Leaders at the top : are top management teams an oxymoron?

A group does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and who generate synergy through a coordinated effort, which allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. There has been a great deal written about teams; so much that it becomes confusing, in particular when one is unsure of the type of team being written about. But little of the work has been about top teams in public sector organisations. This research covers a period from 2011 to 2014, and includes research undertaken across four large public sector organisations. Local Authority, University, National Health Service and Prison. The research was conducted in a hermeneutic manner; the methodology used was interviews with 12 members of top teams.The research brought forward the following aspects; firstly, top teams are a myth, often they are a group of individuals brought together for a specific period of time, who have individual roles within the organisation. Secondly, these teams are transient and spend most of their time not connected and involved in their primary role within their own division. Thirdly a top team did not need to have trusting relationships in order to lead, Fourthly individual roles of top team members is not acknowledged, this became a fundamental finding of the research. My research as implications for future, as most of the academic research extols the virtue of top teams, whereas my findings clearly show that there needs to be more consideration on the individuals' role which is important due to the limited time these individuals connect. This thesis proposes a new approach to understanding how top team lead using the term 'Conjoined Leadership', which describes and emphasizes both the separateness of things that are joined and the unity that results when together. It is suggestion this approach will lead to a better understanding of top teams.