CASE ANALYSIS: RE ENGINEERING, STRUCTURE, AND MOTIVATION
Ehrbar (1993, pp. A1, A11) reported on a trend toward organizational redesigns that enabled firms to reduce substantially workforce size. The actions taken by the companies provided some benefits in the short run; however, over the long run, organizational structure will not support efficient operations, employees will no longer be committed to the firms, and organizational leadership will be discredited. A superior strategy for these firms would be the adoption of the team concept of organization design within the context of sociotechnical systems.
Team based organization is another form of structure "in which members of different functional departments work together in small, but more or less permanent, teams headed by the member from the most professional prestigious specialty" (Gortner, Mahler, and Nicholson, 1989, p. 111). Team members "maintain their ties to functional departments for personnel, training, promotion, and other such matters, but they work face to face principally with members of other departments to achieve the level of coordinated expertise demanded by their tasks" (Gortner, Mahler, and Nicholson, 1989, p. 111).
Team development promotes the idea that individuals who have working relationships with one another within an organizational structure can be trained to work as a team (Larson and LaFasto, 1989, pp. 13 26). Participants in a team building process learn to build good relationships with other team members, to engage in joint problem solving, and to reduce interpersonal friction. Successful implementation and execution of the team development technique leads to improved communication, enhanced creativity, more effective decision making, and higher levels of organizational performance (Larson and LaFasto, 1989, pp. 7 26). One of the most important manifestations of the team organization decision making technique is the quality circles ...