It's more likely to do so the bigger the team. In a team of 500, someone might think "my personal contribution doesn't matter much", but they are less likely to think so in a team of 5. Furthermore, in small teams social pressures are likely to deter free riding.
> In the general case, the goals of the company and the employee are not always aligned so I don't think this is an easy problem to solve.
Yep it does, and I've seen it a lot. I've seen team incentives work, yes, but also seen the opposite.
More specifically, the goals of each team member are not always aligned either, so trying to incent an entire team of people who don't have the same goals doesn't always work.
It's more likely to do so the bigger the team. In a team of 500, someone might think "my personal contribution doesn't matter much", but they are less likely to think so in a team of 5. Furthermore, in small teams social pressures are likely to deter free riding.
> In the general case, the goals of the company and the employee are not always aligned so I don't think this is an easy problem to solve.
Yes. It's the principal-agent problem -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem