Team building: Answering the tough questions

Abstract

frequent/y asked. tential of its employees. Increasingly, firms are turning to teams as a mechanism for realizing these lofty expectations. Stories of organizations that have used employee teams as a key component of their successful turnaround efforts have helped foster the interest ancl escitement currently expressed toward team approaches. Progressive leaders are looking to teams not merely as a tool for survival, but as an integral part of the way in which their firms are managed. Indeed, as firms are reclesigned with a focus toward efficiency and flexibility, teams have become part of the framework and fabric of organizational life. For example, in Workpluce 2000, Boyett and Conn (1991) note that more than 80 percent of the Forlu~ze 1000 companies are taking steps to install employee involvement or team systems. Yet the movement has just begun. “In the new American workplace,” say Boyett ancl Corm, “practically all [employees] will work in teams.” As teams are instituted and placecl in action, potential meets reality and a new series of managerial issues and problems is recognizecl. So firms often turn to outside facilitators, armed with team-builcling and development skills, to help teams become more viable and productive organizational entities.