Human Resource Project Self Managed Teams

Anushka Bhatia BBS 2A Roll no- 50034

Acknowledgements

Through this acknowledgment, I express our sincere gratitude to all those people who have been associated with this project and have helped me with it and made it a worthwhile experience. Firstly I extend our thanks to the various people who have shared their opinions and experiences through which I received the required information crucial for my report.

Finally, we express our thanks to my HR professor, Mrs Tarannum Ahmed who gave me this opportunity to learn the subject in a practical approach and gave me valuable suggestions regarding the project.

Table of contents

Introduction Methodology o Defining Self Managed Teams o Key features of a self managed team o Roles and responsibilities of a self managed team o Advantages of self-directed teams o Challenges in developing self-direction o Traditional groups v/s Self managed teams o Conditions ideal for a self managed team o HRM challenges in self managed teams Cases from real life- Business without bosses
o o W.L Gore and Associates AT&T corporation

Findings and conclusion Limitations of the study Bibliography

Introduction Existentialist psychologist, Erich Fromm states that people are passionate beings, unable to tolerate boredom and monotony and if unable to take a genuine interest in life, will become capable of perversion and destruction. If he is correct then much of the egotistical, greedy, and undesirable behavior we are dealing with today are the symptoms of a greater illness in the workplace. This classical paradigm of work and management is in the process of being shifted to become congruent with the rest of life and the passion of an intelligent community. The understanding of success has become broader and more people are thinking about creating a world in which they want to belong. The way we perceive business and organizational leadership is being radically reframed to suit the needs of a new environment. The concept of a democratic workplace and a self-managing environment may have only surfaced in the last 40 years but it has taken the workplace by storm. For a long time many people considered it a fad but today many management theorists and consultants see its revolution of the way we live and work. The following project deals with the concept, structure and the purpose of one of the most unique and popular concepts of HR- A self managed team. It attempts to explain its essence and the reason why it is fast gaining acceptance in the workplace. It also covers the challenges that come along with a self managed team. The project includes a background study on two organizations that have successfully embraced the concept of a self managed team: 1. W.L Gore and Associates 2. AT&T corporation

Defining Self Managed Teams The origin of the word team can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon word for family which referred to harnessed animals to pull a load thereby implying common goals and cooperation. With time, the concept of team-work gained importance with organizations taking measures to ensure that a team is equipped and empowered enough to function on its own. This situation today is perhaps best described by the term self-managed teams. Self managed teams are closely associated with the concept of employee empowerment which entails the employee to have the requisite authority and resources required by him to carry out his responsibilities. A self managed team differs from a normal work team or group in one essential way that the processes or the means to achieve the team goal are designed and decided by the team itself. Given the stiff competition at the global level, all organizations have been forced to focus on developing their human capital.

Thus self managed teams can be described as groups of employees who have the responsibility and authority to manage the work they do.

Key features of a self managed team:

Knowledge sharing and extensive communication between members is central to the working of any self managed team Multi-skilling is a typical characteristic of self managed teams. Self managed teams are not managed by an external supervisor but rather facilitated by a team leader from within the team.

Roles and responsibilities of a self managed team Self managed are believed to have certain broad areas of responsibility or roles. These roles

provide a common context within which all work groups in an organization can operate on a daily basis. The specific responsibilities housed inside each role do change. 1. Uphold Organizational and Personal Values and Principles a. Exhibiting behaviors that are consistent with organizational and personal values and principles; b. Making decisions grounded in organizational and personal values and principles; c. Communicating organizational values and principles to customers and suppliers; d. Communicating personal values and principles to team members; and e. Addressing conflicts between personal and organizational values and principles with team members. 2. Accomplish the Team's Work a. Identifying what work the team needs to do; b. Prioritizing the work so it can be accomplished within agreed-upon timelines; c. Deciding who does the work; d. Scheduling the work; e. Obtaining the necessary resources to do the work; f. Doing the work within agreed-upon timelines while meeting identified customers' requirements. 3. Organize the Team's Work Environment a. Sorting the necessary from the unnecessary within the work environment; b. Simplifying access to ensure there is a place for everything and everything is in its proper place; c. Sweeping both visually and physically to ensure safety, order, cleanliness, and routine maintenance has occurred; d. Standardizing the organization of the work area e. Self discipline in the ongoing study and reorganization of the work environment.

