A635.7.3.RB – INSEAD Reflection
Many organizations benefit greatly when their
workforce can collaborate to achieve organizational goals and have the capacity
to get to know each other and understand how to work cohesively. There are a variety of ways that teamwork can
be vital to the success of an organization as well as developing the abilities
and skills of the workforce. Team-building
and developing self-managed work teams are some of the ways that can increase
the communication skills of the employees and also improve staff’s morale and
productivity. Enabling employees to
solve their problems, making decisions, devising innovative determinations, and
letting them feel that their contributions to the company are valued, is a form
of employee empowerment.
According to Brown (2011), self-managed work teams is a
self-governed group where members of the team are responsible for deciding how their
responsibilities can be accomplished and self-policing is the norm of the group. Self-managed work teams are given latitude by
their external leaders to go about their work based on the external leaders’ end
result expectations, goals, and their visions.
The self-managed team is most standard in an organization that is in the
industry of delivering services or producing different types of products. A team that can manage by itself adds value to
a company’s bottom line immensely regarding innovation, productivity, and profitability.
Self-managed
work teams have its own advantages and disadvantages. One of the benefits of a self-managed team is
that it may reduce management costs since the group is set-up to be self-governed
and be accountable for accomplishing tasks without the presence of a direct supervisor.
The team makes sure that as a team, no work
turns unturned at the end of the day, regardless of the task(s) not written in
their job descriptions and they will have tendencies to cover for each other during
needed absences or required holidays. They
generally develop a more in-depth knowledge about the company which makes the team
more capable of contributing innovative thinking in the business’ systems and
processes.
Another
benefit of self-managed work teams is that due to the higher scope or latitude
that members of the team are given, they are more chartered to explore best
resolutions to bigger issues more innovatively and expediently. The team works cohesively to find better ways
in uncovering areas of organizations that need improvement or attention and develop
and initiates new initiatives that result’s in the organization’s expansion and
growth. Lastly, when conflicts arise within
the team, they are highly empowered to resolve conflicts within the team, but
when the self-managed team cannot resolve their philosophical differences, an external
leader intervention may be necessary.
A self-managed
work team may work cohesively developing trust and respect for each member of the
team, exorbitantly cohesive may result to groupthink. In the environment of groupthink, the focus of
the members of the team is to minimize conflict instead of working together to
gain right consensus or generating concrete results thus stifling innovative thinking.
In addition to groupthink, a self-managed
team may lose their ability to acclimate to a workplace environment of a team
structure and may become hasty in their decision-making and demonstrate insubordination.
Personally,
I am not one hundred percent in favor of belonging to a permanent self-managed
team. As one of human resources leader for
Florida Hospital Central Florida Division – North Region, I belong to a semi self-managed
work team. We are composed of Directors
of HR professionals leading the HR team of FH Waterman, Fish Memorial, Deland, Memorial
Medical Center, New Smyrna, Flagler, and my organization, FH HealthCare Partners.
We meet bi-weekly with our Regional VP of
HR to brainstorm on best practices for the region, reviewing policies and procedures,
employee engagement, etc. The team is assigned
to tasks that fit our individual expertise and skills. We go back to our own facilities empowered, engaged
and are given the latitude to accomplish individual and HR department’s responsibilities.
Our Regional VP of HR does not only delegate tasks without
providing us her full support in our decision making
but also giving us the autonomy to make those difficult but needs to get made decisions.
With her 100% support and backup,
she builds our confidence, and she always reminds us not to be afraid of
committing errors. When an error occurs,
she encourages us to get the HR Business Partners’ consultation and recommendation
to correct the error. Our access to
information and different resources to accomplish and be successful in our position are unlimited. She shares with us the empowerment she
receives from our CEO, COO, and CFO. She knows who she is and very confident of
who she has become through the guidance of her past and present mentors. With her direction and empowerment, the HR leadership
team of the Central Florida Division – North Region works cohesively and more efficiently.
I have learned that resolving conflict is not
only a standard function of a leader in
the workplace. I had a diverse team with a different culture, belief, and
religion. Conflict within my team was inevitable. Defining to my staff that it is okay to agree to disagree, but
we have to take personal differences outside the workplace. We are all
equal, and trust and respect for each other
are significant to the success of our team. When one cannot persuade the
other to see it their way, the other has to let either the matter go or simply
leave the room and discuss the matter when both are ready to listen with an
open mind.
So, if I would like to pursue a position of an external leader for
self-managed work teams, there are competencies
that I would need to possess. To gain credibility,
trust, and respect of the team, I must have
continuously strived to obtain knowledge of state and federal regulations,
procedures, policies, in short, external awareness. I must be consistent in creating a culture of
trust and confidence to my team, fostering ethical behavior of high standards and
must be able to open to positive and negative
feedback from my team and colleagues and have the flexibility and be open to
change. Lastly, when under adversity, I
must possess the standards of behavior of resiliency
to have the ability to lead effectively under pressure, always focused and
remained optimistic and persistent.
References:
Brown,
D.R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th
ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
INSEAD, (2008, September 22). Self-managing teams: debunking
the leadership paradox [Video
File]. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=GBnR00qgGgM
MacDonald,
L. (n.d.). What Is a Self-Managed Team? Retrieved from:
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