The Role of Interteam Coordination for Team Empowerment: A Longitudinal Study of Home-Based Healthcare

Team-based organizational designs are increasingly used to improve the fit between tasks and available human resources in modern organizations, and team empowerment represents an important means of enhancing team performance. At the same time, the growing complexity of work often results in task interdependencies that cross team boundaries, increasing the importance of interteam coordination in multiteam systems (MTS). Based on a longitudinal case study of a municipality that has implemented an innovative multiteam organizational model for home-based healthcare services, this article investigates how interteam coordination influences team empowerment. The results show that interteam coordination is central to team empowerment, highlighting the significance of the interplay between inter- and intrateam functioning in MTS. Overall, interteam coordination was a key factor in making the new organizational model work as intended and required careful attention and ongoing measures throughout the implementation process.