4. Manage the Team's Work Processes a. Identifying the work processes that are the responsibility of the team; b. Creating a standard method for carrying out each work process, based on customers' requirements, that includes a plan for monitoring process performance over time; c. Continually improving how the work is done; d. Addressing problems that arise; e. Identifying opportunities for innovation; f. Sharing work process information with others throughout the organization; and g. Training team members on the team's work processes and related topics. 5. Participate in Organization-Wide Systems a. Following organizational policies (note: these policies should be linked to the team's work processes); b. Recommending policy changes; c. Participating in organization-wide training; and d. Assisting in organizational assessments, and quality systems and certification audits.

Why have a self managed team?

When employees are completely in-charge of their job it is likely to create a greater interest and attachment to job. This also means that the managers can devote their time in innovation and process improvement rather than monitoring the employees. Also, since the employees are the front-liners, their tacit knowledge of even the most miniscule aspect of the job is utilized when they are given the responsibility of the quality and end result. As self managed teams require constant exchange of information, it leads to breaking of communication barriers between groups of employees. Other reported benefits of selfmanaged teams include: reduced absenteeism, increased productivity and increased employee satisfaction.

Advantages of self-directed teams Why is this concept of self-directed teams growing? A recent survey of more than 500 organizations offers several reasons why senior line managers chose to revolutionize their approach to work. Self-directed work teams have resulted in: * Improved quality, productivity and service. * Greater flexibility. * Reduced operating costs. * Faster response to technological change. * Fewer, simpler job classifications. * Better response to workers' values. * Increased employee commitment to the organization. * Ability to attract and retain the best people.

Challenges in developing self-direction The major challenges organizations face in changing from a traditional environment to a highinvolvement environment include developing the teams and fostering a culture of management support. Teams go through several stages of increasing involvement on their way to self-management. This journey can take between two and five years, and is never-ending from a learning and renewal perspective. Comprehensive training is also critical to developing effective self-directed work teams. The training for these teams must be more comprehensive than for other types of teams. Not only must employees learn to work effectively in teams and develop skills in problem solving and decision making, they also must learn basic management skills so they can manage their own processes. Additionally, people must be cross-trained in every team member's job. Therefore, it is not uncommon for self-directed work teams to spend 20 percent of their time in ongoing training.

Traditional groups v/s Self managed teams The following table highlights the contrast between traditional work groups and selfdirected teams and gives examples of self-managed team results: Traditional Work Groups Take directions Seek individual reward Focus on blame Compete Stop at present goals Demand for more resources React at emergencies Spend money to improve quality Organization Proctor and Gamble Federal Express AT&T Credit Corporation General Electric Xerox Volvo Honeywell Self-Directed Teams Take initiative Focus on team contributions Concentrate on solutions Cooperate Continually improve and innovate Work with what they have Prevent emergencies Save money by improving quality Result 30-50% lower manufacturing costs Cut service problems by 13 % in one year Applications processed per day doubled Productivity increased by 250% Teams at least 30% more productive Production costs decrease by 255 Output increased by 280%

It is no wonder with behaviors and results like those listed above that many organizations are taking the transition towards self-managing teams serious. It has become a very attractive prospect in the midst of an unpredictable and changing marketplace. A word of caution can be given at this stage of the process. This may appear as a very compelling argument however there are certain situations that are more appropriate to self-managing teams than others and there are other options to be considered.

Conditions Facilitating Psychological Empowerment of Self managed teams

Condition Organization structure Competitive strategy Task design and technology Duration of relation with customers/clients Dominant culture values in the organization Employee traits

Unfavorable High centralization and formalization Low cost standard product or service Simple, repetitive task and reliable technology Brief transactions during a short time interval Reliable, efficient operations without any mistakes Low achievement motivation, external locus of control, and emotional instability Unskilled, inexperienced Temporary employee None or very little None Low

Favorable Very decentralized, low formalization Customized, highly differentiated product/service Complex, non-routine task, unreliable technology Repeated interaction in a continuing relationship Flexibility, learning, and participation High need for achievement, internal locus of control, and emotional stability Highly skilled professional Regular, continuing employee Employees are shareholders or co-owners Extensive programs strongly supported by top management High

