DESPITE THE PROMISE OF TEAMS AND THE Exceptional Performance Reported by some Organizations, many Work. Teams do Not Prove to be As Effective As companies Expect. Teams often Get off to a Promising start with Lots of Fanfare and Hopes, but a Variety of factors INTERCEDE. Research Shows that companies in The Early Stages of. team Development and Quality programs Have had more support from Managers and employees than companies some 18 months or Further Along Two years. An Extensive Survey by The Wilson Learning Group, a Minnesota-based Organization that Helps companies Meet Real customer Needs in Order to Produce more Effective results, discovered that The Majority of problems were organizational in Nature Rather than. team or Individual, although barriers to Success Involved. a Variety of organizational, Individual, and. team -specific factors.
Planning, Training, and support are cited As Key barriers suppressing Successful implementation of Work. Teams . To Overcome these barriers, employees Have to be Willing to Accept and Adapt to. team -based Management. How May Even Work Against Workers are rewarded. team -based programs. Traditional compensation often Systems Individual reward achievements, organizational support for Ignore. team Successes, and Even Encourage employees to Compete Against their CO-Workers. Companies that want their people to work well together need an honest assessment of the organization's readiness and support level. Because this is Essential Employee Acceptance Helps Determine IF. team -based Management Will Work.
While there is no Magic Formula for Revitalizing The. team Effort, Nothing is likely to be Accomplished Without Effective and honest feedback. This is where surveys can play a useful and creative role.
Surveys may be of two types: those designed inhouse, sometimes with the assistance of a consultant, and those that are ready-made, having been designed by experts for particular purposes and used in a wide variety of organizations. An in-house survey has the advantage of being tailored to a particular organization, often seeking feedback on specifics, such as benefits or productivity improvement suggestions. The time but and Resources Required to Design, Develop, test, and. evaluate Such Instruments are considerable.
Moreover, surveys of this nature have the disadvantage of not being scientifically valid, especially when applied to attitudes or satisfaction measures.
Commercially available survey instruments, on the other hand, have generally been applied and tested in a variety of settings to determine their validity. Statistical tests are often applied to the aggregate results using several trials. Such instruments allow for the development of standard scales on which to base interpretations and comparisons with other organizations. However, such surveys tend to be more general in nature and may not capture responses to specific items of interest in a given firm.
Finding the right survey to administer can be difficult and trying. To aid in the selection process, several commercially available survey instruments have been identified as having varying degrees of value with respect to the development or revitalization of teambased organizations. It should be noted that while some of Instruments Focus on The Group Dynamics. Teams themselves, others Seek information About The Environment in which. Teams are expected to Flourish. This list is not exhaustive, and no attempt has been made to determine relative validity or rank the instruments in any way. Included Because they are of their perceived value to Organizations Involved in implementation of The. team -based Management.