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Portrait of Mats Alvesson. Photo.

Mats Alvesson

Professor

Portrait of Mats Alvesson. Photo.

The making and unmaking of teams

Author

  • Katja Einola
  • Mats Alvesson

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