Implementing teamwork in production is an element of a gradual transfer of the company's steering from coordination by hierarchy to a form of coordination which can be characterized as discursive coordination. This generates an increasing density of communication which is the actual challenge — for the team members as well as for the organization as a whole. Workers often unused to communicating at work have to guarantee cooperation and control by self-regulating and so are forced to communicate more than before; superiors who are afraid of losing their influence, status, power and at worst their jobs have to treat workers as experts rather than as recipients of orders. The question is therefore why organizations expose themselves to challenges like these. Regarding the neo-institutionalistic concept of isomorphism it can be argued that the dissemination of teamwork in production is a case of mimetic isomorphism. But a new guideline for rationalization, in this case the implementation of teamwork, must suit the internal situation. Organizations are structurally conservative and react cautiously to the promises offered by new concepts such as teamwork; they cannot reject concepts which are taken for granted in their organizational field, but that does not guarantee realization of the concepts. Obviously, processes of mimetic isomorphism refer to concepts of rationalization rather than to transferred structures.
Antoni, C. H. 1996 ‘Teilautonome Arbeitsgruppen: Eine Expertenbefragung zu Verbreitungsformen und Erfahrungen’. Angewandte Arbeitswissenschaft 147: 31–53.
2.
Bacon, N. , and P. Blyton2000‘High road and low road teamworking: Perceptions of management rationales and organizational and human resources outcomes’ . Human Relations53/11: 1425–1458 .
3.
Banker, R. D. , J. M. Field , R. G. Schroeder , and K. K. Sinha1996‘Impact of work teams on manufacturing performance: A longitudinal study’ . Academy of Management Journal39/4: 867–890 .
4.
Barker, J. R.1999The discipline of teamwork: Participation and concertive control. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage .
5.
Benders, J. , and M. Von Bijsterveld2000‘Leaning on lean: The reception of a management fashion in Germany’ . New Technology, Work and Employment15/1: 50–64 .
6.
Benders, J. , F. Huijgen , and U. Pekruhl2002‘What do we know about the incidence of group work (if anything)?’Personnel Review31/3: 371–385 .
7.
Bloor, G. , and P. Dawson1994‘Understanding professional culture in organizational context’ . Organization Studies15/2: 275–295 .
8.
Brunsson, N.1982‘The irrationality of action and action rationality: Decisions, ideologies and organizational action’ . Journal of Management Studies19/1: 29–44 .
9.
Buchanan, D.2000‘An eager and enduring embrace: The ongoing rediscovery of teamworking as a management idea’ in Teamworking. S. Procter and F. Mueller (eds), 25–42. Basingstoke: Macmillan .
10.
Danford, A.1998‘Teamworking and labour regulation in the autocomponents industry’ . Work, Employment and Society12/3: 409–431 .
11.
DiMaggio, P. J. , and W. W. Powell1991‘The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields’ in The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. W. W. Powell and P. J. DiMaggio (eds), 63–82. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
12.
Durand, J.-P. , P. Stewart , and J. Castillo , editors 1999Teamwork in the automobile industry: Radical change or passing fashion?Basingstoke: Macmillan .
13.
Ezzamel, M. , and H. Willmott1998‘Accounting for teamwork: A critical study of group-based systems of organizational control’ . Administrative Science Quarterly43: 358–396 .
14.
Frhlich, D. , and U. Pekruhl1996Direct participation and organisational change: Fashionable but misunderstood? An analysis of recent research in Europe, Japan, and the USA. Loughlinstown Co. Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions; Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities .
15.
Goll, I. , and R. B. Sambharya1995‘Corporate ideology, diversification and firm performance’ . Organization Studies16/5: 823–846 .
16.
Gulowsen, J.1972‘A measure of group work autonomy in design of jobs’ in Design of jobs. L. Davis and J. Taylor (eds), 374–390. Harmondsworth: Penguin .
17.
Hackman, J. R.1989‘Summary: Production teams’ in Groups that work (and those that don’t). J. R. Hackman (ed.), 471–477. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass .
18.
Harley, B.2001‘Team membership and the experience of work in Britain: An analysis of the WERS98 data’ . Work, Employment and Society15/4: 721–742 .
