It’s who you know, not what you know
A widely voiced observation, which implies
that the employee’s time may often be as
usefully spent creating a network of allies
and contacts as in doing any actual work.
“Team building” or being “a team player”’
are phrases often used in job advertisements
and personnel specifications. Co-operating
with colleagues is self-evidently important in
most work – but could “team-player” sometimes also refer to people who are very good
at making themselves liked or good at
appearing to be indispensable, but who are
not necessarily very effective performers? A
closely knit “team” is also more likely to
share, and stick closely to, a social reality(see
“Who sets the standards”, below).