New designs of work groups: applications of empowerment

Examines new developments in work group design. Autonomous work groups, also called self‐regulated work groups or self‐managing work teams, have been described as originating primarily from socio‐technical work design. The concept of autonomous work groups has also been described as a more comprehensive application of the methods employed in quality circles. Both of these examples will be shown to be inaccurate descriptions of a truly self‐managed work team. Instead, through the implementation and application of self‐managed work teams, a combination of socio‐technical design is utilized with a concept that goes far beyond that of quality circles‐empowerment. Empowerment is the idea that employees and groups can achieve higher levels of productivity, quality,and team member satisfaction through delegation of more task‐related decisions to the team. However, there are considerations in the implementation of autonomous work groups. These include development of trust, appropriate status and reward systems, senior management support,and the effective management of change. Focuses on the changes and processes that are integral parts of the successful implementation of empowerment.