CSWT Papers
Multi-skilled, Multi-leveled, Multi-Teams in a Single Organization: How to Make, Use, and Keep Them
and Their Individual Members by Jimmy L. Chillis

Introduction

Ever since there have been managers, there have been teams. Someone has always led groups of people to achieve more than an individual would be able to do alone. Before there were formal teams, employees have always grouped together to form an alliance against the mangers, and the managers alike did so against top managers. The top managers forge forces to rebel against executives and executives against the board. By definition teams are a group of two or more entities linked by a common bond to foster the achievement of a common goal or faith. Since the forming of alliances can not be stopped, then maybe it would be a better use of time and effort to encourage people, within the company, to form as teams designed to work toward a common-corporate goal. To effectively operate with teams, companies must know how to make, use, and keep them and their members.

Intricacies of Team Development

Not all companies or industries effectively lend themselves to the use of teams. Those that do and wish to use teams effectively must address and come to grips with several questions. Six crucial questions as stated by Recardo are as follows:

Answering these questions may promote a higher chance of success. After answering these questions the company should be better prepared to start developing teams and the culture to support them.

The development process should start with the recruitment process. Being, the appropriate members should be those that are of at least of average intelligence, image advertising should be employed with a combination of national college recruitment (Noe R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., and Wright, P. M. 1997, p. 292). This combination should give the company a diverse mix properly educated, young, highly impressionable people. The collegiate scene is the best place to reach individuals that do not carry negative baggage from past ill-employment experiences. The lack of experience makes it easier to train and develop the recruits into what members of a new environment concept are required to be. Image advertising will allow the organization to advertise specific vacancies (entry level), display a picture of what the environment is, and promote itself as a good place to work. "Image advertising is particularly important for companies in highly competitive labor markets that perceive themselves as having a bad image." (Noe, 1997, p. 292) When companies are currently in a positive light then the tactic offers a strong advantage over companies lacking the same mix of efforts.

Once the recruitment pool is established the psych, "meta-analysis" and the goals of the prospects are to be assessed, so that each person can be correctly placed on teams where their particular characteristics are needed to create a healthy situation for progress or released. The process of selecting people for the purpose of creating a more whole team is to be dubbed "strategic teaming". Opposite of strategic teaming is "natural grouping", which as defined in the introduction is unstructured and usually constructed for the wrong purposes. There are several ways to combat the ills of natural grouping, of which, one is to have new recruits trained and developed specifically to be a part of high performance teams as they first enter the organization. This step alone will set a culture that employees see themselves as valuable people with a future. The step will also help to halt any progress that would promote further use of ill-formed natural teams.

The training and development which will be required to advance new recruits to high performance team members should be separated into (with subsets) three main parts which are initial training and debriefing of the company and culture, individual training, and finally team training.

The initial training and debriefing stage training is to be a part of the recruitment process. Contents of the stage should, at minimum, be debriefing of the company culture, what is expected of them, why they have been selected over all other applicants (e.g.; psychographic make-up and goals). This opportunity is to also be used to inform the recruits of what the company goals are (i.e.; its mission statement) and how teams will make the goal a reality.

The second stage, individual training, is of great importance, because, as the saying goes, "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link." To strengthen each "link" a program must be in place which can and will understand individual disabilities and internal problems, talents, interests, and career objectives so that agreed-upon development goals are within employee abilities and accomplishment is compatible with fundamental interests (Kellogg, 1967). Any of what can pose a hindrance to individual growth, so each must be handled properly before the individual is to be placed into a team setting. The individual training stage must also educate each individual of how they fit into the team. This education must, at bare minimum, install a belief that they are all equal "cogs in the system", and what their contributions mean to the company and consequentially their future employment.

