One of the last seminal reviews of the work team literature was conducted by Cohen & Bailey in 1997. In the current article, my colleagues and I attempt to build upon Cohen & Bailey’s review and provide a comprehensive summary of the academic research that has been published in the past 10 years on organizational teams. We start by discussing the nature of work teams and how they are impacted by the context in which they operate. Next, we describe the various team effectiveness models that have been utilized by academicians and use this framework to summarize the past decade’s research.

Specifically, we start by reviewing the various types of team outcomes that researchers are interested in. These include various performance metrics of the team, the behaviors that team members exhibit, as well as affective outcome measures such as team satisfaction and the desire individuals have to remain on the team. Next, we consider the means by which such team outcomes are derived. For example, we summarize work that has considered the role that: composition (e.g., ability, personality, diversity) communication, trust, cognition, learning, conflict, leadership, training, confidence, team design, and task type have on team performance.

This piece is useful to academicians who are interested in gaining an appreciation of the current state of the organizational team literature. Additionally, this piece provides our thoughts on the issues and challenges that researchers in this area are likely to face over the next 10 years. That said; we feel that it is also a practical resource for members and leaders of organizational teams as it provides a “one-stop-shop” for quickly ascertaining what academic research suggests are the most salient variables for improving team effectiveness.