19.
Hofstede, G.1998‘Attitudes, values and organizational culture: Disentangling the concepts’ . Organizational Studies19/3: 477–492 .
20.
Inglehart, R.1977The silent revolution: Changing values and political styles among Western publics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
21.
Jürgens, U. , T. Malsch , and K. Dohse1993Breaking from Taylorism: Changing forms of work in the automobile industry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
22.
Koch, C. , and H. Buhl2001‘ERP-supported teamworking in Danish manufacturing?’New Technology, Work and Employment16/3: 164–177 .
23.
March, J.1979‘The technology of foolishness’ in Ambiguity and choice in organizations, 2nd edn.J. G. March and J. P. Olsen (eds), 69–81. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget .
24.
Marchington, M.2000‘Teamworking and employee involvement: Terminology, evaluation and context’ in Teamworking. S. Procter and F. Mueller (eds), 60–80. Basingstoke: Macmillan .
25.
Marks, M. A. , J. E. Mathieu , and S. J. Zaccaro2001‘A temporally based framework and taxonomy of team processes’ . Academy of Management Review26/3: 356–376 .
26.
Meyer, J. W. , and B. Rowan1977‘Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony’ . American Journal of Sociology83/2: 340–363 .
27.
Mizruchi, M. S. , and L. C. Fein1999‘The social construction of organizational knowledge: A study of the uses of coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphism’ . Administrative Science Quarterly44/4: 653–683 .
28.
Ortiz, L.1998‘Union response to teamwork: The case of Opel Spain’ . Industrial Relations Journal29/1: 42–57 .
29.
Ortmann, G.1995Formen der Produktion: Organisation und Rekursivitüt. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag .
30.
Park, B. , and R. Harris2000‘Roles and responsibilities of team leaders and members: A case study of the Australian automotive industry’ in Teamworking. S. Procter and F. Mueller (eds), 143–161. Basingstoke: Macmillan .
31.
Pelled, L. H. , K. M. Eisenhardt , and K. R. Xin1999‘Exploring the black box: An analysis of work group diversity, conflict, and performance’ . Administrative Science Quarterly44: 1–28 .
32.
Procter, S. , and F. Mueller2000‘Teamworking: Strategy, structure, systems and culture’ in Teamworking. S. Procter and F. Mueller (eds), 3–24. Basingstoke: Macmillan .
33.
Saurwein, R. G. 2000 ‘Zur Diffusion von Gruppenarbeit im Maschinenbau: Gestaltung und Dynamik’ in Der deutsche Maschinenbau in den neunziger Jahren: Kontinuität und Wandel einer Branche. U. Widmaier (ed.), 147–176. Frankfurt; New York: Campus.
34.
Scarbrough, H. , and N. Kinnie2003‘Barriers to the development of teamworking in UK firms’ . Industrial Relations Journal34/2: 135–149 .
Scott, W. R.1995Institutions and organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
37.
Sewell, G.1998‘The discipline of teams: The control of team-based industrial work through electronic and peer surveillance’ . Administrative Science Quarterly43/3: 397–428 .
38.
Sinclair, A.1992‘The tyranny of a team ideology’ . Organization Studies13/4: 611–626 .
Wageman, R.1995‘Interdependence and group effectiveness’ . Administrative Science Quarterly40: 145–180 .
41.
Weick, K. E.1979The social psychology of organizing, 2nd edn.New York: McGraw-Hill .
42.
Wergin, N.-E.2003Teamwork in the automobile industry: An Anglo-German comparison’ . European Political Economy Review1/2: 152–190 .
43.
Whybrow, A. C. , and S. K. Parker2000‘Introducing teamworking: Managing the process of change’ in Teamworking. S. Procter and F. Mueller (eds), 103–124. Basingstoke: Macmillan .
44.
Womack, J. P. , D. T. Jones , and D. Roos1990The machine that changed the world. New York: Rawson Associates .
45.
Woywode, M.2002‘Global management concepts and local adaptations: Working groups in the French and German car manufacturing industry’ . Organization Studies23/4: 497–524 .
