Resource Center

This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Interdisciplinary Health Team Care Conference, which took place September 28-30, 1983 in Rochester, New York.  It is reproduced here with the permission of the authors.

The dynamics of power and control appear to differ between groups and interdisciplinary teams. That power is, or should be, equally shared by members is a common assumption made of interdisciplinary health team organization and management.  But because each person in the interdisciplinary team has some power or talent different from all others, the idea that power is equally shared by interdisciplinary team members is questionable.

What then, are the factors which affect team power dynamics? The purpose of this report is to highlight an exploratory study to define and understand one team care concept in the Veteran's Administration Hospital System, with a focus on interpersonal dynamics and powers of the group and individuals. This project is a result of the evaluation design in the original proposal for Interdisciplinary Team Training in Geriatrics (ITTG) funding and serves as an instructional summary for other groups with similar tasks. The subjects of this report were members of the ITTG program at the William S. Hiddleton Memorial Veteran's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin.