Department of Design Sciences, Lund University , Lund, Sweden.
Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University , Lund, Sweden.
J Health Organ Manag. 2017 May 15;31(3):347-362. doi: 10.1108/JHOM-12-2016-0233.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how organizational design could support teamwork and to identify organizational design principles that promote successful teamwork. Design/methodology/approach Since traditional team training sessions take resources away from production, the alternative approach pursued here explores the promotion of teamwork by means of organizational design. A wide and pragmatic definition of teamwork is applied: a team is considered to be a group of people that are set to work together on a task, and teamwork is then what they do in relation to their task. The input - process - output model of teamwork provides structure to the investigation. Findings Six teamwork enablers from the healthcare team literature - cohesion, collaboration, communication, conflict resolution, coordination, and leadership - are discussed, and the organizational design measures required to implement them are identified. Three organizational principles are argued to facilitate the teamwork enablers: team stability, occasions for communication, and a participative and adaptive approach to leadership. Research limitations/implications The findings could be used as a foundation for intervention studies to improve team performance or as a framework for evaluation of existing organizations. Practical implications By implementing these organizational principles, it is possible to achieve many of the organizational traits associated with good teamwork. Thus, thoughtful organization for teamwork can be used as an alternative or complement to the traditional team training approach. Originality/value With regards to the vast literature on team training, this paper offers an alternative perspective on how to improve team performance in healthcare.
目的 本文旨在探讨组织设计如何支持团队合作，并确定促进成功团队合作的组织设计原则。
设计/方法/途径 由于传统的团队培训课程会占用生产资源，因此这里所采用的替代方法是通过组织设计来促进团队合作。本文应用了广泛而务实的团队合作定义：将团队视为一组被分配到一起完成任务的人员，而团队合作则是他们在任务相关方面所做的工作。团队合作的投入-过程-产出模型为调查提供了结构。
发现 从医疗保健团队文献中讨论了六个团队促进因素——凝聚力、协作、沟通、冲突解决、协调和领导力，并确定了实施这些因素所需的组织设计措施。提出了三个组织原则来促进团队合作促进因素：团队稳定性、沟通机会以及参与式和适应性的领导方法。
研究局限性/影响 研究结果可作为干预研究的基础，以提高团队绩效，或作为评估现有组织的框架。
实际影响 通过实施这些组织原则，可以实现许多与良好团队合作相关的组织特征。因此，精心组织的团队合作可以替代或补充传统的团队培训方法。
原创性/价值 就团队培训的大量文献而言，本文提供了一种改善医疗保健团队绩效的替代视角。
