THEORETICAL REVIEW

What is a self-directed work team?

A group of employees who have day-to-day responsibilities of managing themselves and the work they do with minimum of direct supervision. Members of self-directed teams typically handle job assignments, plan and schedule work, make production- and/or service-related decisions, and take actions on problems.

A self-directed work team (SDWT) is a group of people, usually employees in a company, who combine different skills and talents to work without the usual managerial supervision toward a common purpose or goal. Typically, an SDWT has somewhere between two and 25 members. An optimal SDWT is said to be between five and nine members. SDWT members use their company's mission statement to develop their purpose, which must be meaningful and beneficial to the company. Purposes might include problem solving, increasing sales and productivity, career training, and product improvement. SDWT members must decide how they want to work together. Because a manager or boss does not lead, they must agree on the rules and deadlines for accomplishing their purpose. Some teams create a charter or set of rules that describe what is expected of each member. If a problem arises during the course of a project, the team members work together to arrive at a solution. In order for an SDWT to succeed, the company or organization must provide a meaningful mission statement to the team, empower the team to do what it needs to do including making important decisions, support the team, establish and provide the boundaries, rules, and company policies, and train the members with the skills and knowledge needed to accomplish their purpose. But, in the end, the team is held accountable for the success or failure of a project.

Why Self-Directed Work Teams?

Success in today's workplace often derives from teamwork and employee empowerment. This democratization of work stems from globalization, increased diversity, the development of technology, and unprecedented environmental change.

Increased organizational effectiveness and personal satisfaction result from self-directed work teams (Forsyth, 1999). Organizationally, teams:

Produce higher quality solutions,

Increase customer satisfaction,

Reduce operating costs,

Improve quality and productivity,

Better align workloads,

Retain and attract top employees,

Rapidly response to technological change,

Increase innovation and creativity,

Support risk taking,

Create organizational growth through learning,

Serve as mechanisms for honoring the past, and

Appreciate and use diversity (Huszczo, 1996; Mackay, 1993; Wellins, Byham, & Wilson, 1991).

For individuals, teams provide:

Motivation

Personal growth

Job satisfaction

Sense of community

Fulfilling relationships

Constructive conflict resolution

Leadership development

Empowerment and trust

Attention to worker values

Characteristics of Self directed work teams:

The SDWT culture has the following characteristics:

A learning culture

Facilitates the identification of competencies of people on a continuous basis

Brings out the hidden potential and new talents of people

Has a built-in motivational value – self-sustaining motivation

Enables individuals to take initiative and to experiment

Brings joy and satisfaction in work

Enhances the creativity and problem-solving capabilities of people

Creates team spirit and morale

Enhances the action orientation of individuals and teams

Role of SDWT in a Manufacturing set up :

Modern management experts agree that the frontline manufacturing worker's skills and experience are vital to an organization's competitiveness. Management consultant Tom Peters, the coauthor of In Search of Excellence, is one of today's foremost experts on business management. Peters says that the frontline worker knows more about his or her job than anyone else. An engineer or scientist may know more about the technology behind the job, but he or she does not do the job eight hours a day. A manager may know more about how the job fits into the organization's mission, but the manager doesn't do it eight hours a day either. The person who has his or her hands on the materials and equipment learns intimate details about the task.The frontline worker often develops informal techniques that can improve quality or productivity. Frank Gryna defines a knack as "a small difference in method which accounts for a large difference in results" (Juran & Gryna, 1988, 22.57). Knacks come only from hands-on experience with the job. (Gryna is coeditor of Juran's Quality Control Handbook, which is among today's foremost references on quality.)

However, workers should not deviate from approved practices, because changing the method can damage the product. Instead, workers who think they can improve on the procedures should seek approval through the proper channels. This often means involving the process engineer, technicians, and other workers. The engineer or technician may help by designing a controlled experiment to test the new technique. The experiment can show whether the change improves quality or productivity, or causes harm. Often, however, the engineer may simply approve the change because if there is no potential for harm. The change then becomes part of the official procedure.

