Thomas G. Cummings and Walter H. Griggs. Worker Reactions to Autonomous Work Groups. Organization and Administrative Sciences, 1976-77,7(4), 87-100

TLDR: This paper found that workers acceptance of or alienation from middle-class work norms may determine whether or not autonomous groups are both productive and satisfying to their members, and that individual differences may affect autonomous group functioning.

Abstract: Additional research suggesting that individual differences may affect autonomous group functioning was reviewed. In particular, it was found that workers’ acceptance of or alienation from middle-class work norms (or values) may determine whether or not autonomous groups are both productive and satisfying to their members. Data were collected from fifty-six blue-collar workers who had been working in autonomous groups (of about six persons) for approximately nine months. All workers were union members who had volunteered to participate in a union-management job-redesign experiment in an industrial