Performance Management: Putting Research into Action

What Constitutes a Team?

By definition a team is a distinguishable set of two or more people interacting toward a common goal with specific roles and boundaries on tasks that are interdependent and that are completed within a larger organizational context (Kozlowski & Bell, 2003; Salas, Dickinson, Converse, & Tannenbaum, 1992). The tasks which teams work on tend to require dynamic exchange of team member resources (including information), coordination of activities, adaptability to task demands, and an organizational structure that organizes members (Swezey, Meltzer, & Salas, 1994). Both task interdependence and outcome interdependence characterize team-based work (Wageman, 2001). Task interdependence refers to the inherent nature of the ...