Introduction: teamwork in theory and in practice

Teamwork is studied in many disciplines, but there is as yet no comprehensive theory of teams. This book brings together perspectives on teamwork from evolutionary biology, psychology, economics, robotics, philosophy, management and artificial intelligence. They provide a wide-ranging survey of current research on teams, using methodologies as diverse as laboratory experiments and evolutionary modelling, epistemic logic and the programming of robots. But teamwork is not only of theoretical, academic interest. It is also of practical application in our everyday lives. Obvious examples are found in the workplace and on the sports field but, if we allow that a team is a group of agents with a common goal which can only be achieved by appropriate combinations of individual activities, then it becomes clear that teamwork is a phenomenon which occurs in a wide variety of forms. Teamwork is commonly found when people engage in any type of joint activity. Professionals such as managers and coaches may have a specialist expertise but we all have some experience of teamwork.