The Search for Internal and External Fit in Teams

In his essay commemorating the famous Hawthorne studies, Harold Leavitt (1975) suggested that people and organizations would be “better off” if groups, not individuals, were the basic building blocks of organizations (Hackman, 1987). Since his prophetic essay, the use of groups and teams in organizations has greatly expanded. As the focus of organizations shifted toward quality, innovation, and accountability, an emphasis on the use of work teams emerged (Kozlowski, Gully, Salas, & CannonBowers, 1996). As a result, organizations have restructured and are continuing to restructure work around teams rather than individual jobs (Ilgen, 1994). In parallel, the need and demand for theoretical and empirical research on team functioning have intensified. Past reviews of the literature on small groups and teams indicated considerable growth in the volume of team research over this same time horizon (Cohen & Bailey, 1997; Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson, & Jundt, 2005; Kozlowski & Bell, 2003; McGrath, Arrow, & Berdahl, 2000). The increased focus on team research has helped develop convergence on many conceptual developments in the team literature. A recent example is the consensus that has developed regarding teams as complex systems (McGrath et al., 2000). Teams perform over time and within context, creating an environment that introduces a level of complexity not accounted for within traditional cause and effect perspectives on team functioning. For