A631.4.4RB_SeabournBeau

To start, I thought that it was interesting to hear Paul Tesluk talk about leading teams that essentially lead themselves. He touched on the importance of the external manger coming and trying to lead a team and how beneficial a tool that is to have. Personally, I like how the team makes the decisions on how they will be formatted and how they’ll adhere to the norms. This allows the members to form conclusions and ideas based on their experiences and not precedents set by their organization. They can utilize tools and strategies they’re comfortable using and tools that have been successful for them in the past. That allows a better working environment for that specific team.

What do you see as some of the major benefits and drawbacks of self-managed teams?

I see a major benefit being that each team member is an expert in their field. Brown states “self managed work teams have autonomy when they have freedom to set goals, make work schedules, discipline, and reward team members and decide on work methods” (Brown, 2011). I see that being a huge advantage in any group setting. Let the majority set the boundaries of what works for them and what they’re comfortable doing. You don’t want to push past standards on them, they are there to fix issues not be bound by restrictions.

Would you like to work within such a team?

I think that I would want to work with such a team. I’ve never had the opportunity to share my insights and thoughts about organizational procedures and I think that being in a team would allow me to voice my opinion and to hear feedback from other team members. I’d like to “compare notes” with other experts within our organization and see what is going on in other facilities. It would be a pleasure to be involved with any directed change our group might come up with. One source says it well when they said “this means the majority of key decisions about activities are made by people with direct knowledge of, and who are most affected by those choices” (Boundless, 2014). It would be good to be part of the change when it will affect me also.

What competencies would you need to develop to be an effective external manager of a self-managed work team?

I think to be effective; you need to be able to gain meaningful insight to the problem and the team in a timely manner. You also need to be able to understand the purpose of the team and understand why they set the guidelines the way they did. I think to be effective here, you want to lead the group but make sure they still feel as though they are in the conversation when it comes to solving whatever issues they may be working on. In our class discussion this week, Tracy Michael stated “Although Xerox reached its peak of performance in Leadership through Quality, the company continued to strive for better quality through training its employees on what quality and customer satisfaction truly means” (Michael, 2015). I took that interpretation to mean that even though that company was succeeding, they still took time to identify needs. An external manager could help understand the future needs and push a team toward not only addressing the current needs, but potential market shifts and future needs.

Brown, D. (2011).  An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development, 8th Ed.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Self-Managing Teams - Boundless Open Textbook. (2014, January 1). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/groups-teams-and-teamwork-6/types-of-teams-52/self-managing-teams-265-3934/

Michael, T. (2015, April 15). ERAU Discussion [Discussion Board].