Developing High-Performance Work Teams Edited by Steven D. Jones and Michael
M. Beyerlein
"From Supervisor to Team Manager"
is a case study by Allen Ferguson, Amy Hicks, and Steven D. Jones. It can
be found in the book Developing High-Performance Work Teams edited
by Steven D. Jones and Michael M. Beyerlein. It involves the Eastman Chemical
Company of Kingsport, Tennessee and their 1989 decision to move to team
management at the Kingsport headquarters. It illustrates an inside view
as to how a traditional supervisor was transformed into a team leader, by
overcoming barriers and going through critical training. This study provides
landmarks in the development process of a team leader, and other supervisors
going through the process may recognize the stages. It also provides information
on the impact this change had on the entire organization.
Important Lessons:
Because supervisors must take on more responsibility
and receive less recognition, they will feel threatened by the transition
to teams.
It is important for management to provide direction,
guidance, and support for the actions of the team managers, but also to
make them accountable for their actions to increase feelings of personal
responsibility for the teams success.
Managers must receive training all through the transition
process, from computer training and cost management, to workplace communication
skills and other interpersonal training.
The supervisor’s commitment is vital to help crews
accept the new structure; fear and lack of understanding will foster a
resistance to the change.
The new team culture must be compatible with the traditional
culture if the entire organization has not yet made the transition.
Interpersonal skills training is important to the
new crew teams, since they are communicating and interacting more.
New management roles include mentoring, coaching,
and facilitating information. Team managers must also be process oriented
and have meetings to clarify roles team roles.
"How Self-Managed Sales Teams Led
to Better Sales in a British Company" is a case study by
Roger Woodgate of ABA Consultants, and Niall Trafford and Angela Stephens
of Marks & Spence. This case study details the implementation of teams
as part of a change to an empowered work culture at Mark & Spence, a
global retail organization. They created a selling culture where every sales
assistant is allowed to anticipate and respond to customer needs while implementing
their own ideas about improving sales. This study illustrates their pilot
program and its problems and outcomes, as well as the organizational impact
this transition affected.
Important Lessons:
Do not define what teams should do, materials and
resources should only stimulate ideas.
Do not centrally impose models of change; let each
store approach the initiative differently.
Management must give genuine responsibility for change
to the staff members and to support them through the difficult times.
All staff, even those the initiative is not focused
on must be briefed and involved in some way or they may, innocently, sabotage
the change effort.
For real change to occur, management must hear from
the organization that it is all right for the teams to challenge rules,
policies, and procedures.
Credibility is added by having those directly involved
with a pilot activity compile training materials and resource guides.
To help generate new ideas and to keep the initiative
sustained and energized, membership in the teams must be changed every
4 to 5 months.
Teams must be composed of peers to allow them the
freedom to genuinely contribute without worrying that their ideas will
be seen as stupid or not achievable.
"Organizational Transformation for
Effectively Implementing a Team-Based Culture" is a case
study by Ed Rose, Steve Gilmore and Ray D. Odom. It involves the Harris
Semiconductor manufacturing company and their strategy for managing change
during team implementation and sets a standard for a proactive approach
to change. The study includes the four stage model that recognizes how psychological
reaction to change can be managed.
Important Lessons:
The development of an effective management to change
strategy starts by recognizing that now of change, management has little
control over predisposed feelings, sense of personal history, historical
events, and cultural beliefs.
Those closest to the work know best how to perform
and improve their jobs.
Most employees want to feel they own their jobs and
are making meaningful contributions to the effectiveness of their organizations.
Teams provide possibilities of empowerment that are
not available to individual employees.
Organizational changes require time and energy to
be successful and the implementation must be nurtured and supported.
The heart of every continuous improvement
activity is statistical process control.
"Operational Excellence"
is a case study by Berkeley J. Emmons which discusses the Canadian Imperial
Bank of Commerce and their implementation of teams viewed as a planned organizational
change. They began teams during reorganization and downsizing and the case
study includes the results of this process.
Important Lessons:
Clearly understood and articulated business reasons
for moving to a team-based environment are required before starting the
initiative.
All levels of management must be fully committed to
teams before starting.
Most employees intrinsically buy into the principles
of employee involvement.
Training is more effective when delivered just-in-time
rather than the conventional approach of training everyone in everything.
Communication of work in progress, as well as the
final result, will increase buy-in and ownership of changes.
Baseline measures are a must if improvements are to
be tracked.
Leadership evolution must precede team evolution.
There must be a balance between a structured approach
and employee creativity within boundaries.
The implementation process takes a great deal of patience
and expectations must be managed.
