Bewitched, bothered and bewildered: The meaning and experience of teamworking for employees in an automobile company

Recent managerial discourses share similar assumptions about organizations and the means to their greater efficiency. One of these is a faith in teamw orking as a method of ensuring that human resources are effectively mobiliz ed to achieve the unquestioned benefits of any specific technology or presc riptive programme. In this article we will explore what teamworking means f or employees' lives within an automobile manufacturing company. We question the taken-for-granted assumption within managerialist accounts that teamwo rking will simply be welcomed by, and is beneficial for employees. We also offer a ray of hope to those critics who warn of the normalizing effects of teamworking. We argue that, just as there is no single form of teamworking , there is also no single experience of teamworking. We broadly identify th e reactions of three types of employees as a heuristic device. First, there are those who seem 'bewitched' by the discourse of teamworking and who int ernalize its norms and values. Second, there are those who are 'bothered' b y the ideology in the sense that they are disturbed by its incessant intrus ion into their lives and by the reactions of colleagues who seem enthralled by the team discourse. Finally, there are employees who are 'bewildered' b y teamworking mainly because of its attack upon established ways of doing t hings. There are, of course, overlaps and variations between and within the se categories but we believe that they provide a useful way of presenting a complex set of research findings. Overall, we argue that employees are not nearly as convinced by the discourse of teamworking as its advocates presu me or its critics fear.