Kinds of Teams

Teams can be classified in a number of ways, such as permanent or temporary, or functional or cross-functional. However, studies indicate that the amount of autonomy possessed by a team is the key difference among teams.

Autonomy is the degree to which workers have the discretion, freedom, and independence to decide how and when to accomplish their jobs. The smallest amount of autonomy is found in traditional work groups, where two or more people work together to achieve a shared goal.

Employee involvement teams, which have somewhat more autonomy, meet on company time on a weekly or monthly basis to provide advice or make suggestions to management concerning specific issues such as plant safety, customer relations, or product quality. Semi-autonomous work groups not only pro-vide advice and suggestions to management but also have the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks required to produce a product or service.

Self-managing teams are different from semi-autonomous work groups in that team members manage and control all of the major tasks directly related to production of a product or service without first getting approval from management. Self-designing teams have all the characteristics of self-managing teams, but they can also control and change the design of the teams themselves, the tasks they do and how and when they do them, and the membership of the teams.

Teams promote creativity, innovation and flexibility in management.