A631.4.4.RB_INSEAD Reflection

I think there are many benefits in self-managed work teams.  Brown (2011) defines a self-managed work team as am, “autonomous group whose members decide how to handle their tasks” (p.348), which I think allows for people to self-govern themselves and forces people to work through their problems as a team.  I have found when you put people on a team and allow them to work through their differences they are more likely to rely on each other to get the job done and feel less pressure as opposed to being on a team where the team leader might also be the department manager/supervisor.  Self-managed work teams in my opinion often have a more relaxed feeling which allow for creative ideas to flow more freely and more naturally.  Some of the potential drawback with these teams is the thought that those in team might clash completely and the need for management to step in would be present but I think the benefits completely outweigh the drawbacks.  The idea of self-managed work teams is more likely to be less embraced by those who are micromanagers than those who are progressive leaders.  Speaking from experience I have been on many teams and those that were formed by my direct supervisor and included her were more uncomfortable, stagnant, and ultimately dissolved without any true team collaboration taking place whereas teams developed by those on a lateral scale were more productive and successful.

I love working in self-managed work teams because I think that they allow each person to shine in their abilities.  Many of the reasons these teams are established is because each person is going to bring a different and unique attribute to the team which allows for the group to overall be more successful. Even though SMTs are great, there can often be times where situations of conflict can arise and as a group/team we are forced to resolve them.  I find that conflict is inevitable and these types or situations help to make each team member that much stronger than they were (individually) before.

Those who manage effective self-managed work teams are not micromanagers but instead they are the type of manager who trusts their employees and allows for their creativeness to show and grow with each new project. I also think the following characteristics need to be engrained in a competent manager of self-managed work teams:

• Trust
• Creativeness
• Openness
• Honesty
• Reliability
• Educated
• Hardworking
• Versatile
• Flexible
• Understanding

Being in a self-managed work team takes practice and often the first go round will be unsuccessful because it takes will power from the team to keep each other going but I do believe that when you allow employees to work together and manage themselves they often create a stronger working bond that ever before.

Reference:
Brown, D.R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.).Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Tesluk, P. (2008, September 22). Self-managing teams; debunking the leadership paradox., Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBnR00qgGgM&feature=youtu.be