Dreamteam or Nightmare? Collaboration in Project Teams

Abstract

Contemporary organizations increasingly implement project teams. Often interdisciplinary by nature, project teams unite team members from different departments or areas of expertise within an organization who typically work on non-routine tasks. As such, project teams face a number of inherent challenges. In particular, collaborative task accomplishment is often subject to interpersonal conflict. This chapter highlights the specific challenges faced by project teams and showcases different approaches for conflict management and team development in project teams. Challenges in Project TeamworkProject teams are usually created to operate in parallel to and on top of an existing organizational structure. That is, their team members usually do not work exclusively on the project, but rather still have other responsibilities and obligations within their departments of origin. For example, an interdisciplinary project team consisting of product design engineers, controllers, and marketing experts might