Employee ability Employee tenure Employee ownership and rewards for success Employee involvement programs Mutual Trust

HRM challenges in self managed teams

Traditional work groups In traditional work groups and teams, management usually assumes the primary responsibility for defining needed positions, recruiting the right candidates, establishing criteria for evaluating the candidates, selecting the new worker, and orienting him or her to the job. Further, once the employee is on the job, management then monitors and evaluates the employee's performance and takes corrective action if required to improve performance. Self managed teams The self managed teams, however, assumes full responsibility for managing its human resources. Following guidelines established by the HR department, the self managed team usually performs all of the functions that result in a new hire. It also assumes responsibility for resolving individual performance problems that occur when individual members don't meet team expectations. As a result, team members must learn to master such HR skills as recruiting and selecting new hires, monitoring individual performance, and then taking action to correct performance problems.

While it might be true that self managed teams will approach performance problem solving quite differently than traditional management approaches (e.g., looking for cause not blame), the team must be capable of dealing with the team member who fails to work effectively with the team. This may even include the difficult task of disciplining or even terminating a team member. Although managing its human resources may be the hardest skill for the team to master, it is probably the most critical to the team's long-term success. 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. 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. Louisbased 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. In such an undertaking, however, HR needs to practice what it preaches. HR cant 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.

Cases from real life- Business without bosses 1. W.L Gore & Associates
One company who has been pioneering an empowered environment like this is W.L. Gore & Associates. In this company teams do exist but they are not formally designated. They form in a style that is now being referred to as swarming. This is when the people form themselves in functional and cross functional teams as needed. In this case the entire company is an empowered team where everyone is self-managing. This context leverages the strengths of personal self-management and self-managing teams together. There is no hierarchy, but instead everyone is an Associate that relates directly with one another. It is an organization without bosses and hinges on self-initiated teamwork. W.L. Gore & Associates functions by having some simple rules that allow the system to selfregulate and develop around the passion and interest of Associates. These guiding principles are: Try to be fair Use your freedom to grow Make your own commitments and keep them Consult with other Associates prior to any action that may adversely affect the reputation or financial stability of the company Their strategy is to get big by staying small and they regulate one another through sponsorship instead of supervision. Bill Gore developed what he called the lattice organization structure that allows the company to remain unmanaged and unstructured. The principle characteristics of the structure are: Lines of communication are direct person to person with no intermediary There are sponsors not bosses Natural leadership is defined by followership Objectives are set by those who must make them happen Tasks and functions are organized through commitments There is no fixed or assigned authority At first glance this system would seem impossible to manage and would appear to be out of control. It is exactly that. It has grown and developed without an authoritarian pattern and has a focus on respecting peoples life and inherent value. It appears to be an environment where the community of Associates carefully considers the world they are creating and everyone takes the opportunity to choose what they will contribute to the company and the customer.

But in an environment where everyone is expected to lead each other without a formal chain of command, it would be easy to assume the work structure might break down, leading to a high staff turnover. For Gore, this is not the case. Of the 426 people employed in Scotland, 311 have been with the firm for more than 10 years, and associate turnover has hovered around 5 per cent for much of the same period. Maintaining these impressive statistics is not without its challenges, and is in no small part down to Gore's HR team, represented by Ann Gillies, Lynn Pearson and Vikky England "We are not an organization where an individual has to earn trust. When we recruit, people need to have faith that they will work co-operatively with others so they can develop into responsible associates. Gore is not an employer for nine-to-fivers," says Gillies Gillies is at pains to point out the importance of equality and fairness in the workplace - slip the word 'employee' or 'management' into the conversation and she raises an eyebrow. This terminology represents everything Gillies and her HR team have worked hard to remove from the vocabulary and conscience of people who enter the double doors of Gore's HQ. A key part of the HR team is to maintain this status quo of equality and encourage associates to 'contribute' independently and collectively in teams loosely based around a work area. In the conventional sense, whether the associate is a secretary, a canteen worker or a test engineer, each and every person has no 'position' within the company. They are expected to commit to projects to match their skills, and quickly earn their credibility to define and drive projects. Multi-tasking is based more on associates having the freedom to suggest ideas to another work area rather than contributing hands-on skills. In this way, Gore welcomes overlaps in different work areas. For example, a designer's job function could overlap with a test engineer, or a marketing role may overlap with accounts. According to the Britain's Best Company to Work For survey, 87 per cent of associates said they would miss working for Gore if they left, while 86 per cent believe they can make a difference to the company. The annual sales of 26m and a five per cent staff turnover confirms that the staff is happy to work at Gore.

