The Concept of Self Managing Team

Question: Discuss about theConcept of Self Managing Team. Answer: Introduction A self-managing team looks at a group of employees that work together and are accountable for most of all areas of work. This means that a self-management team is usually considerable of one another in the grounds of how it works and get things done. In this regard, the self-management team is responsible for the majority of key decisions regarding activities that are made by people with the direct knowledge of the people that are most affected by these choices. Self-management teams are also distinct when compared to self-directed teams(Best, 2008). As the latter is used to defining their own goals, the scope within self-managing teams authority is usually limited by the goals that are established by others. Self-managing teams have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, (Barker, 1993) says that self-managing teams are known to boost productivity at work and motivate their employees. Members of these teams thus can plan, direct, coordinate and control own activities. One example can be like the way they set their work schedule and assign different tasks. In this manner, they are able to share both of the technical and managerial tasks. Members of these teams also need to share responsibility with regard to different outputs as a whole that can be used to inspire pride in their establishments. Since they are known to eliminate a level of management, self-managing teams can be used to allocate resources and lower the cost. According to some of the issues that were raised by ISE communications case study. It was revealed that self-managing teams might have been of a great disadvantage in the organisation. For example due to the lack of hierarchy authority, it means that people in the organisation and personal relationship may bring about poor judgment. A May unfortunately lead people in to conforming that can stand in the way of creativity of make it difficult for the organizations team members to see each others underperformance or mistakes. Self-managing teams are also known to add layers of responsibility which can in the end become very time consuming for the organisation(Carmichael, et al., 2011). It calls for skills that some of the members of the team may not have. There will thus be a call for a lot of training to ensure work is done well and in relation to the scope of duties. The New Approach of Managing the Team Before the new approach was implemented in the organisation. The team members practiced self-managing. Through implementation of change in different sectors of the ISE communication company, a lot of change was realized in the organisation. For example, the new team was seen to work better that any other person in the organisation had expected. Some of the remarkable areas in the organisation include the increased phase of employee self-supervision, training with regard to teamwork and the Just in Time manufacturing. There was also a remodeling of the manufacturing areas which was done by the self-managing teams which were originally called the white, red and blue teams. Through this group, the company was able to rearrange worktables, machines among other equipment. Due to this, they are formed three distinct and self-sufficient work stations which provided each of them with the necessary equipment for the production of different circuit bard which would be used by the new teams(Eva ns Dean, 2011). The circuit area also had separate section for circuit board testing, assembly, touch up or repair, trouble shooting, shipping and packaging. In addition, it contained all the main tasks that are required to making a complete circuit board. Workers were also divided in to three teams and each of them assigned to manufacture or configure two to three particular types of boards. The new approach to organizing work was seen as being more productive than the previous one. For example, fore the change, the three were three levels of managerial hierarchy that was witnessed between the vice president and the manufacturing workers. However, after the change, the hierarchy was able to extend directly from the manufacturing team to the vice president himself. In addition, the manufacturing assembly like which used to organize the plant and workers with regard to their individual place was different(Carmichael, et al., 2011). The mean procedure encourage more teamwork. It ensured that all the team member were responsible when it came to the fabrication, packaging and testing of their assigned circuit boards. This ensured that each team member was relevant and understood what was required of them. Before the new form of management, a line shift supervisor would form the first link to management. However, with the new change implemented, it was found that team members were able to manage their own affairs. There was independence of each department and one person from the team was elected to coordinate information to the other entire members(Barker, 1993). Also in the previous system, employees in the organisation did not have a lot of say in the decision making of the organisation. They had little input if any in to the worker related decisions since managers where they only ones allowed to make decisions on behalf of the company. However with the new implementation team members where allowed to make independent decisions with regard to organisations guidelines. Here there was evidence of shared responsibility that worked well for the organisation. Effect of Managing Workers Self-managing team worked positively for the organisation in many ways. First, it was able to change the culture of the organisation in to a more positive one(Evans Dean, 2011). Each employee felt as being part of the organisation as they were given the power to contribute in to decisions of the organisation. Self-management teams also encouraged competition among employees meaning that productivity for the company was also increased. With this in mind there was little turnover of employees and the profits for the organisations also increased. Each team also worked out their own self managing strategies that were focused in meeting the objectives of the company. It was also easy to judge employees or the group that was not performing and ensure new strategies were put in place to encourage these groups(Carmichael, et al., 2011). References Barker, J. R., 1993. Tightening the Iron Cage: Concertive Control in Self-Managing Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(3), pp. 408-437. Best, R., 2008. Market-Based Management (5th Edition). 5 ed. Ney York: Prentice Hall. Carmichael, J., Collins, C., Emsell, P. Haydon, J., 2011. Leadership Management Development. 2 ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Evans, J. Dean, J., 2011. Total quality: management, organization, and strategy. 2 ed. Cincinnati: South-Western College Pub,.