Multiteaming in the Workplace: Challenges for Human Resources Policies and Organizational Development

The way work gets done has changed radically in the past years. As the complexity of job requirements have increased, most organizations have switched from individual work to teams or team based structures such as multi-teaming or multiple team membership (MTM) (Mathieu, Hollenbeck, van Knippenberg, & Ilgen, 2017). MTM is a form of work design whereby employees take part in multiple projects and work teams during a given time frame. While such a way of organizing work within organizations is not new, it is definitely on the rise. 65% up to 95% of employees across the globe operating in knowledge intensive industries currently work in a MTM setting (O’Leary et al., 2011). The average number of teams they are concurrently part of is four (Mortensen et al., 2007) and such teams can span across the boundaries of their main organization. Organizations in Romania are no exception. Multi-teaming is a frequent choice for (and not limited to) companies operating in the information technology (IT) sector, financial, management and human resources consultancy, as well as for research and development departments across manufacturing industries (e.g. automotive).