ABSTRACT
As we proceeded in this direction we came across a growing number of interested parties in the area of public administration. Here was a dilemma. Our experience had been largely founded on experimentally formed companies competing against each other to achieve a financial outcome the measure of which gave us a yardstick of effectiveness. On one hand, what we had learned seemed most appropriate to private enterprise and less applicable to undertakings that operate with noncommercial objectives. On the other hand, there was the view that the financial outcome was no more than a convenient means of measuring team effectiveness. The success or failure of these teams depended on certain principles. Could the lessons derived from them be put to good use in the management of public affairs? Such an approach might entail examining the key areas in the planning and decision-making process; ensuring that individuals with key skills got into teams of the right size where their abilities could be used to advantage; and training selectors in methods for forming teams with an adequate team-role balance (amongst the other balances that would also need to be taken into account). If that task were undertaken rigorously, government might operate more efficiently whether at national or local level.