In a typical manufacturing set up a Self directed work team does the following :

Makes most of its daily decisions such as assigning work, rotating jobs, and scheduling vacations Sets its own goals based on company goals Develops its own performance standards, and measures itself against them Conducts its own audits and inspections Determines its own training needs Identifies and implements improvements to the work Procures its day-to-day materials and services needed to accomplish the work Has input to major purchases related to its work Maintains its own work space and is responsible for layout Provides feedback to its team members on performance Is responsible for staffing needs and acquires new members when needed

Stages in team development: 

Forming Storming Norming Performing Adjourning

Forming : When a team is initially formed, its members cannot accomplish much until they agree on what their purpose is, how they will work together and so on .Answering such questions brings team members face to face with the first obstacle to maturity, uncertainty, anxiety, and disagreement over power and authority. In this Stage, the focus is on the interpersonal relations among the members. Members assess one another with regard to trustworthiness, emotional comfort, and evaluative acceptance. Thus, the forming stage is characterized by a great deal of uncertainty about the team purpose, structure and leadership. Members are testing the waters to determine the type of behaviour that is acceptable. This stage is complete when members have begun to think of themselves as part of a Team.Storming: The Storming stage is one of the inter- team conflicts. Members accept the existence of the team, but resist the constraints the group imposes on individuality. Further, there is conflict over who will control the team. After a team leader has emerged, the remaining team members must sort out where they fit in the group. Even if all group members accept the leader, the group enters a phase of conflict and challenge. One or more followers may test the leader. The team may split in to factions supporting and opposing the leader. If the team gets stuck in this phase of development, group members may engage in battles over turf and expend their energies on a variety of political tactics. When this stage is complete, a relatively clear hierarchy of leadership exists within the team.Norming: In this Stage, close relationship develops and the group demonstrates cohesiveness. Entering and conducting the cohesion phase requires intervention by a group members who is emotionally unaffected by Power and authority issues. Typically, such a person encourages team members to confront these issues openly. If the group engages in this process, the cohesion phase usually passes quickly. Team members recognize where they fit in and the group agrees on how it will operate. A new leader may emerge, or the existing leader may become more aware of how much others in the group contribute. The norming stage is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has assimilated a common set of expectations of what defines ‘correct member behaviour’.Performing: The fourth stage is performing. The structure at this point is full, functional and accepted. Group energy has moved from getting to know and understand each other to performing the task at hand. Member’s attention is directed to self- motivation and the motivation of other team members for task accomplishment.Some members focus on the task function of initiating activity and ensure that the work of the team really gets moving. Other members contribute to motivation and commitment within the group through maintenance function such as supporting, encouraging and recognizing the contributions of members or through establishing the standards that the group may use in evaluating its performance.Adjourning: For Permanent work teams, performing is the last stage in their development. However for temporary groups, there is an adjourning stage. In this stage, the group prepares for its disbandment; high task performance is no longer the group’s top priority. Instead, attention is directed toward wrapping up activities.

Phases of development :

Self-Directed Work Teams make many structural and operational decisions that previously were made by line supervisors, including compensation and rewards, scheduling, maintenance, inventory control, data management, training and others. But the greatest challenge may lie in setting and enforcing new behavioral expectations, made necessary by the absence of a traditional supervisor and the presence of new employee rights and responsibilities. How will team meetings be kept orderly? How will members with attendance or conduct problems be disciplined? How will inappropriate safety and performance behaviors be corrected? Sooner or later, these and other important matters will require group consensus and enforcement.

While teams absorb new roles and responsibilities, some developmental trip wires often snag teams at certain times:

At the start of operation after implementation. Some senior employees, comfortable with traditional, autocratic management and jaded at management fads that come and go, may resist or undermine a team approach. Companies need to be mindful of resistance that comes from ‘elder statesmen’ in the workplace, the minions who feel protected whether or not they go along with change. Their adverse impact can be subtle but significant.

During the first crisis. Echoes of “I told you so” are likely to be heard at the first significant difficulty. A frequent problem scenario: how to meet a difficult production deadline. If team members don’t rally around an agreeable strategy, team spirit will take an early and potentially long-term hit.

At this time, an external facilitator may be hired. The facilitator brings objectivity to the table and can help to mediate a solution, something that the company may not be able to do using internal staff. After successful resolution, the quiet resistors of work teams will start to buy into the team process and appreciate the company’s investment in outside expertise to help them succeed. This is the moment at which the ‘whole’ of teamwork starts to become greater than the sum of its parts.

Equally important is senior leadership’s reaction to the crisis. During crisis, teambuilding experts say, company leaders should keep a stiff upper lip. SMWTs fluctuate like stocks—even the best long-term ones experience short-term troughs.

Twelve to 18 months after implementation. According to some organizational psychologists, this is the approximate timeframe in which the novelty of teaming wears off, boredom sets in, and former managers are prone to try and reassert their authority. For example, some employees on slower-maturing teams may “cherry pick” their responsibilities and resume kicking problems back to a former manager for resolution.

HR managers and outside facilitators can help teams through such slumps by suggesting new areas for training, mini-projects the team can initiate, and new long-term goals for the team to work toward. At the same time, members should be reminded of the importance of sticking to the good habits and practices that have made the team successful up to that point.

