Diane E. Bailey

What Makes Teams Work: Group Effectiveness Research from the Shop Floor to the Executive Suite

In this article, we summarize and review the research on teams and groups in organization settings published from January 1990 to April 1996. The article focuses on studies in which the dependent variables are concerned with various dimensions of effectiveness. A heuristic framework illustrating recent trends in the literature depicts team effectiveness as a function of task, group, and organization design factors, environmental factors, internal processes, external processes, and group psychosocial traits. The review discusses four types of teams: work, parallel, project, and management. We review research findings for each type of team organized by the categories in our heuristic framework. The article concludes by comparing the variables studied for the different types of teams, highlighting the progress that has been made, suggesting what still needs to be done, summarizing key leamings from the last six years, and suggesting areas for further research.

Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams

The bulk of our understanding of teams is based on traditional teams in which all members are collocated and communicate face to face. However, geographically distributed teams, whose members are not collocated and must often communicate via technology, are growing in prevalence. Studies from the field are beginning to suggest that geographically distributed teams operate differently and experience different outcomes than traditional teams. For example, empirical studies suggest that distributed teams experience high levels of conflict. These empirical studies offer rich and valuable descriptions of this conflict, but they do not systematically identify the mechanisms by which conflict is engendered in distributed teams. In this paper, we develop a theory-based explanation of how geographical distribution provokes team-level conflict. We do so by considering the two characteristics that distinguish distributed teams from traditional ones: Namely, we examine how being distant from ones team members and relying on technology to mediate communication and collaborative work impacts team members. Our analysis identifies antecedents to conflict that are unique to distributed teams. We predict that conflict of all types (task, affective, and process) will be detrimental to the performance of distributed teams, a result that is contrary to much research on traditional teams. We also investigate conflict as a dynamic process to determine how teams might mitigate these negative impacts over time.

Transformational technologies and the creation of new work practices: making implicit knowledge explicit in task-based offshoring

Studies have shown the knowledge transfer problems that arise when communication and storage technologies are employed to accomplish work across time and space. Much less is known about knowledge transfer problems associated with transformational technologies, which afford the creation, modification, and manipulation of digital artifacts. Yet, these technologies play a critical role in offshoring by allowing the distribution of work at the task level, what we call task-based offshoring. For example, computer-aided engineering applications transform input like physical dimensions, location coordinates, and material properties into computational models that can be shared electronically among engineers around the world as they work together on analysis tasks. Digital artifacts created via transformational technologies often embody implicit knowledge that must be correctly interpreted to successfully act upon the artifacts. To explore what problems might arise in interpreting this implicit knowledge across time and space, and how individuals might remedy these problems, we studied a firm that sent engineering tasks from home sites in Mexico and the United States to an offshore site in India. Despite having proper formal education and ample tool skills, the Indian engineers had difficulty interpreting the implicit knowledge embodied in artifacts sent to them from Mexico and the United States. To resolve and prevent the problems that subsequently arose, individuals from the home sites developed five new work practices to transfer occupational knowledge to the offshore site. The five practices were defining requirements, monitoring progress, fixing returns, routing tasks strategically, and filtering quality. The extent to which sending engineers in our study were free from having to enact these new work practices because on-site coordinators acted on their behalf predicted their perceptions of the effectiveness of the offshoring arrangement, but Indian engineers preferred learning from sending engineers, not on-site coordinators. Our study contributes to theories of knowledge transfer and has practical implications for managing task-based offshoring arrangements.

A methodology for developing a web-based factory simulator for manufacturing education

Historically, manufacturing engineering education has focused on teaching mathematical models using simplifying assumptions that can mask the realities of complex manufacturing systems. Recent pedagogical approaches to manufacturing education have focused on developing a more holistic view of the manufacturing enterprise. In this paper, we describe the contents and development methodology of a Virtual Factory Teaching System (VFTS) whose aim is to provide a workspace that illustrates the concepts of factory management and design for complex manufacturing systems. The VFTS is unique in its integration of four domains: web-based simulations, engineering education, the Internet, and virtual factories. Evolutionary development of the VFTS is accomplished by separating the simulation model from the graphical interface and user interaction.

Teaching-Learning Ecologies: Mapping the Environment to Structure Through Action

Although organizational theorists have long argued that environments shape organizational structures, they have paid little attention to the processes by which the shaping occurs. This paper examines these processes by showing how environments shape teaching and learning activities, which in turn shape structure. Observational field data from structural engineering groups in three firms and hardware engineering groups in three firms revealed that the two occupations exhibited different patterns of learning episodes and different distributions of actors across those episodes, or what, following the work of Roger Barker, we call two distinct teaching-learning ecologies. After detailing the differences in the two ecologies, we show how these differences emerged from patterns of behavior that were influenced by unique sets of environmental and technological constraints. By demonstrating how actions transform environmental constraints into organizational structure, this paper indicates how research on individual learning in organizations can speak to larger concerns in organizational theory. Moreover, by adopting a synthetic and pragmatic approach to individual learning as a social activity, the paper highlights the role of teachers in workplace learning and casts doubts on the existence of a universal model of how individuals learn at work.

