Investigating team work in the Egyptian context

Purpose – The aim is to explore in the Egyptian context the incidence and pervasiveness of teamworking, the types of teams in use, and to gather information on some of the factors perceived by researchers in the West to be influential in determining team effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports and discusses a preliminary inquiry in a sample of 20 manufacturing and service organisations in Egypt. The research was conducted by way of face‐to‐face semi‐structured interviews with between three and five managers in each of the organisations. Comparisons are drawn with much of the western literature and further research needs are identified. Findings – This initial survey has provided evidence of the utilisation of teamworking in a sample of employing organisations in Egypt, which in several respects appears to reflect trends and developments in the more developed economies of the West. Research limitations/implications – In this survey only some of the factors identified as influencing team effectiveness were investigated and further research is required to examine in more detail the relevance of the various models of team effectiveness devised by researchers in the western context. Practical implications – The research was exploratory and is the precursor to a wider and deeper study concerning team effectiveness in the Egyptian context. Originality/value – The study reported is initial and exploratory in nature and, as far as the authors are aware, the first study of teamworking in Egypt.