Another type of team commonly being used in organizations is the self directed or self managed team. A self managed work team is a formal group of employees that operates without a manager and is responsible for a complete work process or segment that delivers a product or services to an external or internal customer. Nearly 70 per cent of the Fortune 1000 organizations have implemented self managed work teams. Typically this kind of team has control over its work pace, determines work assignments and when breaks are taken, and inspects its own work. Fully self managed work teams even select their own members and have the members evaluate each other’s performance. As a result, supervisory positions take on decreased importance and may even be eliminated.
How do Cross functional Teams operate?
A formal group of employees that operates without a manager and is responsible for a complete work process or segment that delivers a product or service to an external or internal customer.
The next type of team we will identify is the cross functional work team, which consists of employees from about the same hierarchical level but from different work areas in the organization. Workers are brought together to accomplish a particular task.
Many organizations have used cross functional teams for years. For example, Orissa was the first state in the Indian Union as well as the first region in south Asia to bring about reform in the electricity sector. Under the reform program, the former Orissa State Electricity Board was unbundled into generation, transmission (GRIDCO) an distribution (DISTCO) and the four distribution zones were privatized through the process of international competitive bidding. The change initiative entailed overcoming a lot of resistance from the employees. In order to overcome resistance to change, employee involvement initiatives in the form of suggestions schemes and cross functional teams were out into practice. However, the popularity of cross functional work teams exploded in the late 1980s. All the major automobile manufacturers including Toyota, DaimlerChrysler, Nissan, General Motors, Ford, Honda, and BMW have turned to this form of team in order to coordinate complex projects. For example, following its acquisition of Korea based DWCV, Tata Motors in India is planning to introduce cross functional teams in its medium truck segment, making it more internationally oriented. ONGC (Oil and natural Gas Commission) had taken the help of UK based consultants Gaffney Cline Associates. Over 200 cross functional teams had interacted with the Gaffney experts, which helped ONGC develop multi disciplinary mode of functioning where a team of people drawn form various disciplines such as exploration, drilling and production work towards a goal.
Cross functional teams is also an effective way to allow employees form diverse areas within an organization to exchange information, develop new ideas, solve problems, and coordinate complex tasks. But cross functional teams can be difficult to manage. The early stages of development (e.g. storming) are often time consuming as members learn to work with diversity and complexity. This difficulty with diversity however can be tuned into an advantage. For example, remember our discussion of group decision making. One of the tenets of that process was that groups provided more complete information and were more creative than individuals. The diversity of a work team can help identify creative or unique solutions. Furthermore, the lack of a common perspective caused by diversity usually means that team members will spend more time discussing relevant issues, which decreases the likelihood that a weak solution will be selected. However, keep in mind that the contribution that diversity makes to teams probably will decline over time. As team members become more familiar with one another, they form a more cohesive group, but the positive aspect of this decline in diversity is that a team bond it built. It takes time to build trust and team work.
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