Cooperative work by a team can produce remarkable results, especially in project-based organizations. But much depends on whether teamwork is face-to-face or—as is increasingly the case—virtual. Two articles on related issues are at http://www.adb.org/publications/working-teams and http://www.adb.org/publications/managing-virtual-teams.
Agreed to Olivier's comment on teamworking. If you want, you can refer to the following articles I'd written related to team effectiveness in project environment setting. All the best.
You can also have a look at Salas and colleagues' literature review of team effectiveness (even if quite old, still good to have a grasp of the topic):
Salas, E., Stagl, K. C., Burke, C. S., & Goodwin, G. F. (2007, January). Fostering team effectiveness in organizations: Toward an integrative theoretical framework. In Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (Vol. 52, p. 185).
From the point of view of history of science, I and collaborator Richard Rosen did a socio-historical study in three parts published in Scientometrics, vol 1 1978.
Since then I have published alone a few reflections on collaborative scientific research also in Scientometrics also distinguishing between "collaboration" (co-authors up to 5 or 6 following a Poisson distribution) and teamwork (larger collaborative groups, more than 5 or 6, up to 1000s, following a negative power law ).
Modelling team excellence to sustain emotionally and socially intelligent team performance (Broad research topic)
Abstract
The foremost contribution of this study is the influence team members and teams have in directing organisational performance and creating outcomes which will either serve or be detrimental to organisational existence.
The team leader and manager can allow mediocrity or exceptionality in their teams by recruiting the most apt team members, and ensuring team fit, developing, coaching, mentoring and guiding team members. They provide the purpose, performance and outcomes by establishing a healthy and conducive environment within their team through the exertion of their influence. Team leaders and managers link and align organisational teams, productivity, customer service and quality of product by realising the organisational vision and strategic objectives. A task not for the faint hearted.
A sequence is carved out by exploring individual and team thinking preferences and values frameworks for modelling excellence. Models of Excellence are engineered, teams compared and the contribution of team dynamics, emotional and social intelligence explored to enable and sustain performance.
Recommendations are made to support the organisation of research to view and harness the collective value and potential of human resources efficiently and effectively to the benefit of both the teams and the organisation.