What is expected from supervisors? : One more factor to explain the problems in teamwork

Purpose – This paper attempts to find out how the decade that team members enter the workforce as well as management or leadership emphasis influences different images of supervisors. Certain features of management discussion prevalent during the past decades are used as instruments in addressing the contributing research question: what is still expected from management and leadership? Design/methodology/approach – In this paper the division constructed by Kotter – management and leadership are connected and the decade that team members enter the workforce – are addressed as tools to open the problems in teamwork. The paper includes a preliminary empirical study in a timber procurement organization and ideas for further investigations. Findings – Team member who are not the same age have different images pf supervisors. Hence, they wait partly for different actions within team organization. Though HRM issues seem to be included in supervisors' duties in every decade, for example encouraging and career‐development matters do not appear until the 1980s. Furthermore, different kinds of computer‐aided control systems are not able to respond to quick changes and uncommon situations relating to everyday duties. The image of supervisors that workers take for granted must be taken into consideration during the changes and shifts between responsible actors. Originality/value – This paper contributes to clear advice for age‐management and to research questions for considering explanations for problems of teams.