Teams, teams, everywhere? Job and establishment-level predictors of team use in the United States

Most research on the adoption of employee involvement (EI) has focused on the establishment level even though EI is seldom used on an establishment-wide basis. This paper offers a new perspective by using multi-level models to examine how one form of EI (teams) is used at the job level. Using data from the NOS-II, I find that patterns of team use are more consistent with the predictions of evolutionary economics and devaluation theory than with the power-process perspective or the humanistic ideals of EI rhetoric. In particular, teams with basic decision-making powers are most common in jobs that require high levels of human capital or have few non-white incumbents. More research will be needed to fully examine the connection between EI and inequality, but my analysis suggests that despite their potential for good, teams may be increasing inequality or threatening the job rewards that human capital often brings.