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Self-directed work teams at an aerospace company
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Sorenson, Eric C. |
| Copyright Year | 1995 |
| Abstract | Self-Directed Work Teams (SDWTs) are a logical extension of the Socio-Technical Systems (STS) approach to organizational design. STSs seek to balance the business environment, technical aspects of the firm and the social aspects of the worker to achieve optimality. SDWTs, if operating effectively, strive to achieve this balance, evolving as the technical, social or business conditions change. SDWTs have not absolutely proven themselves to be a better organizational form in rigorous controlled experiments, but this may have been due to uncontrolled environmental factors. Anecdotal evidence, such as the example presented here, is positive but it is clouded by uncontrolled technological innovation introduced at the same time the SDWTs were introduced. The introduction of SDWTs to a medium sized aerospace company at a “Mature Plant” and at a “Satellite Plant” was studied. Both plants contrast each other in a variety of ways: union/non-union, older/younger plants, near corporate headquarters/satellite, focussed factory/multiple products-multiple processes. The results for the Satellite Plant have been extremely positive. The Mature Plant, just having started the transition to SDWTs, has yet to realize the benefits. The introduction of the SDWTs were enabled by the existence of manufacturing cells, team training, the backing of the labor union (which represented the employees at the Mature Plant) and the identification and elimination of blockers in the management ranks. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/82671/33805934-MIT.pdf?sequence=2 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
