Self-Directed Teams, Research Paper Example

The need for team work in the process of solving multiple problems and accomplishing tasks has been recognized a long time ago. There is a huge set of types of teams that may suit the fulfillment of different tasks as, for instance, virtual, cross-functional, problem-solving or self-managed teams (Robbins & Judge, 2008). A team should be guided by a person possessing strong leadership skills; only this way a task may be successfully accomplished and the work of team members can be efficiently coordinated.

However, the situation looks in a completely different way when talking about the self-managed teams. The name of this team type speaks for itself – the teams consist of about 10-15 members who have to take the responsibilities of their former supervisors and accomplish the task themselves (Robbins & Judge, 2008). Here comes the question about the way of arranging the work of a self-directed team constructively.

The first rule to be remembered by any manager is that even a self-directed team needs a leader, as the main precondition for the team’s success is a properly arranged structure and leadership (Robbins & Judge, 2008). Thus, the team should be formed according to the specificity of the task to be accomplished and should be checked for compliance, i.e. the way team members merge with each other in the process of work.

Other things to be remembered when choosing the leader of a self-directed team are outlined by Fisher (1999) as follows: they involve multi-skilled workforce, they are only seemingly chaotic, the members have shared goals, the worker commitment is really high, they are self-controlled and they are also values-principles based. These peculiarities may become the key elements for consideration for a future leader who will work on the greater worker involvement, commitment, task understanding and compliance.

References

Fisher, K. (1999). Leading self-directed work teams: a guide to developing new team leadership skills. McGraw-Hill Professional

Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T.A. (2008). Organizational Behavior. 13^th Ed. Prentice Hall