The "team approach" has also had a number of failures that are important to
consider. The most notable was the debacle at the Field Museum wherein the
"team" so fouled the curatorial approach that curators resigned and wall
labels were put up disavowing the exhibit. I believe Museum News carried
articles about that situation. Some have seen the "team approach" as an
effort on the part of Administrations to do away with the middle management
level of museums, i.e. curatorial, in favor of having the education, pr and
other depts. work with Admin. to create exhibits. This same approach has
been used in U.S. industry for the past five years, cutting out the middle,
and has amplified concerns over the lack of product quality and the
destruction of the middle class and the limitation of upward mobility
within corporate and institutional structures.
 
The team approach is not a given and may go the way of other managerial
theories of the past decade.
 
Paul Apodaca
Bowers Museum
Santa Ana, CA