Using Teams in

Organization
Objectives:
After completing the chapter, we shall able to:
 Identify outsourcing teamwork;
Differentiate teams from groups;
 Recognize the benefits and cost of teams in organizations;
 Identify and describe the various types of team;
 Internalize the essential of implementing teams in organization; and
 Discuss the essential team issues and potential problems.
 Outsourcing Teamwork

Outsourcing- is a business practice in which a company

hires a third party to perform tasks, handle operations or
provide services for the company.

‘Exchange of people is at the heart of outsourcing’

 Advantages of Outsourcing
 Reduces costs and speed up processes.
 Increase company efficiency and productivity.
 Improve teamwork and effectiveness.
 Maximize resource usage and enhance creativity.
Increase team diversity
 Disadvantages of Outsourcing

• Employees from two different companies are simply not as likely

to form long-lasting and close relationships that foster teamwork.
• Job treat or as indicator of lack of support for workers.
• Lose control over aspects of the outsourced tasks or services.
• Threats can amp up when multiple parties can access sensitive
data.
 Types of Outsourcing

Onshoring- relocating work or services to lower-cost

location in the company’s own country.
Offshoring- Relocating work or services to third-party
providers overseas.
Nearshoring- Relocating work or services to people in
nearby, often bordering regions and countries.
 Group vs. Teams
Group- refers to an assemblage Team- refers to people or animals
or objects gathered together. organized to work together.
- individual goals or individual - shared goal or collective work
work products. products.
- independent from one another and - mutual accountability and work
have individual accountability. closely to solve problems.
- Individual success or failure - Collective success or failure.
- Individual leadership - Shared leadership
Groups- defined as two or more persons, interacting and
interdependent, who have come together to achieve certain
objective.
Types of Groups
Formal Group- this one is defined by the organization structure, with
designated work assignments and established tasks.
Informal Group- this group is neither formally structured nor
organizationally determined. It is formed by individuals and developed
around common interest and friendship rather than around a deliberate
design.
Three other differences between Groups and
Teams

• JOB CATEGORIES
• AUTHORITY
• REWARD SYSTEMS
 Job Categories

Group Team
- Usually described in terms - Members have many
of highly specialized job that different skills that fit into one
require minimal training and or two broad categories
moderate effort.
- One or two broad
- Many narrow categories categories
 Authority
Groups Teams
- Supervisor directly - Team controls daily
controls daily activities activities
- Supervisors are decision - The team makes the
maker and controller decision
 Reward System
Groups Teams
- Employees are usually - Members are rewarded for
rewarded on the basis of their mastering a range of skills
individual performance, needed to meet team
seniority, or their job performance goals, and
classification. rewards are sometimes
based on team performance.
 Three types of Reward Systems
in a Team Environment
1. Skill-Based Pay
- Skill-based pay systems require team members to acquire a set of the core
skills needed for particular team plus additional special skills, depending on
career tracks or team needs. Some programs require all members acquire the
core skills before any member receives additional pay.
2. Gain-Sharing System- usually reward all team members from all
teams based on performance of the organization, division, or plant. Such a
system requires a baseline performance that must be exceeded for team
members to receive some share of the gain over the baseline measure.
3. Team Bonus Plans- team bonus plans are similar to gain-sharing
plan except that the unit of performance and pay is the team rather than a
plant a division, or the entire organization. Each team must have a specific
performance targets or baseline measures that the team considers realistic for
the plan to be effective.
 Benefits and Costs of Team in
Organization

