Team Development Process: Its Nature and Influencing Factors

How teams evolve is a topic of concern to researchers, and questions remain to be answered. This study is based on two mainstream team development theories, i.e., the lifecycle model and the equilibrium model. The authors investigate three project teams in a hospital organization, adopt a qualitative cross-case comparison method, and explore the lifecycle process of team development and multi-level factors that affect the process. This study finds a non-linear phenomenon in team lifecycle development; task and relationship behaviors develop separately but interact with each other. The influencing factors of the process include relatedness between project tasks and team members' organizational roles, leadership, psychological safety, task interdependence, team constraints, and member churn. These factors can accelerate or delay the team development process. In addition, team equilibrium states tend to alter due to the evolution of social structure and resources. Finally, we develop research propositions for future research and practice