This book comprises the work of scholars who gathered in May, 1998, at a conference held at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business Administration. The conference was part of an ongoing series presenting cutting edge research on teams. Presented first, are those articles that address particular macro aspects of team context and their influences on team process and effectiveness and ultimately their effectiveness as performing units. The following chapters address: how the organizational context shapes the timing of behavior in teams; process outcome and the effects of organizational performance on top management teams; group process and the nature of contextual features; and, conditions under which working teams actively manage their external environments and consequences of those actions. The work concludes with an overview of the multiple ways that contexts affect and are affected by group behavior, helping the reader to organize and to extend their understanding of contextual phenomena.
