The organisational context for teamwork: Comparing health care and business literature

Abstract

Teams are a significant tool for promoting and managing change. There are shared definitionsof teamwork in the literature, and agreement on general benefits and limitations of workingin teams. However, the historical development of teamwork differs between health care andthe business environments of manufacturing and service industries. The impact of theorganisational context on teamwork appears to differ most, when literature from the twoenvironments is compared. As a result, there are specific issues that are unique to thedevelopment and implementation of health care teams. This article summarises the uniqueteam structures and the issue of professionalisation in health care teams, while recommendingthat team members acknowledge their professional differences and focus foremost on meetingpatient needs.