Many organizations are involved with the introduction of teamwork. A team can be considered as a number of people (a group) organized around a set of objectives. Teamwork can be regarded as a remedy for the dysfunctions of bureaucratic structures which are still dominant in organizations.Today, bureaucracies must operate in a far more complex and uncertain environment than ever before. They threaten to be destroyed by the burden of activities created by themselves to control and coordinate the segmented organization.

In order to survive they must invest in new control strategies. Two of these strategies imply the introduction of team concepts in the design of the organization. One strategy involves the introduction of 'lateral linkages'. These are groups that horizontally cut across the existing boundaries of functions. A special form of this is the management team. The creation of self-contained units is the second team-based strategy. With this alternative the functions are integrated around a certain order flow; complete little firms are created within the walls of a bigger firm. The autonomous production team is an important example of this.

The creation of a teamwork organization is to be approached from a double perspective. The team is both the result of organization design choices and of a development process by which the team members learn from their experiences. Organization design and organization development are to be viewed as two sides of the same coin. The introduction of teamwork in organizations is a matter of careful design. The team is an organization in itself, but at the same time is part of a larger system. Tasks must be allocated between and within teams. Systems must be introduced to control the work process. A number of important structural criteria apply to both the lateral and the production teams: a complete task to be carried out independently; a good link with other groups in the organization; sufficient instruments to steer the group's own process; and a good internal organization.