Teaming for complex project organizing: a review of key concepts, project teaming studies and questions for future research

Teaming is a recent concept that has gained widespread attention in management and organization studies. Regarded as a distinct behavioral approach to the management of complex and interdependent work, it rests on four main pillars: (1) Psychological safety (2) Experimentation (3) Collaboration and (4) Reflection. Together, these constitute a dynamic learning orientation to problems that are uncertain and require collaboration among experts from diverse disciplines. The aim of the chapter is to introduce teaming and its constituent pillars, and to define key concepts used in the literature. Turning to project studies literature, the (few) studies that currently draw explicitly on teaming are discussed while others mobilizing the pillars of teaming are briefly reviewed. Similarities between teaming and existing models of project complexity are discussed. Finally, questions for future research on teaming for complex project organizing are presented and the chapter is concluded.