This paper argues that the concepts of alienation and antagonism allow us to understand the introduction of teamwork as a way of increasing control over labor and at the same time decrease costs of control and supervision. It is also argued that lean production has made the capital circuit more prone to disruptions thereby calling for increasing supervision and control over the labor process. However, as a way to constantly decrease costs, lean production had to resort to methods of control which were compatible with cost reductions. Teamwork, it is argued, allows for cost reduction because it makes control to stem from workers themselves. Finally, in as much as teamwork is tied up with decreasing costs of both constant and variable capital it is characterized as a form of real subsumption of labor.
alienation; supervision; teamwork