Self Managed Teams

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A team is a group of people who work in tandem to achieve a common outcome (Chatfield, 2011). A common type of team found in the workplace is self-managed teams (SMT). A self-managed team empowers employees to manage the day to day functions, operations, and tasks of a specific job area with little or no supervisory oversight or intervention. In other words, it is a self-contained unit (Williams, 2011). For example, self-managed teams handle work direction, job assignments, trouble-shoot problems, and handle all of the decision making aspects of the job (Silverman,1996). Moreover, companies that have used SMTs report an increase in productivity and quality, increased employee morale, creativity, job satisfaction, and a decrease in absenteeism (Silverman, 1996). Also, a 1990 study by Cohen (1993) found that forty-seven percent of Fortune 1000 companies used SMTs with some of their workforce. In two years the number of SMTs increased to sixty percent. Thus, the prevalence of SMTs in organizations can be contributed to its tangible outcomes. In the C&S Wholesale Grocers case...

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