ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the literature on interpersonal relationships and their impact on team outcomes. It observes that this literature is characterized by four attributes: it tends to focus on dysfunction; it is fragmented; it focuses primarily at the behavioral; and its basic paradigm derives from a mechanistic model. Teams are seen as a pattern of relationships in which individuals feel the need to conform and so uniformity prevails. Structurally balanced teams are responsive to the precise context in which they function, and produce health according to that context, not just a standard arbitrarily imposed on it. D. Kantor and W. Lehr's model of the action patterns in human and family systems, which they call the four-player model, to introduce a frame for structural balance to the teams literature. The model suggests there are four core acts—move, follow, oppose, and bystand—that are the essential building blocks of both dysfunctional and healthy sequences of action in teams.
