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Who manages self-managing teams?
Søren Voxted
T
he aim of this article is to examine who and how management is carried out in self-managing teams. More specifically, I examine who carries out management in- side self-managing teams in industrial pro- duction.The outset of this revised theoretical view is a case study in a larger Danish ma- chine industry. One of the results of my study of this company’s organisation of work was, that the changes and the estab- lishment of self-managing teams has led to a situation where every employee has more than one manager. In most cases these
‘managers’ are either colleges from within the group or operators in the staff. What makes them managers is the fact that they are authorised (empowered) to carry out tasks related to the co-ordination of other employees’
work through direct instructions. The compa- ny has, in other words, established what I term functional management. This type of management differs from self-management and common management, which are ty- pically associated with team-organisation.
Frederick W. Taylor inspires my use of the concept functional management. He worked with a model of leadership in which the employees had more leaders dis- tributed on basis of the sub-functions that are included in a traditional leader’s tasks.
But whereas the precondition for Taylor’s functional management was a rountiniza- tion of work, and the separation of work and its co-ordination, functional manage- ment is, in this company, an instrument to handle a complex and changeable produc- tion.
My conclusion on the case is that an or- ganisation of work based on self-managing teams within the industry occasions a de- mand for principles of management, which are not merely different from previous practice. They can neither be captured by the new principles of management, which are commonly brought in play in studies of teamwork. On the contrary there is a need for a new theoretical view, which both takes into account a heterogeneous compo- sition of the teams and the need for close coordination with the rest of the organisa- tion. The aim of this article is, as previously mentioned, to contribute to the develop- ment of such a theoretical proposal.
Unclear roles & employee involvement – about management and self-
governing groups Steen Visholm
The aim of this paper is to provide mem- bers of the joint consultation committees in Danish industry with a psychological understanding of the stress from unclear roles in industry – and with ideas for ways to solve or reduce the problems. Workplace welfare research has showed, that unclear roles are a problem for one out of three em- ployees in industry. The paper analyses a case-study of a typical industrial workplace and the conclusion is, that unclear roles has to do with lack of authority.
In the research interviews a significant tension in the self-governing groups as well in the individual members of the groups was found. On the one hand workers liked to get work done and were frustrated when things didn’t work. On the other hand they feared
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to take on leadership roles, because they knew, that anyone who acted just a bit like leader, would be the target of massive hate.
These tensions didn’t make sense in a vertical two level (parent-child) under- standing. Therefore we had to employ a three level model to understand traditional hierarchies (top, middle and bottom). Then we were able to look at what happens, when you remove middle management and give the authority to the self-governing groups. The middle manager can be seen as
‘the promoted sibling’, a figure that attracts massive envy and hate, and provokes feel- ings of being betrayed in the other siblings.
When you give the authority from middle management to the self-governing groups everyone hopes, that all evil will disappear, but before long the ghost of the middle manager returns to haunt the group. The paper concludes, that you have to employ strong authority to manage self-governing groups, but it has to be in a new way aligned with management by containing.
The Development Dynamics and Personal Consequences of Teamwork Maja Marie Lotz og Signe Enemark Olsen
The article focuses on the interaction be- tween self realization and community and illustrates how the modern individual does not create and form him/herself in a void, but rather always via the concurrent efforts residing in the process of interaction, dia- logue and voicing with others. Based on a qualitative case study, the article empirical- ly sheds light on this interaction amongst the co-workers at ‘Bildung A/S’ from three angels, thereby uncovering the »tact and tone« at the company, the formations, processes, and dynamics it creates in syner- gy with the co-workers self realization zeal, as well as the consequences formation on the job results in.
Special attention is given to the dyna- mics of teamwork, and the article con- cludes that the daily team based practice, the specific tone and sentiment of the team, as well as the daily interaction rituals in the team open for acknowledgement and solidarity, responsibility and personal development among the co-workers. The article furthermore shows, in a compara- tive perspective, that there is a distinction between how self-realization and commu- nity aspects scale amongst the production staff and the academics, who likewise make use of different formation strategies in their work. Meanwhile, the article also uncovers the fact that formation on the job has its price. The communities at Bildung A/S in- herently repress the differences of interest and conflicts between managers and co- workers and they are designed according to the company’s strategy and goal, entailing an exclusion element that favorizes certain character traits. Finally, they limit room for diversity and multiple formation processes.
It is therefore possible to claim that these communities also implicate excluding rela- tions in working life, and that formation on the job, not only contains an acknow- ledging aspect, but also an alienating one.
Gender, Autonomy and Quality in Working Life
– Experiences from an Action Research Project on Autonomous Working Groups in Care Work and Industrial Work
Annette Bilfeldt & Elsebeth Hofmeister
On the basis of an action research project related to industrial work and care work, the dilemmas faced by autonomous groups with flexible work are discussed. The groups’ understanding of problems and conflicts related to work and their plans of action are discussed in relation to gen-
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Abstractsderdifferences, experienced by the mem- bers of the groups.
Taking the starting point in the duality of increased stress on the one hand and on the other hand increased job satisfaction and pleasure in the group organization, the article focuses on the question of how cooperation in the autonomous groups is improving working life, balancing the work with life in general.
On the network conferences of the ac- tion research project the groups discussed their different experiences of dilemmas and conflicts. It was accentuated that these conflicts either expressed different work orientations or different conflicts of am- bivalence between work and life. Based on these discussions between the groups at the network conferences, each group devel- oped models for handling future conflicts, respecting different values and interests of the group members. In addition, each group developed plans for improving influ- ence and working conditions.
Teamwork in primary and secondary schools – experiences and perspectives Finn Wiedemann
During the last ten years, team corporation has been introduced in many Danish schools and educational institutions. In the attempt to discuss this development, the ar- ticle takes initiates in the experiences with team corporation in two Danish primary schools. Here, the form, content and devel-
opment of team corporation are analysed.
The purpose of the article, is among other things, to focus especially on the advantages and disadvantages of team corporation seen through the teachers point of view.
The article is based on qualitative me- thods, where 15-20 teachers at each school have been interviewed group wise three times during 18 months. The theoretical framework of the article is primarily a mix of functional and symbolic or agent-orient- ed theories which allows to focus both on official and formal explanations for bring- ing team corporation in to the school and allows to analyse and discuss specific teacher experiences.
The article concludes that the tendency towards strongly increased team corpora- tion in educational institutions must be understood together with the changing de- mands and challenges facing the educa- tional world. Here, team corporation, to- gether with many other present changes, becomes a central method which are be- lieved to improve efficiency and quality of the schools.
In general, the interviewed teachers with a few exceptions, are very satisfied with this development. In general, they think that team corporation has improved peda- gogical work, relations to colleagues and job satisfaction. The article argues that the positive experiences must be interpreted with the fact that teachers at both schools have been involved in the development of the present form and content of team cor- poration.
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