There is a general consensus among sport coaches and practitioners that it is better to work with a cohesive team. Research on cohesion has provided positive links between cohesion and performance as well as the overall well-being of the team and its members. The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a cohesion-building programme under an Action Research paradigm. The Group Environment Questionnaire, in parallel with focus group discussions were used to assist in the development and evaluation of a cohesion-building programme tailored to the specific needs of the Rhodes University men’s basketball 1st team. The team is known to be a good team but it was missing something that made it become great. Fostering higher cohesiveness was deemed to be the missing link to the chain of success. Various changes were brought to the 1) team structure, 2) team processes, 3) team environment to enhance the team’s cohesiveness levels. It was found that the programme was positive and powerful in that it accelerated the process of cohesion building within the team. It was also found that the programme had the power to transcend demographical barriers and unite people from diverse backgrounds. Finally, the programme increased the team’s performance level and enabled it to achieve objectives that were never achieved by any other men’s basketball team at Rhodes University before. Naturally there are going to be some ups and downs, especially if you have individuals trying to achieve at a high level. But when we stepped in between the lines, we knew what we were capable of doing. When a pressure situation presented itself, we were plugged into one another like a cohesive unit. That’s why we were able to come back so often and win so many close games. And that’s why we were able to beat more talented team. - Michael Jordan (former Chicago Bulls; NBA Hall of Famer).

More and more organisations are embracing a team approach in their quest to meet the demands of a turbulent marketplace. The dynamics of teams and teamwork are fascinating. Most managers in today’s collaborative and consultative environments need to develop teams and team leadership to achieve good results through others. Strong teams assist managers and they make organisations stronger, but the converse is also true – weak teams severely weaken organisations. Although there are many perspectives regarding teamwork, the general enthusiasm for teams and what they can accomplish remains strong. Work teams in South Africa are becoming a lucrative business. Already in the 1990s, no fewer than 82% of companies with more than 100 employees reported using team structures (Gordon, 2002). During the same period, as many as 68% of the Fortune 1000 companies used self-managed teams (Lawler, Mohrman&Ledford, 1995). There were two main reasons for undertaking this study: satisfying my own natural inquisitiveness regarding teams, and investigating teamwork and the expectations of employees of teamwork in 21st century South African organisations. I set out to explore, describe and understand the challenges teams have to face, as well as individuals’ expectations of working in teams. A qualitative approach, with due reference to the multiple levels of organisational behaviour (individual, groups and organisational level), was applied in this quest to understand team expectations and challenges in context. A total of 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and four focus group interviews were conducted amongst 38 voluntary participants. The transcripts were then thoroughly analysed and compared to identify shared themes and to explore differences and similarities in terms of team experiences and expectations. Four themes and numerous sub-themes evolved from the research. Theme 1 deals with the individual level expectations of teamwork, and represents the individuals’ need to be part of the organisation and to enjoy this experience. Theme 2 indicates the specific team level expectations of team work. Teams expressed a need for clear roles and to be rewarded if they reached those goals, as well as for team skills. Theme 3 deals with the expectations that leaders and organisations have when they implement teamwork. It turns out that organisations often implement teams and expect them to solve business problems without offering the relevant support to those teams. Theme 4 addresses the greatest challenges teams face in 21st century South African organisations. Virtual teaming and a loss of identity are identified as a few of these challenges. The themes as well as sub-themes are discussed in detail in Chapter 4. Based on the study findings, several recommendations are made based on the shared experiences and unique feedback of these 38 individuals from all organisational levels. I further identify various “team paradoxes”, as I call them, and indicate the relevance of these paradoxes in understanding teams. Some of the findings question existing premises regarding teamwork, establishing a foundation for possible future research. The truth is that there is still much to be done in terms of optimising team effectiveness and a better organisational understanding of the complexities of individuals working together in teams. / Thesis (PhD (Organizational Behaviour))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

During the last few years, much effort has been devoted to measuring the ability of sport teams, as well as that of the individual players. Much research has been on the game of cricket, and the comparison, or ranking, of players according to their abilities. This study continues preceding research using an optimization approach, namely, a binary integer programme, to select an SA domestic Pro20 cricket team.

The aim of this diploma thesis is the introduction of teamwork and virtual teams. The theoretical part of this work describes the birth of teamwork, its definition, properties, advantages and disadvantages. Next part of diploma thesis is dedicated to the virtual team. It describes the difference among virtual and traditional team, definition and characteristics of virtual team as well as tools that are used in virtual team. The second, practical, unit is focused on virtual teams at universities in the Czech republic. The benefit of this work is the methodology of team work, which should help university virtual teams to easier collaboration, to work efficiently and to create the quality results of teamwork.

Diploma thesis deals with the support of teamwork with the use of information technology. It indicates potential problems in the use of various software tools and its aim is to develop an application that eliminates frequent shortcomings and provides an integrated environment for solving of school projects. The contribution of this work is the use of developed application by students or other smaller teams. Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to a survey of existing works and the applications and to a theoretical introduction to the field of computer supported teamwork. Chapter 4 focuses on the analysis and software architecture design and chapter 5 describes the used technologies and justifies their selection. The chapter 6 contains the user manual, which includes all the information needed for use of application from the user's perspective as well as from the perspective of the administrator.

