MANY organisations pay lip service to the idea of "teamwork". It is a concept that is much admired but also much abused.

We love to make analogies between business and sport. The notion of players passing the ball unselfishly to each other to enable the team to score goals is an ideal to which every company should aspire.

But after decades of management training some organisations still fall short of this ideal.

There is no "i" in teamwork, as the saying goes, and "i" should be no more important than the other missing vowel, "u".

I can think of some management teams where this suggestion would be enthusiastically adopted in theory and overwhelmingly ignored in practice.

In these cauldrons of despair, inter-departmental rivalries resemble tribal wars. Anyone acting unselfishly is likely to be shafted.

In football terms these madhouses are like a team where the midfield refuses to pass to the forwards in case they get the credit for scoring a goal.

The blame lies at the top, where the tone is set. Unlike the fearsome creatures in "Walking with Beasts" the dictatorial types who can occasionally still be found at the top of organisations are not yet extinct.

It would be good to think that they or their organisations will soon sink under the weight of their self-importance into a primeval swamp, but these dinosaurs are surprisingly durable.

To achieve success we need to employ the best people and get the best out of them. This does not mean that bosses abdicate leadership.

Leadership allows people to express their energy and creative drive for the benefit of the business.

The best bosses build teamwork through involving and consulting people both inside and outside their businesses.

In the modern world it is the only way to make full use of a firm's greatest asset - its people.