Such supportive processes for cooperation are missing in the case described, resulting in
development leaders primarily working side by side instead of approaching development
issues together as a team. Participants’ descriptions show no sign of team managers raising,
motivating or encouraging cooperation within the team as important or something to strive
for in line with Kent’s (2006) suggestion, referring to the canoe metaphor. On the contrary,
the managers have separate talks with each development leader, some occasionally and
some in a more structured way. The development leaders themselves hardly ever meet in a
structured way. At the most they are invited to meetings when the manager shares