This paper reports on research to determine how a school's organizational conditions and conception of teaming relate to teachers' sentiments about their work. The study proposes that people shape their beliefs and actions in concert with the structures around them. Study participants were 42 teachers at four suburban middle schools that had adopted team teaching principles. For those in the best functioning teams, collegial work seemed to provide professional and emotional support which helped solve recurring problems faced by teachers by recognizing the common nature of the problems, sharing in solutions, acknowledging their limitations, and working toward changes to improve their practice. For teachers, good colleagues shared common goals for students, had complementary skills, and shared ideas. For individualists, there was greater emphasis on traits which allowed them to work independently, demonstrating competence in their own area and not interfering with others. While teaming demonstrated important results for those on the most effective teams, for many teachers on less effective teams, this organizational change had limited benefits and was sometimes seen as an unwelcome distraction. Finally, results are compared with earlier research on teacher isolation by Dan Lortie. Survey questions are included in appendix. (Contains 30 references.) (ND)