Page 263 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Management Practices and Organisational Behaviour

Notes of worker self-management, empowerment, and teams more than thirty years ago. No
employee has a formal title – all are known as associates – and the company has no formal
structure. To be hired, an individual must be sponsored by an existing employee, who
must also find work for the “new” employee to do. The sponsor continues to advise the
associate and even “market” his or her abilities to project teams in the company.
For example, an individual who acts as a product specialist takes charge of developing a
new product. This person then creates a team to work on the product development. The
team expands its membership as needed to perform various functions in developing and
ultimately manufacturing the product. Team members decide how the team will operate
and what staff and financial resources the team requires. They do not need to consult with
individuals outside the team on budget or other decisions that mainly affect the team and
its product. Team members would perform functions traditionally performed by managers,
such as scheduling and assigning jobs, maintaining equipment, ordering supplies, and
keeping business data about the team’s performance.
Teams can grow to become a plant, but can have no more than 200 associates, so that
members are familiar with all those in the group. In principle, an entire work operation
can become a large self-managing team in which each member is self-managing. As the
team grows, it divides into multiple teams known as manufacturing cells. Each team
member can perform most manufacturing processes, but agrees to assume certain ones as
his or her personal responsibility. Once an associate makes a commitment, he or she is
expected to follow it. Each team has a leader who emerges from within the team as a result
of discussion and consensus.

The approach used at W.L. Gore and Associates is in marked contrast to that used in
companies with a clearly established set of reporting relationships and formal titles for all
employees. In traditionally functioning companies, leaders are appointed and teams are
not self-managing, but are supervised by a manager. In thirty years, W.L. Gore and
Associates has grown to a company with 5,600 associates, 35 plants worldwide, and revenue
close to $1 billion.
Source: F. Shipper and C.C Manz, “ Employee self-management without formally designated teams: An
alternative road to Empowerment”, Organisational Dynamics 20 (winter 1992) PAGE 58 – 60.

12.3 Summary

Thus we see that team skills and group membership form a very important component of
the attributes required for success in work place.
If a group in which the individual is working, is conducive for work, the performance of
the individual will be similarly affected and vice versa.
There are many reasons and methods for group formation but groups are mandatory for
one's work.

Similarly, the teams guarantee good productivity.

12.4 Keywords

Differentiation: It is the extent to which team members are specialized relative to others in the
organisation.
Integration: It is the degree to which the team must coordinate with managers, employees,
suppliers and customers outside the team.

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