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Team working: part I – an evaluation ofcurrent thinking

Malcolm McGreevy

Abstract

Purpose – The received wisdomis that teamworking is a goodthing and is spokenaboutpositively asa means of promoting co-operationand of making the best use of employees’ strengths. This article seeks to examine why this may be andto address thefour areas highlighted by ACAS where improvements are made, i.e. productivity, quality, the use of new technology, and motivation.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores here in the light of the current organisational environment.Findings – The study outlines the lessons learned in introducing teamwork, the need for managerial commitment, the changes in culture that can be promoted by team working and how to go about planning for change.Originality/value – The paper presents a practical and realistic view. This is the rst of two articles on the subject. The second will deal with the issues of establishing and running teams.Keywords Team working, Performance management, Motivation (psychology), Culture (sociology) Paper type Research paper

Teams have been around for a very long time and it is part of the received wisdom thatteamwork is a good thing and that executives should operate in teams. Employersstress the importance of employees working as a team and advertise for staff with

evidence of team working competencies. Indeed, there can be few organisations that havenot used the terms ‘ ‘team’’ and ‘‘team working’’ in one sense or another. So we mustinevitably conclude that there must be something in the concept of team working, otherwiseit would have been abandoned years ago as just another managerial fad or fashion. The factthat it has not been must signal something in its favour, but what exactly?

In a general sense people talk of team work in positive ways when they want to emphasisethe virtues of co-operation and the need to make use of the various strengths of employees.If we compare effective and ineffective teams we generally see something like the analysisshown in Table I.

The message seems to be that effective workgroups pool their available resources to reachthe best decision for the group and that most problems occur when individuals place theirown desires or solutions above those that are best for the group. However, Casey (1985)distinguishes between teams and working groups displaying the same characteristics ofeffectiveness by suggesting that the main difference between a team and an effectiveworking group is that teams work to solve jointly-owned problems that no one member isexpert in and that it is only by pooling the expertise of all the constituent members to solve aproblem that team work actually occurs.

Teams and working groups alike that are given a high degree of responsibility and that areexpected to work with increased exibility claim substantial improvements in morale, jobsatisfaction, productivity and quality. These benets are of course, extremely attractive and

DOI 10.1108/00197850610677724 VOL. 38 NO. 5 2006, pp. 259-264,Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858jINDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAININGjPAGE 259

Malcolm McGreevy is aFreelance ManagementConsultant based in Cardiff,UK.

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desirable, but may require a radical change in the way work is organised with a degree ofconfusion over what exactly is meant by team working and concern on the part of managers

and employees alike about what working in a team might mean for them personally.

Why move to team working?

The argument put forward for moving towards team work is that it can increasecompetitiveness by improving productivity, improve quality, encourage innovation, takeadvantage of the opportunities provided by technological advances and improve employeemotivation and commitment. To remain competitive organisations need to make optimumuse of equipment and people if they are to thrive or even survive.

Research carried out by ACAS (2005) in conjunction with the Tavistock Institute suggeststhat team work is used by organisations for improvements in four key areas:

1. productivity;

2. quality;

3. the use of new technology; and

4. motivation.

Improving productivity

Team working can make more effective and efcient use of labour and can improveproductivity by:

B Maximising the different strengths and skills of team members so that a greater variety oftasks may be tackled.

B Delegating the order and allocation of tasks to the group, thus avoiding day-to-dayproblems such as bottlenecks.

B Devolving some managerial control to the work group or the team leader and so reducethe number of levels of management.

B Encouraging employees to undertake a wider range of tasks.

B Making team members more directly accountable to customers – whether external orinternal.

These all seem desirable but equally we know from the experience of British industry overthe last 20 years that team working can also create individual and organisational difculties

Table I

Characteristics of effective teams Characteristics of ineffective teams

People trust each other and seek to cooperate The organisation consists of warring cliques withlow levels of trust

People are open to constructive criticism andsuggestions

People feel the need to defend themselvesconstantly

Decisions are generally made by consensus The leader tends to dominate decision makingand be domineering

Commitment is high Participation by members is unevenPeople work to shared objectives and processissues are agreed

People work in rigid ways within imposedprocedures that may not prove workable orhelpful

Conict i s worked through Conict is not confronted with differencessmoothed over rather than being surfaced anddealt with

Communications are good upwards anddownwards and side to side

Communicationsare restrictedwith managementby e-mail or memo and the grapevine isoveractive

People lis ten to each other Peoples’ views are over looked or dismissed

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as traditional promotion paths and demarcation lines are threatened. These difculties aresometimes compounded when the pressure to drive down costs to maintaincompetitiveness leads to the need for reductions in the workforce at the same time asteam working is introduced. If the full benets of team working are to be gained, itsintroduction must be carefully and sensitively handled.

