P/HR/34. Why have teams become so popular as way of structuring an organisation?

This essay will look at how changes in the business environment over the course of the last twenty years have fostered a growing recognition of the importance of team working as a means of facilitating, amongst other things, increased productivity, efficiency, and morale. Analysis of these benefits will then be placed in context by an examination of the hurdles that many organisations have had to negotiate during the transition. Finally, the paper will look to the future, critically evaluating the growth of technology, the effect it has had on team working, and the implications it may hold for organisational structuring in the future.