High performance teams and a climate of community

This paper presents an empirically based study of an organisation’s attempt to improve from its existent structure of team working to a higher level of organisational performance through the development of enhanced, or high performance, teams. The research findings are contextualised by brief reviews of the literature in three areas: the contribution of people management to organisational performance, leadership and team working. It is argued that there is a convergence of theoretical development towards what is conceptualised in this paper as a climate of community. The empirical research took a multi‐method approach to examine the development from teams to high performance teams, which focused on “soft” processual inputs, but which had to have both qualitative and quantitative outcomes. The analysis revealed three factors which were crucial to development: transparency, checkability and a climate of community.