HRM implications associated with the use, and leadership, of fluid teams.

The purpose of this study is to explore how effective new venture teams are developed in venture creation programmes.

This paper presents a multiple case study focusing on the development of effective new venture teams. Semi-structured interviews with 15 new venture teams from two different venture creation programmes were conducted and an abductive analysis approach was used.

Three key phases of the development of an effective new venture team are identified: (1) establishing a foundation for collaboration, (2) structuring the teamwork and (3) adapting to changes. Key activities undertaken by effective new venture teams in each phase are explicated. The findings suggest that new venture teams that are able to establish a foundation for team collaboration and teamwork structuring have the capacity to persevere through the challenges inherent in emerging ventures.

This study offers a much-needed practical perspective about how effective new venture teams are developed in venture creation programmes, and how venture creation programme educators can facilitate the development of effective new venture teams. For educators, these findings provide important insights about team-based learning in entrepreneurship education.