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Human Relations
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Interdisciplinary Teams and the Control of Clients: A Sociotechnical Perspective

Eli Teram

Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5.

The literature on interdisciplinary teams discusses the relations between professionals independently of issues related to client processing. With a sociotechnical perspective, this paper examines how interdisciplinary work may well generate increased opportunities for unwarranted client control. A case example from the services for the mentally handicapped demonstrates how team members from vocational and residential programs "pool" control mechanisms in a way that compromises their primary organizational goals; such pooling may be a phenomenon that occurs in other fields too. Sociotechnical concepts elucidate how interprofessional relations affect and are affected by client-worker interactions, suggesting stricter criteria for evaluating technically-required cooperation in settings where the control of clients is an important contingency for workers. It is also argued that administrators should monitor team decisions, in particular those related to which clients cross what organizational boundaries, when, and why.

Key Words: interdisciplinary teams • sociotechnical analysis • control of clients • community services for mentally handicapped

Human Relations, Vol. 44, No. 4, 343-356 (1991)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679104400403
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