ABSTRACT
Team formation is a common practice in contemporary temporary organizations (i.e., projects) whenever an organization faces signifi cant threats or problems. Although this need is appreciated, there is less understanding of how it happens in practice. Th e aim of this chapter is to contribute to that understanding. Team formation is investigated through the lens of Weick’s “dropping the tools,” which essentially implies that an organization or an individual has to set aside everyday practices (e.g., norms, values, rules, and routines) in order to survive (Weick, 1993). Th e empirical basis is fi rst-hand bibliographic accounts of events that occurred in 1996 on Mount Everest. Th e analysis shows that people teamed up in three diff erent types of situated team types-task, survival, and rescue-and that they did so because of fi ve diff erent types of trigger: rules, goal achievement, obstacle, necessity, and expectations. Th e chapter off ers implications for academics, practitioners, and lecturers on organizational theory in general and temporary organizations in particular.
