SDWT's: A Team Effort

Overview: Over the past 15 years, a growing number of American companies have participated in a grand experiment: self-managed work teams (SMWTs). These are production or service-delivery groups that operate without direct supervision—an idea almost unthinkable a generation ago. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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Format: HTML | Date: Jan 2003 | Pages: 1