About this Research Topic

Background

Team dynamics and the processes underpinning teamwork, especially how they change over time, are increasingly important for organizations. Many agencies, industries and government institutions have begun to pay attention to the evolution and maturation of team dynamics and teamwork and rightfully so: Team dynamics have important implications for key organizational outcomes including productivity, safety, customer experience, creativity, and occupational well-being and this is true across industries as diverse as healthcare, space exploration, product innovation, and national security, to name a few. Indeed, many of these stakeholders are engaged in learning more about team dynamics, what dynamics matter for their desired outcomes, and how to build and manage their teams over time – with 'over time' being the key factor.

Given the increasing importance of team dynamics, there is an opportunity for psychological sciences to contribute potential solutions to the challenges that arise within team dynamics, particularly because we believe there is a need to produce a scientifically-rooted, yet practical, overview of what we know and need to know about the development of team dynamics over time. Thus, the purpose of this Research Topic is to provide those in science and practice, including wider industry stakeholders, with a comprehensive overview which documents the state of the science so far, what additional research is needed, and impactful insights for practice.

This Research Topic seeks papers that address the following topics. These are illustrative only, as we will also consider other topics related to team dynamics over time.

• What are the new, and emerging theories, that account for the development processes of teams over time?
• Are there any new constructs, or existing constructs from other disciplines, that help define and understand the evolution and maturation of teams?
• Which team development interventions work and why? What evidence exists to support their effectiveness?
• Are there new interventions that would enhance teamwork over time? How should we evaluate their validity?
• What are the methodological tools or general approaches that enable an understanding of team dynamics over time? And what new tools or approaches are needed?

Keywords: Team Development, Team Evolution, Team Interventions, Team Dynamics and Processes, Emergent Team States

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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