"Are those Team Meetings Gonna Make
You Money?" is a case study by Stephen D. Hill. This study
discusses the implications of creating teams because of economic hardship,
and how one cross-functional team actually went to the customer to increase
sales. This study details their training and formation and the results of
their efforts.
Important Lessons:
Commitment is needed from the company’s leadership
and the individual team members o keep them from giving up prematurely,
due to negative individuals.
Leaders and followers in other fields can make valuable
contributions to improve organizational processes: Don’t underestimate
the individual members.
Production Supervisors will need support and direction
as they deal with new expectations and realities.
Teamwork requires a consistent, long term perspective
and should be viewed as a function, not another thing to do.
To succeed, team members need a meaningful, compelling
purpose to reach their full potential.
"The Facilitator’s Role in Team
Breakthroughs" is a case study by R. Glenn Ray and Karen
Stapleton which explores the BorgWarner Automotive company of Gallipolis,
Ohio, and the effect of a facilitator had on teams and the organization
as a whole. Included in the study, are examples of barriers to team implementation,
the development of the facilitator, including some of the techniques used.
Important Lessons:
A critical factor in enabling the transfer of a facilitator’s
training to the workplace is the immediate practice of the newly acquired
techniques.
Small successes build the foundation to culture change
breakthroughs.
Facilitators must have positive, supportive mentors
for advice, and develop the appropriate skills, such as communication
skills, teaching and coaching skills, and knowledge of problem-solving
techniques.
Qualities needed to be an effective facilitator are:
respect for all employees, assertiveness, persistence, desire to take
risks, a positive outlook, caring, a willingness to share information,
honesty and integrity, and a willingness to deal with conflict.
Facilitators must earn credibility and trust with
every interaction.
A facilitator must be willing and able to practice
the skills taught in the training program immediately upon returning to
the workplace.
The company must support the facilitator as they practice
their skills.
The facilitator must internalize the communication
concepts involving nonverbal communication and small group processes.
"Integrated Health-Care Support
Teams" is a case study by Carrie McHale. In this study,
the implications of integrating formerly separate hospital departments and
the development of teams during reorganization are discussed. The different
training efforts that were utilized are detailed, and the cost savings by
the organization are included.
Important Lessons:
All levels of leadership should be involved in the
redesign phase.
Leaders should communicate information consistently
to all employees, so everyone involved hears the same information.
Strong, motivated leaders are required in a successful
change management program, and should already be practicing basic skills,
such as time management, task prioritization, and handling difficult employees.
All leaders should be required to participate in a
change management workshop before redesign begins.
A thorough analysis of readiness to change at the
employee level should occur.
Time should be gives to test the true effectiveness
of a design structure before trying alternative designs.
"Building a Team Measurement and
Feedback System to Drive Performance" is a case study by
Don Schilling. The American Paper Company developed a process to measure
the performance of their teams. The performance measure, in the form of
scorecards, are aligned with the company objectives and provide a vehicle
for feedback, goal setting and problem solving to drive performance improvements.
The study includes information on all of these issues, their enhancements,
and the results of these techniques.
Important Lessons:
A run chart should be constructed for each performance
indicator to facilitate identification of trends or other patterns of
performance.
Where possible, scales should be standardized to permit
team comparisons.
Following the performance review, the teams should
engage in problem solving or activities directed at improving targeted
performance.
Measurement and feedback play a greater role at the
team level than visions, missions, and strategies.
Setting more than one goal gives management a means
to communicate their expectations via the long-term goal, while providing
an opportunity for participative goal setting by the team via
the short-term goal.
"Strategic Planning and Performance
Measurement in an Academic Team" is a case study by Beverly
G. Burke, Sharon L. Wagner, and Judith L. Van Hein. This study was performed
at Middle Tennessee State University, and describes how a team in an academic
setting developed its own performance measures, and the efforts and results
over a four-year period.
Important Lessons:
Team development is an ongoing process in which there
will be mistakes and self-correction.
As the initial, obvious problems are addressed, more
difficult, complex problems emerge. These bring crisis points in which
team members fear failure, but working through these crisis points is
a sign of successful team functioning.
Planning and a performance feedback mechanism are
necessary for high performance, because they continuously guide efforts.
Self-created teams are possible and can reach high
levels of performance, but they need a high level of expertise.
Teams must question assumptions and be willing to
break traditional patterns of behavior in order to achieve the exceptional
accomplishments of a high-performance team.
Teams need a radical goal to stimulate the excitement
and urgency necessary for peak performance.
"Reach Out and Touch Your Team:
Development of a High-Performing Virtual Team" is a case
study by Matthew J. Ferrero and Donna Lewis. This case details the building
of a virtual team for the Internal Revenue Service and the issues associated
with having a team spread out 800 miles. This study also discusses the leadership
issues and measures.
