Self-Managed Teams

Definition

Self-managed teams are groups of employees who have the authority and responsibility to manage their own work processes and make decisions without direct supervision from a manager. These teams are empowered to plan, organize, and control their own activities to achieve specific goals or objectives.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. Self-managed teams are often used to improve organizational flexibility, responsiveness, and innovation by leveraging the collective knowledge and skills of team members.
2. These teams are typically given the authority to set their own goals, make decisions, and monitor their own performance, which can lead to increased job satisfaction and commitment.
3. Effective self-managed teams require clear communication, strong leadership skills, and a supportive organizational culture that encourages collaboration and risk-taking.
4. The success of self-managed teams is often dependent on the availability of resources, access to information, and the ability to coordinate with other teams or departments within the organization.
5. Implementing self-managed teams can be challenging, as it requires a shift in traditional management practices and the development of new skills and behaviors among both team members and leaders.

Review Questions

• Explain how self-managed teams relate to the concept of managing effective work groups (9.3).
  • Self-managed teams are a key component of managing effective work groups. By empowering employees to plan, organize, and control their own work processes, self-managed teams can improve group productivity, decision-making, and problem-solving. This aligns with the principles of managing effective work groups, which emphasize the importance of fostering autonomy, collaboration, and shared responsibility among team members.
• Describe how self-managed teams can be a form of teamwork in the workplace (10.1).
  • Self-managed teams exemplify the concept of teamwork in the workplace. These teams rely on the collective effort, skills, and decision-making of their members to achieve organizational goals. The autonomy and responsibility granted to self-managed teams require a high degree of collaboration, communication, and mutual accountability, which are all essential elements of effective teamwork. By fostering these teamwork behaviors, self-managed teams can enhance organizational performance and adaptability.
• Analyze how self-managed teams can serve as a substitute for or neutralizer of traditional leadership (12.7).
  • Self-managed teams can act as a substitute for or neutralizer of traditional leadership in several ways. By empowering team members to make decisions, set goals, and monitor their own performance, self-managed teams reduce the need for direct supervision and hierarchical control. This can neutralize the influence of formal leadership, as team members take on more responsibility for their own work. Additionally, the shared leadership and decision-making within self-managed teams can serve as a substitute for the traditional, top-down leadership model, fostering a more collaborative and participative approach to organizational management.

Related terms

Autonomy: The degree of freedom and independence employees have in scheduling their work, making decisions, and determining procedures to be used in carrying out their tasks.

Empowerment: The process of giving employees the authority, responsibility, and resources to make decisions and take actions that affect their work.

Team Cohesion: The degree to which team members are attracted to each other and motivated to stay in the team.