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The Discipline of Teamwork : Participation and Concertive Control
by James R. BARKER, Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, 1999, 207 p., ISBN 0-7619-0369-0 (bond) and ISBN 0-7619-0370-4 (pbk).
James Barker's The Discipline of Teamwork makes a significant contribution to the already considerable literature on teams. In contrast to much of this literature, which focuses largely on how best to structure and implement teams for high performance, this work investigates teams as a mechanism for social control. Barker's book offers us a rare, critical look at the functioning of self managed teams, focusing in particular on how teams work to exert control over their members' behaviours. Barker recognizes explicitly that participation in such organizational forms has a price that workers are pressed to give more of their time and energy, to identify with the goals of the organization, and to collaborate effectively with their coworkers - all with obvious costs to their individual autonomy and personal lives.
The stated purpose of his book is threefold: to analyze how culture and control work in self-managed teams; to identify the consequences of a teambased culture ; and to seek to change current thinking about these consequences so that teamwork can be made better for both the organization and for team members. The data upon which this study is based are drawn from the experiences of one firm: ISE Communications (a pseudonym), a manufacturer of electronic circuit boards used for voice and data transmission equipment. Barker gathered the data during three years of intensive field work in...