members of work teams plan, set priorities, organize, coordinate with outside groups and take on a number of other activities once designated as the exclusive province of supervisors and managers (Orsburn et al., 1990, p. 8). This is far more than simply being a good team player.
This form of interdisciplinary work team is a common one in today's business world and tends to form, dissolve and reshape itself continually in today's workplace. This is in large measure because workers from various departments within a given organization have to collaborate with each other to keep their companies competitive.
Work teams allow companies to respond more quickly to technological and market-condition changes a response time that is essential under today's economic and cultural conditions. They also help workers identity with whatever the end work-product of their company is rather than just one element of that product and so to avoid the sort of tribal, destructive rivalries that spring up in so many companies among different departments or divisions.
...