Lesson 8 Work Team Structure And Work Team Process

Work

team effectiveness in the new environment requires attention by management to both work structure and work team process.

The

primary structure issues for work teams are goals and objectives, operating guidelines, performance measures, and the specification of roles.

 Work

team process is the second important dimension of effectiveness.

Two of the important process issues in work teams:  Cooperative behaviors  Competitive behaviors

Quality Teams and Circles Quality

teams and quality circles are part of a total quality program. Quality teams are different from quality circles in that they are more formal and are designed and assigned by upper level management.

 Quality

team- a team that is part of an organization’s structure and is empowered to act on its decisions regarding product and service quality.  Quality circles-are small groups of employees who work voluntarily on company time typically one hour per week, to address work related problems such as quality control, cost reduction, production planning and techniques, and even product design.

Social

benefits

psychological intimacy-is a emotional closeness to other team or group members Integrated Involvementis closeness achieve through task and activities.

Employment and SelfManaged teams  Self-managed

teams -are broad based work teams that deal with issues beyond quality.  Empowerment skills -through employee self management is an alternative to empowerment through teamwork.

Upper echelons: TEAMS AT THE TOP  Self-managed

teams at the top of the organizations are referred to upper echelons .  Upper echelon theory are argues that the background characteristics of the top management team can predict organizational characteristic

Critical CEO characteristic

Response to Mandate

Experimentation

Selection of an Enduring theme

Convergence

Dysfunction

Commitment to a paradigm

Moderately strong

Could be strong or weak

Moderately strong

Strong; increasing

Very strong

Task knowledge

Low but rapidly increasing

Moderate; Somewhat increasing

High; slightly increasing

High; slightly increasing

High; slightly increasing

Information Diversity

Many sources; unfiltered

Many sources But increasingly filtered

Fewer sources; Moderately filtered

Few sources; Highly filtered

Very few sources Highly filtered

Task interest

High

High

Moderately High

Moderately High But diminishing

Moderately low But diminishing

Power

Low; increasing

Moderate; increasing

Moderate; increasing

strong; Increasing

Very strong; Increasing

Multicultural Teams  Homogeneous

groups are in which all members are share similar backgrounds are giving way to token groups in which all but one member come from the same background, bicultural groups in which members represent each of two distinct cultures, multicultural groups are in which members represent three or more ethnic backgrounds.

Managerial Implications: Teamwork for productivity and quality Work groups and teams are important vehicles through which organization s achieve high-quality performance.

The triangle for managing in the new team environment manager

team

individuals