Important Lessons:
Healthy team formation is not possible if there are
any problems with leader selection, there will be frustration, anger and
suspicion until the feelings are aired and the issue is resolved.
Even when team members are distanced it is possible
to have meetings and share information, either by e-mail, conference calls,
or teleconferences on an electronic bulletin board.
For measures and feedback, a rating scale can be completed
by customers on three main areas: the consulting process, consultant effectiveness,
and outcomes.
Support and investment by management at all levels
will provide an opportunity for the team to excel.
"Developing an Empowered Work Team"
is a case study by Bob Carroll. This study discusses the 1987 development
of an empowered cross-functional team, through management intervention.
It describes the actual interventions used during critical times during
a five-year period and the major improvements that were made to produce
an exceptional product from a troubled one.
Important Lessons:
The team should be composed of individuals who have
a common task and who must interact with one another to accomplish this
task.
Have several different meetings each with different
purposes including an overview meeting, continuous improvement meeting
and a meeting to set objectives and constraints. The study gives great
detail into each of these meetings and their purposes.
Nothing is more destructive to the team development
process than for the team to repeatedly work up improvements only to be
told it violates some rule, requires some management approvals they did
not know about, or does not meet some management expectation, so during
the first 3 or 4 meetings, the team must be given a very clear set of
tasks to accomplish and information on all their constraints; legal, organizational,
contractual, and managerial.
Since cross-training eliminates the need for part-time
support personnel, empowered teams force job enlargements.
The objective of training should be to give the team
the skills it needs when it needs them, not before.
Teams can grow, only by developing the ability to
solve its own problems, make its own decisions, and manage its own activities.
"Cross-Functional Support Teams in a Manufacturing
Environment" is a case study by Diane Hertel and Susan Schober
Murray. In this study, the restrictive union agreements, hierarchical management
structure, and obsolete equipment and systems were part of a problem that
was solved when the company relocated and instigated cross-functional support
teams. This study includes the definition and design of the teams as well
as a case example.
Important Lessons:
When creating an Information Systems support team,
train employees from different areas, then send them back out into their
functional teams to train other members, thus creating an IS team that
will allow them to sidestep an organizational dependence on either the
supplier or the IS staff.
To implements cross-functional teams; develop a mission
statement and boundaries, establish team objectives and measurements,
define team roles and responsibilities, identify team procedures, assign
priorities and accountabilities, and identify resources needed, including
training.
Management must give up some control or trust their
employees more, or teams will have problems with management and get off
to a slow start.
Managers seemed to have the most difficulty allowing
teams to take charge in their area of expertise, but where the teams were
allowed to, they rose to the task and learned what they needed to know.
"High Performance Teams in the Construction
Industry" is a case study by Kathleen Chapman and GiGi Gerson
which involves the BE&K Construction company and their problem
of locating enough qualified workers. One of the challenges of developing
high-performance work teams is that these workers are only hired for the
duration of a project, usually 6 to 24 months. To combat these problems,
BE&K decided to design a high-performance work team model specifically
for BE&K Construction. This study illustrates the effectiveness of the
team, its necessary modifications and its implementation on a larger project.
Important Lessons:
Teams may not be able to control certain factors if
the company is not the primary contractor.
Commitment to and implementation of comprehensive
work team curriculum and continuation throughout the project is necessary,
because leaders and members did not get the work team training needed
to see profound and universal behavior change, and new hires were left
out of initial training.
Since an end-of-project incentive is not enough to
attract the best workers, offer travel/lodging per diem, or higher pay
scale.
Not every worker is suited to work in a work team
environment, use work team selection processes.
Extensive use of a multicraft approach will improve
productivity.
Job planning should have input from team leaders and
team members.
Employ an extensive measurement system including predata
to show value of the process.
"TwinStar, an International Joint
Venture" is a case study by Ronald Shenberger. In this study,
Hitachi, a Japanese company, and Texas Instruments, a US company, form a
joint venture into the semiconductor industry and implement work teams.
Culture, leadership, recruitment and selection, and training are all issues
addressed, as is the concept of Total Quality Management. Attrition is still
a problem faced by the company.
Important Lessons:
Leaders must demonstrate less desire to control and
more desire to lead through influence and participation.
By providing opportunities for the employees to grow
in both depth and breadth, the organization will stay flat.
Be careful while participating in cross-cultural communication.
Determine effectively that everything is understood on both sides.
When two companies merge, be certain that process
definition is the same.
It is important to define in-process customers and
who needs to be involved early, including suppliers.
Define the major objectives up front and understand
the expectations.
