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

Teams are a significant tool for promoting and managing change. There are shared definitions of teamwork in the literature, and agreement on general benefits and limitations of working in teams. However, the historical development of teamwork differs between health care and the business environments of manufacturing and service industries. The impact of the organisational context on teamwork appears to differ most, when literature from the two environments is compared. As a result, there are specific issues that are unique to the development and implementation of health care teams. This article summarises the unique team structures and the issue of professionalization in health care teams, while recommending that team members acknowledge their professional differences and focus foremost on meeting patient needs.