Comparison of manufacturing performance of three team structures in semiconductor plants

Manufacturing programs aimed at improving performance often feature employee teams that address production problems at the shop-floor level. According to cognitive models of participation, performance under such programs is improved via the better utilization of skills and knowledge that occurs as employees are allowed greater decision making in their tasks. The authors examine the cognitive-model premise in a high-technology industry where improvement-team programs are on the rise. The study three types of improvement-team programs among a sample of eight manufacturing sites. The programs feature continuous improvement teams (CITs), quality circles (QCs) or self-directed work teams (SDWTs) and vary in the amount of decision-making power, skill attainment via training and skill use granted to employees. A quantitative analysis of performance reveals that CIT programs were associated with the highest direct and indirect productivity, two metrics that were available for each firm. QC and SDWT programs should not be dismissed, however, as they may lead to improvements in quality metrics, as the authors note in suggestions for future research. Qualitative data gathered in site visits suggest that poor implementation and failure to integrate production programs with engineering departments are two factors that inhibit program success.

Return to work: Toward post-industrial engineering

Industrial engineering was originally founded as a discipline that focused on the study and design of work. Yet, today the field has largely distanced itself from this early concern. This paper tracks the decline of work studies in industrial engineering and explores the question of why the discipline lost its concern for work and, ultimately, its ability to speak to the kinds of social and economic changes that it was created to address. Our reading of historical documents and our analysis of data collected from nine industrial engineering departments from their founding to the present day reveal that changes in industrial engineering were tied to trends in society, to shifts in sources of funding, and to the fields concern with its own status. The decline of work studies in industrial engineering is especially problematic because the nature of work has dramatically changed over the past 50 years, as we outline in this paper. The upshot is that industrial engineering now finds itself unable to speak about the organization of work and the design of modern work systems. We explain why the time has come for the field to rekindle its interest in the nature of work and the particulars of the workplace and we suggest several paths for proceeding in this direction. Handled by Special Editor Wallace Hopp

A “knowledge profile” of an engineering occupation: temporal patterns in the use of engineering knowledge

Each engineering occupation is distinguished by the body of specific knowledge it has built up over time. Some scholars argue that the instrumentality of this historically established knowledge in the solution of everyday design problems renders formal education more important than experience. Other scholars counter that engineering work primarily demands practice-generated knowledge that individuals construct in the course of everyday activities. We address this argument by documenting the frequency with which engineers apply different types of knowledge, with different derivations. Adopting a behavioral perspective, we isolated 1072 episodes of knowledge use in our field observations of structural engineers. From these episodes, we constructed a ‘knowledge profile’ that indicated that two-thirds of the knowledge engineers employed was practice generated. The profile also revealed temporal patterns in the frequency with which the engineers used each knowledge type. Knowledge profiles like the one we constructed should help differentiate among engineering occupations, thereby serving as the foundation for conceptualizing occupations in a world of ‘knowledge work’. In addition, knowledge profiles can help university engineering education programs better target and mirror the knowledge demands of the profession.

Modeling work group effectiveness in high-technology manufacturing environments

Existing models of work group effectiveness have been tested in low-technology manufacturing settings, but not in a high-technology one. Typical features of high-technology environments – substantial automation, computerized scheduling systems, complex production processes, capital-intensive production, high-cost equipment, and high product value – render them significantly different from their low-technology counterparts. The increased use of work groups and teams among high-technology manufacturers raises the question of whether existing models can be generalized to these settings. In this paper, data from 89 groups in the semiconductor manufacturing industry are used to create predictive models of group productivity, job satisfaction, and perceived performance. External variables (such as conflict with supervisors and engineers) are found to be more predictive of productivity, while internal variables (such as conflict among group members) are more predictive of satisfaction. These results highlight the importance of fostering the work groups interaction with external technical support personnel when designing and managing successful work groups in high-technology workplaces.

Manufacturing improvement team programs in the semiconductor industry

Increasing numbers of semiconductor manufacturers are implementing improvement programs at their manufacturing sites (fabs). Yet despite their rising popularity, little attention has focused on the impact of a programs design on its overall effectiveness. This research examines the improvement programs established at ten fabs. A categorization scheme classifies programs according to their use of one of three types of teams: continuous improvement teams (CITs), quality circles (QCs), and self-directed work teams (SDWTs). Results from 188 operator surveys and over 150 interviews with fab employees (including managers, engineers, technicians, supervisors, operators, and representatives from human resources and quality departments) indicate that a number of programs suffer from weak implementation and disorganized management. The failure to carefully design and implement a program is reflected in employee perceptions of the programs effectiveness. Perceptions of CIT programs are found to be significantly lower than those of QC or SDWT programs, both of which feature higher degrees of autonomy and training. Results also highlight a nearly universal failure to integrate production team programs with engineering and maintenance functions. To help improve future programs, design implications and aspects of effective team programs are noted. Special attention is paid to program selection, goal design, organizational support, engineering integration, information systems, and empowerment semantics.