A. Benefits
1. Enhanced Performance- working in teams enables workers to avoid wasted
effort, reduce errors, and react better to costumers, resulting in more output for each
unit of employee input.
- increased productivity
- improved quality
- improved costumer services
2. Employee Benefits- Rather than relying on the traditional, hierarchical, manager-
based system, teams give employees the freedom to grow and to gain respect and
dignity by managing themselves, making decisions about the work.
- Quality of Work Life
- face less stress at work
- make less use of employee assistance program
3. Reduced Costs- Empowered team reduced scrap, make fewer errors, file fewer
worker compensation claims, and reduce absenteeism and turnover, organization based
are showing significant cost reduction.
- lower stress - lower turnover
- reduce absenteeism - fewer injuries
3. Organizational Enhancements- Using of teams can eliminate redundant
layers of bureaucracy and flatten the hierarchy in large organization. This will increase
innovation, creativity, and flexibility.
- increased innovation and flexibility
b. Cost of Team
a. Managers expressed frustration and confusion about their new roles as coaches
and facilitators, especially, if they developed their managerial skills under the old
traditional hierarchical management philosophy.
b. Employees may also feel outdated during the change to a team culture.
c. Slowness of the process of full team development.
d. If top management gets impatient with the team change process and cuts it short,
never allowing teams to develop fully and realize benefits, all the hard work of
employees, managers and supervisors is lost.
 Types of Teams
1. Quality Circles- are small groups of employees from the same work area
who meet regularly to discuss and recommend solutions to workplace
problems. The role of QC’s is to investigate a variety of quality problems that
might come up in the workplace. They do not replace the work group or make
decisions about how the work is done.
* reducing rework and cutting defects
2. Work Teams- tend to be permanent, they are auxiliary committees, the
teams that do the daily work. Rather than investigate a specific problem,
evaluate alternatives, and recommend a solution or change, a work team does
the actual daily work of the unit. Work teams are teams that make or do things.
3. Problem-Solving Teams- are temporary teams established to attack specific
problems in the workplace. Teams can use any number of methods to solve the
problem. After solving the problem, the team is usually disbanded, allowing members
to return to their normal work. Problem solving team are teams that make
recommendations for other to implement.
4. Management Teams- consisting of managers from various areas, coordinate work
teams. They are relatively permanent because their work does not end with the
completion of a particular project or the resolution of a problem. The primary job of
management teams is to coach and counsel other teams to be self-managing by making
decisions within the team and to coordinate work between work teams that are
interdependent in some manner.
5. Product Development Teams- are combinations of work teams and
problem-solving teams that create new designs for products or services
that will satisfy customer needs. They are familiar to problem-solving
teams because when the product is fully developed and in production, the
team may be disbanded.

6. Virtual Teams- are teams that may never actually meet together in the
same room- their activities take place on the computer via
teleconferencing and other electronic information systems.
A major disadvantage of virtual teams is the high cost of the required
supporting technology and training.
 Implementing Teams in Organization
a. Planning the Change- It is such a drastic departure from the traditional hierarchy
and authority-and-control orientation that significant planning, preparation, and training
are prerequisites. The planning actually takes place in two phases, the first leading to
the decision about whether to move a team-based approach and the second while
preparing for implementation.
b. Making the Decision- Prior to making the decision, top management needs to
establish the leadership for the change, develop a steering committee, conduct a
feasibility study, and then make the go/no-go decision. Regardless of the position, the
person leading the change needs to:
1. Have a strong belief that employees want to be responsible for their own work.
2. Be able to demonstrate the team philosophy.
3. Articulate a coherent vision of the team environment.
4. Have the creativity and authority to overcome obstacles as they surface.

-the leader of the change needs to put together a steering committee to help explore the
organization’s readiness for the team environment and lead through the planning and
preparation for the change. The work of the steering committee includes:
* visit to sites that might be candidates for utilizing work teams.
* visit to currently successful work teams
* data gathering and analysis
* low-key discussion, and deliberating and deciding whether to use a consultant during
the change process.
c. Preparing for Implementation – preparation consist of the following steps:
(a)clarifying the mission, (b)selecting the site for the first work teams, (c)preparing the
design team, (d)planning the transfer of authority, (e)and drafting the preliminary plan.

(a) The mission/statement is simply an expression of purpose that summarizes the long-
range benefits the company hopes to gain by moving to a team environment. It sets the
parameters or boundaries within which the change will take place. It may identify
which divisions will be involved in the change. Stimulate and focus the energy of those
people who need to be involved in the change. The mission can focus on continuous
improvement, employee involvement, increasing performance, competition, customer
satisfaction, and contribution to society.
(b) Selection of the first site- The best initial site would be one that includes workers
from multiple job categories, and one where workers accept the idea of using teams.
Also valuable are a tradition of history of success and a staff that is receptive to
training, especially training in interpersonal skills.

(c) The design team is a select group of employees, supervisions, and managers who
will work out the staffing and operational details to make the teams perform well. The
design team select the initial team members, prepares members and managers for
teams, changes work processes for use with the team design, and plans the transition
from the current state to the new self-managed team.
(d) Planning the transfer of authority from management to teams is the
most important, distinctive, and difficult phase of planning the
implementation. It is also the most difficult because it is so different
from the traditional hierarchical organization. It is a gradual process,
one that takes from two to five years in most situations. Teams must
learn new skills and make decisions related to their work, all of which
take time.
(e) The draft plan combines the work of the steering and design committees and
becomes the primary working document that guides the continuing work of the design
teams and the first work teams.

