Teamworked organisational engineering: getting the most out of teamworking

Abstract

Teamworking is proving to be a popular method of organising to exploit new technology and respond to the demands of globalisation, but having tried it, many companies are finding that effective implementation is not as easy as they first thought. New research in the Change Management Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University has identified why this is the case. Although thought by many to be a general panacea, research has identified three quite different approaches to teamworking each with different purposes, payoffs, forms, structures, strengths and weaknesses. The authors offer an outline of a prototype methodology to help managers, in their roles as architects and designers of company organisation, think through and engineer requisite teamwork arrangements.