Chapter 2: Work Team Formation as Social Order Negotiations

Many organizations have restructured their workforces from hierarchical, functional silos to cross-functional, semi-autonomous work teams in response to competitive challenges (Applebaum & Batt, 1994; Osterman, 1994). The effectiveness of such work teams depends on power being redistributed to lower levels in an organization so that the teams are able to make meaningful decisions autonomously (Kirkman & Rosen, 1999; Manz & Sims, 1987). Little research has focused on the processes by which such a transfer of power from middle managers and supervisors to frontline employees actually occurs, however, even though there seems to be considerable variation in practice (Adler, Kochan, MacDuffie, Pil, & Rubenstein, 1997).