Self-Managed Work Teams
Self-managed work teams
Barriers, Inefficiencies, Limitations and Problems
By
Jamal Ghamari
Introduction
The history of SMWT’s developed from Socio-technical Systems and Quality of Work Life (QWL) that provided a variety of specific ideas for application to organizations. (Pearce and Ravelin (1987) provide an interesting overview of early studies in the United States.) The initial success and acceptance led to efforts to expand the concept of SMWT’s into new settings. This expansion generated a proliferation of team types and situations resulting in the original basic concept becoming fragmented and overly complex. Because of the newness of the concepts, implementation has focused on problems and conditions surrounding team establishment. Even learning generated by team failures and problems has focused on beginning conditions and how to get teams organized and initially effective.
Historical development
The concept of self managed teams is historically rooted in the Socio-Technical Systems approach and in elements of the Quality of Work Life movement. These origins provide the initial theoretical development and the examples of early success that account for current team popularity. Understanding these origins provides perspective on the current issues facing teams and the limits of the structural/acute problem perspective.
Origins of self- management
The concept of self-managed or self-directed teams originated with the Sociotechnical systems movement (Emery & Trist, 1960; Trist & Bamforth, 1951). Socio-technical systems argued that social and technical systems must be jointly optimized and that attention to either component alone could produce problematic results. The autonomous work group was the form that evolved from this design. Some authors (Wall, Kemp, Jackson & Clegg, 1986) also link the SMWT concept to the Quality of Work Life (QWL) movement (Hackman & Lawler, 1971; Hackman & Oldham, 1976) since many of the efforts to implement
Barriers, Inefficiencies, Limitations and Problems
By
Jamal Ghamari
Introduction
The history of SMWT’s developed from Socio-technical Systems and Quality of Work Life (QWL) that provided a variety of specific ideas for application to organizations. (Pearce and Ravelin (1987) provide an interesting overview of early studies in the United States.) The initial success and acceptance led to efforts to expand the concept of SMWT’s into new settings. This expansion generated a proliferation of team types and situations resulting in the original basic concept becoming fragmented and overly complex. Because of the newness of the concepts, implementation has focused on problems and conditions surrounding team establishment. Even learning generated by team failures and problems has focused on beginning conditions and how to get teams organized and initially effective.
Historical development
The concept of self managed teams is historically rooted in the Socio-Technical Systems approach and in elements of the Quality of Work Life movement. These origins provide the initial theoretical development and the examples of early success that account for current team popularity. Understanding these origins provides perspective on the current issues facing teams and the limits of the structural/acute problem perspective.
Origins of self- management
The concept of self-managed or self-directed teams originated with the Sociotechnical systems movement (Emery & Trist, 1960; Trist & Bamforth, 1951). Socio-technical systems argued that social and technical systems must be jointly optimized and that attention to either component alone could produce problematic results. The autonomous work group was the form that evolved from this design. Some authors (Wall, Kemp, Jackson & Clegg, 1986) also link the SMWT concept to the Quality of Work Life (QWL) movement (Hackman & Lawler, 1971; Hackman & Oldham, 1976) since many of the efforts to implement
References: • Evelyn F.Rogers, William Metaly, Ira T. Kaplan, Terri Shapiro; “Self-Managing Work Teams: Do they really work?” • Dale E. Yeatts, Cloyd Hyten (1998); “High Performing Self-Managed work Teams: A comparison of Theory and Practice” • James A. Buckenmeyer (1996); “Self-Managed Teams: Some Operational Difficulties” • Dean Elmuti (1997); “Self-Managed Work teams Approach: Creative management tool or a fad?” • Ageeth Balkema, Eric Molleman; “Barriers to the development of self-organizing teams”; Journal of managerial psychology • Douglas Polley, Barbara Ribbens; “Sustaining self-managed teams: a process approach to team wellness”;