TITLE : TEAM-BASED ORGANIZATIONS: DEVELOPING A SUCCESSFUL TEAM ENVIRONMENT.

In 1969, Beckhard wrote about the constant need for organizations to seek new ways of organizing-ways that would fully utilize their human resources to effectively meet the challenges of the environment.l During the 1970s and into the 1980s, managers began to realize that traditional organizational structures, such as functional or departmental organizations, were not always able to respond to marketplace demands. Many organizations began looking for better ways to use their human resources and to improve collaboration. Furthermore, organizations were struggling with a seeming lack of commitment or work ethic within their work forces and were losing the quality battle to imports.

To address these issues, many organizations partially turned to teams. They formed quality circles or started quality of work life, as well as efforts in employee involvement or employee participation efforts. All of these approaches were aimed at giving employees more influence over decisions and at increasing collaboration among various skills, disciplines, and levels. These organizations discovered that teams offered an effective way to coordinate across organizational boundaries in solving problems and in gaining employee commitment. As a result, more and more organizations turned toward teams to better accomplish their goals.

Much has been written on developing and managing a team (see Dyer, Hirschhorn, and Shonk). 2 However, little attention has been given to how to plan foreand manage the transition of an organization from a traditional hierarchical and functional structure to an organization built around teams.

This book, Team-Based Organizations, is about organizing in new ways: It is about organizing around teams to support an interdependence that already exists. The nature of the modern business enterprise is such that the interdependence of its parts is increasing in response to a more complex environment, one requiring many skills and functions to effectively compete.

Traditional organizational structures and processes often work against effective interdependency by focusing on individuals and tightly bound functions or units. New structures and processes must be developed to more effectively manage a firm's interdependencies. Many firms are finding that team-based organizations are a very promising strategy for managing these interdependencies.

This book is the result of my consulting experiences while helping firms manage the transition to a team-based organization. It is written to give managers an understanding of their role and the issues and processes involved in making the transition. The emphasis is upon changing existing organizations, but the concepts apply as well to new organizations (for more infor mation on creating new team-based organizations, see Lawler, Walton, and Cherry).

The material in this book is intended for managers who want to build more effective organization-wide teamwork, for organizational development, and training professionals and students in organizational behavior curriculums. Many of the processes that have proven successful in practice within General Foods and with such clients as Ford Motor Company, General Electric, GTE, and Sherwin Williams are presented to provide information on what other organizations have done. I also have presented many of the pitfalls, so the reader I hope cap avoid them.

Some of the processes presented and the issues identified might not fit your organization's unique character. Don't be overly concerned if your organization does not meet all the criteria and conditions presentedto effectively launch teams. Rather, recognize that the issues may need to be addressed at some point, and they frequently can be resolved only over a long time. This book is intended to provide information to stimulate your thinking; it is not intended to be used as a cookbook but as a tool in determining what is best for your organization.

Although I have a bias toward participative teams as an effective means of accomplishing work, this book is not written to convince you to use teams. You will have to assess whether a team-based organization is right for your firm. If you decide to increase your use of teams, I hope the ideas presented will help you achieve your goals.

How to Use This Book

Chapter One, "Teams," defines the meaning of team and teambased organizations. It presents the origins and impact of teams within the United States to show how team-based organizations have been successful in improving organizational productivity and employee job satisfaction. The chapter also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of teams. Finally, Chapter One identifies the keys to a successful change effort, so the reader will identify how they are incorporated into the planning and implementation processes.

Chapter Two, "Are Teams Right for Your Organization?," shows managers how to determine where teams already exist in their organization. It identifies the factors and analyses that go into deciding to organize around teams and how to determine if increasing the use of teams is appropriate. The chapter also discusses the issues that may make it difficult to create a teambased organization.

Chapter Three, "Types of Teams," reviews the different types and how they impact upon the organization, based on their autonomy. It explores the relationship between teams, participation, and organizational structure and discusses when to use each type of team.

Chapter Four, "Organizational Support for Teams," explains how participative teams affect the organization's structure and processes. It explains how to avoid merely plugging a team into an existing organization without expecting the organization to change. Chapter Four also shows how structures and processes can be altered to be supportive of teams.

Chapter Five, "Getting Started," identifies the various issues for which managers will need to plan while starting a teambased change effort. It provides examples of what other organizations have done, and it includes planning guidelines. Chapter Five explores how to overcome resistance, as well as identifying the issues that unions and management need to discuss before beginning. Finally, the chapter provides criteria for determining the start-up area. Chapter Six, "Organization Evolution," describes two approaches to change: evolution and redesign. The approaches are not mutually exdusive but are separated, to better explain each. The chapter describes the evolution process and how other companies have used a parallel organization, including the roles and relationships of parallel organization committees.

Chapter Seven, "Designing a Team-Based Organization," shows how to create a design team to redesign the organization around teams; it also provides guidelines and criteria for the redesign. And it outlines the role of the core group and the design team.

Chapter Eight, "Training," describes the types of training typically needed to support a greater use of teams, including the audience, purpose, and content for each type.

Chapter Nine, "Leading a Team-Based Organization," describes the role of a team leader and management's role in managing the transition to a team-based organization. It identifies major issues for managers to address to perpetuate the organization's success.

Chapter Ten, "Keys to Success," summarizes the keys to a successful team-based change effort and pulls together the concepts and techniques presented throughout the book.

JAMES H. SHONK