Departments are interdependent and conflicts arise where solutions are needed promptly. The traditional hierarchy sometimes is not the best in offering solutions especially where time is of utmost importance. By using clear guidelines, self-management teams are given more freedom to come up with solution to their specific problems on their tasks (Beyerlein M., n, d). This reduces the time wasted whereby in a traditional model a manager would have to get all the details first and then choose the appropriate solution. Moreover, self-management team takes on the management of the work thereby removing the need for a manager or supervisor.
Self-management work teams reduce the reliance on individual's abilities and encourage learning from peers. This ensures there is free flow of information and skills are easily passed from colleague to colleague. Members are interdependent and are able to learn from each other, they are able to come up with better plans and procedures to accomplish their tasks. Responsibility is shared and everyone knows what the other is doing creating a harmonious working atmosphere. There is less stress on the team's leader as everyone contributes to the management and coming up with solutions at every stage in the process of achieving of their objectives.
Conflict is less likely to arise...
Even though conflict will always arise, it will be minimized with the shared perspective in the team. Every team member contributes to the running of the team and so there is less of 'what's in it for me' attitude. As the members are the ones who monitor their own progress and set timelines, it becomes easy to have a measurement of the progress they have made on particular tasks (Pearce, J.H. II & Ravlin, 1987).
Even though self-managed work teams are independent in the way they operate, they still require guidance from leaders in the organization. Self-management can be demanding and some teams cannot fully operate without external help. Self-management work teams will continue to be applied to more organizations as they improve quality, offer more flexibility and reduce operating costs.
References
Ken Blanchard. "Go Team! Take your team to the Next Level." Berret-Koehler publishing Inc. San Fransisco, CA. 2005.
Pearce, J.H. II & Ravlin, E.C (1987). The design and activation of self-Regulating Work Groups. Human Relations, 40, pp. 751-782.
Beyerlein M., (Ed.), Advances in interdisciplinary studies of work teams., Vol. 1, Series of self-managed work teams. Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press.