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Sammanfattning Bakgrund Det beskrivs att vissa akuta situationer känns bra och att teamarbetet fungerar väl men i andra situationer så kanske medlemmarna har ett sämre samarbete och det leder till en dålig känsla som påverkar deras prestation. En svårighet som finns är att identifiera vad som påverkar samarbetet. Specialistsjuksköterskornas upplevelser kan vara en viktig del i att identifiera detta. Syfte Syftet var att beskriva hur anestesisjuksköterskor och intensivvårdssjuksköterskor upplevde teamarbete och kommunikation i akuta situationer. Metod Studien genomfördes med beskrivande design och kvalitativ induktiv ansats. Semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem anestesisjuksköterskor och fem intensivvårdssjuksköterskor utgjorde datainsamlingen. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes. Huvudresultat Temat var hur tydlighetens betydelse i akuta situationer påverkar tryggheten och huvudkategorierna var; att samverka mellan professioner, att uppleva ledarskap i akuta situationer, att uppleva kommunikationens betydelse, att uppleva arbetsmiljön i samband med akuta situationer och att delta vid akuta situationer väcker känslor. Teamets utformning var beroende av dess teammedlemmar. Specialistsjuksköterskor upplevde det mer lättarbetat och tryggt när de kände personalen. Samt när deras yrkesroller och arbetsuppgifter var väl definierade. Teamets ledare hade stor betydelse i hur arbetet i teamet fungerade. Kommunikationsverktyg som ”closed-loop” ingav trygghet. Tydlighet framkom som en viktig del i teamarbetet. Slutsats Specialistsjuksköterskorna efterfrågade en lugn, tydligt och strukturerat omhändertagande av patienten. En tydlig teamledare som är informerande och uppmuntrande och tar till vara alla medlemmar i teamet och deras erfarenheter Kommunikationen ska helst vara ”closed-loop” samt att de önskade scenarioövningar, uppföljning och debriefing angående de akuta situationerna.

Teams of design engineers are increasingly working as members of virtual teams, or teams whose members are distributed geographically and communicate mostly through electronic means. In addition, emerging multi-user (MU) applications engage complementary teams in synchronous design activities. These new MU tools are changing the way engineers work together. Together, these factors have created a new and interesting environment in which engineering design teams must function. The work presented here lays out two major themes that teams and their managers can effectively apply to organizing and managing MU teams: 1) teams can maximize their potential productivity by determining the optimal number of teammates for a given modeling effort and by implementing a profile and team formation system based on the principle of optimizing complementary team member characteristics; and 2) to minimize process losses, teams can implement effective strategies for working in a MU and/or virtual setting and they can use novel new MU tools that address portions of the product development process that have previously not been addressed with such tools. It is my hope that these contributions can enable greater effectiveness and productivity among virtual engineering design teams as they strive to remedy many of the most pressing and dire issues facing humanity. By improving the way we work together, we can increase our ability to bless all of God's children.

The aim of this thesis was to examine the contribution of nurses to interprofessional collaboration (IPC) in the operating room (OR) guided by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Patient Care Practice (IECPCP) framework. First, a secondary analysis of interviews with 19 registered nurses was conducted. Twenty emergent themes were identified. The most prevalent of the four dimensions (internalization; shared goals and vision; governance; and formalization) consisted of the internalization dimension relating to human interaction and sense of belonging within the interprofessional team. A scoping review then identified 20 studies evaluating four interventions (briefings, checklists, team training, and debriefings) used to improve IPC in the OR. Despite weak study designs, these interventions showed improvements in communication, teamwork, and safety outcomes. OR nurses contribute mainly through interactional processes and they require organizational support to foster their efforts in IPC. Nurse are involved in all IPC interventions and their contribution is important to support IPC in the OR.

Background: Palliative care is required for patients who have no chance of curative treatment. The age group 65 and older is a growing population. Palliative care for the elderly was uniquely challenging and differed from palliative care for younger patients. Palliative care for the elderly was not about prolonging life, it was about making the last phase of life as comfortable as possible. Aim: The aim was to describe nurses’ experiences of working with palliative care of the elderly. Method: A literature-basedstudy was conducted. Seven articles were analyzed according to Friberg’s five-stepmodel. Results: Three main themes emerged: feelings of insufficiency, working with aperson-centered approach and collegial cooperation. Seven sub-themes were identified: insufficiency in supporting relatives, insufficiency in giving satisfactory palliative care, a caring relationship, working for the patient’s best interest, the nurse’s need of support, lack of cooperation with physician and the nurse’s supportive role. Conclusion: when nurses were caring for the dying elderly, nurses were in need of more support. / Arbete som sker i närvaro av döden kan vara utmanande och innebär att ställas inför svåra situationer. Palliativ vård erbjuds till människor som är i livets slut samt där botande behandling inte längre är möjligt. Fokus för vården är då istället att lindra patientens lidande och främja patientens livskvalitet. Detta litteraturbaserade examensarbete beskriver sjuksköterskors upplevelser av arbetet inom palliativ vård av äldre. Det föreligger anledning att beskriva sjuksköterskors upplevelser av arbetet inom palliativvård av äldre eftersom åldersgruppen 65 år och äldre är en växande population som dessutom klassas som sårbar. Sjuksköterskor upplevde arbetet inom palliativ vård av äldre som känslomässigt utmanande med situationer som kantats av otillräcklighet, bristande samarbete och frånvaro av stöd. Trots detta belyste sjuksköterskor vikten av att arbeta utifrån ett personcentrerat förhållningssätt genom att skapa en vårdande relation med patienten och arbeta för patientens bästa. För att kunna bedriva en god palliativ vård för äldre är det viktigt att sjuksköterskor ges möjlighet till stöd för att minska känslan av otillräcklighet och för att hantera psykiska påfrestningar.