Special Issue: Longitudinal views on the development of self-managing teams

Call for papers

Special issue Journal of Organizational Change Management

Longitudinal views on the development of self-managing teams

Jos Benders, Petru Curseu, Rik Huys & Geert Van Hootegem
Catholic University of Leuven & Tilburg University

Self-managing teams have been around for decades if not ages. Despite a wealth of studies into their incidence and functioning, we have relatively little insights into how teams develop over time. Most studies are cross-sectional and are hardly ever repeated. This holds for both quantitative and qualitative studies. Thus, we have little insight into what happens after teams have been “introduced” or “implemented”. For instance, prescriptive phase models tend to advocate “paths to maturity”. But is “maturity” ever reached? Or do teams more often “fade out”? Documenting intra-organizational trajectories would be useful to get an understanding what factors drive or hamper team development. 

In addition, how are (elements of) different organization concepts and theories put into practice, and mixed over time? Especially relevant in this perspective are sociotechnical design and “lean management”, two concepts that may be seen as representing “thought leadership” in team design in praxis. To what extent are these compatible, and what hybrids come into existence in processes of team evolution? Another interesting area of exploration refers to the way in which theoretical models of group dynamics developed over time. Papers submitted to this special issue could explore the (historical) transformation of group dynamics concepts.
At the macro-level, there are remarkably few data about the incidence of teams. We have little insight into how the number of teams develops over time in different countries, let alone what drives and hampers their “diffusion”. Particularly interesting is how national actors and industries advocated the lean and sociotechnical models, and to what extent these efforts actually impacted the team debate and design praxis.

We would like to invite papers on:

- longitudinal case studies;
- the incidence of teams over time within particular populations;
- the development of the team debate in particular countries;
- the evolution of team models and group dynamics concepts over time.

Papers should be submitted by August 15, 2012.

Please closely observe the author guidelines: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=jocm

Queries should be addressed to Jos Benders at jos.benders@soc.kuleuven.be