Capturing the dynamic nature of team processes remains one of the challenges for research to this day. To bring light, we go back to the sources and reveal the theoretical pillars of team process and their echo in recent literature, to grasp what hinders the understanding of the temporal and multidimensional qualities of teams. Leveraging a combined approach of bibliometrics with grounded theory, we map three schools of thought based on the clustering of recurring co-citations and analyse their transversal axes. We find a first temporal axe, where theory progressively deconstructs the notion of time in teams; a second axe, where the team is apprehended in space, caught in-between levels; and a final axe, shifting through cognition, affect and behaviours. We then explore how theory building has hampered the understanding of dynamism in team processes and the potential of systemic approaches and crosspollination with other fields to overcome these challenges.
