Autonomous work group

In business management, an autonomous work group is a group encouraged to manage its own work and working practices.

Definition

A. Rao, N. Thorberry and J. Weintraub define autonomous teamwork as "groups of independent workers, who regulate much of their own task behaviour around relatively whole tasks. This kind of groups are also generally allowed to select and train new members, set their own work pace, supervise most of their own activities and often trade jobs among themselves"[1]

We can distinguish semi-autonomous and autonomous teams, the deference depends of the degree of autonomy of the group.

Nowadays, more and more companies are employing (semi)autonomous work groups, such as car’s industry, mass distribution sector and currently starts ‘up.

To succeed and be performant in its tasks a (semi)autonomous team needs:[2]

  • Communication and coordination: team members have to transmit all the informations to another in a common language, a well coordination between team members permits to obtain those informations when needed and move easily from one task to another;
  • Cohesion: brings in the team a stability, a feeling of unity, a satisfaction and permits to respond positively to each other and to communicate well;
  • Decision making and taking responsibilities: to succeed the team must collect informations, discuss, evaluate alternatives and most importantly decide collaboratively on the appropriate way of action.

Autonomous Teamwork and Psychological Well-being

There is an ongoing phenomenon that autonomous teamwork supposedly has a positive influence on the psychological well-being of employees.

A study conducted by two universities of Netherland focuses on the influences of the perceived group autonomy and individual autonomy, respectively on the individual tasks and psychological well-being. Through a poll conducted on employees in a supermarket chain, which targets different aspects of team work, (i.e. individual autonomy, social relationships with colleagues or even individual workload). It was found that there is no strong relationship between psychological fatigue and individual task variety, also between motivation to learn and quality of social relationships.

There is still a positive impact of the individual aspects of the work on the motivation. It shows indeed that autonomous work increases variety, decreases individual workload and overall improves the quality of social relationships.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ H. v. Mierlo, C. G. Rutte, B. Seinen, M. Kompier (2001). "Autonomous teamwork and psychological well-being". European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology: 291–301.
  2. ↑ Landy, Frank J. (2010). Studyguide for Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organization Psychology.
  3. ↑ H. v. Mierlo, C. G. Rutte, B. Seinen, M. Kompier (2001). "Autonomous teamwork and psychological well-being". European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology: 291–301.

Further reading

  • Maxine Bucklow (June 1966). "A New Role for the Work Group". Administrative Science Quarterly. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1. 11 (1): 59&ndash, 78. doi:10.2307/2391394. JSTOR 2391394.
  • Peter M. Asaro (2000). "Transforming society by transforming technology: the science and politics of participatory design" (PDF). Accounting, Management and Information Technologies. 10 (4): 257&ndash, 290. doi:10.1016/S0959-8022(00)00004-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-28.
  • John L. Cordery; Walter S. Mueller & Leigh M. Smith (June 1991). "Attitudinal and Behavioral Effects of Autonomous Group Working: A Longitudinal Field Study". Academy of Management Journal. The Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 34, No. 2. 34 (2): 464&ndash, 476. doi:10.2307/256452. JSTOR 256452.
  • Charles C. Manz & Henry P. Sims, Jr. (1982). "The Potential for "Groupthink" in Autonomous Work Groups". Human Relations. Tavistock Institute. 35 (9): 773&ndash, 784. doi:10.1177/001872678203500906.
  • Bailey, D.E. & Adiga, S. (May 1997). "Measuring manufacturing work group autonomy". IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. 44 (2): 158&ndash, 174. doi:10.1109/17.584924.
  • David F. Elloy & Alan Randolph (1997). "The Effect of Superleader Behavior on Autonomous Work Groups in a Government Operated Railway Service". Public Personnel Management. 26.
  • Melvin Blumberg (June 1980). "Job Switching in Autonomous Work Groups: An Exploratory Study in a Pennsylvania Coal Mine". Academy of Management Journal. The Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2. 23 (2): 287&ndash, 306. doi:10.2307/255432. JSTOR 255432.
  • Moldaschl M. & Weber W.G. (1998-03-01). "The "Three Waves" of Industrial Group Work: Historical Reflections on Current Research on Group Work". Human Relations. 51 (3): 347&ndash, 388. doi:10.1177/001872679805100307.
  • Richard Cooney (December 2004). "Empowered self-management and the design of work teams". Personnel Review. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 33 (6): 677&ndash, 692. doi:10.1108/00483480410561556.
  • Carol Sexton (April 1994). "Self-managed Work Teams: TQM Technology at the Employee Level". Journal of Organizational Change Management. MCB UP Ltd. 7 (2): 45&ndash, 52. doi:10.1108/09534819410056122.
  • Wendy Clark & Steven Farkas (2004-02-05). "SocioTechnical Models: Eric Trist".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.