ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concept of group work and discusses the motives and effects which have been ascribed to group work during the second half of the twentieth century. This necessarily concise treatment provides a background against which we interpret and discuss the Employee Participation in Organisational Change (EPOC) -data on group work, amongst others to assess the likelihood that the phenomenon will become more prominent in the near future. In some countries, especially in the north-west of Europe, many authors make a distinct difference between teams and groups. On the European continent, teams are widely associated with work units which are headed by a strong supervisor who leaves little autonomy for his subordinates. The EPOC survey attempted to find the answers to questions about the motives for implementing Group Delegation (GD). Introducing GD leads to less employment for managers and employees.