Improving quality and encouraging product innovation

The establishment of quality and customer satisfaction at the top of the agenda of mostorganisations has been a major driving force behind many team working initiatives. The

evidence of self-managed teams and the involvement and empowerment of employees andtheir representatives suggests that team working, can make a major contribution toimproved quality. The temptation to regard quality as a management only issue, or worse asa quality manager only issue, still continues in many organisations and means that manyopportunities to improve quality are lost.

A survey by the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) found that about two-thirds oforganisations in the UK that were well advanced in the introduction of total qualitymanagement (TQM) programmes, had identied various kinds of team work as vital tools forits implementation. The fact that it is TQM means of course that everyone is involved and thisdoes tend towards a need for greater and greater team work, much of it based in and aroundproblems for the organisation. Increased autonomy together with training in diagnostic andproblem solving techniques, such as statistical process control, allows teams to take moreresponsibility for quality. This can lead to reductions in waste, a move towards continuousimprovement and product or process innovations. Where teams develop their ownrecommendations for improvements or solutions to problems, they are much more likely toimplement them successfully, because they were invented here.

The increased knowledge of the process or service that goes hand in hand with successfulteam working seems inevitably to encourage teams to take a broader perspective. This canhelp teams to appreciate the wider implications of ideas they may have for changes orimprovements.

Technological advances

Advances in technology in all elds have opened up new possibilities for increasing therange of services. New technology enables the production of solutions tailored to individualcustomer requirements or at least, the emphasis on customer focus requires an educatedworkforce and for workers to be more exible and adaptable, able to co-operate with otherworkers, supervisors and managers throughout the organisation, in addition improving theirability to operate sophisticated technology. In addition, the sheer complexity of operations inmost organisations nowadays, and the multi-disciplinary nature of many services orproducts place them beyond the expertise and control of any one individual. In thesecircumstances some form of team work or joint working becomes not just desirable butessential and inevitable.

Motivation

Many organisations have traditionally been characterised for many by monotony andboredom with jobs often structured in ways that do not always make the most of anindividual’s full range of skills. This tends to minimise job satisfaction with a consequent

reduction in motivation. In such situations, alternative means of production, e.g. robotics orout-sourcing to a lower cost organisation or countries occurs at the expense of the traditionalworkforce.

As a reaction to this, many organisations have required workers to become multi-skilled andmore exible in the way they operate. It implies that they need to be better trained but alsoincreasingly able to take many of their own decisions. To do this properly, it is far better forworkers to be motivated by the desire to do a good job and to be recognised for theircontribution to a successful organisation. This has led to a new emphasis on redesigningjobs to provide greater job satisfaction and improved quality of working life.

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The organisation of work into teams provides an opportunity to full many of the principles ofgood job design. These include:

B Variety of tasks – requiring the use of several skills.

B Autonomy – of the individual in deciding the order or pace of work.

B Identity – the task forms a whole job or larger part of the whole job.

B Responsibility – individuals accountable to each other for what is produced.

B Feedback – constant information on how the operator is performing.

B Social contact – constant opportunity for interaction with colleagues.B Balanced workload – team members can help each other to even out peaks and troughs

in their work.

B Minimal role ambiguity or conict – the team has the opportunity to deal swiftly with anyproblem of ‘‘who does what’’.

Introducing team work

So how do you go about introducing team working and by extension use team work toincrease competitiveness? There are a number of key points to consider:

B Study what is involved in team working by carrying out research and visiting organisationsoperating in teams.

B Be sure that senior managers know how team working will contribute to the businessstrategy and are fully committed to team working.

B Adopt a participative style of management in partnership with employees and theirrepresentatives.

B Seek to improve employee motivation and commitment.

B Respond positively to any fear among managers and the workforce caused by devolvingdecision making and fewer levels of management.

B Plan team work as a continuous process where plans are regularly adjusted as changesare introduced and subsequently evaluated.

B Give high priority to good communications and consultation when introducing andsubsequently when maintaining team work.

B Identify and meet training needs.

B Concentrate the appraisal process on employee development.

B Consider whether to make the reward system compatible with team working.

Preparing for change

The rst step is to consider what is involved and what the advantages and disadvantagesmight be which might include reading some of the available literature on the subject (like thisarticle for example) or to attend conferences on team working where you can hear rst handabout the experience of other organisations and make contacts with other companies.

Senior management commitment

The introduction of team working is a major change that will affect the whole organisation.Before embarking on such a change, senior managers must be satised that they know howit will contribute to their overall strategy. Most commonly, as discussed earlier, organisationsintroduce team working as part of a strategy of organisational development to give themcompetitive advantage through reducing costs, improving quality or encouraging serviceinnovation often linked to the introduction of new technology.

Senior managers will need to demonstrate a rm commitment to team working throughout itsintroduction. This commitment is especially important if problems arise and middle


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managers and or employees start to question the change and lose motivation. Until a strongcommitment by senior management exists there should be no move to establish teamworking because it just will not work and furthermore to start a team working initiative andthen abandon it or allow it to run out of steam is likely to be seriously damaging. The lack ofsenior managerial commitment is often seen as the reason that quality circles for example,tend to wither on the bough.

