Teamworking in its context(s): Antecedents, nature and dimensions

This introductory chapter looks at the antecedents, the nature and the Vari ous dimensions of 'teamworking'. Teamworking is drawing on a variety of tra ditions, which has resulted in a number of different types and designs of t eams. It is necessary to keep all dimensions in mind in order to reach a hi storically informed judgement of the current forms of teamworking and their shortcomings. Variants of teams need to be analysed by employing a multidi mensional framework - teamworking will be more appropriate in some settings than in others. This caution, which had been an aspect of sociotechnical s ystems thinking from its inception, is shared by all the papers selected fo r this special issue.