Comprises the work of scholars who gathered in May, 1998, at a conference held at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business Administration. This title includes articles that address particular macro aspects of team context and their influences on team process and effectiveness and ultimately their effectiveness as performing units.

List of contributors. Preface (R. Wageman). We can't get there unless we know where we are going: direction setting for knowledge work teams (S.G. Cohen et al.). Cycles and synchrony: the temporal role of context in team behavior (D. Ancona, Chee-Leong Chong). Cause or effect? An investigation of the relationship between top management team group dynamics and organizational performance (R.S. Peterson et al.). Predicting process improvement team performance in an automotive firm: explicating the roles of trust and empowerment (G.M. Spreitzer et al.). Fairness norms and the potential for mutual agreements involving majority and minority groups (J.T. Jost, L. Ross). Groupthink and preparedness for the Loma Prieta earthquake: a social identity maintenance analysis of causes and preventions (A.R. Pratkanis, M.E. Turner). Group cognition and creativity in organizations (A.B. Hargadon). Unwrapping the work group: how extra-organizational context affects group behavior (R. Lacey, D. Gruenfeld). A safe harbor: social psychological conditions enabling boundary spanning in work teams (A. Edmondson). The antecedents of team competence: toward a fine-grained model of self-managing team effectiveness (V.U. Druskat, D.C. Kayes). Thinking differently about context (J.R. Hackman).