Team development and team performance. Responsibilities, responsiveness and results: A longitudinal study of teamwork at Volvo Trucks Umeå

A three-year longitudinal study of more than 150 self-managing work teams was carried out at Volvo Trucks Umea, Sweden. Data obtained by this study were used to test a model about the performance effects of team development, answering the following research questions: (1) how can the team developmental processes be described; (2) what are their effects on business performance as well as on quality of working life; and (3) what are the management structure’s inputs that generate team responsiveness? The study reveals three team-development processes, consistent over time, and each positively related to both indicators of business performance and quality of working life. A result-oriented approach is suggested, which supports teams and managers in making work teams more succesful, while focusing on inputs, processes as well as outputs