IT experts and teamwork, the role of management: a case study for naive mangers in understanding employment relations

While it has been argued that information technologies have been used to deskill workers, little empirical evidence has been gathered on the impact of IT on managers. This paper examines how IT workers can use their skills and position to displace managers, a process we refer to as disintermediation. To be successful in this process of disintermediation, workers need to be both skilled and politically aware. They are helped, we argue, by the naivety of managers who in attempting to engender a team-based culture lose sight of the real activities of team members. This paper argues that while mangers may be working in the best interest of the business team, members are working in their own interest. The implications for managers are that they must understand the political and social nature, and context of teams if they are to manage them effectively. Mangers also need to be aware that to exercise prerogatives as mangers they need to be able to exert control over team members and act as political gatekeepers when members circumvent the manager's position. This paper will examine some of the literature on deskilling and then describe a case study in a large public utility. The paper will explain how the manger was marginalised, failing to recognise the actions ofteam members. Finally we explain how mangers can recognise the process of disintermediation and take steps to counteract it.