Third, the Training and Development stage, team training should give attempts to solidify the team belief. To gain belief and/or acceptance of the team there will be a need for achievement. Therefore, the third stage must give skill building training in a team setting, pushing the whole along the "learning curve." A "coaching" environment must be utilized so that the teams will learn to operate as a unit, on their own. Once optimal performance is obtained then they are recognized as self-managing teams. To reach this level a team will show signs of synergy. "Synergism’ is the simultaneous actions of separate entities which together have greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects." (Buchholz, 1987, p. 2). (For example 1 +1 = 3: when the one teams up with the other one to create a child.) To achieve synergy the company will have to create an environment that has:

The combination of the recruitment process, team selection/grouping process, and training and development process should be taken as a group, since the "contingency" theory is at work with every action. A caution must be taken as to what level of structured education (training) is to be used (Leavitt, Harold and Pondy, Louis, 1964). Blanchard said in the book, One-Minute Manager, "An effective team starts with a clear purpose. The hoped for end results are optimal productivity and good morale. The means to those ends are environment, relationships, communication, flexibly and recognition and appreciation" (Blanchard, K., Carew, D., Parisi-Carew, E., 1990, p. 65).

With all the training and development that is to take place, it is understandable that the individuals trained will be more valuable. Just as any other valuable resource, humans also should be accounted for, both in numbers and in value. The number of employees is easy to account for (e.g.; how many new hires are there). The recording of value, if done correctly, can be easy, but if done incorrectly, the task can be very difficult to account for with accuracy or validity. In team, building the records should be kept on each individual trainee/employee. For team incorporation the trainer should give close attention to individual behavior.

Behavior observation supplies the most useful information if a manager has clearly in mind tentative work improvement goals which need to be met under certain conditions. He can then observe the employee doing comparable work in similar situations and thus determine the extent to which the goal are within the employee’s ability and how much development will be required in order to master the needed skills. (Kellogg, 1967, p. 87)

The individuals (KSA) knowledge skills and ability records should be coupled with the individual’s psychological profile to help the team coordinators closely match individual matches to teams in need. Considering that individuals learn differently, another use of the records should be to help developers cater the training program to the individuals. Personal attention should be given to and recorded for each member during training and after being placed on a team, development. Development should include individual psyche-evaluation and interpersonal skills. Next the records will be useful in catering to the needs of individuals to maintain or improve morale and other valued emotions. Each individual has their own reasons for not feeling as if they accepted, respected, and/or, any of many, relationship issues. For the Human Resource department to handle this, a concise depiction and recording of each individual’s state and progress must be institutionalized. Some individuals will prove not to be of team caliber and others will be a "team-match". Once the matches are made team records are to be kept religiously.

Team records are to be documented, evaluated and above all utilized. One form of records can be in the form of certifications. Each certification is to pose as a marker for a team that has crossed a certain milestone in becoming a self-managed work-team. A sample of the steps, and the order which, the team should cross by demonstrating ability to effectively perform the following:

These steps are not "set in stone" but are recommendations as guidelines. Each of the steps is to be reached by the team, as a whole, at there own pace. The certifications should also be an indicator for what task level each team is qualified to handle. Along with other purposes there should also be a reward system, a system that will motivate each individual member to perform as a team.

Team Uses

Once the collections of diverse individuals are performing as teams, the four what’s and four what-not’s of teams should be determined. The four "uses" are problems, task, function, and mission. Even though some teams will be for some "uses" and not others a general "rule of thumb" should be written within corporate policy. For example teams should not be used in instances that do not allow members to be active in the decision process of determining their actions. Such set-ups will only promote distrust, low morals, rebellious acts and other self-destructive behaviors. (Leavitt 1964)

