Working in Teams 4

Working in organisational teams (contd)

Self managed teams
You may be working in a team that is responsible for:

• One part of an overall process or service, but increasingly for

• A complete process right up to the end product or service.

A team taking on responsibilities normally assigned to managers such as planning, organising, directing and staffing are known as self-managed teams.

One reason for the development of self-managed teams is the trend for 'downsizing' organisations which has stripped out layers of management and given greater 'empowerment' to staff.

Self-managed Teams
The most famous example of this occurred during the 1970's at Volvo's Kalmar plant in Sweden. The company moved away from the traditional assembly line to self-managed teams. In self managed team groups of employees are given responsibility from start to finish. They check quality, problem solving and achieve production targets.

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