About five years after implementation. A convergence of problems at this time often forms “the classic brick wall that organizations hit,” says Darcy Hitchcock, president of Axis Performance Advisors in

Portland, Ore. For example, the team may have recently hired new people who aren’t yet indoctrinated to self-management and simultaneously may need to reassess its role in the company, causing confusion about the source of problems and their solutions.

During a reassessment, Hitchcock says that teams need to ask themselves: “Does our process still make sense in the organization or does it need to be tweaked?” Periods of introspection, she says, can lead to sudden “growth spurts,” a more sophisticated team structure and the emergence of inter-team projects.

Common Obstacles

In addition to critical times in their lives, teams face more subtle, continuing hurdles.

Employees who say, “I’m not paid to think.” Almost anyone who has worked a production job has heard someone utter these words. On the surface, the statement sounds like us-versus-them defiance of management, but underlying it is insecurity about doing any task not accomplished by rote.

Two remedial steps may help. The first is allowing some time, perhaps six months, before implementing new SDWTs to allow people to get used to the idea and to acquaint them with new behavioral expectations, such as required attendance at daily meetings and voluntary information sharing. Second, training on “sustainability skills” will help to break down resistance from employees . Such skills include effective communication, active listening, problem-solving and conflict resolution.

Managers who feel displaced by the new team. Employers also need to find new roles for managers who previously had authority to solve problems for subordinates, mete discipline and do one-directional performance evaluations.

Bullies who take charge. There might be people who seize power and use physical or psychological intimidation to hold onto followers and dominate others. By contrast, teambuilding experts advocate that organizations encourage “natural leaders” to emerge.

Keeping the way open for natural leaders to emerge, as well as keeping would-be bullies at bay, is accomplished by consistently promoting respectful dialogue on teams, allowing team members to intellectually challenge each other, and introducing a strong policy against violence, aggression, threats and menacing gestures.

Rumor mills. Conjecture, personal opinion and outright lies—commonly called the “rumor mill”—are destructive horizontal communication resulting from poor leadership communication. Rumor mills can go into overdrive in an SDWT organization gone awry.

Factors influencing the implementation of SDWT :

The advantages do outweigh the disadvantages in my opinion, but some of the disadvantages can be:

More meetings Teams are made up of groups of people (no secret here!) which requires that they get together often to discuss team business. Provide them with the training they need so their meetings will be more than a gathering of people.

Longer decision-making process When one person makes all the decisions, it can be done in a heartbeat. When several people are required to provide input and discussion the pros and cons before making a decision, it can take some time. Equip your teams with decision-making tools so that the process is not agonizing for them.

A dip in productivity before it takes off in a positive direction Things around your company will be very different. After you begin your journey, you may even begin to wonder why you started in the first place! Be patient, the gains will come -- and typically they will be big gains.

Chaos Ensure that your organization is really ready to provide the infrastructure and support needed by teams to accomplish their work. If the organization merely calls a work group a team and doesn't provide critical training and support, you'll have a major mess on your hands.

Problem-Solving Methods:

During the transition period, meetings can be conducted to discuss how they should handle behavioral and interpersonal problems they have with others. Such facilitated meetings should include open discussions, role-playing, use of behavioral assessments of leadership style, and other problem identification and resolution activities.

Team problems, safe to say, are more complicated than individual problems. A useful tool to diagnose SDWT problems is the “critical incident analysis”. It helps the team to identify the problems, look at contributing risk factors, determine trigger events and see how members reacted to the situation. This is especially valuable when someone is ready to withdraw from the team. Once they’ve gone through a critical analysis, the next time they’re enthusiastic about taking on problems.

Employee assistance programs (EAPs) and other external consultants can conduct group interventions for team members whose quarreling has become deeply personal, and coach them on how to handle situations differently.

Role of HR :

Human Resources (HR) managers can help teams by providing technical assistance in rewriting policies and procedures that fit team practices in areas like hiring, peer-based performance evaluations and disciplining employees. Additionally, HR can help the company to establish new behavioral expectations. Lynn Hurst, director of the center for employee services at Pharmacia, a St. Louis-based developer and manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, says her company has five “best managed behaviors” for employees and teams: shared accountability and transparency, ongoing listening and learning, coaching colleagues, participatory management, and competitive benchmarking and continuous improvement.

It is important to build synergy that comes from grouping employees together and solving problems. In such a situation, HR can’t just assume control of the process. You need to work with the teams, allow the ideas to come from them, point out boundaries and facilitate the effort. This can be time-consuming, but it beats having to retrace your steps later.