The incidence and diffusion of teamwork in manufacturing – evidences from a Pan-European survey
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to map the incidence of teamwork in European manufacturing industries and describe the process of teamwork diffusion over time. The impact of country, company size, manufacturing sector and other factors on teamwork diffusion is identified.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on data from 3,522 companies gathered by the European Manufacturing Survey covering ten European countries with a common survey tool.
Findings
Overall, six out of ten manufacturers with more than 20 employees have implemented teamwork in production. Furthermore, the authors show that implementation rates vary significantly by country, firm size and, to a lesser extent, sector of the company's activity. R&D expenditure, product complexity, innovation capability, strategy and to a lesser extent international competition and supply chain position create significant differences between firms opting for teamwork as a work organization practice and companies neglecting it.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitations of the paper derive from the concept of EMS as a multi-purpose survey and the lack of adequate representation across European countries.
Originality/value
The value of this research is the ability to offer recent, international and relevant figures about teamwork implementation and diffusion. Furthermore the data set makes it possible for the first time to describe the process of teamwork diffusion over time.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Bernhard Dachs (Austrian Institute of Technology Vienna), Iztok Palčič (University of Maribor), Mette Præest Knudsen (University of Southern Denmark), Jasna Prester (University of Zagreb), Christoph Hanisch (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts), Robert van der Have (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland), Paul Ligthart (Radboud University of Nijmegen) and Patrick Llerena (University of Strasbourg) for data use permission.
Citation
Bikfalvi, A., Jäger, A. and Lay, G. (2014), "The incidence and diffusion of teamwork in manufacturing – evidences from a Pan-European survey", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 206-231. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-04-2013-0052
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited