Self-Directed Team Essay

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As the world’s economy is becoming more competitive, all companies and organizations have to find a way to conform flexibly and actively to survive and develop stably. Besides the traditional hierarchical form of team, another type of team which is now implemented popularly in many organizations in order to raise the efficacy is self-directed team (SDT). SDTs are teams with multi-functions and required to accomplish a whole piece of work which involves many related tasks. A special feature of this team is that it has a considerable autonomy which is proven to increase the productivity of organizations ( McShane, Olekalns and Travaglione 2010). As a result of Development Dimensions International’s survey, SDT’s have been implemented in organizations with the percentage of 25 U.S companies and the result is that those organizations’ productivity has improved by 50 percent or more (Felts, 1995). This essay will be discussed about whether the high degree of autonomy can lead to the increase of productivity as mentioned in McShane, Olekalns and Travaglione (2010). According to McShane, Olekalns, Travaglione 2010, SDT is cross- functional workgroup that is able to accomplish a whole piece of work demanding various interdependent tasks and has a high degree of autonomy over the execution of those tasks. In this kind of team, it is requisite to build a high interdependence within team and low interaction with other teams. Self-directed team is now becoming more popular as the result of high productivity. Firstly, I inclined to believe that high degree of autonomy can bring many advantage influences in team work. Actually, it cannot be denied that a high degree of autonomy will lead to a high flexibility of response, which is a factor affecting productivity. As all the members in SDT’s have significant autonomy over accomplishment of tasks (McShane, Olekalns and

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