An exploration of employee experiences of team working and their perception of positive and negative aspects

Ncube, Sisah (2012) An exploration of employee experiences of team working and their perception of positive and negative aspects. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

This study explored employee experiences of team working and their perception of the positive and negative aspects. There has been a shift by organisations from traditional methods of conducting business in recent years that is from individual to group methods, (team working) which calls for effective leaders who are innovative and flexible, whose major focus is to increase production and employ cost effective measures whilst meeting the organisational strategic goals (Manz, 1992). This can only be achieved by introducing practices in workplace that will help the organisation achieve its objectives.

Egan (2011) argues that, many organisations nowadays have shifted to ‘team working’ as a work practice identified with ‘high performance’ potential, with almost three quarters of workplaces deploying some core employees in formally designated teams. Since the shift to team-working is now the norm in most organisations and is associated with high performance, this motivated the researcher to explore more about worker’s experiences and perceptions of team working in manufacturing companies. The research explored the topic under study by seeking to establish what the workers experiences of team working are, the positive and negative aspects of team working and their view as to the impact which team working has on the organisation.

The major findings were that team work is being used in the organisations where the study was conducted and team members like working in teams as team work benefits potentials outweigh the negatives. However, the research found that teams lack autonomy and such benefits of team working may not be fully realised by the organisations. It appears that management in these organisations are reluctant to fully embrace team working, there is fear of letting go of the ‘control’ which would allow the teams to be fully autonomous. This reluctance by management to release control to the teams is limiting the full benefits which could be derived from team working such as increased productivity, increased job satisfaction and increased motivation.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management > Human Resource Management > Performance Management > Employee Engagement
Divisions:	School of Business > Master of Arts in Human Resource Management
Depositing User:	Caoimhe Ní Mhaicín
Date Deposited:	22 May 2013 08:55
Last Modified:	22 May 2013 08:55
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/817

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