(1) recommends a process for selecting the people who will be on the first teams,
(2) describes roles and responsibilities of team members, team leaders, facilitators,
support teams, managers, and top management,
(3) identify trainings the several groups needed,
(4) identify which work process will be involved,
(5) describes what other organizational system will be affected, and
(6) lay out a preliminary master schedule for the next two or three years.
d. Phases of Implementation- Implementation of self-managing work teams is a long
and difficult process, often taking two to five years.

Phase 1: Start-up. Team members are selected and prepared to work in teams so that
the teams have the best possible chance of success. Much of the initial training is
informational or awareness training. Training covers the rationale for moving to a
team-based organization, how teams were selected, how they work, the roles and
responsibilities of teams, compensation, and job security. Training covers the technical
skills and administrative skills necessary to do the work of the team.
Phase 2: Reality and Unrest. After months, team members and managers report
frustration and confusion about the ambiguities of the new situation. Unfamiliar tasks,
more responsibility, and worry about job security replace hope for the opportunities
presented by the new approach.

Phase 3: Leader-Centered Teams. The design and steering committee need to be sure
that two things happen during this phase. First, they need to encourage the rise of
strong internal team leaders. The new leaders can either be company appointed or team
appointed. On the other hand, if the company-appointed leaders are the former
managers, team members have trouble believing that anything has really changed.
Team-appointed leaders can be a problem if the leaders are not trained properly and
oriented toward team goals.
Another possibility for team leadership is a rotating system in which the position
changes every quarter, months, weeks or even day.
Second important issue for this phase is to help each team develop its own sense of identity. Visits to
observe mature teams in action can be a good step for newly formed teams. Recognizing teams and
individuals for good performance is always powerful. Continued training in problem-solving steps,
tools, and techniques is impressive.
Phase 4: Tightly Formed Teams: teams become tightly formed to the point that their internal focus
can become detrimental to other teams and to the organization as a whole. Such teams are usually
extremely confident of their ability to do everything. They are solving problems, managing their
schedule and resources, and resolving internal conflicts. However, communications with external
teams begins to diminish, the team covers up; for underperforming members, and inter team
rivalries can turn sour, leading to unhealthy competition.
To avoid this, (a) teams need to keep the communication channels with other teams open through
councils of rotating team representative who meet regularly to discuss what works and what does
not, team who communicate and cooperate with other teams should be rewarded, (b) management
needs to provide performance feedback, (c) teams need to follow the developed plan to transfer
authority and responsibility to the teams and team member get enough training in all skills
necessary to do the work of the team.
Phase 5: Self-Managing Teams. Mature teams are meeting and exceeding
performance goals. Team members are taking responsibility for team related leadership
functions. Managers and supervisors have withdrawn from the daily operations and are
planning and providing counseling for teams. Mature teams are flexible-taking new
ideas for improvement, making changes as needed to membership, roles and tasks, and
doing whatever it takes to meet the strategic objectives of the organization. Still,
individuals and teams need to continue their training in job skills and team
interpersonal skills.
 Essential Team Issues
1. Team Performance-
2. Start at the Top- Change starts at the top in every successful team organization.
Top management has three important roles to play.
1. Top management must decide to go to a team based organization for
sound business performance-related reasons.
2. Top management’s instrumental in communicating the reasons for the
change to the rest of the organization.
3. Top management has to support the change effort during the difficult
periods.
 Potential Team Problems
1. Changing Membership- Members may drop out temporarily or
permanently for reasons like; transferring to a higher priority project, the
occurrence of personal problem requiring extended leaves of absence; or
accepting a job from another company.
To addressed such concern, the team must learn to manage its internal
turnover through the following: recognition of the potential problems
brought by high turnover; development of a plan for managing turnover, and
thinking through how best to integrate new members.
2. Social Loafing- refers to the tendency for individuals to expand less-effort when
working collectively than when working individually.
The reasons for social loafing are:
• The members think their contribution is less noticeable.
• The members prefer to see others carry the workload.
To eliminate social loafing:
• The nature of the task
• The qualifications and desires of the members
• The time and cost constraints.
THANK
YOU!