The intended duration of the team goes hand-and-hand with the type of team it is. For example, if a team is to be constantly restructured, then it is a task force or short-term team. "Task forces are composed of team members with highly specialized skills, brought together from different functions across the organization for the purpose of solving complicated problems requiring a high degree of specialization. Task-forces conduct research and make recommendations but do not implement solutions. Another should-be-short-term team is the cross-functional team. "Historically, cross-functional teams are composed of team members who are brought together from different functions across the organization to analyze, recommend alternatives and solve complicated problems". (Ricardo, 1996, p. 10) In such orders each individual is to learn and be able to perform the others function. The cross-functional team’s duration is longer than the task force’s due to the fact that the functional team, actually implement its findings and recommendations. The combination of crossing duties and an extended duration usually creates a mismatch. Recardo believes that the mismatch appears to be universal to all cross-functional teams. One could concluded that part of the problem is that taking a marketing man and putting him in an engineering position will not stop him from thinking like a marketer (Micklethwait 1996). Habitual behaviors, such as this, will only sustain and promote the advancement of problems that these very different functional disciplines face individually.

Teams that do not remedy this behavior usually can be found in an environment that includes such things as lack of personnel resources, poorly detailed business plans, lack of clear roles and responsibilities, no clear chain of command and lack of sponsor support. If the correct development process is implemented, many of these problems can be eliminated and greatly improve the possibility of cross-functional team success. Self-Directed Work teams (SDWTs) are a form of long-term team. These teams are used for mission purposes. SDWTs are usually the team(s) which gives the company its Human Resource- competitive advantage. SWDTs are among those with lowest success rates because of the extensive systems integration required "(they affect the information system, administrative control systems, human resources systems, and so on)" (Ricardo, 1996, p. 11). The process to correctly create SDWTs must start at the earliest beginning. The long-term teams, unlike task forces, are given the opportunity to employ the benefits of a learning curve thus given the chance to correct, improve and out-perform other teams. These teams are what is known as knowledge and /or learning teams therefore, for many companies, the most valuable. (For a graphical expression of the team continuum see Figure 1. Recardo, 1996, p. 10)

Figure 1. Team Continuum (Recardo, 1996, p. 10)

How to Keep Teams and Their Individual Members

As the value of teams and individual members increase, the more they are desired as an item to be retained. This being the case, a focus on why team break-ups occur should be brought to light. It is believed that teams disband for two primary reasons, external factors and internal factors. External factors are those things that the organization usually has control over. For example, management support must be given to the teams. "Creating the high-performance team requires you to go one step beyond-moving people to being interdependent " said by Buchholz et al, when discussing the next step after the independent growth stage of high-performing team (see Table 1) (Bulchholz, 1987, p. 22). Some say that individuals feel morally better when they are given the opportunity to have some control over their destiny (AMA, 1993, video). There should be no change in this theory when dealing with teams, as well. This is the most elusive cause of team disruption, because without it, the "team" never really materializes as a team.

 

Nonetheless, the team is doomed without the autonomy needed and will be broken up before it ever reaches its potential. Another external factor is that the reason the team was formed does not lend itself to being done by the team assigned the task. Teams, whether formal or informal, tend to think as a single entity. Psychologically, if a team’s capabilities greatly outmatch what the assignments are then, much like overqualified individuals, teams too will feel a void in what they accomplish leaving the team unfulfilled promoting low self-esteem and resistance to the changes imposed upon them. (AMA, 1993, video)

The other side of this is the internal factors arising from within the team. Such factors should actually be corrected during the training of individuals, but sometimes the training and development (T & D) department will not "catch" everything, because some problems arise due to the nature of work and/or the team environment. If handled correctly these problems, "storms" as termed by Curt Smith, President of Massachusetts Infirmary (Hospital), can serve as opportunities for growth and further commitment. In short, keep the team together by anticipating storms and nurturing them through their problem solving process (both internal and external) (AMA, 1993, video).

