ABSTRACT
As I have become older I have had to run faster (figuratively speaking) in order to maintain an output commensurate with a realistic assessment of the working life that remains before me. The research which culminated in the development of team-role theory and which saw the light of day in Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail took nine years to complete; its successor Team Roles At Work, dealing with industrial applications, was published ten years later; while the use of Interplace as a computer-based expert system became well established in the international field some years further on. In other words, the process linking research and delivery was lengthy, extending over a period of a quarter of a century. Such a time span can hardly be afforded under current circumstances. In contrast, the material brought together in this book, linking the generation of an idea, research and development, pilot trials and the initial installation in large establishments of a radically new system of setting up and developing jobs has taken no more than three and a half years.
