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Synchronous work: myth or reality? A critical study of teams in health and medical care
Author(s) -
Berlin Johan M.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2753.2009.01334.x
Subject(s) - teamwork , ideal (ethics) , psychology , presumption , work (physics) , computer science , nursing , medicine , epistemology , engineering , management , philosophy , political science , law , economics , mechanical engineering
Rationale, aims and objectives In this article, ideal conceptions about teamwork are tested. The research question posed is: How are teams in psychiatry formed? Three theoretical concepts that distinguish groups from teams are presented: sequentiality, parallelism and synchronicity. The presumption is that groups cooperate sequentially and teams synchronously, while the parallel work mode is a transitional form between group and team. Methods Three psychiatric outpatient teams at a university hospital specialist clinic were studied. Data were collected through 25 personal interviews and 82 hours of observations. The data collection was carried out over 18 months (2008–2009). Results Results show: (1) that the three theoretical distinctions between group and team need to be supplemented with two intermediate forms, semiparallel and semisynchronous teamwork; and (2) that teamwork is not characterized by striving towards a synchronous ideal but instead is marked by an adaptive interaction between sequential, parallel and synchronous working modes. Conclusions The article points to a new intermediate stage between group and team. This intermediate stage is called semiparallel teamwork . The study shows that practical teamwork is not characterized by a synchronous ideal, but rather is about how to adaptively find acceptable solutions to a series of practical problems. The study emphasizes the importance of the team varying between different working modes, so‐called semisystematics .