Team Players and Teamwork, Completely Updated and Revised: New Strategies for Developing Successful Collaboration

Chapter 1. TEAM PLAYERS AND TEAMWORK: THE NEW REALITY

In the 1980s many highly regarded books on business leadership highlighted the value of teamwork and team players (Kanter, 1983; Peters, 1987; Bradford and Cohen, 1984; Lawler, 1986). In the real world, however, team building was more promoted by behavioral scientists than it was accepted and practiced in American business. Teamwork was considered "nice" but not critical for the success of the corporation. Teamwork as a goal was linked with other corporate goals that were given more lip service than real backinggoals such as community responsibility, affirmative action, a clean environment, and employee development.

Then, at the end of that decade, teamwork gained in importance as public and ...