The Vermont Teddy Bear Co., Inv Challenges Facing New Ceo

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Workgroups are defined as a set of two or more people who interact with each other to achieve certain goals or needs. A team is defined as a formal group who work together to achieve group goals. The Aberdeen organization is an organization that thrives off of team work. The tams ranged in size from 3 to 16 that managed every aspect of the plant's work. The teams are responsible for scheduling work hours, purchasing materials and tools, coordinating with other teams, evaluating team members' performance, recommending salary increases, generating reports, and dealing with any problems that arose in the running of the plant. Each employee at Aberdeen is assigned to a team. Each team had a supply person, a safety person, and a quality person to pay close attention to those areas. The teams meet as needed to discuss and resolve issues that confronted them. The Green River plant did not have workgroups or teams in place. The plant was so divided that the thought of groups were seemingly impossible. The Green River also has a union unlike the Aberdeen plant, which may contribute to the plant not having teamwork. The union may not allow the groups or teams to have as much control as the Aberdeen plant employees have. The Aberdeen method may not work at the Green River plant because of the setup at the plant. Green River is setup as individual stations, not allowing teamwork. The plant employees are use to working individually and specializing in only one task. To make positive changes in the workgroups/teams in each location the plants' mangers should be made to recognize that group performance often fail because of process loss due to lack of motivation and coordination problems in groups. Social loafing also plays a vital role in the failures of workgroups/teams. Social loafing is where the members of the team may feel that their efforts are unimportant. Social loafing can be eliminated by making each individual performance identifiable, making each employee feel that he/she can make an important and worthwhile contribution to the team. The manger could try to develop group cohesiveness. In the implementation phase of developing the workgroups, the mangers should consider the employees reaction to such a dramatic change.

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