From both sides now: the power of teamwork ‐ fact or fiction?

The following paper presents a discussion and debate with some of the leading researchers and practitioners in the field of Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Organization Development regarding the nature, applicability, and conditions for effective team performance in organizations. In general, it is concluded that although we are aware of a number of factors, moderators and means for establishing and maintaining strong performance‐driven teams in organizations (e.g., shared beliefs, strong sense of purpose, systemic support, group based rewards, the right “mix” of individuals, adequate training in interpersonal and group relations, and task complexity and interdependency), we are still a long way from having consistent concrete support in the literature that teams do in fact yield significant gains in productivity or performance over the individual.