ABSTRACT
Modern approaches to quality management stress the value of staff participation and customer involvement in improving products and services. The observations of Trist and Bamforth on the phenomenon of teamwork adopted intuitively and spontaneously in adverse working situations led to the development of the sociotechnical system theory. The theory has considerable influence on teamwork in all of its modern manifestations, including quality circles, project groups, semi-autonomous teams, self-managed teams, and improvement teams. Increasing employee participation through teamwork is not exclusively associated with quality management. The chapter focuses on study of two organisations, a Spanish university and a city council. Respondents thought that it was very important for the implementation of the proposals that the members of the improvement teams should be affected by the problem addressed. The voluntary principle proved to be too idealistic: working in an organisation is normally not considered to be a voluntary action; it is just a job.