Changing the culture

An organisation considering the introduction of team working must acknowledge that it will

involve a long-term transformation. This will comprise not only concrete changes such asselecting teams or altering the layout of the work area, but also changing less tangiblefactors like the attitudes of supervisors, managers and employees – or the ‘‘culture’’ of theorganisation or as it is often more succinctly put – the way it is around here. In thisconnection we need to be aware of the difference between espoused culture or the way wesay it should be and actual culture or the way it really is. Ideally the two should be the samebut this is rare. It is more likely to occur where there is genuine commitment at both seniormanagerial levels and throughout the workforce, which is where team working comes into itsown.

Team work requires a participative style of management where employees have a signicantdegree of control over their own work. The more authoritarian the managerial style the longerthe change of culture will take. Employees and managers will be suspicious of andunprepared for an overnight change from authoritarianism to full participation.

For the change to team working to be effective, the practices and beliefs of managementmust actively support the new environment. The manager’s role should move from controllerto initiator, counsellor and facilitator. Particular managerial tasks should aim to provide theright support and environment for effective team working and co-operation.

These tasks include:

B providing a vision and communicating it;

B encouraging the free ow of ideas and initiative;

B training and developing employees to take increased responsibility; and

B over-seeing teams and ensuring they meet objectives.

The need to initiate and manage change will place increasing emphasis on leadership skillsand a style of management where authority comes from competence rather than status.Most managers are however, capable of adapting to the new style with training,encouragement and guidance.

Changing the management structure

For many organisations the changed role of managers and the devolution ofdecision-making, leads to a need for fewer levels of management and often for fewersupervisors and managers. This process can lead to fear and obstructive behaviour at alllevels. Managers may be frightened of relinquishing power for fear of losing their jobs whileemployees may be fearful of the prospect of taking on more responsibility. People aregenerally antipathetic to change because it is intrinsically difcult and tends to change theway it is around here, which we may belly ache about, but at least we know where we are. A

voluntary approach can encourage co-operation and provide an escape route for those whoare uncomfortable with the changes. The options to consider include:

B offering a new role to those managers displaced – for example, using them as trainers orto lead special projects; and

B setting out clearly the new vision and culture and offering voluntary alternatives for thosewho do not feel that they will t in.

A clear strategy will be needed which deals with the issue honestly and openly. Whereredundancies are being considered organisations should ensure appropriate consultation

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and selection. Even when a new management structure has been established, difcultiesmay still arise. Problems can arise where middle managers delegate power to lower levels,but senior managers are reluctant to relinquish any of their power to middle managers. Thiscan leave middle managers without a clear role and they may become a negative inuenceon the progress of team working. Middle management must be involved in the changeprocess and convinced of its role in making it work.

Planning for change

The pace of change must be considered. Whether an organisation goes for a dramaticovernight organisational change or a gradual introduction of team working will depend onfactors such as the existing culture and the circumstances in which it is operating. Manyorganisations like to begin a change to team working on a small scale – for example, startingwith a pilot exercise. This can help demonstrate the benets of team working and,depending how it is handled, provide a pool of ‘‘champions’’ to spread the word or a‘‘favoured few’’ who may be resented by the rest of the workforce. It can also ag uppotential mistakes that can be corrected as the project is expanded. In other circumstancesrapid change may be considered imperative if the organisation is to survive.

The development of team working cannot be viewed as a nite project with a beginning andan end. It is important to have an overall vision but in working towards the vision it will benecessary to adopt a number of interrelated initiatives. Frequently team working itself will be

one of a range of strategic initiatives. It is better to see all change initiatives as part of acontinuous process where progress and interrelationships are constantly planned,monitored and replanted. When dealing with major change it is not possible to devoteequal energy and resource to everything at once.

Managers may use a mixture of formal and informal methods to decide objectives andpriorities, ranging from meetings and working parties to chats and intuition. Those who havea stake in the proposed changes may try to inuence events so that their initiatives gainapproval and resources. There is an obvious danger that groups can inuence events out ofself-interest rather than to serve the wider interests of the organisation.

An open participative organisation where issues are fully discussed can help to ensure thatall points of view are heard before decisions are taken. A steering group to oversee theprocess and help to order priorities is used by many organisations. Organisations may gofurther than this and attempt to formulate a more structured way of planning change.

In the next article the issues of establishing and running teams will be addressed.

References

ACAS (2005), Teamwork: Success through People , ACAS B14, ACAS, London.

Casey, D. (1985), ‘‘When is a team not a team?’’, Personnel Management , Vol. 17 No. 1, January,pp. 26-9.

About the author

Malcolm McGreevy is a Freelance Management Consultant living in Cardiff. He is anHonorary Lecturer in Cardiff University and acts as a tutor on the HR modules of the MBA andDBA programmes in Cardiff Business School. Malcolm McGreevy can be contacted at:[email protected]


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