TEAMWORK IN HEALTHCARE CONTEXT

Teamwork in Healthcare Context

Teamwork in Healthcare Context

Q: What is meant by teamwork in the healthcare context, and are the claims for its importance sustainable?

Introduction

In today's fast-paced organizational environment, the use of teamwork has led to innovative problem solving and high levels of performance in Healthcare Organizations. Moreover, teamwork is one of the most critical components necessary to place a company on Fortune magazine's list of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America.” According to leadership scholars R. N. Lussier and C. F. Achua, “everyone talks about teams, but it takes more than an ad hoc team of people to make up a winning team” (Lussier & Achua 2001, 249).

Business consultant J. Kouzes and leadership scholar B. Posner's research in The Leadership Challenge shows that leadership (and success) is “not a solo act, but a total team effort with winning strategies based on the 'We, not I' philosophies” (Kouzes & Posner 2002, 242).

Important teamwork issues include key definitions; reasons for teams, including advantages and disadvantages; stages of team development; types of teams; team leadership; team dynamics; teamwork and change; and rewarding teams.

Key Definitions

Fundamental to the concept of “team” is the concept of “team.” People have often noted that a team is a team but that a team is not necessarily a team. Therefore, one must distinguish between teams and groups. Psychology scholar Marvin Shaw defined a team as “two or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other person” (Shaw in Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy 2002, 288). The two key components of this definition are the concepts of reciprocal influence and mutual interaction between members.

Business executives Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith defined a team as “a unit of two or more people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals and expectations, for which they hold themselves accountable” (Katzenbach & Smith 2003, 45). The two key components of this definition are the concepts of common purpose and shared goals. One primary difference between groups and teams is that groups designate a leader, whereas teams have shared leadership in which an individual may take a leadership role, or individuals may take leadership roles, depending on the task and on the individuals' areas of expertise. Members of a team have individual accountability for completing team tasks, whereas team members have shared accountability for setting and meeting the outcomes for the team. In fact, for groups the purposes of the specific work team reflect the purposes of the Healthcare organization wherein the groups operate. Members of teams develop their own vision and/or purpose and are not constrained by organizational boundaries. Moreover, team members have a shared sense of mission and collective responsibility for carrying out that mission.

Why teams?

In that regard, teams have the advantage of bringing synergy (combined action or operation) to a task. That is, the output of the team exceeds the sum ...