iii) Why Teams?

. The team concept of management is one way to tap into the potential and creativity of people at all levels

. Most managers spend less than 30% of their time directly supervising their people individually, and spend most of their time in group meetings.

. Between 50 to 90% of most managers' time is spent in some form of group activity with 2 or more people.

. Group productivity is often more important than individual task accomplishment

. Team concept of management requires leaders who are

- enablers of people

- facilitators of groups

NB These 2 skills are the biggest skill gaps in teams

. All teams are unique ie they are dynamic, complex, ever-changing, living systems. Despite this, they go through similar stages of development

. There is no research that supports autocratic management as being superior in benefits to empowering strategies for staff, such as teams. In fact, studies show that teams are better, eg

"...- on-time delivery improved from 40% to 90% (Honeywell)

- 15.4% increase in sales revenue from customer service team (Bell Telephone)

- US$52,000 per team savings in indirect costs for network technicians (Bell Telephone)

......in addition to empowering people by sharing information, creating autonomy through boundaries, and replacing hierarchy with teams, managers and organisations should also:

provide employment security

recruit the right people

base payment on organisational performance

show interest in training

reduce status distinctions within the organisations..."

Harry Onsman, 2004d