Teams can also fail or dissolve by key individuals each leaving the company, department, or simply joining another team within the organization. So the focus of individual satisfaction of staying committed to the team’s goals, and ability to stay are of crucial magnitude. Satisfaction to employees comes from knowing that what they did actually accomplished what they set out to do. So constant feedback of performance-compliance, and in team building, the sharing of evaluation and records is encouraged. Clear-cut career paths and opportunities are a must, for some goal-oriented individuals cherish the position more than the monetary value that the position offers. Individual goals must be addressed so that the individual will not feel unappreciated. As stated earlier, individuals commit to things more when the achievements can be measured and appreciated. Therefore, the achievements must be ones that increase each individual perceived-company value of himself/herself. Another commitment motivator is that the individual believes that what he/she commits to is worthy of his/her commitment. At any time if the company (the superiors) violate its "moral contract" with its workers, its credibility is destroyed, and for this, the individual will began to search for better employment else where (Micklenthwait 1996). In short to build commitment it must be done mutually. Finally the individual must be able or have the ability to stay. If a member cannot financially support himself/herself with the current situation, then he/she will not stay. If a person cannot, for some reason reach (commute to) the team or company, then his/her ability to continue as a member is halted and will prove enough to cause abandonment. The perception of ability to stay also depends on being included in times of determining acts of members, as well as management. Management must be careful not to hinder the individuals personal progress so much as to create an environment that the worker feels hopeless due to restraints put upon them.

The Future

The future of teams are endless, the path of teams or the will-be paths of teams may already be documented. The "individual-worker’s" track record is bound to show a mirror effect to where teams will go. Not only going in the same direction, but, as found, teams are capable of doing much more than one individual alone. The use of task forces will undoubtedly "blaze the trail". From product development teams to inter-company teams a whole array of team activities await team members in the future. One particular interesting use of teams will be the opportunities offered by the increase in joint ventures and partnering instead of mergers. Organizations currently share workers especially during times of downsizing and restructuring practices. As more individual positions are replaced, with by team-based set-ups, it is surely to follow that teams will be shared just the same. For example, a "phase-out team", a team which has mastered the art of eliminating products, Divisions or whole organizations may be shared, in exchange for future use of a well-developed marketing team, of the borrowing company. Being an interchangeable part that can jump from company to company successfully its self-sustaining ability must be equivalent to individual workers in a low-labor, low-skill level work environment. Since the task at-hand is bound to remain the same or increase in difficulty, change will have to come from the level of the team-competency to handle different tasks in order for teams to reach or pass the same level as individuals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is not a question of will teams be used. It is not even a question of should they be used, but how to effectively create, use, and retain them. The whole process is to be viewed on a continuum as a contingent process. The pre-text here is not to be taken in bits and pieces but as one bit of information, for without all parts, the other parts may not be effective and may even cause negative effects. No team implementation plan should be done piece by piece, because no single subset will produce much positive effect alone. Keeping each part of the plan together helps to build synergy and conceptual acceptance. The prescribed text is not to be taken as the only way to create a team environment, but it has been created to show a possible way to effectively create, use, and retain teams (all in one very well thought out process).

 References

Allstate Insurance Co., Rains, D. & Whitson, G. (1998) The Team Development Process. Denton TX. International Conference on Work Teams

A.M.A. Publication Series. Keeping Teams Together. (Video) (1993).  New York: American Management Association.

Blanchard, K., Carew, D., Parisi-Carew, E. (1990). The One Minute Manager:Building High Performance Teams. New York: William Morrow & Co.,Inc.

Buchholz, S., Roth, T. (1987). Creating the High PerformanceTeam. New York: John Wiley & Son, Inc.

 Kellogg, M. (1967). Closing the Performance Gap: Results-Centered Employee Development. New York: Vail-Ballou Press, Inc.

Leavitt, H. & Pondy, L. (1964). Readings in Managerial Psychology. Chicago Ill: The University of Chicago Press.

Micklethwait, J. & Woolridge A. (1996). The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus. New York; Random House, Inc.

Noe R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (1997). Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competative Advantage. McGraw-Hill.

Recardo, R., Wade, D., Mention, C., III, & Jolly, J. (1996). Teams: Who needs them and why? Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Co.

Copyright 1998, Center for the Study of Work Teams, University of North Texas. All Rights Reserved.