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Documents the utilization of the self‐managing work teams concept throughout the world. Specifically, explores such utilization in Australia, Canada, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Also investigates the pioneering use of that concept by the unions, e.g. the Communication Workers of America. Demonstrates the value of this new concept in enhancing global competitiveness. Also looks at the impact of the dominant cultural paradigm and its possible effect on the success (or lack thereof) of this concept in the various countries. Finally, suggests the need for further research to ensure an increased understanding of the successful utilization of self‐managing work teams throughout the world.

The Gaines Dog Food plant in Topeka KS is built around self‐managing work teams. It opened in 1971 and has been 20% more productive than similar, traditional plants for two decades. The Procter & Gamble Co.'s Paper Products Division implemented self‐managing teams at the same time; by 1975, it knew that the division was significantly more productive than traditionally organized plants. In the mid‐1980s, AT&T's American Transtech subsidiary cut its prices to customers by 50%, then avoided layoffs, then became even more profitable by moving to more fully self‐managing teams. And tiny Litel Communications (now LCI) used teams to cut time to process a service order from two weeks to one day.

The purpose of this paper is to perform empirical tests to explore the influence of social integration mechanisms on organizations’ absorptive capacities theorized by Zahra and George.

This study uses a cross‐sectional design to test the relationships between potential absorptive capacity, three social integration mechanisms (cross‐functional teams, participation in decision making, and self‐managing teams), and realized absorptive capacity, in a sample of 92 organizations that bid competitively to provide products and services to a US university.

An organization's use of cross‐functional teams is negatively related to its realized absorptive capacity and negatively moderates the relationship between potential and realized absorptive capacity. Self‐managing teams negatively moderate the relationship between an organization's potential absorptive capacity and its realized absorptive capacity.

The cross‐sectional design allows tests of relatedness but does not support cause‐and‐effect inferences.

Managers who follow the prescriptive implications of using social integration mechanisms to enhance their organization's absorptive capacity may actually hinder it. The type of social integration mechanism is an important consideration for managers of firm strategies.

This study extends and challenges the literature on absorptive capacity through its empirical analysis of the role of social integration mechanisms on an organization's absorptive capacity. Social integration mechanisms can have mixed moderating effects on the absorptive capacity development process, and potential absorptive capacity is not easily transformed into realized absorptive capacity. This study expands the context of absorptive capacity beyond R&D settings and incorporates a task environment that allows a direct linking of inputs and outputs.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between team psychological capital (PsyCap) and team process improvement (TPI) by focusing on the mediating role of team self-managing behaviors (TSMBs) and the moderating effect of the team reward system.

Data were collected from 514 members and their immediate superiors nested in 135 action teams working for a Canadian public safety organization. Hypotheses were tested using a path analytic procedure.

Team PsyCap was positively related to TPI, and this relationship was mediated by TSMBs. In addition, the team reward system positively moderated the first stage of this relationship.

This study highlights the important role that motivational factors play in the effectiveness of action teams. Specifically, the present study reveals that the psychological resources of action teams interact with the level of recognition and reward they receive to predict members’ engagement in self-managing behaviors and in improvement processes.

Findings suggest that to promote the capacity for process improvement of actions teams, managers should focus on their positive psychological resources, their capacity to self-manage and on the level of recognition and reward they receive.

Considering the dynamic and complex environments within which action teams operate, the finding that team PsyCap promotes their optimal functioning is particularly noteworthy. Furthermore, this study clarifies why and when team PsyCap enhances TPI.

Integrating organizational development (OD) and technological intervention into a total system is one of the more difficult tasks for an executive or consultant to execute. Organizations are profoundly affected by technological advancements and require a flexible customized change model to fit the social network of the specific organization into which technology is being introduced. Examines sociotechnical systems (STS) theory and presents classical organization theories of Burns and Stalker, Woodward, Perrow, Thompson and Trist to develop a contemporary OD intervention in terms of self‐regulating work groups (self‐leading or self‐managing teams) performing interrelated technological tasks. Finally, presents some pointers for executives and consultants in assessing STS interventions via 31 diagnostic questions intended to identify interactions among elements of the system.

Organisations increasingly implement self-managing teams (SMTs) to empower their employees. By drawing from the HRM process model and multilevel thinking, this paper explores how the HRM function changes in terms of actors and activities when introducing SMTs.

An in-depth, multilevel case study was conducted at a large healthcare organisation in The Netherlands, making use of 70 interviews, document analysis and observations.

The findings show that SMTs transform the HRM function by changing the responsibilities of teams, HRM professionals and line managers in the implementation of HRM activities. The analysis shows that many HRM responsibilities are devolved to SMTs, which are supported by the HRM department.

These changes in the HRM function influence the HRM implementation process and provide all actors with new roles and activities. Based on these findings, this paper presents an inductive model of HRM implementation.

The findings help HRM practitioners to transform the HRM function when deciding to introduce SMTs.

This article is one of the first that empirically explores how the HRM function changes as a consequence of introducing SMTs. This is important because more and more organisations are adopting SMTs, while knowledge about the role of HRM is lacking.

To critically analyze why the implementation of self‐managed teams often leads to disappointment.

The methodology used is qualitative. It is based on the theory of microstoria (Boje) and entails in‐depth interviews and dialogue to collect data.

The introduction of the new concept (self‐managed teams) did not start an intensive management discourse. Management largely discussed the concept and decided to implement it, without consulting the employees who had to work with the concept. This led to misunderstandings and resistance to the concept of self‐managing.

The research was conducted in only two organisations.

The primary reason why the concept was poorly implemented was that management did not understand the process of shared meaning. Creating a proper “dialogue” is important for implementing new management concepts.

This paper offers a social constructionist point of view to critically evaluate new management concepts such that they do not become fads.

Collective global leadership requires team members to attempt to influence as well as accept influence from each other across multiple cultural, linguistic, and national boundaries, which is affected by the extent to which team members perceive the team as being safe for interpersonal risk-taking or the level of psychological safety in the team. The higher levels of collective leadership can, in turn, enhance the perceived psychological safety, and thereby create more positive outcomes for the team. This reciprocal relationship may be influenced by changes in team dynamics across the different stages of a team lifecycle. Using an inductive longitudinal study of 76 teams for nine months, we uncover the time-variant mutually reinforcing relationship between collective global leadership and team psychological safety. Our results show that the strength of this reciprocal relationship varies such that it is absent in the initial stage, becomes prominent in the middle stage, and then remains present, yet somewhat weakened, in the final stage of the team lifecycle. Our results also show that the initial collective leadership patterns in the team positively affect final leadership patterns, and this relationship is mediated by the team’s psychological safety in the middle stage of the team lifecycle. We discuss implications of this study on the theory and practice of global leadership and multinational teams.