Empowerment and Teams: Ethics and the Implementation of Socio-technical Systems

Ian Mcloughlin, Richard Badham and Paul Couchman

Chapter 8 in Ethics and Empowerment, 1999, pp 235-270 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Self-managing, self-directed or empowered work teams have become a core feature of contemporary organisational and work redesign (Ors-burn et al. 1991; Lawler et al. 1995; Knapp et al. 1996; Wellins et al. 1996). However, their application has been controversial. For promoters of socio-technical system design they represent a radical break from ‘inhumane’ Tayloristic and Fordist work design and a means by which genuinely empowered and autonomous work can be brought about. For critics, team-based working represents a new and more manipulative form of management control whereby workers become complicit in their own exploitation. The apparent ‘ethical ambiguity’ surrounding current trends towards team-based working and empowerment raises serious questions for system designers and change agents seeking to intervene in organisations along lines promoted by socio-technical theory.

Keywords: Assembly Line; Change Agent; Psychological Contract; Cellular Manufacturing; Head Office (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-37272-6_9

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230372726_9

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