Reading Assignment:

Download and read Chapter 13 in Essentials of Quality With Cases and Experiential Exercises.  Review the Discussion Questions at the end of the chapter to be sure that you understand what you have read.

Industry Leaders Speak of Teams and Teamwork

"Multifunctional teams help companies cut through bureaucracy and unleash creativity to improve the bottom line."     Susan J. Ainesworth, Contributing Editor, Chemical & Engineering News, 11/15/99.

"In short, we do believe that teams are the only way to succeed in today's environment."     Kelvin Cooper, Senior Executive Director for Candidate Synthesis Enhancement and Evaluation, Pfizer Central Research, Chemical & Engineering News, 11/15/99.

"(Industry) has tired of hiring 'lone ranger' graduates who can't work in groups.  We want to hire students who are better prepared for our world.  We want them to be customer oriented, work in team environments, and we want them to understand work as a result of processes."     John Kelsch, Director of Quality, Xerox Corp., Wall Street Journal, 12/15/92.

"The Frito-Lay plant...needs employees who can work as a team.  In our business, probably in many businesses, teamwork is a missing skill."     Mark Peden, Frito-Lay, Smithsonian, February 1996.

"Some companies attribute huge gains to abandoning assembly lines in favor of teams. ... Dell Computer says teams mesh with its build-to-order business..."     Wall Street Journal, 5/5/96

"Two thirds of 1,811 employers nationwide reported using formal teams to conduct work. ... At Compaq Computer Corp., Houston, as many as 25% of the 16,000 employees are on teams."     Wall Street Journal, 11/28/95

"I have seen more careers flame out because people were unable to work effectively with peers than any other reason."     Donald Peterson, Forbes, 8/20/90

"The great leaders of tomorrow will be the ones who understand how to get everyone to participate."     John Huey, Fortune, 1/25/93

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Employee involvement through the use of teams is commonly used in high-performing organizations.  Teams add a new dimension to the management process.  Organizational dynamics within teams is complex.

There are effective approaches to managing teams.  Recognition of the various roles required, team leader, team member, team facilitator, is important.  Within each role are sub roles:  team leader as coach, as mentor, as active participant.  [The business card of Walter R. Boos, President of Content Technologies, Inc. identifies him as "Chief Enabler and Coach."  The Wall Street Journal, 4 May 2000.]

Managing the inevitable conflict within teams is a must.  Recognition of the stages in group development, forming, storming, norming, and performing, and how to deal with the conflict in each stage is important.  The truly effective team leader is one who can guide the team through these stages and facilitate consensus on the issues.

Quality professionals, as part of the human resources, must conduct their work in accordance with the rules and policies of their employer. However, certified quality professionals also subscribe to the ethical and professional standards of the quality discipline.  This can lead to conflict.  Paragraph 2.3 of the ASQ Code of Ethics requires that a quality professional "indicate to my employer or client the adverse consequences to be expected if my professional judgment is overruled."  Your boss might announce a short-term business decision to ship a lot of product which you have judged to be nonconforming.  Your pointing out the potential long-term adverse consequences of that decision might not receive a welcome reception--but you have a professional obligation to do so.  Enlightened management will listen.

Answer Discussion Questions 1-12 at the end of Chapter 13 of the text.  Do not submit these for
grading.  Address any confusion you have about a question via e-mail to the instructor.

Prepare a one page reaction to the following quotation attributed to a marketing executive at Citrix Corp.  "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say."

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