Purpose – This paper investigates the prospects and difficulties of multi-professional teamwork in humanservices from a professional identity perspective. The purpose of this paper is to explore the mutual interplaybetween professional identity formation and team activities.

Design/methodology/approach – This is a process study of two cases of multi-professional teamwork infamily care. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with team members and managers. The analysisfollows a stepwise approach alternating between the individual and team levels.

Findings – In showing the mutual interplay between teamwork processes and individual identity formation,the study contributes knowledge on professional identity formation of mature professionals; in particularshowing how unique individual identification processes have different consequences for multi-professionalteam activities. Further, alternative shapes of interplay between individual identity formation and team-levelprocesses are identified.

Research limitations/implications – Despite the fact that the sample is small and that collaborationintensity was relatively low, the paper succeeds in conceptualising the links between professional identityformation and multi-professional teamwork.

Practical implications – In managing multi-professional teams, team composition and the team’s earlydevelopments seem determining for whether the team will reach its collaborative intentions.

Originality/value – This paper is original in its exploration of the ongoing interplay between individualidentity formation and multi-professional team endeavours. Further, the paper contributes knowledge onmature professionals’ identity formation, particularly concerning individual variation within and betweenprofessional groups.