Many companies have been moving toward organizing as self-managed teams. Changes in worker demographics and experience, types of organizations, technology, and new ways of considering leadership make self-managed teams an effective choice for many organizations. As you read in the articles in this week’s Learning Resources, self-managed teams present many opportunities, as well as many challenges, within organizations.
Think about the levels of communication within organizations—both in a more traditional setting and one in which teams are self-managed.
Response in which you address the following questions:
- What are the communication differences between a self-managed team and a traditional hierarchy? Specifically address strategies for offering critiques, support, or praise, and managing conflict in a self-managed team.
- How are the standards and norms set in a self-managed team? How are those standards communicated? What might be some challenges that arise? (For example, employees can leave any time after 4:30; most stay until 7:00; one stays until 4:30.)
- Chaneski describes the stages through which groups or teams tend to develop. What unique experiences do you think self-managed teams have as they develop? Do they follow the standard pattern of development? Explain your reasoning.
- Have you worked on a self-managed team? What challenges did you face? What opportunities were unique to working on this kind of team? How was the experience different from times you have worked on traditional teams? If you have never worked on a self-managed team, think of a time you worked on a traditional team. How might the experience have been different if it had been self-managed? How might the experience have been more challenging? More rewarding?
- Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.