Contributed by Dr. Todd Harris, a director of research at PI and an expert in industrial and organizational psychology. Todd has advised clients, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies, on leadership, personality assessment and talent management.

Organizations throughout the world have increasingly adopted team-based work structures. Consider the following points:

• As many as half of the Fortune 500 companies use teams in some part of their operations.
• Studies of managers show that they spend 30-80 percent of their time in team meetings.
• As many as 11 million meetings occur daily in North America.

Most models of the organization of the future are premised on teams surpassing individuals as the primary performance unit in the company. Clearly, changes in the world of work—such as advances in information technology, globalization, hyper-competition, knowledge-based work, and worker empowerment—will mean the workplace of the future will be much more collaborative than its predecessor.

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