
Mats Alvesson
Professor

The making and unmaking of teams
Author
Summary, in English
Contemporary expert organizations rely heavily on cross-border, often temporary teams typically working through virtual means of communication. While static aspects of teams are well researched, there have been considerably fewer studies on team dynamics and team processes. Existing process studies tend to take a cautious, entity-based approach, emphasizing team structure as much as (or even more than) processual aspects. This article represents a shift from studying teams as entities and structures changing over time to studying teams as an on-going process. Participants engage in teaming and thus in the continued making and sometimes unmaking of teams. We report on a study of three anatomically similar, self-managed teams performing the same set of complex tasks with radically different teaming processes. With more or less successful shared sensemaking, the team members collectively create (or fail to create) not only team task outputs but also the team itself.
Department/s
- Department of Business Administration
Publishing year
2019-02-15
Language
English
Pages
1891-1919
Publication/Series
Human Relations
Volume
72
Issue
12
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Topic
- Social Psychology
Keywords
- process study
- sensemaking
- team effectiveness
- team processes
- teams
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0018-7267