Benefits of Teams

So what is all the excitement over teams? In the rapidly changing, highly competitive environment businesses face today, teams contribute to the bottom line in a number of ways.

1. Teams help to motivate workers. Teams motivate by providing both inter­nal rewards in the form of an enhanced sense of accomplishment for employees as they achieve more and external rewards in the form of praise and certain perks. At Chrysler Corporation's Newcastle Industrial plant, for instance, team members run many aspects of plant operations including assigning tasks, altering work hours, and confronting slow performers. Over a five-year period, absenteeism dropped from 7 to 2.9 percent and union grievances dropped from more than 1,000 a year to 33 in 1991.

2. Teams can be a major part of the quality effort. In that same Chrysler plant, defects per million parts dropped from 300 to 20 in three years. Teams helped decrease defect rates at Volvo Corporation's Kalmar facility by 90 percent.

3. Teams help companies be innovative. Komatsu, for example, uses offline project teams to determine creatively how to meet rigorous goals and deadlines. A 3M medical and surgical products plant introduced teams into its respirators and safety equipment division to enhance new product development and soon that division was one of 3M’s fastest-growing and most innovative divisions.

4. Teams enhance productivity and cut costs. Shenandoah Life Insurance Companies in Roanoke, Virginia, introduced teams and reduced staff, saving $200,000 per year in salaries and increasing productivity 33 percent. Westinghouse Furniture Systems increased productivity 74 percent in three years by using teams.

5. Teams can enhance worker involvement, information sharing, and perceived task/job significance. Research comparing traditional workers with those in self-directed work teams, where workers manage the team largely without supervision, found the latter to be higher in all of these dimensions, as well as in innovation.

In a general sense, teams tend to have and use greater knowledge than individuals, and when working together they create a greater number of approaches to problems than individuals. Furthermore, team participation enhances employee acceptance of, understanding of, and commitment to team goals. Because so much organizational activity occurs in groups, managers need to understand how groups develop and operate if they are to realize these benefits and help their organizations function efficiently and effectively.

1. Which of these statements expresses the main idea of the text?

1. Only work in teams can increase productivity and guarantee the quality of goods.

2. Teams contribute to business efficiency in several ways.

3. Teams create a greater number of approaches to problems than individuals.

4. Team participation helps employees accept, understand, and commit to team goals.

2. Find in the text English equivalents of these words and phrases.

вигода	тупий, некмітливий	заощаджувати
конкуруючий	прогул	залучення, участь
робити внесок	знижуватися	поширення інформації
сума грошей, яку бізнес заробляє або втрачає	профспілкова скарга	важливість, значущість
внутрішня (зовнішня) винагорода	досягнення якості	самокерований
почуття досягнення	визначати; установлювати	останній
похвала	задовольняти цілям та термінам	вимір
привілей	збільшувати, посилювати	прийняття
доручати завдання	скорочувати вартість	відданість, вірність
протистояти	скорочувати персонал

3. Are these statements true or false? Correct the false ones.

1. Teams participate in the results of businesses in various ways.

2. Giving employees praise and benefits makes them experience a sense of accomplishment.

3. At Volvo Corporation's Kalmar facility, teams helped to decrease defects by 90 percent.

4. Teams often get in the way of new product development.

5. Using teams can increase productivity.

6. Workers in self-directed teams are found to be better than usual workers in worker participation, information sharing, and perceived task/job significance.

7. When working together, teams do not use all knowledge that individuals have.

4. Answer the questions.

1. In what ways can teams help to motivate workers?

2. What positive changes occurred at Chrysler Corporation’s Newcastle Industrial plant thanks to teams?

3. Why did 3M introduce teams into its respirators and safety equipment division?

4. What did Shenandoah Life Insurance Companies do to cut costs?

5. What was the result of using teams at Westinghouse Furniture Systems?

6. What must managers know about groups if they want their organizations to work well?

5. Write key words and phrases to each paragraph of the text.

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