What Evidence Is There to Support the Statement That: "Teams Are Said to Be a Managerial Strategy for Work Intensification?" (Barker 1993)* Does the Use of Teams Result in Work Intensification?

What evidence is there to support the statement that: "teams are said to be a managerial strategy for work intensification?" (Barker 1993)* Does the use of teams result in work intensification?

Work intensification is when employees' workloads are either increased and/or shortening the time in which they are required to do them in. It is a strategy when a business is under pressure and wants to increase the return on its assets or simply to balance out the increase on labour costs. Barnard (1968: 17)" best stated the importance of control when he wrote that a key defining element of any organization was the necessity of individuals to subordinate, to an extent, their own desires to the collective" . In order to apprehend managers' strategic use of teams, it is important to look at what methods of control are prevalent in organizations.

Edwards (1981) acknowledged three control strategies that struggled to deal with members' activities. Simple control, it is a straight forward, authoritarian approach by hired superiors, more predominately seen in factories and small family owned businesses. Technological control, is physically controlling the organization through its technology as in an assembly line, this was more prevalent in traditional manufacturing companies. Bureaucratic control, which is methodical, rational-legal rules for direction based on the social hierarchy of the organization, which reward compliance and punish non-compliance. Technological and Bureaucratic control were originally brought in to counter the inefficient ones previous to them and also due to advancing industries. However, technological control was poor because of protests and assembly line sabotages. Workers had a lot of power but they felt alienated in their roles, the ideas brought in struggled to contain the previous problems. Bureaucratic control was brought in to create rational rule system, sense of direction and job security with rewards; it is the primary strategy for...