2. AT&T Credit Corporation

AT&T Credit Corporation (ATTCC) was established in 1985 to provide finance and leasing services to AT&T's customers and others acquiring telecommunications products. The company was organized into two divisions - the General Markets Division (GMD) which handled high-volume, small ticket business, and the Business Markets Division (BMD) which took care of small volume, middle to large ticket items. Both divisions were organized according to traditional work design principles, emphasizing topdown hierarchical control, function separation, and a high degree of task specialization. Credit approval, funding and collection functions for the GMD were subcontracted to an outside vendor. It soon became apparent that smaller customers were not receiving the personal service and flexible financing alternatives they wanted from the GMD. ATTCC didn't "own" their customers' accounts because the subcontractor's leasing processes were not traceable by AT&T staff. ATTCC's management felt the subcontractor's operation was inefficiently run and, as a result, unnecessarily costly. Customers lacked a single point of contact for leasing and customer service. Employees had no sense of how their efforts contributed to satisfying customers since work was divided into small, separated tasks and processing groups were organized functionally. In 1986, Paul Gustavson, a San Jose, California-based organizational design consultant who had advised AT&T during the Transtech reorganization was called in to assist, and has helped ATTCC ever since. ATTCC started taking back the high volume GMD business, hiring their own employees and operating it themselves. They set out to give their employees "ownership and accountability" for costs and customers throughout the entire leasing process. While BMD continued to operate traditionally, the GMD was set up to operate in eleven self-managing teams, each accountable for a specific geographic assignment. Area Sales Managers were also assigned to corresponding regions. Sales agents and teams worked together to establish a personal relationship with their customers. Each team took care of all four aspects of the business; credit evaluations, funding, customer service and collection. These had previously been managed separately. The new arrangements eliminated the shuffling of calls between different departments. Team members now took responsibility for solving any and all of their customer's problems. Thus, a culture developed that "whoever gets the call, owns the problem." 1989, it was clear that the new GMD organization was a success. Teams were processing 800 applications a day, up from 400 when they started. Instead of taking several days to approve credit, the teams did it in one. Teams scheduled their own time off, reassigned work when people were absent, and interviewed prospective new employees. As a result, ATTCC was growing at a 50% compounded annual rate. Team members today can easily relate their own success and their team's success with ATTCC's success. Employees who previously had individual, parochial goals have shifted their thinking toward supporting broader team goals. Sales representatives are no longer just interested in 'doing deals'. They now have a greater incentive to write 'good deals', which will fully satisfy the requirements of the team members who make credit approvals. Better deals result in lower delinquency rates and fewer write off.

Findings and Conclusion

The numbers of companies and mangers that employ self managed teams have increased drastically. This indicates that we no more live in a conservative industry and that innovative work culture is fast developing. Companies that have employed team system have benefitted from low costs, increased productivity and other advantages Self managed teams bear a sharp contrast from traditional work groups and provide several benefits however they need a certain kind of environment to function successfully. The Human resource department plays a major role in the proper functioning of a self managed team. Although the HR of such a team is challenging and differs from ordinary HRM, however human skills are imperative and assume utmost importance in a self managed team. Successful re-engineering of an organization with self-managing teams is not a quick fix. It requires a great deal of effort, commitment, and support from all members of the organization.

Bibliography

General HR Management Self Directed work teams- qualitydigest.com The Disciplines of Self-Managed Work Teams- Russel consulting inc. Industry Week. Self-Directed Teams: A Study of Current Practice. 1990. Shonk, J. H. Team-Based Organizations: Developing a Successful Team Environment. IL: Business One Irwin, 1992. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Organization planning and design- AT&T Corporation Creationstep. Inc